In 1975 Brian Eno published a set of cards to help him unblock his creativity. There are now five editions and an a website where you can go read the cryptic messages. If your sitting in the dark without a single idea for your next song why not give it a try? Here’s are some examples:
State the problem in words as clearly as possible.
Only one element of each kind.
What would your closest friend do?
What to increase? What to reduce?
Are there sections? Consider transitions.
Try faking it!
Honour the error as a hidden intention. – Wikipedia.org
To read more online:
http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/oblique/oblique.html
You can buy your own set of cards from the offical Enoshop: click here
photo credit: Liz Henry
This entry was written by , posted on August 22, 2008 at 12:44 am, filed under song writing and tagged Brian Eno, creativity, Oblique Strategies, song writing. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.
Hi! Oblique strategies are a great way to move forward when you’re stuck and to consider you work with a fresh look!
There is a free apple widget you can download here:
http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/reference/oblique.html
Enjoy!
By the way your blog is great!
Oliver – I picked up a copy of the 5th edition several years ago. They ended up being about $60 with shipping.
Not cheap, and not really something I really ever use – but they are important to me just the same.
Have you had a chance to check out Nodal yet? If you’re into Eno’s ideas and approaches, you’d probably find it to be an interesting tool.
I read about Nodal last week on the other music tech blogs and it’s on my to do list 100%. If it’s cool I do a video and useful I will do a short video.