Musical Improv Games

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Half Life Musical

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Half Life Musical

  • Objective: Repeatedly perform a musical that is half as long as the last performance
  • Instructions:
    • Two to three singers, a timekeeper, and an accompanist are needed
    • Get any type of suggestion from the audience, though location is usually good
    • The timekeeper will set a timer for one minute then tell the singers to start
    • Singers then perform a one minute musical, which is stopped by the timekeeper
    • The musical is then repeated for 30 seconds, 15 seconds, 7 seconds, 3 seconds
  • Notes:
    • The structure of the music is not rigid. It can rhyme, it can never rhyme, it can be one line at a time, one verse at a time, you can sing at different speeds.
    • Just make sure each singer gets a fair share of the time.
    • The two most important things to keep in mind are strong emotions and physicality. This makes things easier to remember when you repeat the scene, and they make the scenes more fun for the audience.
    • You don’t need to literally repeat word for word, you just need to be reasonably close and keep the order of events the same.
    • This game can also be played as 2 minutes, 1 minute, 30 seconds, 15 seconds, 7 seconds, which is usually more suitable for three singers.
  • Video reference: https://www.youtuber.com/watch?v=tDpEix48yH8
    • This is the non-musical version of the game, we would just sing rather than talk