


Repetition is what trains the muscular memory (what psychologists call “procedural memory”, since in reality our muscles do not retain a memory of movement). ‘Repetition is a form of change’ So, we all know that repetitive practise is the activity which fixes music in head, hands, eyes and ears. These are my own responses to the cards, and are simply suggestions and perhaps an inspiration to others to try this approach. I have taken just a few Oblique Strategies and considered how they might be used in day-to-day practising, and also in preparation for performance. It is a fact universally acknowledged that if our practising becomes monotonous, unthinking, uncreative and boring, it will not be productive. It also struck me while listening to the radio programme that Oblique Strategies Cards could be used in practising to help enliven practising or shine a new light on an issue which may have been causing one problems, or just to help one think and act more creatively during practise. In the radio programme, Simon Armitage spoke to Carlos Alomar (guitarist on those Bowie albums) as well as music journalist Paul Morley and chef Ian Knauer who use these cards, and during the course of the interviews with various creative people, it became clear that these brief gnomic aphorisms, selected randomly, can bring new or unexpected ways of thinking to seemingly intractable problems and difficulties, not just those encountered during creative processes such as writing, composing or painting/making art, but also in every day life.
