I’ve got a great lesson lined up today. What I am going to show you is a take on Mozart’s classic dice game. The game helps the guitarist develop and refine a number of skills that form the foundation for composing and improvising on the guitar. The game can be scaled to one’s ability on the guitar. Meaning, it is for ALL skill levels and can be tailored to work on a number of aspects including: rhythm guitar, lead guitar, improvising, composing among others. We will be taking a neoclassical metal lead guitar theme today, but it can also be tailored to any style.
One of the more important skill sets this game develops is a form of speed I call Thought-to-Action: it is the time elapsed from which your brain comes up with a musical idea and when your hands are finally able to execute it on the guitar. Very important for improvising on the guitar. It will also teach you how ideas can be linked together to form longer phrases. This game will help your flow. Be like water my friend.
HISTORY
Scroll down if you just want to get to them game. 
Here is Mozart … brushing… his teeth.
W. A. MOZART (1756-1791) ‘s “Musikalisches Würfelspiel” (Musical Dice Game) was first published only after the death of Mozart in 1793 by J.J. Hummel in Berlin-Amsterdam. Other composers had their own variations on the game BEFORE Mozart (including Bach and Haydn), but it was Mozart’s piece that made it famous. The funny thing is there are no direct references by Mozart to the game but his authorship has never been contested by musicologists and scholars.
The game was played in the form of a 16 bar Wiener minuet: There were two choices in melodies for the 8th and 16th bars and eleven for each of the other bars in the piece. By choosing from this pre-written pool of phrases and melodies the composer can generate a huge number of melodies themselves. This can teach someone a lot about how to go about improvising on the guitar: you learn how different phrases can link together to form longer, more complete musical ideas. Since improvising is also just an extension of composing anyway, its also great way to develop your compositional skills if you modify the game to use rhythm guitar riffs.
Mozart’s Musical Dice Game
Today I will show you a simplified version of the game tailored to improvising on the guitar a neoclassical lead style. The licks will be kept simple, so guitarists in the beginner stage can participate and the more advanced guitarists can learn the rules of the game and then tailor it to their specific needs.
Tools of the trade
Before we get started improvising on the guitar you will need the following materials:
1.) One, six-sided die
2.) 6 lead guitar licks (I provided some below)
3.) Pencil and paper
The Licks in the Key of A harmonic minor
- 6 Neoclassical metal licks
Do me a favor and ignore the time signature on these examples. Some of the ideas don’t fill a full measure. TIP: Licks 1 and 3 are only two beats long. You might want to think about pairing them off or playing those twice in a row when they come up if you are going to be OCD about everything sitting nice and pretty in a measure.
The game from this point is pretty simple:
1.) Assign each lick to a side on the die.
2.) Roll the die a predetermined amount of time (4 times, 8, 12, 16, etc) and write down the order.
3.) Play the licks in the order you rolled TO A METRONOME! (Notice I dictated rhythm in the above example). Be sure to use a speed you are comfortable with. Expect to have a few brain farts as you transition from lick to lick. This is natural and will be alleviated with practice.
Make sure you familiarize yourself with each lick before tackling the game. It is VERY important to practice to a metronome: don’t wuss out on this. You will only cheat yourself in the long run.
You: “I can shred!” meddleymeddleymeddley
Me: Awesome dude! Play this riff for me *drummer counts in*
You: *breaks out into a cold sweat*
Me: Next guitarist please!
Ok, I’m not being conceited or anything… you can have great feel and technique, but if you can’t keep time you are worth nothing to a band and you will find recording to be an almost impossible task. PRACTICE TO A METRONOME or you risk your drummer shanking you in the back with a sharpened drum stick.
VARIATIONS
Even if you are just a LITTLE bit creative you can come up with a whole horde of variations to the game. Here is a brief list of some things you can try.
1.)While this was aimed at improvising on the guitar you can tailor it to use rhythm ideas as well. (Riffs, chord progressions, strumming patterns)
2.) Write way more ideas and variations to each idea. Cycle ideas in and out as you play the game.
3.) Use a die with more sides than 6.
4.) Use more than one dice. If you are a D&D nerd, go grab a couple of those 24 sided die, write 48 licks and don’t come out of your bedroom for a week.
5.) Write, write, write, write as many ideas as you can think of! Then, write as many VARIATIONS to those ideas as you can!
A Success Story
A few years ago I had a student who completely fell in love with this game. It made up the core of her practice time and to this day she stands as one of my fastest progressing students.
I taught her and her sister a simplified version of the game above. Before long, the two of them were using it as a challenge: seeing who can get through the game without making a mistake. I began to practice the game with her in the same manner, using licks I wrote and ones SHE contributed, and yea, she beat me a few times!
She took the whole thing and really ran with it: after a couple of months she had a whole music notebook filled with ideas and variations to those ideas. All of them were used to play Mozart’s Musical Dice in some manner. She also began composing entire solos in this manner and a few of them you would NEVER guess were the result of random die rolls and some short, creative ideas. And because she was constantly coming up with new ideas to play the game with her playing never really got stagnant. Constantly encouraged by me, her thought process was always, “this is cool, but what ELSE can I do with it?” I spent several classes making her teach me HER variations to the game.
As a result, she became very fluid when soloing and improvising on the guitar. Her technique was improving immensely (since she always practice with a metronome), but the jewel to the crown was how fluid her creative expression on the guitar had become: she had the utmost creative freedom with the tools she had at her disposal.
THAT is the ultimate gift this game can provide.
