Drawing Sound
Lines of sound
You will need:
Objects that can be used to make sounds: each student and the teacher can find appropriate materials, well before the lesson. For example: tins, buckets, glass bottles, sticks, plastic bottles filled with stones or bottle tops. The aim is to create as many different kinds of sounds as possible – drum-like, hollow, bell-like, thudding, strumming, scraping, and so on.
Any musical instruments that you have access to
You will each receive one of the sound-objects collected
for making sounds. Spend a few minutes trying out the possibilities of your “instrument”. Try out ways of expressing feelings through sounds on the instrument. Imagine the experience of feeling “boredom”, for example, and try to find a rhythm or sound to express this. Try to translate one or two of the other emotions on the list into sound.
Divide into small groups of four, five or six. Each group chooses a different emotion-word to work with.
Each group will have a turn to experiment with playing the instruments and sound-objects, while the rest listen and draw. Listen carefully to the kinds of sounds being made. Are they short and sharp? Slow and mellow? Scratchy? Rattling? Meandering? Rhythmical? Imagine you can see lines and marks that represent these sounds.
When you feel ready, pick up any one of your tools, dip it in the ink or paint and, allowing your hands to respond to the music, create marks on the paper.
Drawing Sound
