,sjdhgsqrgfylerfbjmbefjehjhdbgjhevd, sounds gibberish right? but it sounds good to me. This means that I am in a state of mind where I am unaware of something and that is my chance to learn something new.
In today’s class of Tools & Technology in Art Education, the topic under discussion was ‘Sounds’, types, kinds, methods etc. Apart from what I had learned in the Physic class, years ago, today’s discussion on the creation, adaptation and use of sounds took me into another level. To begin with, listening to all these notes and then collecting them into a thread, editing it to perfection and then publishing it for an audience came as a challenge.
Sound is an energy, it is the vibration which travels through a medium and reaches the ear. The journey goes through a number of variations which in the end changes its entire dynamics. Beginning from this understanding about ‘sound’ to all behind the scene sound production activities led me to the world of sound editors. The recommended ones by the experts are Adobe Premier, Audacity, Adobe Audition etc.
For first time users, Audacity surfaced as the easiest option, so I quickly downloaded it and explored the application. Audacity is a free source and is easily downloadable. https://www.audacityteam.org/
Audacity
Before proceeding further, I plugged my ears to the tune of piano playing. The sound of rain behind the instrument play is adding sensitivity to the mood. Makes me think, how addicted I am to this, not realising too much about the science behind its production.
I am noticing while thinking, how deep layered this music track is. Every layer is touching me in a different way. I am thoroughly understanding, why for years, I have always hooked myself to music whenever, I needed to focus and avoid distractions. The way each layer of tune is interwined together gives meaning to every music thread.
This is apart from the sound of the instruments and voice, it is the combination of these put together to create sensation. Makes me think about how varying the tone or tune, any audible sound can alter the mood. It makes audio comprehendable to a variety of audiences.
اچھا Experiment
I decided to experiment my above statement. Some time ago, a Mexican IB trainer visited our campus in Lahore. She was sharing her experience of her stay in India. During the discussion she joyingly mentioned how she has learned the word ‘acha- اچھا۔ ‘ when said in different tones have a new meaning. I am attaching my experiment here.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RqwIc2r0xaWLWlvdPwwJdZ6ML9aOZ8gu/view?usp=sharing
Music is not the only way the sound reaches us. Podcasts, audio narrations, monologues, story telling etc also reach the audience as sound productions.
While looking for Urdu narrations to learn more about this I came across this wonderful online resource https://www.rekhta.org/
I explored this treasurable resource for prose, poem, podcasts, monologues and found this podcast that addresses the current COVID 19 situation from Ghalib’s angle. What a beautiful tribute as well as such an honest analysis.
My role as an educator
Every thing I learn has to be translated into my teaching and learning process at school. It is anything but natural to take your learning where it belongs. Uptil now being a person who finds peace and focus in music, I always played a soft background music whenever I engaged my learners into some written or drawing tasks. The calmness in the class gets addictive. But now I am planning more voice overs, story telling, poetry recitals in audio for specific listening skills development. After all ‘phonics’remains the core area of development of anything we listen and speak
( Phonics- It is a method for teaching the reading and writing of an alphabetic language. It is done by demonstrating the relationship between the sounds of the spoken language, and the letters, groups of letters, or syllables of the written language.)
Tools & Technology in Art Education 