a walk in the forest
Main content: crossfade
Pedagogical objective:
- The student is able to choose relevant sounds in view of a proposed creative activity.
- The student is able to apply appropriate sound transformations in view of a proposed creative activity.
Pedagogical intention
- Develop the students’ abilities of poetic evocation.
Tools
Process
1
Proposal for creation 1: realistic representation of a forest
To begin
- The teacher asks the students to name the sounds one hears in a forest. Do we hear the same sounds during the day and at night? Are there many sounds? Are there strange sounds?
Setup
- The teacher asks the students to choose a sound from the banks of sounds, that evokes a forest.
- Listen to all choices.
- The teacher can suggest to position the students according to the family of sounds they have chosen: for example, water-sounds to the left, leaf-sounds and crackling sounds to the right, footsteps on leaves in the centre and birds and wind sounds distributed equally.
Performance
- The teacher triggers the playback of each family of sounds.
- Following the signs of the conductor, the students raise the volume of their sound slowly, while blending into the ensemble.
- Once this sonic landscape has been created, the teacher can invite 2 or 3 students at a time, to come in front to better hear the global effect.
- Stop.
Assessment:
Was the sonic landscape realistic (did one feel like being in a forest)? Was is realistic or evocative? What could be improved?
2
Proposal for creation 2: imaginary representation of a forest
To start
- First, we agree upon a theme: a forest that is mysterious, disturbing, enchanted, wonderful, etc...
Setup
- The teacher asks the students to load a second sound that evokes an imaginary forest, appropriate to the chosen theme. This can be a transformation of sound 1 or a new sound from the banks, transformed or not.
Performance
- Following the same procedure as previous, we build a realistic sonic landscape.
- The teacher points to the students, one by one. When chosen, the student executes a crossfadePerformed using the volume knobs, the fade-in is a mixing technique that aims to gently slide from one sound to another, the sound 1 gradually disappearing in favor of the sound 2. At the intersection of the sounds as one increases and the other decreases in volume, there will be a period where the two sounds will tend to merge. between the realistic forest sound and their altered version. We thus shift slowly from a realistic image to a more stylized and poetic evocation of a forest.
- Stop.
Assessment: Were the two sounds appropriate with regards to the theme chosen? Was the shift well-executed? Did we sense the transition from realistic to imaginary forest? What feelings did you experience during the shift? What could be improved upon to better highlight the contrast between these two representations of the forest?
If space (and time) permit, we can accomplish this activity in teams of 4 to 6 students.
Objective: compose a short, well-structured piece of about 2 minutes.
Depending on the level of the students and their experience with the fonofone, one can choose to execute either proposal 1 (the realistic landscape), the imaginary landscape (each team choosing their own theme) or the entire proposal 2.
Performance
- The teacher explains the directives:
- in each group, agree about the choice of sounds and their distribution among members;
- establish a scenario (the form): Introduction - development - conclusion.
- Practice the sequence.
- The teacher allots enough time for the conception and production of the project for each group.
- Each group presents their work and comments upon it.
- Assessment: was each piece performed successfully? Did we feel the difference between realistic and imaginary landscapes? Was the transition from one to the other done convincingly? Was the theme of the imaginary landscape clear?
