Improv Four weeks to dare to sing
For a group that says it cannot sing. The whole design attacks shame, not technique: nobody sings alone before week three. If your group already sings happily, skip this — go straight to the musical games.
A copy is made. Changing it later changes nothing here — and we will never change your course behind your back.
Hover a game to read what it is and how to run it — no need to open a single tab.
Nobody sings alone
90 minMake sound together until nobody notices they are singing.
Everyone stands in a circle. A player gets designated as Big Booty. From him, each player gets a number, going clockwise from Big Booty (Player on his left is number 1) Before starting the game, everyone to call his number one by one, saying Number XX, one after another: - First player on the left of big booty says 'Number one' - The player on his left says 'Number two' And so on, and so on.. The objective of the game is to call each other, starting by saying your number, followed by the number of the person you are calling out Starting the game, everyone says in rhythm: "Big booty big booty big booty, oh yeah" Big booty starts and says his name and calls someone: Big booty - "Big Booty, Number 2" Player Number 2 - "Number 2, Number 7" Player Number 7 - "Number 7, Number 1" Player Number 1 - "Number 1, Big booty" (yes you can go back to Big booty) .. And so on and so on. But IF anyone screws it up, breaks the overall rhythm, everyone says "Oooooh shit", the player moves to the right of Big Booty, and becomes the last number of the group. Consequently, everyone who was on the left of the losing player now has a new number - (Always starting from 1 on the left of Big booty) When anyone has failed and moved to the last number, start again, 'Big booty big booty big booty, oh yeah'
💡 It's better to be slow and regular/in rhythm, than faster and unsynchronised. Start slow and gradually increase the speed. It can be quite funny to go 'forward / backwards' on it, call out the same number a few times in a row, or 'torture' one player by always calling him (don't abuse it though)
Read more →In a circle, one player sings a short melodic phrase on a single syllable — the group repeats it exactly. The next player offers another. No words, no meaning to find: only a melody to hear and give back.
💡 Nobody sings alone here — that is the point. A group that has spent twenty minutes copying melodies will sing in front of an audience the same evening without noticing.
Read more →One player jumps into the centre and starts singing any song — made up or known — while the group backs them loudly. The instant they run dry, someone else tags in with a completely new song, and the first player melts back into the supporting circle. It never leaves a gap. It looks like a singing game but it's really a trust game. The lesson is to jump in before you're ready, and to sing loud so your teammate can escape. Nobody drowns because the group won't let them.
💡 The support carries the game. Coach the circle to sing FULL — the person in the middle can only be brave if they're not alone. Tag in early, before the singer is stranded. The skill is rescuing your teammate, not showing off your voice. Quality of song does not matter. Half-remembered lyrics and nonsense both count. Kill any pressure to be good.
Read more →A scene sung entirely in gibberish. No words exist: emotion, melody and relationship carry everything. Then replay the same scene in English and see what survives — almost all of it.
💡 This removes the fear of the lyrics so that only the fear of singing is left. One problem at a time: the words will come back later.
Read more →- 20 minDebrief: who felt exposed, and when?
💡 Never single anyone out this week. Not once. One exposed beginner poisons a whole term.
Rhyme, badly
90 minLearn to survive a bad rhyme instead of avoiding it.
In a circle, one player sings a short melodic phrase on a single syllable — the group repeats it exactly. The next player offers another. No words, no meaning to find: only a melody to hear and give back.
💡 Nobody sings alone here — that is the point. A group that has spent twenty minutes copying melodies will sing in front of an audience the same evening without noticing.
Read more →In pairs, you throw rhymes at each other from a starting word, without pausing, until someone dries up — and you celebrate the failure loudly before starting again. The point is not to win: it is to learn to miss a rhyme in front of people without the world ending.
💡 Near-rhymes count. The improvisers who sing well are not the ones who rhyme accurately — they are the ones who keep going after a bad rhyme.
Read more →Four players improvise a rollicking drinking song on an audience topic, in the classic bouncing rhythm, one line each around the group, with everyone joining a nonsense chorus ("ay-dee-die-dee-die-dee-doh") between verses. The tune is simple and repetitive, so the whole challenge is landing a rhyme on your line as it comes hurtling toward you. It's a rhythm, rhyme and courage game. The relentless beat means you can't stop to think — you commit to a line and trust a rhyme will come, or fake one gloriously. It teaches playing on the edge of failure with a grin, and leaning on the group's chorus to carry you between attempts.
💡 Rhythm beats rhyme. A confident wrong rhyme on the beat plays far better than a perfect one that stalls the song — coach commitment over cleverness. The chorus is the safety net. Sing it big and together so each player gets a breath before their line lands. Keep verses short and the tempo up. Slowing to search for a rhyme kills the momentum the whole game runs on.
Read more →Sing a shopping list, an instruction manual, the terms and conditions of a contract — with the commitment of a great operatic aria. The gap between the flatness of the text and the gravity of the singing does all the comic work.
💡 The text is deliberately flat: there is nothing left to invent, and therefore nothing to hide behind. All you can do is commit your voice — which is all we are after.
Read more →- 15 minFree play: sing anything, badly
💡 Celebrate every failed rhyme loudly. The group must see that nothing happens when you fail.
Structure: the chorus
90 minA song is a structure that returns, not sung sentences.
In pairs, you throw rhymes at each other from a starting word, without pausing, until someone dries up — and you celebrate the failure loudly before starting again. The point is not to win: it is to learn to miss a rhyme in front of people without the world ending.
💡 Near-rhymes count. The improvisers who sing well are not the ones who rhyme accurately — they are the ones who keep going after a bad rhyme.
Read more →Before any song, the group builds the chorus: one short, repeatable line, drawn from what the character wants. The verses are built around it, and the chorus returns — unchanged. You learn that an improvised song is not a string of sung sentences, but a structure that comes back.
💡 If the chorus does not fit into one line the audience can remember, it is too complicated. "I am not leaving this house" is enough to carry a whole song.
Read more →- 25 min
An ordinary scene is playing. At any moment a host rings a bell: whoever was speaking must sing their line, and then the scene carries on, spoken, as if nothing had happened. The singing arrives where nobody expected it — least of all the person singing.
💡 This game exists to take the drama out of singing: a few seconds, never a whole song. It is the best front door for a troupe that "doesn't sing".
Read more →- 10 minDebrief: the chorus you can still hum
💡 This is the week people stop panicking: the form gives them something to come back to.
Sing in front of people
90 minA real song, with witnesses.
In a circle, one player sings a short melodic phrase on a single syllable — the group repeats it exactly. The next player offers another. No words, no meaning to find: only a melody to hear and give back.
💡 Nobody sings alone here — that is the point. A group that has spent twenty minutes copying melodies will sing in front of an audience the same evening without noticing.
Read more →Ask the audience for an everyday subject (laundry, taxes). The group starts a driving country chorus, then each player in turn sings a rhyming four-line verse on the subject before the chorus comes back. The rhythm never stops — it is what carries the player who is still hunting for words.
💡 A rhyme is built backwards: find the last word first, then work back up the line. And if the rhyme fails, sing it anyway, with conviction — an audience forgives everything except hesitation.
Read more →Two players, shoulder to shoulder, sing a musical-theatre love song — sharing a single voice, one word each, in turn. Neither of them decides where the sentence goes. The song turns absurd, and that is exactly what we came to see.
💡 Do not try to rescue your partner's sentence, and do not try to trap them. Give the most obvious word: it is everybody's obvious, laid end to end, that manufactures the strangeness.
Read more →A short scene is played straight, then replayed as a musical number in a genre called by the audience: rock, opera, rap, gospel, boy band. Same lines, same story, but sung in the codes of the genre — and therefore transformed.
💡 A genre is not imitated, it is exaggerated. Three clichés played with full commitment (a posture, a word, a cadence) beat a careful impression.
Read more →- 15 minShow a short musical set to friends
💡 Invite a small friendly audience. The point is to have DONE it — quality is beside the point tonight.