Week 1: Notes on active listening assignment
Listening far:
I stood on a busy street corner, possibly a bad choice. Immediate first impression is how loud traffic sounds are, and how persistent. It is mainly a combination of engine sounds, and the sound of tires on tarmac. There are other traffic related sounds as well: brake squeals, backup warnings, horns.
I notice pretty quickly that it is almost impossible to try to listen to distant engine sounds or tire sounds, if there is another similar source nearby. In fact, it is quite eerie that a car a block away seems completely silent if there is another car nearby. Moving sound sources seem easier to track and locate than those that are standing still. Backup warnings, however, are very distinct and can be isolated and located quite far away. Curiously, occasional bird song can be picked up. This is strange, I don’t imagine too many birds winter in New York.
Trying hard to pick up distant sounds, the only thing I can really come up with is a sort of distant low-frequency rumble, which I imagine is an aggregate of mostly traffic sounds.
Listening near:
I go to a nearby café and get a coffee. Lots of sounds here, but all of them easy to separate. Music is playing – a rock & roll ballad of some kind. People are talking, each conversation easy to locate in space and isolate. The coffee machine is operated sporadically, with a tinkling of porcelain and the hiss of a steam jet. The cash register is constantly in use, though the most distinctive sound is the cash drawer opening.
It starts as a dry click, then a rising squeak, a low thud as it hits its stop. Jingling as the cashier digs for coins – they never take just the coins they need, instead they take a handful and count out the ones they don’t need, dropping them back in the drawer with a characteristic sound. A hiss then thump as the drawer is closed.