The random can lead you in interesting directions. If you always do things that make sense to you, you will always follow the paths and patterns of your personal sense of making sense. Sometimes, having to deal with the unexpected is what it takes to teach us something new to us.
With that in mind, consider the following list of random words:
- raised spirit authorize offset
- boot progressive reference grateful
- ice nose comic loaf
- stopped worth break specialty
- interference dream water position
- bank pincer boutique definition
- strangest jamming obey wash
- rider fresh attraction invasion
- curtain immigrant committee box
- metal make sample fever
- pier begin tool sunshine
- wardrobe typewriter chocolate sunset
Four of these phrases were generated by watchout4snakes.com/wo4snakes/Random/RandomPhrase , four by randomwordgenerator.com , and four by creativitygames.net/random-word-generator/randomwords/4 .
Your Prompt: Pick one—or two—of the above phrases, or use one of the links to generate a new random phrase. Feel free to re-arrange the words and/or insert a few one- or two-letter words to make your selection have some kind of internal logic (but don’t try too hard—best if we explore the sound of the words in combination, and let the sense come from the sound). This is now the lyrics to the refrain/chorus of your song. Sing that song.
Options
It’s good to have options. Here are ways to perhaps make the prompt a bit easier, or ways to go a bit further with it.
Option A: Make A Lot Of Sense – For an easier stretch, take an extra moment before you sing to make whatever random phrase you select actually make actual sense, before you adopt it as the lyrics to your song. For example, maybe “ivy spy stardom shout” turns into “I climb like ivy / to where I can spy on stardom / and it makes me shout.” Still not a lucid narrative, but clearly more suggestive of one. Sing that.
Option B: Freestyle Poetry Narrative – For our rappers and storytellers out there, here’s a deeper stretch. Use your list of random words a little bit differently—make each word a prompt for a freestyle rhyme. “I wanna climb like IVY / it makes me like a SPY V- / I-P tickets come from STARDOM / but my boredom fills the boardroom / so I SHOUT, SHOUT, let it out, tell the world what it’s all about…” Your challenge is multi-dimensional: rhyme each word, make all of the phrases you improvise fit together into some kind of larger story, be rhythmic with it, be tunefully melodic with it, and make it musical. That’s a deep stretch. Do all you can.
To Contribute
The steps are as follows:
- Step 0: Sign up for a free SoundCloud account here. Join the SSS group.
- Step 1: Record yourself making some kind of sense of random words.
- Step 2: Upload to SoundCloud and post the track to the SSS group.
- Step 3: Listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow singers. (Play nice!)
Deadline: Your tracks should be uploaded by midnight wherever you are on Monday, June 27, 2016.
Length: The length of your finished work should be about 2 to 5 minutes, or however long you need to sing your song.
Description: It would be awesome to include a short description of where and when you sang your piece—and how it felt.
Title/Tag: When uploading to SoundCloud, put “[sss-randomwords]” in the title of your track. Also include the term “sss-randomwords” as a tag. This will help us find it.
Group: Once the track is uploaded, click on the “Add to group” button below the waveform and make sure to select the Society for Spontaneous Singing group. (This option will only appear if you have already joined the group! So do that now.)
Linking: You are welcome to include this info in your description:
This track is a reply to “Prompt 74: Make Sense of Random Words.” More on the Society for Spontaneous Singing at http://singthis.org. You can join the SSS at https://soundcloud.com/groups/society-for-spontaneous-singing
Thank you, sweet singers!