Share the songs you love with the people you love.

Given how important music is to most people, it’s surprising that it isn’t shared more widely or experienced together more often. It’s in the background almost everywhere you go, but how often is it brought to the center of attention? If you and your friends and family have played all of your board games, pieced together all of your puzzles, and worked through your entire movie collection, you might think there’s nothing interesting left to do together, but there is. Music is an untapped resource and a fountain of almost endless fun. Consider moving music from the background to the foreground, and making it the dynamic center of your next get-together. Below is a fun musical game for your next night in with friends.

How It Works

This game of musical handoff is best played with 4 people. If there are fewer than 4 people, each player may not have enough time to think of their next song selection. If there are more than 4 people, it may take too long for each person’s turn to come up.

This game only works if everyone is open-minded, willing to discover music outside of their own area of interest, and committed to creating a “no judgement zone” where everyone feels safe to play whatever songs they choose to. The point is not to make fun of or criticize other people’s song selections, but to listen with as much honest interest as you hope the other players will listen to your songs. Generally, it is best to just enjoy the music together, refraining from talking while the songs are playing. This is about sharing and listening.

Each person takes a turn playing a song that has deep meaning for them. Songs can be chosen for any reason, and your choices need no justification. Go around the horn, as many times as you want, with each person choosing a song to play to the group. This game is so fun that you can play for hours with the right group of people. It helps to have a killer sound system, and dancing is strongly encouraged!

What’s fun about this game is that you never know where it will lead. It unfolds in real time like an open-ended co-creation of everyone playing. It’s a musical odyssey, as one song is inspired by another. It’s like musical wildfire⏤impossible to predict exactly where it will spread to. It’s as dynamic and interesting as the musical tastes of the people playing, and you can easily leap from Patsy Cline, to Miley Cyrus, to Tupac Shakur, to Rapsody, to Lindsay Stirling, to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, to Judas Priest, to Metallica, and back again. If you like an adventure, it doesn’t get any better than this.

Copyright 2023 Kesel Wilson (entirely, 100% human-created)

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