"The Oblique Strategies evolved from me being in a number of working situations when the panic of the situation - particularly in studios - tended to make me quickly forget that there were others ways of working and that there were tangential ways of attacking problems that were in many senses more interesting than the direct head-on approach. If you're in a panic, you tend to take the head-on approach because it seems to be the one that's going to yield the best results Of course, that often isn't the case - it's just the most obvious and - apparently - reliable method. The function of the Oblique Strategies was, initially, to serve as a series of prompts which said, "Don't forget that you could adopt *this* attitude," or "Don't forget you could adopt *that* attitude."
1.Remove specifics and convert to ambiguities
2.Don't be frightened of cliches
3.What is the reality of the situation?
4.Are there sections? Consider transitions
7.Allow an easement (an easement is the abandonment of a stricture)
10.Go slowly all the way round the outside
12.Make an exhaustive list of everything you might do & do the last thing on the list
14.Towards the insignificant
15.Ask people to work against their better judgement
16.Take away the elements in order of apparent non-importance
17.Infinitesimal gradations
18.Change instrument roles
20.Disconnect from desire
22.Faced with a choice, do both
23.Children  -speaking    -singing
24.Lost in useless territory
25.A very small object     Its center
26.Don't be afraid of things because they're easy to do
27.Don't be frightened to display your talents
29.Honor thy error as a hidden intention
30.What are the sections sections of? Imagine a caterpillar moving
31.Only one element of each kind
32.Is there something missing
33.Use `unqualified' people
34.How would you have done it?
36.Do nothing for as long as possible
37.Bridges  -build  -burn
38.Always give yourself credit for having more than personality
39.You don't have to be ashamed of using your own ideas
41.Do the words need changing?
43.Tape your mouth (given by Ritva Saarikko)
45.Simply a matter of work
46.Make a sudden, destructive unpredictable action; incorporate
47.Consult other sources  -promising  -unpromising
48.Use an unacceptable color
49.Humanize something free of error
51.Fill every beat with something
53.Not building a wall but making a brick
55.Lowest common denominator
57.Balance the consistency principle with the inconsistency principle
58.Get your neck massaged
59.Listen to the quiet voice
63.Re-evaluation (a warm feeling)
65.Intentions  -nobility of -humility of  -credibility of
66.Abandon normal instruments
68.Repetition is a form of change
69.Give way to your worst impulse
71.Trust in the you of now
72.Imagine the piece as a set of disconnected events
73.What would your closest friend do?
75.Make a blank valuable by putting it in an exquisite frame
76.Feed the recording back out of the medium
77.Convert a melodic element into a rhythmic element
78.The most important thing is the thing most easily forgotten
81.You can only make one dot at a time
84.The inconsistency principle
85.Don't break the silence
87.Discover the recipes you are using and abandon them
91.What mistakes did you make last time?
92.Consider different fading systems
95.It is quite possible (after all)
96.What are you really thinking about just now?
97.Don't stress on thing more than another [sic]
98.State the problem in words as clearly as possible
99.Assemble some of the elements in a group and treat the group
101.Remove ambiguities and convert to specifics
102.Look at the order in which you do things
103.Go outside. Shut the door.
104.Disciplined self-indulgence
108.Cut a vital connection
110.Define an area as `safe' and use it as an anchor
111.Is the information correct?
112.Overtly resist change
113.Question the heroic approach
116.Work at a different speed
117.Look closely at the most embarrassing details & amplify them
118.Mechanicalize something idiosyncratic
120.Remember those quiet evenings
122.Short circuit (example; a man eating peas with the idea that they will improve his virility shovels them straight into his lap)
123.Left channel, right channel, center channel
125.Destroy -nothing  -the most important thing
126.Change nothing and continue with immaculate consistency
127.The tape is now the music
tangentwithtanner
kianamaiart
prguitarman
2087
izzy806