Oblique strategies:


(Organic) machinery 
A line has two sides 
A very small object -Its centre 
Abandon desire 
Abandon normal instructions 
Accept advice 
Accretion 
Adding on 
Allow an easement (an easement is the abandonment of a stricture) 
Always first steps 
Always give yourself credit for having more than personality 
Always the first steps 
Are there sections? Consider transitions 
Ask people to work against their better judgement 
Ask your body 
Assemble some of the elements in a group and treat the group 
Back up a few steps. What else could you have done? 
Balance the consistency principle with the inconsistency principle 
Be dirty 
Be extravagant 
Be less critical more often 
Breathe more deeply 
Bridges -build -burn 
Call your mother and ask her what to do. 
Cascades 
Change ambiguities to specifics 
Change instrument roles 
Change nothing and continue with immaculate consistency 
Change specifics to ambiguities 
Children's voices -speaking -singing 
Cluster analysis 
Consider different fading systems 
Consider transitions 
Consult other sources -promising -unpromising 
Convert a melodic element into a rhythmic element 
Courage! 
Cut a vital connection 
Decorate, decorate 
Define an area as `safe' and use it as an anchor 
Describe the landscape in which this belongs. (9 August) 
Destroy nothing; Destroy the most important thing 
Discard an axiom 
Disciplined self-indulgence 
Disconnect from desire 
Discover the recipes you are using and abandon them 
Discover your formulas and abandon them 
Display your talent 
Distorting time 
Do nothing for as long as possible 
Do something boring 
Do something sudden, destructive and unpredictable 
Do the last thing first 
Do the washing up 
Do the words need changing? 
Do we need holes? 
Don't avoid what is easy 
Don't be afraid of things because they're easy to do 
Don't be frightened of cliches 
Don't be frightened to display your talents 
Don't break the silence 
Don't stress one thing more than another 
Emphasize differences 
Emphasize repetitions 
Emphasize the flaws 
Faced with a choice, do both 
Feed the recording back out of the medium 
Feedback recordings into an acoustic situation 
Fill every beat with something 
Find a safe part and use it as an anchor 
First work alone, then work in unusual pairs. 
From nothing to more than nothing 
Get your neck massaged 
Ghost echoes 
Give the game away 
Give way to your worst impulse 
Go outside. Shut the door. 
Go slowly all the way round the outside 
Go to an extreme, move back to a more comfortable place 
How would someone else do it? 
How would you explain this to your parents? 
How would you have done it? 
Humanize something that is free of error. 
Idiot glee (?) 
Imagine the music as a moving chain or caterpillar 
Imagine the music as a series of disconnected events 
In total darkness, or in a very large room, very quietly 
Infinitesimal gradations 
Instead of changing the thing, change the world around it. 
Intentions -credibility of -nobility of -humility of 
Into the impossible 
Is it finished? 
Is something missing? 
Is the intonation correct? 
Is the style right? 
Is the tuning appropriate? 
Is the tuning intonation correct? 
Is there something missing? 
It is quite possible (after all) 
It is simply a matter or work 
Just carry on 
Left channel, right channel, centre channel 
List the qualities it has. List those you'd like.
Listen in total darkness, or in a very large room, very quietly 
Listen to the quiet voice 
Look at a very small object, look at its centre 
Look at the order in which you do things 
Look closely at the most embarrassing details and amplify. 
Lost in useless territory 
Lowest common denominator check -single beat -single note -single riff 
Magnify the most difficult details 
Make a blank valuable by putting it in an excquisite frame 
Make a sudden, destructive unpredictable action; incorporate 
Make an exhaustive list of everything you might do and do the last thing on the list 
Make it more sensual 
Make what's perfect more human 
Mechanize something idiosyncratic 
Move towards the unimportant 
Mute and continue 
Not building a wall but making a brick 
Once the search has begun, something will be found 
Only a part, not the whole 
Only one element of each kind 
Overtly resist change 
Pae White's non-blank graphic metacard 
Pay attention to distractions 
Picture of a man spotlighted 
Put in earplugs 
Question the heroic approach 
Remember those quiet evenings 
Remove a restriction 
Remove ambiguities and convert to specifics 
Remove specifics and convert to ambiguities 
Remove the middle, extend the edges 
Repetition is a form of change 
Retrace your steps 
Revaluation (a warm feeling) 
Reverse 
Short circuit (example; a man eating peas with the idea that they will improve his virility shovels them straight into his lap) 
Shut the door and listen from outside 
Simple subtraction 
Simply a matter of work 
Slow preparation, fast execution 
Spectrum analysis 
State the problem in words as simply as possible 
Steal a solution. 
Take a break 
Take away as much mystery as possible. What is left? 
Take away the elements in order of apparent non-importance 
Take away the important parts 
Tape your mouth 
The inconsistency principle 
The most important thing is the thing most easily forgotten 
The tape is now the music 
Think - inside the work -outside the work 
Think of the radio 
Tidy up 
Towards the insignificant 
Trust in the you of now 
Try faking it 
Turn it upside down 
Twist the spine 
Use "unqualified" people. 
Use an old idea 
Use an unacceptable color 
Use cliches 
Use fewer notes 
Use filters 
Use something nearby as a model 
Use your own ideas 
Voice your suspicions 
Water 
What are the sections sections of? Imagine a caterpillar moving 
What context would look right? 
What do you do? Now, what do you do best? 
What else is this like? 
What is the reality of the situation? 
What is the simplest solution? 
What mistakes did you make last time? 
What most recently impressed you? How is it similar? What can you learn from it? What could you take from it? 
What to increase? What to reduce? What to maintain? 
What were the branch points in the evolution of this entity 
What were you really thinking about just now? Incorporate 
What would make this really successful? 
What would your closest friend do? 
What wouldn't you do? 
When is it for? Who is it for? 
Where is the edge? 
Which parts can be grouped? 
Who would make this really successful? 
Work at a different speed 
Would anyone want it? 
You are an engineer 
You can only make one dot at a time 
You don't have to be ashamed of using your own ideas 
Your mistake was a hidden intention