Soundwalk

The whole world is a musical composition, where we are all ‘simultaneously its audience, its performers and its composers’, suggested Schafer (1977, p.205). However, people’s listening abilities have been slowly deteriorating with the advancement of visual culture, technology and noise pollution (Schafer, 1977). Soundwalks have been designed to give people an opportunity to listen to the environment and expose their ears to every sound around them despite the context (Westerkamp, 2001). Westercamp (2006) suggested that soundwalk is ‘an inspirational tool that allows the listener to deepen their relationship, knowledge and perception of a particular environment’. Holland (2016) further recommended that this quality also makes it a great educational tool. When soundwalking, students are required to play close attention to the sounds around them, but also to the sounds inside them, their thoughts and inner voices. This makes soundwalking a highly reflective activity. Soundwalks could also include ear cleaning exercises or sound making. Ear cleaning exercises do not include physical cleaning, rather a series of listening exercises that enhance sensitivity (Holland, 2016). Soundwalks provide opportunities to unplug and help the walkers to connect with and re-sensitize to sounds around them (Drever, 2009, Holland, 2016). Sound making as part of a soundwalk would transform participants from observers into a ‘composer-performer’ (Schafer, 1977).

Soundwalks are inclusive and unprejudiced because they are concerned with everyday sounds rather than, for example, concert hall listening (Drever, 2009). They are also easily accessible for most people. Soundwalks may provide a level playing field to students, who may otherwise would shy away from classroom musical discussions, as there is no specific knowledge required to talk about the musical aspects of soundwalks (McCartney, 2010). Soundwalks also encourage children to think creatively and may provide them with inspiration to compose (Holland, 2016). Therefore, it is easy to see how beneficial it could be to include soundwalks into music lessons and activities.

References

Drever, J. (2009) Soundwalking: Aural excursions into the everyday. In Saunders, J. (ed.), Ashgate Research companion to experimental music. Farnham: Ashgate.

Holland, D. (2016) Developing heightened listening: A creative tool for introducing primary school children to sound-based music. Thesis (PhD), De Montfort University. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/2086/13304

McCartney, A. (2010) Soundwalking – creating moving environmental sound narratives. [Online] Available from: https://soundwalkinginteractions.wordpress.com/2010/09/27/soundwalking-creating-moving-environmental-sound-narratives/ [Accessed 02/02/2019].

Schafer, R. M. (1977) The tuning of the world. Rochester: Destiny Books.

Westerkamp, H. (2001) Soundwalking. [Online] Available from: https://www.sfu.ca/~westerka/writings%20page/articles%20pages/soundwalking.html [Accessed 02/02/2019].