Quick Description
Concentration: Improv Edition. A large group of people pair up and choose a song they both know. They stand or sit away from each other. A player tries to match both parts of the song by choosing one person and then another.
How to play
Ask the audience who wants to be a contestant in a game show.
Get a couple of contestants and have them go outside the room or close their eyes and cover their ears.
Have the rest of the group get into pairs. If they are seated they can choose someone close by.
Ask them to find a song they both like and review it. Find a line from the song that can be separated into two parts.
Example 1:
Part A: Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells
Part B: Jingle all the way
Example 2:
Part A: Hey Jude, don’t make it bad
Part B: Take a sad song and make it better
Ask them to each take a part and practice singing it in sequence.
Ask them to sit down. You can ask them to move where they’re sitting.
Ask a contestant to come up and try to match two parts of a song.
When an audience member is chosen by the contestant, they stand and sing their part of the song.
Tell the contestant that the songs must be revealed in sequence to count as a match.
In other words, the first person they pick must sing the first line of the song and the second person picked must sing the second.
Go back and forth between the two contestants until someone wins.
Notes
It’s easy to incorporate late comers and it’s a good activity to do while waiting for the group to all arrive.
Late comers pair up choose a song and sit apart from each other. (Without the contestants watching.)
If you have a time constraint, simply end the game.
You can have prizes for the winner or simple give them a round of applause.
Variations
Don’t have any variations for Concentration.
And…just saying that makes me think about people pairing up and finding something they have in common. The contestants need to match people that have something in common.
If the games is for a company event, it could be about something they have in common surrounding the company.
Origins
Concentration comes to us from Chris Sams. Chris says he didn’t invent it but can’t remember who taught it to him. He has used it corporate improv workshops in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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