In groups of 3 or 4 singers, select one of you to be the melody maker. The others will provide a cluster of long tones for the melodious one to sing through. Long tone holders, work with your fullest exhalation. There is no need to reach for any sort of volume on this. Simply stand or sit (tall) close together and let the tones act like pitched breathing. Within your group you might want to coordinate a breathing pattern between you to provide a steady tone cluster with no real breaks. OR you might like the feel of three people breathing exactly together and 'landing' on their new tone cluster each time. You'll need to determine what suits you the most.

After a few 'breath's worth' of this exploration, switch roles till, eventually, each person has had a chance to be melody maker for a few breaths. You can experiment with alternating between open vocables (ooohs, and aaaahs, etc.) and using solitary words or phrases in the melody lines. You can request that the tone holders pulse their pitches in a gentle rhythm, or that they incorporate a word or phrase in their wash of intervals.

I also like to include a movement pattern in this exercise: while you're creating melodies, jamming away, you stand still. The tone holders move around in a gentle orbit, moving closer and further away as they like. This way you, the jammer, hear different things at different times while you're improvising. Different parts of the tone cluster will be dominant at different times. Experiment! See what you hear....

Do let me know how it's going: susanne@vocalimprov.com