Impro Game
Together with Bernhard Bamert I created a game of dice. It offers teaching ideas and ideas for two people playing together.
The Impro Game by Reto Suhner and Bernhard Bamert is an attractive snakes and ladders board game for beginners, jazz students and professionals.
Better improvising playfully – with the Impro Game
In music it is quite simple – the ones who practice more are better. Yet, the beautiful thing about improvised music is that musicians can practice together playfully.
That’s exactly where the Impro Game starts: It needs two players. One is playing the fundamental tones; the other improvises according to the exercise, on which his/her game piece token is coming to rest. The exercises on the respective squares of the board game are developed by the players themselves – just as the musical piece is chosen by the players, over which the exercises are executed.
Besides that, the Impro Game is a board game with two paths: a light and a dark one. If a player completes the exercises successfully, he/she continues fast – with some luck rolling the dice – on the light path. But if a player fails to execute the exercises correctly he/she lands on the dark path and only progresses slowly.
If you do not have any ideas of your own (or if you just want to know, which exercises professionals are working on); you can turn to a rich fund of exercises, which were developed by the saxophonist Reto Suhner and which he has packed into the different levels. This and the beautifully designed board game gridby Bernhard Bamert, makes practicing much like a board game party with friends.
Jodok Hess, August 2015
Better improvising playfully – with the Impro Game
The Impro Game by Reto Suhner and Bernhard Bamert is an attractive snakes and ladders board game for beginners, jazz students and professionals. The exercises can be chosen from the rich pool Reto Suhner has selected and developed. Thus the game can be adapted to each and everyone’s personal needs; or the exercises can be developed together with the students – there are no limitations in terms of the level of difficulty. Huge impro fun!
Rules
To play the impro game you need: a leadsheed, a dice, at least two players and a token for each player.
Each player rolls the dice. They alternate turns.
One player starts by rolling the dice and proceeding to race his/her token along the bright colored game track. The player reaches a square with a number. For each number there is an exercise (see extra sheet). Player one executes the exercise, while player two plays the fundamental tones. If player one completes the exercise successfully, he/she continues on the bright colored track, when it is his/her turn to roll the dice again. If the exercise was not completed successfully he/she proceeds on the grey track until he/she has successfully completed another exercise. Now player two rolls the dice and proceeds on the game track.
