Created in 1975 by producer Brian Eno and painter Peter Schmidt as a way to break through creative blockage, that deck of cards is called the Oblique Strategies. Over the years, the Oblique Strategies has developed a cultlike following of musicians and artists, largely because of the universal nature of the inscriptions. Although four editions have been printed, there are only a few thousand decks in existence, and those are highly prized by collectors. Luckily, several digital versions of the deck are available online. If you have ever found yourself creatively blocked or feeling uninspired, the strategies just may be your ticket to summoning the muses—provided you can find the right interpretation. Although inscriptions such as "Take away the elements in order of apparent non-importance" and "Just carry on" seem self-explanatory, others are not so obvious. To address this, I’ve compiled my favorite Oblique Strategies and added ideas for using them in desktop music production. These interpretations could serve as a starting point—or better yet, inspire you to come up with your own creative strategies. So let’s shuffle those cards and begin. Are There Sections? Consider Transitions Is that verse-to-chorus transition sounding a bit rough? How about adding a two- or four-bar bridge to smooth it out? Does your song begin with an instrumental version of the verse? You may want to write an introduction that is more elaborate. Transitions are an excellent way to spruce up what is otherwise a traditional arrangement. Turn It Upside Down Vicki Sue Robinson had a major hit by advising people to turn the beat around, but this Oblique Strategy applies to more than just the beat. If you rely on musical notation or your sequencing application supports it, consider inverting the notes for a few measures (see Fig. 1). Link to Figure 1: Harmonically inverting the notes in a melody can suggest new melodies. Using the gone-but-not-forgotten Opcode Studio Vision, the second iteration of a phrase has been mirrored around the pitch G3. Your sequencer likely offers other provocative ways to alter pitches. Be Dirty
Change Instrument Roles Swap the bass and organ patches, assign the piano part to the string patch, and vice versa. This trick almost invariably leads to interesting results. Emphasize Repetitions Add a repeating figure, apply a digital delay, or repeat a lyric for dramatic effect. ("She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah!") This strategy leaves a lot of room for exploration. Breathe More Deeply Oxygen is surprisingly useful when you’re composing. Honor Thy Error as a Hidden Intention Probably the most famous of the Oblique Strategies, this thought should be kept in mind in all situations—creative or otherwise. Whenever possible, save your interesting mistakes. They may come in handy later in the composition process. What Are the Sections Sections of? Imagine a Caterpillar Moving Is your latest composition just a movement in a larger opus? It’s something to consider. Only One Element of Each Kind This is a great way to clean up a track quickly. Are there two chordal parts—a pad and a piano comp, perhaps? Pick your favorite and delete the other one. Once the track has a bit of breathing room, you’ll better be able to judge where you’re headed. Is There Something Missing? Is there? Emphasize Differences In the mixing realm, it’s important to give each element its own distinct identity. For example, if a highlighted flute passage has a bit of reverb on it, slather on more and then remove reverb from the rest of the instruments. Applying this strategy to the arrangement process, you might choose to make a legato string phrase even more flowing, while shortening the notes of a solo instrument. You Don’t Have to Be Ashamed of Using Your Own Ideas Are you changing your song so it sounds more like something on the radio or by your favorite artist? Don’t. Tidy Up "Tidy up" is one of my favorite strategies because I’ve never been able to determine whether it’s a suggestion to reconsider the arrangement or an admonishment to clean my studio. Do the Words Need Changing? Nothing kills a song faster than an awkward couplet. Take a moment to evaluate your lyrics. Use an Unacceptable Color How about some jazz saxophone in that industrial dance track? Or polka accordion in your latest classical opus? Pedal-steel guitar might sound wonderful in a salsa piece, but you won’t know until you try. Make a Sudden, Destructive, Unpredictable Action; Incorporate First, back up your song (just in case). Then, try one of the following: randomly highlight one or more tracks and hit Delete, randomly select a track and apply a radical effect to it, or (my personal favorite) randomly reassign MIDI program numbers to each track and continue from there. Live with the results for a while—no cheating with the Undo button. Humanize Something Free of Error Turn off the quantization every once in a while. Or, as an alternative, sing one of your favorite sequenced elements and record the results. What could be more human than that? Look at the Order in Which You Do Things Do you always start with a drum pattern or chords or lyrics? Next time, try beginning your composition with the bass line or a melodic riff. Use Filters Especially swept, resonant filters. Fill Every Beat with Something This doesn’t have to be a note; try changing the panning, EQ, or effects-send level of a track on every beat. Or try spreading a 16th-note phrase among instruments on multiple tracks. The old Yamaha TX802 sound module had a cool feature that triggered a new sound on every note, rotating among eight sounds. This can be duplicated in a sequencer by repeatedly selecting every other note in a track, cutting and pasting the notes to a new track, and changing the new track’s patch. (It’s even easier if your sequencer has a "select every nth note" feature.) Decorate, Decorate A flute trill here, a wah-wah lick there. . . . Add a percussion fill and a piano gliss, or an orchestral filigree. Remember, decorations don’t have to be pretty. Listen to the Quiet Voice Too often we ignore our gut instincts. Sometimes it’s necessary to give up on a piece that isn’t working. Maybe that guitar riff you love so much just doesn’t work on your latest ballad. Learn to trust your intuition. Is It Finished? Desktop musicians should ask this question hourly. It’s far too easy to fall into the "it’s almost there" trap. If you’re not sure about a song’s status, save a mix to tape or CD-RW periodically. (Be sure to note or save your current settings.) Wait a day, and before you begin your work again, review those rough mixes. You may be surprised at what you find. Put in Earplugs This is a neat trick because it forces you to listen differently. Alternately, listen to the mix from a different room or down the hall. Changing your acoustic environment can often give you a helpful perspective. Abandon Normal Instruments Are you using acoustic instruments (or realistic samples)? Switch to synth textures, or better yet, use an alternate controller. Using drum pads to play a guitar patch can open new directions. Repetition Is a Form of Change This classic Eno-ism might form the basis for most of today’s electronica, but it’s always an interesting approach. Rock ’n’ roll and almost all its subsets are based on this principle. Can it apply to your composition? Reverse Back in 1975, when the Oblique Strategies were created, this feat required a bit of preparation. In today’s era of sequencers and hard-disk recording, it’s embarrassingly easy to do. Start experimenting with playing tracks or phrases backwards (see Fig. 2). Link to Figure 2: Most desktop musicians have reversed audio clips to generate interesting effects, but some sequencers allow you to do the same with MIDI. Here the second iteration of an eight-note melody is played back in reverse order. Because changing the order caused the notes to overlap, I also shortened them. Distorting Time This might include slowing the tempo, doubling (or halving) the durations of individual notes, or applying an unusual time-stretching algorithm such as granular synthesis to a sound or track. But it might also involve juxtaposing sounds or styles from different historical periods. Discover the Recipes You Are Using and Abandon Them Do you always compose in the studio? Take a small tape recorder to an unusual place and hum melodies into it. Do you frequently record in the late evening? Wake up early one Saturday and lay down a few tracks. It doesn’t matter what it is; just do something to change your usual—and possibly limiting—approaches to creating. Mute and Continue If this trick isn’t part of your mixing repertoire, consider adding it immediately. Muting various instruments periodically is a great way to shed light on which parts are enhancing a track and which are merely taking up valuable space. Cut a Vital Connection Delete a melody or the snare drum or the vocals. Don’t look back. Convert a Melodic Element into a Rhythmic Element This is another trick that is made blissfully easy with MIDI. Simply reassign a melody or harmony track to a drum or percussion patch. It’s sometimes helpful to add a synchronized echo effect to the resulting track. To do this, divide 60,000 by the tempo; the resulting number will give you the value in milliseconds for a quarter-note echo. Use 45,000 instead for a swinging, dotted-eighth-note echo. Do Something Boring Here’s yet another delightfully ambiguous strategy; one interpretation might be to add a droning pad sound. Alternately, you could balance your checkbook and resume work later. Your call. Emphasize the Flaws It’s been said that our flaws, more than our strengths, define who we are. Try this interpretation: select a track that contains a few flubbed notes, make a copy of that track and delete everything except the "mistakes." To this new track, assign that cool sound you’ve been meaning to use. Evaluate the results. Left Channel, Right Channel, Center Channel One of the most common causes of a cluttered mix is a lack of stereo placement for individual tracks. The next time you encounter a mushy sounding arrangement, consider the placement of the instruments. Is everything crowding the center channel? Try different pannings, and be radical if necessary. If you doubt that this will work, go back and listen closely to your favorite mixes. You’ll probably be surprised. Do We Need Holes? Maybe so. Several bands, notably INXS and the Who, made stopping and restarting a song—and leaving a hole—part of their style. Think "Need You Tonight" and "My Generation." Use an Old Idea Unless you are just starting out, chances are good that you have a few older songs collecting dust because you were unable to finish them. Why not try recycling the hooks?
If the approaches that are enumerated here do not fully address your creative endeavors, by all means, feel free to add your own strategies. The original decks came with several blank cards for just that purpose. The most important thing to remember when you’re using the Oblique Strategies is that you are ultimately in control of your music; the cards are simply a way to highlight solutions that might otherwise not be immediately apparent. Good luck - and happy summoning!
Frank Jones is a musician, engineer, and Web designer from Buffalo, New York.
Here are some places on the Web that feature software versions of the Oblique Strategies.
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