tune into the sounds around us
I can listen carefully to the sounds around me
I can identify and map some of the sounds I hear
A soundscape is made up of all the different sounds that you can hear around you - the natural sounds from living creatures and environmental sounds like water and wind, and sounds from vehicles and machines.
Do you take time to listen to the sounds in nature? Practice your skills of listening deeply and try to identify what you hear. The more we listen, the more we can understand the world around us.
We'd love you to share your soundscapes and soundmaps with us. Please note that you must be a NSW Department of Education student to use the form to share your pictures. All files will be linked to your Student Portal.
We'll share your soundmaps and a map of your soundscapes in the gallery.
A sound map is a drawing of the sounds you hear within a landscape. You may hear:
bird calls and other animal sounds
environmental sounds like wind in the treetops
water flowing
traffic and other human activities
Draw a sound map while listening, and make marks to represent sounds. The marks can symbolise the quality of the sound, and can represent what is making the sound. All you need is a pencil and paper. If you have one you can use a compass to mark north on your map.
Sit quietly, close your eyes for a few moments and cup your hands around your ears, like possum ears, to help you hear.
Draw an X in the middle of your page to mark where you are sitting. As you listen, draw sounds that you hear close by, nearer to the X and the ones further away, draw further away from the X. Think about where the sound is coming from, to your right or left, in front, behind or above you? What is making the sound?
Record the time, date and place you are sitting. Many children can sit quietly for between 5-10 minutes, but you may want to sit and listen longer.
As you repeat this activity you may find that you can listen more intently and notice more sounds. This can help us to begin to understand the place and our landscape more fully.
What is making the noise?
Are the birds making alarm calls or ‘I am here’ calls?
Are they calling hello to their partner or chicks, or are they scared of a predator?
When do the frogs call?
Are they active at particular times of day or night?
There is seasonal variation in animal calls and activity too. You can learn to identify calls by using one of the sound libraries or listening to podcasts describing animal calls. Scientists are learning about animal behaviour and where animals live by listening to soundscapes.
While you listen you can also record a soundsacpe (make a sound recording). Most mobile phones come with an app for recording sound, such as Voice Recorder (Android/Samsung) or Voice Memos (iOS).
There are many things you can do with a soundscape. You could try:
listen to a soundscape for relaxation
use your soundscape for the background soundtrack for a video
play a 'secret sound' games with friends (get your friends to guess the sounds you recorded)
upload animal sounds to a range of sites, e.g. FrogID, to identify a frog species, or identify bird species for the Birdlife BirdData survey
set up and stay still in a quiet space
avoid windy days
don't move once you've started recording
stand or sit behind something to protect your device's microphone from the wind
tape some light foam (e.g. spare foam from headphones) over your device's microphone to absorb unwanted background noise, e.g. wind
Learn all about frog calls in this 25 minutes podcast.
This 25 minute program is full of recorded sounds from nature.
This 25 minute podcast is all about the amazing lyrebird.
This is a great podcast for younger students. Explore some sounds of the Royal National Park during this 11 minute podcast.
This new podcast from the ABC is just soundscapes from nature... no talking, just uninterrupted soundscapes from around Australia. Enjoy!
Learn about recording the sounds of landscapes in this 13 minute podcast.
Listen to professionally recorded soundscapes from around the globe.
Listen to the Top 40! Top 40 Bird Songs collected by Birds in Backyards.
Download the free FrogID app... it's like Shazam for frog calls!
What frog sounds can you hear from your home or on a walk? Check out the call of the Bleating Tree Frog... I thought there was a goat at my window!
Listen in to the amazing data collected for a five-year period across Australian ecosystems.
Become a hoot detective and help scientists identify owl sounds.