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For the next week you are going to keep a sound journal that you will be adding at least two entries each day.
You must record the sound and write down an entry with the following information.
Enter the time you began your entry
Enter the date
Include your location (Example: Tottenville, Staten Island)
Include the route you took to get there—and how you got there
Describe the weather (Is it sunny? Overcast? Cold? Rainy?)
Name the “Habitat” (under the Bayonne Bridge, in the living room, at school, in the Greenbelt)
Be sure to enter the time you ended your entry.
What is the point of a sound journal?
Keeping a sound journal is what you make it. You can think of it as evidence gathering or as a literary practice. It can be the pump that primes your creative juices or the meditation that centers you. The main thing is this: do it regularly —every day, if you can. Schedule the time. Carry a notebook, a sketchpad—your laptop—wherever you go. Listen with intention and you will be rewarded with a new awareness of your environment and your place in it.
What do I put in my sound journal?
Keep a scrapbook-style journal, like this one by Ernest Thompson Seton (1860–1946). Seton wrote several children’s books, Among them, Two Little Savages, in which he describes the sounds of various bird calls. (Thanks to the AMNH.)
Although he is not a sound journalist, artist Bill Sharpkeeps a journal that includes not only what he sees but also what he hears. While on vacation in Costa Rica he writes: “Claire and Lida went in the hot tub. I could hear them laughing from our balcony.” In another entry, he writes: “There is some kind of noise outside our win
dow...sounds like geese.”
I don’t know how to start my sound journal-
It’s hard to get started. To break the ice, use this sound journal checklist:
Enter the time you began your entry
Enter the date
Include your location (Example: Tottenville, Staten Island)
Include the route you took to get there—and how you got there
Describe the weather (Is it sunny? Overcast? Cold? Rainy?)
Name the “Habitat” (under the Bayonne Bridge, in the living room, at school, in the Greenbelt)
Be sure to enter the time you ended your entry.
A sound journal isn’t reserved for the pretty sounds alone. Write about everything you hear: the sounds of the city, the sounds of the country or suburb in which you live. Record the noises, voices and words you hear. A sound journal is ecumenical: it pays respect to nature sounds and city sounds, peaceful sounds and aggravating sounds. Your journal is for ALL the sounds you hear. Soon you may notice that you’ve grown interested in the sounds you used to hate. And sounds you once ignored may become the sounds you like the most. Listening is like peeling an onion. There are more and more layers to be uncovered than you can imagine.
A birdsong map by naturalist, writer and artist Hannah Hinchman. She represents the different bird songs as symbols. Hinchman is interested in nature environments, specifically, but her idea of using symbols to represent and describe specific sounds can be used in any environment. How would you draw the sound of a truck motor? Or the sound of a leaf blower? What notations might you create to represent a light breeze or a strong wind?
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