Sound maps
Taking time to stop and listen can be a new experience for many of our visitors
Listening offers an opportunity to quietly explore our surroundings. Recording what we hear helps us to focus our attention on our hearing. It also gives us a way to share with others what we have heard after the experience. And we can take our maps home with us.
Sound maps are simple tools and easy to make. Hard cardboard is good as you will often do this exercise when out and about. So get some cardboard - you could use the inside of a cereal box or cut up a cardboard box - make it big enough to draw and write on, and a marker or pencil.That is it!
How to use a sound map
Using the sound map and pencil find a spot and stand or sit still. Stay still for a short while (try 5 minutes) and start to listen to what is making sound around you. Mark yourself in the middle of the card. Mark down onto the card the noises you can hear and where they are coming from, for example there may be a stream behind you, sheep in a field in front of you,
birds singing above and to your side. Be still and quiet and really focus on sounds you can hear.
Everyone hears and records sound differently - some people write the names of what they hear, others draw.
Explore mixing your senses - can you record the shape of the sounds you are hearing? The textures too - if you could touch the sound what would it feel like? Click on the picture below and have a listen.
The conversations afterwards are usually animated.
Sound maps can be for people of all ages. This group of school children included several with special needs who particularly enjoyed this activity.
"Our special needs children held such a strong focus on the many wonderful sounds of nature as we sat in the hay meadow on a hot June afternoon, and they continued to point out sounds on the route back to the barn."
Sue Padfield, Church Farm
"The best part of the day for me was just standing in silence and listening to the sounds around me. I remember thinking that the sounds I was hearing are not the everyday sounds I hear at home and that it was a pleasant, calming change."
Cassie Elliot, FARMECO
"One of the ways we bring the farm to life is to use a ‘Sound Map’. It is fantastic, and produces many different interpretations of sound, as well as a piece of artwork the children take home with them as a reminder of the day. We use the area around our pond to sit quietly and listen. We have found that this is so beneficial with all the groups who visit, including those with special needs, that we have now introduced the sound map into every visit we do. The children focus on more than they can see, or for those whose sight is impaired, their own visit comes to life instantly through sound. With inner city children, whose excitement is infectious, the sound map also acts as a calming measure, where we can all regroup before we go pond dipping. Such a simple idea has worked for all our groups, and is something that teachers can do back at school or on another trip. Children can even sit in their garden and draw sounds at weekends if they wish. I am so glad my training included this lovely idea."
Patsy Pimlott, Park Hill Farm