Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art [Paperback]

Stephen Nachmanovitch (Author)

Book Description

Release date: May 1, 1991

This book is about the inner sources of spontaneous creation. It is about where art in the widest sense comes from. It is about why we create and what we learn when we do. It is about the flow of unhindered creative energy: the joy of making art in all its varied forms.

Free Play is directed toward people in any field who want to contact, honor, and strengthen their own creative powers. It integrates material from a wide variety of sources among the arts, sciences, and spiritual traditions of humanity. Filled with unusual quotes, amusing and illuminating anecdotes, and original metaphors, it reveals how inspiration arises within us, how that inspiration may be blocked, derailed or obscured by certain unavoidable facts of life, and how finally it can be liberated - how we can be liberated - to speak or sing, write or paint, dance or play, with our own authentic voice.

The whole enterprise of improvisation in life and art, of recovering free play and awakening creativity, is about being true to ourselves and our visions. It brings us into direct, active contact with boundless creative energies that we may not even know we had.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Nachmanovitch tells it like it is in the most important book on improvisation I've yet seen. -- Keith Jarrett, pianist

Stephen Nachmanovitch has produced a celebration of human uniqueness. -- Norman Cousins, author of The Anatomy of an Illness

This is an unusually intense, packed, thought-through book on the most difficult subject in the world: mystic creativity. -- Robert Pirsig, author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Would that Free Play found its way into every school, office, hospital, and factory. It is a most exciting book and a most important one. -- Yehudi Menuhin, violinist

From the Inside Flap

(see description)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Tarcher; Reprint edition (May 1, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0874776317
• ISBN-13: 978-0874776317
• Product Dimensions: 5 x 0.6 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #21,530 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #21 in Books > Humor & Entertainment > Movies > Direction & Production
  • #95 in Books > Self-Help > Creativity

More About the Author

Stephen Nachmanovitch performs and teaches internationally as an improvisational violinist, and at the intersections of music, dance, theater, and multimedia arts. He has presented master classes and workshops in improvisation at Juilliard, the Yehudi Menuhin School, many conservatories and universities. Born in 1950, he studied at Harvard and the University of California, where he earned a Ph.D. in the History of Consciousness. He has lectured and published in many fields since 1966, and is the author of Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art (Penguin, 1990). He has created computer software including The World Music Menu and Visual Music Tone Painter. He performs on violin, viola, electric violin, and viola d'amore. Recent albums include Impermanence, Electric and Acoustic Improvisations, and Ludi Fecundus and Saraswati Steps Up To Bat. www.freeplay.com.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

112 of 115 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Passion Unveiled August 2, 2001

By james denson

Format:Paperback

Reading Free Play is a journey; and as such, it is not an easy one. That is its most enduring reward. When a good friend gave me the book to read in 1993, I doubted what I could possibly gain from it, since I considered myself hopelessly awkward compared to her. Through such a toxic prism, I couldn't make any sense of the book, much less embrace it. It read like one big abstraction, with no relevance to me or my life. After a month of fitful starts and stops, I returned the book to my friend in frustration.

Something about it, though, made me buy my own copy in 1998. I started taking voice lessons for singing early last year, and am preparing for a major performance next week. Two weeks ago, I decided to take another stab at reading Free Play. In doing so, I found my key to appreciating the book, and relishing all it has to offer, from beginning to end. Although Nachmanovitch is a musician, he beautifully expands the idea of Improvisation to include any medium through which we express ourselves, and live.

Some friendly advice: When sitting down to read this book, get rid of all negative thoughts and judgments about yourself. While reading it, think of all the things in life you love to do, regardless of how well you or others think you do them. Whoever you are, and whatever you do, this book will help you discover what creativity is, where it comes from, how we block it, and how we can make it sizzle. If you stick with Free Play, you will get to know what's possible when you conquer fear and self-doubt just long enough to do what you love, for its own sake and on your own terms. Stephen Nachmanovitch has written a labor of love, and encourages us to see and live our lives this way. For that, Free Play is a true classic.

50 of 50 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars If if you're thinking of buying this book, do it! November 5, 1999

By Sebastian Matthews ([e-mail])

Format:Paperback

This a wonderful handbook for anyone trying to create art or live life creatively. It's practical in that offers helpful techniques on getting past "blocks." It's inspiring in its insights into the nature of the creative act. It's enjoyable to read with its plethora of quotations, illustrations and photographs, and teaching stories. It's wise, it's playful, its honest. In short, it's a piece of art in and of itself--accessible, illuminating, beautiful. It should be every artist's companion.

57 of 59 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars This book can change your life! November 4, 2000

By A. Maheshwari

Format:Paperback

I love this book. I have read this highly readable book more than 25 times in the last five years. So much that I took its message to heart, as I will specify below. The book suggests inspiring stories, tips, and lessons for making yourself more flexible at the core. Let Go - this is the central message of the book. Letting go of our preconceived notions can improve our sense of autonomy, and help us play freely the game of life. Like a god. On one inspired moment after reading this book, earlier this year, I let go of this great book. So it won't any longer be a crutch I hold on to in every moment of difficulty. I have recommended this book to all my friends.