The Mind's Ear Exercises for Improving the Musical Imagination for Performers, Composers, and Listeners

The Mind's Ear is a unique and fun series of games, exercises, and essays designed to inspire musical creativity and spark the imagination of musicians and music students at all levels. The book can be used in workshops, classes, online sessions, private lessons, and by a reader alone. Based on theatre games, these exercises offer new ways to engage with musical creativity.



The Mind's Ear offers a unique approach to stimulating the musical imagination and inspiring creativity, as well as providing detailed exercises aimed at improving the ability to read and imagine music in silence, in the "mind's ear." Modelling his exercises on those used in theatre games and acting classes and drawing upon years of experience with improvisation and composition, Bruce Adolphe has written a compelling, valuable, and practical guide to musical creativity that can benefit music students at all levels and help music teachers be more effective and inspiring. This expanded edition offers 34 new exercises inspired by improv comedy, hip-hop sampling and loops, robots, and AI as well as a new section based on Mr. Adolphe's Piano Puzzlers segment on public radio's Performance Today. The book provides provocative ideas and useful tools for professional performers and composers, as well as offering games and exercises to serious listeners that can increase their musical understanding and level of engagement with music in a variety of ways.