After feeling stuck with my whole obsession of my art making, I found this gem.
It is hard to describe what really helped ignite the flame in my creative heart again while reading this book. It’s just great, insightful and more then inspiring. Inspiring to go on with whatever you are doing. Even if I was a scientist I would have liked to read this. The right book at the right time.

I must add tho that a lot of topics discussed in this book were not compleatly new to me, yet it was still absolutely worth reading every word of Nachmanovitch talking about the Creative Process.

Right book at the right time!! Ngl a few sections were a bit lost on me, but otherwise this was an interesting lil exploration into creativity and what it means on a conscious and subconscious level, the importance of nurturing our inner child through uninhibited “play”, the issue of how society treats art/artistic pursuits in an era that’s hyperfocused on productivity and conformity, what makes art “good”, and much more. Highly recommend if you’re feeling uninspired or in the midst of an existential crisis !!!!

It's like time-travel, this book! I was active in the music program through high school, and reading "Free Play" took me right back to Blue Silk & Satin jazz ensemble. How I hated being told to improvize--I was terrified! There were far too many ways to make a mistake! On that note, I'm so glad that I read this after reading "Mindset". My fixed mindset did NOT resonate with the learning mindset that sows the seeds of creation. It's all musica universalis, as far as I'm concerned these days. It's time for me to stop reading these things, and just do the work! I've studied the rules of structure, so now I can claim the playtime of embellishment ;0)

Quite a lot of technical information about how the brain works and how breakthrough happens. What I especially liked was the author's obvious familiarity with the process of making art, why play is such an important part of creativity, and how to deal with blocks to spontaneity.

During the late 1980s and early 1990s I worked in a bookstore that managed to survive the mega-chain onslaught and political shifts that killed off most of the independent literary stores and others such as the local specialist feminist and the Marxist/leftist book store as well as quite a few of the second hand stores. Across the road from us was another survivor, specialising in New Age and similar publications. Like many independents, we relied on the high turnover of a few titles to allow us to keep a broad set of literary and non-fiction books with a much lower turnover: now we’d call that a long tail. Every few weeks, at our regular staff meetings we’d discuss sections of the store we thought we’d like to know more about, and at most, if not every second of those, someone would observe that the ‘north west corner’ was a bit of a mystery, and we’d all nod, slightly perplexed by direction until we realised, this as the area labelled ‘self-help’ (although nowadays that is more likely to be ‘body, mind, spirit’ or some such (perhaps even popular psychology).

In my case, not only was this corner of the store a mystery area, it also seemed like a big pile of hokum – truisms for the desperate bundled up inside usually some crudely articulated version of ‘Eastern’ mysticism as a foil for the weaknesses of the ‘West’ with its ‘alienating rationality’. All this meant that I was more than a little unsettled when, acting on the advice of a musician friend whose work I respect, I picked this up to find the publishers had classified it ‘self-help’: my retail bête noir. The book has many of the characteristics of the ‘self-help’ style, at least those few I have dabbled in – the breezy knowingness, the magpie approach to various ‘Eastern’ religious concepts, the step-by-step progress through the problems of our inner being. To his credit though, Nachmanovitch manages to avoid the ‘here’s the answer to everything’ tone of many in the genre, or the serial re-visioning and restatement of one idea in book after book after…... A key aspect of this ‘avoidance’ is that in his day job he seems to be a practitioner of the cultural/creative work that he is dealing with. And it here that my recommender-friend comes into the mix: Nachmanovitch, the violinist, has been recommended to me by a singer, and voice teacher.

So, I read this adopting two standpoints: as a writer (OK, so academic writing but still that relies on a particular creative style), and as on who intermittently ventures into the scholarship of play (basing this on the title, Free Play). Of course, there is a whole bunch of play theories we call on but the one I kept coming back to is a set of ideas that sees almost anything as play if we approach it with the ‘right’ attitude – that is, an attitude of playfulness (a ludic disposition). We’ve all seen that, the ‘game’ that should be fun but is a dull grind – I see it all too often in sports matches – because the ‘players’ did not approach the game with a ludic expectation. A ludic attitude can make pretty much anything fun, but drawing on the work of one play scholar, the cultural historian Johan Huizinga, ludus is one aspect of play while the other paidia seen by French philosopher of play Roger Caillois as having four stages – disturbance, tumult, fantasy and imagination. By my reading, Nachmaovitch’s Free Play works best as paidia (there is an essay about this I have co-authored in a recent edited collection of philosophical papers).

Adopting this standpoint gave me a basis on which to make sense of Nachmanovitch’s approach and when I cut through all the dressing of the tao and Buddha and other ‘Eastern’ spiritual trappings this is a pretty good book about a ludic disposition and the limitations placed on its enactment by the constraints of the ‘way things should be done’. (btw: as a non-believer I can see many of the same ‘overcoming alienation’ ideas deployed from these religions in forms of monotheism – Christianity, Islam and Judaism – and they’re not that mystical.) What is more, it is full of pretty sensible advice about ways to deal with diversions, distractions and barriers to creative work – be it music, visual or plastic art, sport, writing, dance or pretty much anything else where we need to allow ourselves to be absorbed. That said, the third section of the four that make up the book (‘Obstacles and Openings’), did in places get a little prescriptive, although without falling into the trap of lists or imperatives.

Many years ago I recall sitting in my local pub with a (still) well-known poet. For some reason we’d got onto a long rambling discussion about organising cultural events – and I recall him saying that nothing was spontaneous, or rather that all spontaneity was rehearsed. Throughout this book I found myself remembering that conversation of over 35 years ago and realised that Nachmanovitch was explaining the rehearsal than Sam (the poet) had identified as the basis of successful spontaneity. What’s more, he manages to avoid the psycho-babble of so much of the current writing on creativity, but alas he remains stuck in an individualising discourse (there is little here about collective work and stimulating environments) but even with those limitations I expect I’ll be coming back to this quite regularly – even if it is to do more (or less) than seek inspiration for tasks for my students, who seem to park their ludus at the door.

Not purely about improvisation in music but covers painting, writing and all forms of art in a general manner. The main theme of the book is to learn the art of your instrument / method of painting / rules of novel writing, and then to cast off all adult pre-conceptions and enjoy what you are doing as a child would.

I suppose this sort of book, not exactly a self-help book, is purchased to improve the future of the reader. I didn’t realise that it would, rather, inform my past. All through the reading of the book I was reminded of my youth; learning chess to a level where I could take it seriously and compete, not wanting to compete so giving up chess completely; enjoying the freedom of running with a rugby ball, side stepping opponents, being picked for the school team and hating the competition to win at all costs; the joy of running laps in the summer sunshine in my lunch hours, being picked for a county trial where three were picked to represent, and coming fourth with a sigh of relief.

I have always known the child in me, have never wanted to be great at one thing, always wanted a little knowledge of all things, much as a child growing up with its brain acting like a sponge; much like a Project Manager instructing many trades to complete a major project.

My son-in-law once told me he was jealous of the fact that I could get down to floor level with my grandchildren and play with the same imagination as them. It comes naturally I suppose and is one of the reasons I took up novel writing. For me the whole beauty of writing a novel is the act of keeping the imagination flowing, the finished, polished article then being published. After that, all is nought. The main enjoyment comes from the first draft when the mind goes into someone else’s head and you act like them and talk like them and smell what they smell. The head improvises and goes into Free-Play and is only halted by the need to edit.

I once read a note by an author that stated that for him, the act of writing a novel was like the act of making love. The publishing was the climax and after that was the unknown. Would she stay or go, would the critics like the book, would she become pregnant, would the book sell.

I’m not sure how I got my copy of Free Play. Sometimes I’m reading something, maybe darting around the internet for research, and something will catch my eye. It is possible that this book came to me in that way. All I know is that I was sat in the UK and it arrived from the USA from a company that recycles unwanted books. I’m glad it was unwanted and glad I started reading it.

Note - i accidentally deleted this review originally....maybe the blank screen is the most authentic review I can give you. And I stand by it as the most appropriate review.

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but if you need more, here's a review below.

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Although i’ve been at a relatively exciting period in my artistic pursuit of theater, i've only grazed the surface as a beginner. As i’ve worked on more projects, improv, dramatic skits, voice recordings, movement work...there are the initial rushes of excitement, confusion,insecurity,revelry. But it’s just the start. Here’s an example:

Currently i’m working in a theater piece, just 8 lines...and tonight in rehearsal I tried on a different attitude, or an approach toward this character...the director wanted me to approach an ordinary waiter, with a little more unapproachableness, and visible anger. Only given 8 lines, and as many chances to react, I had to tap into some totally different aspects of myself to get there. And to get there I had to drop all my preconceived ideas of this character..and how they should respond. And I did get there...and next week i will get there, a little further..to a point when we perform, I may not even know what that “there” looks like….

Nachmanovich’s book is the inspiration that be a mirror. The creative struggles differ by form or by the person, but ultimately we all deal with the same creative and spiritual issues. “There is a gigantic difference between the projects we imagine doing or plan to do and the ones we actually do. It’s like the difference between a fantasied romance and one in which we really encounter another human being with all his or her complexies (p.66).”

Using the material at hand (“bricolage”) and surrendering to the moment at hand, finding quality, giving voice to the original impulse...all of this sounds far away, mystica. But as Nachmanovich stated, ““Mysticism” does not refer to cloudy belief systems or hocus pocus ;it refers to direct and personal spiritual experience”. Overall I found the read to reflect my own experience. May the unfolding creative, spiritual process continue to reward all you artists -- and by that I mean everyone!

Terrific book. The writing style took me a while to get used to, but then flowed melodiously.

"When work and play are not one, when work and worker are not one, when self and environment are not one, then quality becomes an irrelevancy, a frill; and presto - we fill the world with ugly places and things."

"Free Play" was in the bibliography and notes for pianist Kenny Werner's "Effortless Mastery." I purchased "Free Play" because it was so heavily referenced in Werner's text. "Free Play's" subtitle is "Improvisation in Life and Art." "Free Play" is biased toward the mystical and the spiritual in its exploration of people's (musicians and all other people) search for creative expression. Of course, technical competence, training and study are required to develop the tools that support free play, whether the context is musical performance, other artistic expression or creativity in whatever domain one seeks to express it. The notion of approaching these endeavors in a manner similar to children's engagement with playing is very attractive. Nachmanovitch, an accomplished violinist, is also a good writer. This one will likely be re-read over the years ahead.

I read this book at least twice. It worked. I was trying to be a serious musician and artist; I'd just discovered that I loved writing. I wish I could remember more, but there was something about the description of the human need to create though improvisation (play) that resonated with me.

I might just have to read it again.

A fine little book that I suspect I will come back to time and time again. Creation is hard work and Nachmanovitch will not do your heavy lifting for you, but he will point you to the moon (even—perhaps especially—if you have seen it before).

I have several guidebooks for living and this is one of my most precious. I've shared it, relied upon it, and re-read it. Interestingly, though it is by a musician, it is very apt and helpful in any field of endeavor. When I first read it I was working in a law office and had to design little interactive macros for legal documents so that attorneys could use their computers more easily and this book helped me do that. It has also helped me design my garden, decorate my house, find my way through a variety of puzzling projects, as well as allowed me to give good advice to my friends who find themselves confused and stuck. I recently recommended it to a person who works in the sciences and she found it helped her work through a difficult task she was confronted with. The concept that life is improvisation is very liberating, but it also is a challenge - it gives you a sense of agency and creative license - but maybe a sense of responsibility too, in a lovely way. The book is filled with the wisdom of philosophers and artists, so I always feel when I'm reading it that I've been immersed in an ongoing conversation with the greatest creative thinkers from all over the world.