DOORBELL RINGS
Hi there, it's Kid Carpet here.
'In you come, dear.'
DOOR BUZZES
I've come to a school in Edinburgh,where a seriously talented composeris going to show us how tomake musicwith something called found sound.
What's all that about?
I'm a composer but I don't work withpianos or violins,I just work with soundsthat are all around me.
CHAIR SCRAPES FLOOR
Meet composer Jules Rawlinson.Jules find signs everywhere.Sounds that he digitally recordsto make uniqueand wonderful compositions.
HE PLAYS A COMPOSITION
So that's a piece of musicI made using recorded found sounds.
It's now time for Jake and Sarah,Jordan, Nathan, Ailidh and Sarahto get to workand start recording.
The first thing we have to dois check the sound.So hold the microphone in.If you want to bounce the ball.
Check this out, right.
That sounds really cool.
They are bouncing the ball,recording the sound,what's it going to be?
I don't know.
A bass drum or somekind of percussive hit or something.
Recording.
LOCK SQUEAKS
Cool sound, guys.
Nice squeaky, rusty sound.
Get a good level on there?
Yeah, it's fine.
Sound good on the headphones? Great. Cool.
Now the team is using a hydrophone,designed to safely recordsounds in the water.
It sounds like it's fizzingand bubbling.
GRAVEL CRUNCHES
And stop.
METAL CLANGS
Did that sound good?
Bench stamp and falling stones.So bench stamp. Recording.
HE STAMPS ON BENCH
So that's a bench stamp.
They've even got the head teacher.
HE COUGHS
It looks like everyone'sfinished recordingtheir fantastic found sounds.I wonder what they've got.
Did you have a favourite sound?
The bubbling.
I liked the head teacher coughing.
The next thing that we have to dois copy the sounds to a computer,and then we can start.Jules transfers the digitalsound files from the recordersso they can begin editing the soundsand arranging music.
We should really start with a beat.Maybe we should use thatball bouncing.
That's a great suggestion.
What will do is, we willcopy it across into a session.
BALL BOUNCING SOUND
Was that the sound that you meant?
Yeah. That's a really good one.
What about the head teacher?
Head teacher's cough in-between.
We can do that. OK.
COUGHING
That one?
ALL: Yeah.
Let's copy that across then.You can search for free audiorecording software on the internet.Make sure it's from a trustedsource before you download it.
COUGHING AND BALL BOUNCING
Do you like that?We could use the spray noiseto go along with the beats.
Let's see how it sounds.
LOUD HISSING
ALL: Yeah.
Yeah? That's good, isn't it?
We'll start our beat playingand then we can choose wherewe want to put it.Maybe somebody canclick their fingersand we'll know where itshould go in the beat.
SHE CLICKS FINGERS
Where do you think it should go?
We could maybe put it inafter the second beat.
That's a really good place to put it.
RHYTHMIC COUGHING
You could put one here too.
RHYTHMIC COUGHING
This is sounding really interesting.
Let's take a look, come on.
It's sounding great, guys.
Loving this.
What's making thisdiggida-biggida-biggida-boomkind of a sound?
The railings.
The railings just out there?
OK. What else is in there?
There's a boom bass drum thinggoing on.That was a bouncing ball.Bouncing the ball in the playground.The feet scuffing on the gravel.
Scuffing their feet on the gravel.
The head teacher coughing.
That was good fun, recording that.
Can we do something withthe head teacher's cough?
Turn it into an instrument?
Make it go…
CHANGES PITCH
Can we do that?
Yeah.
COUGHS AT DIFFERENT PITCHES
Yeah, that is completely it.I can't wait to hear this finished.
So what I'm doing is usingthe keyboard to playthe cough at different pitches.
I think we need anothersound in there.Something to work with the melody.We could use the squeaky gate.
The squeaky gate might bea really good one. Yeah.
GATE SQUEAKS
With some fish tank bubbleslaid down, it's time to putmelody and rhythm together and whatyou get is a kicking dance track.
Anybody could do thisif they wanted to,but they'd need somethingthat can record noise.You can use somethinglike a mobile phoneor if you have a digital camerathat can record sound.
I'd like to try it in the home.It is really fun to putall of those sounds together.
I love the final track,it's really cool.
Video summary
Kid Carpet joins composer Jules Rawlinson and a class of schoolchildren to experiment with ‘found sounds’.
They use digital sound recorders to capture noises from around their school, before uploading them to a computer and editing them into a composition.
This is from the series: Compose Yourself
Teacher Notes
Encourage students to conduct an extensive exploration of sound sources that could be recorded.
Anything that moves or can safely be struck, scraped or twanged can be investigated in the schoolroom and around the school.
Sounds can be recorded using a hand-held recorder, mobile phone or digital camera, then edited using free downloadable software available online.
Ask students to select one of the sounds and use it to make a good basic beat.
Students can then select other sounds and add them to the mix in different rhythms.
Alternatively, students could collect a range of items that make interesting sounds, and use these to create a live musical composition.
Students could build up the beats and rhythm in the same way as shown in this clip, but play their instruments live.
They could record their final composition and share with classmates.
This clip will be relevant for teaching Music at KS3 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Also 2nd and 3rd level in Scotland.
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