Soundscapes

From ‘101 Drama Games and Activities’

From ‘101 Drama Games and Activities’

Age: 5 to adult
Players: Whole Group
Time: 10-20 minutes
Skills: Storytelling, Sound making, Listening

The group is conducted to create a sound picture or “soundscape” using voices and body sounds.

The leader or one member of the group acts as conductor, whilst the rest of the group are the ‘orchestra’. Using their voices (and body percussion if appropriate!), the group “paints” a sound picture of a particular theme, for example the seaside, a city, a jungle. The leader controls the shape of the piece by raising her hand to increase the volume or bringing it to touch the floor for silence.
(Below you can hear a sound picture created by a group of teachers at one of our Primary Drama INSET courses.)

 
Director’s Tips
  • Ask for suggestions/demonstrations of appropriate sounds before you start.
  • If it’s a large group, divide participants into sections, allocating a particular sound for each section, then conduct them accordingly.
  • Be aware of contrasting/complementary sounds, and natural peaks and troughs in the piece – these can be created by the conductor.
  • Soundscapes can also be used as part of a performance.

Age: 5 to adult
Players: Whole Group
Time: 10-20 minutes
Skills: Storytelling, Sound making, Listening

The group is conducted to create a sound picture or “soundscape” using voices and body sounds.

The leader or one member of the group acts as conductor, whilst the rest of the group are the ‘orchestra’. Using their voices (and body percussion if appropriate!), the group “paints” a sound picture of a particular theme, for example the seaside, a city, a jungle. The leader controls the shape of the piece by raising her hand to increase the volume or bringing it to touch the floor for silence.
(Below you can hear a sound picture created by a group of teachers at one of our Primary Drama INSET courses.)

 
Director’s Tips
  • Ask for suggestions/demonstrations of appropriate sounds before you start.
  • If it’s a large group, divide participants into sections, allocating a particular sound for each section, then conduct them accordingly.
  • Be aware of contrasting/complementary sounds, and natural peaks and troughs in the piece – these can be created by the conductor.
  • Soundscapes can also be used as part of a performance.

The Tempest: Caliban Speech as a Soundscape

Here is another soundscape, this time from a course on teaching Shakespeare. I took a speech by Caliban (from The Tempest) which talks about strange and magical sounds and asked the group to come up with sounds to put behind the speech. I also got them to echo words from the speech and then we improvised this soundscape. See what you think.

 

My young drama group love all your games but their favourite is the sound orchestra – we were all in hysterics during this. They came up with their own original noises too. We had a lightsaber from star wars, a flushing toilet, washing machine and my favourite: a bear growl –  amazing – especially for the play we are performing.

Diane Kingsland 
Diane Kingsland