#covidsoundscore #covidsoundscore

What can you hear in your garden or from your window?
I have become interested in how we listen, what we hear when we listen closely, and what that looks like.

This morning I made a 20 minute recording of a wood in Huddersfield (at 6am to avoid other people). You can hear all kinds of birds, including a woodpecker, the motorway and my dog if you listen closely.

I thought it'd be great to find out what you can hear from your house. Here is an exercise and a challenge. The challenge is for anyone of any age. I don’t care if you are 9 or 90 years old. A beginner or professional composer. It’d be amazing to see your Covid Sound Score.

Sit and listen for 1 minute - maybe record it on your phone.

-Listen to the low sounds
-Middle sounds
-High sounds

What did you hear?

Now do it again and listen to:
⁃the close sounds (like your breathing and clothes)
⁃sounds coming from your garden or very close by
⁃sounds from further away

This time listen for
⁃rhythmic repetitive sounds (like birds)
⁃long sounds (like a distant motorway)
⁃irregular sounds that vary lots

Creating a score
Now watch the film of bird song and see if you can follow it like a musical score.
https://tinyurl.com/covidsoundscore1
You can see time moving from left to right with a line, and frequency (how low or high a sound is) from bottom to top.

Notice it shows the same image twice. One represents the left microphone and one the right. Loudness is shown by a change in colour from black (silent) through red, to almost white (loud).

-Can you describe what you see and how that represents the sounds that you can hear?
-Can you identify any of the birds?

Try this!
Try recording 10 seconds of audio then see if you can draw the sounds, using that film as a guide.

Post your picture online using #covidsoundscore and @lizdobsonuoh or message me for my email
(I will post it for you but I need your name, age, and twitter or Insta handle (you or a guardian needs to give permission for me to post)

Happy listening!