In this activity you’ll be able to create your own soundscape for New York City. A soundscape is a musical picture. When George Gershwin wrote his piece ‘Rhapsody in Blue,’ he wanted to capture the spirit of 1920s New York, and the famous clarinet introduction was inspired by the sirens of the New York police cars. See our Listening Guide for more information about ‘Rhapsody in Blue’!
In this OrchPlay grid you will find lots of city sounds to experiment with. Some of them are short sounds, such as car horns beeping, and some of them are longer, such as the general city ambience background noise. Try them out and see which ones you like! Tap a sound once to start it, and then tap it again to stop it.
Once you’re familiar with them, try creating a soundtrack to one of the videos below. Remember to press ‘mute’ on the video before you begin so that your sounds take centre stage!
Each key plays a different sound. The bigger the key, the longer the sound. Try playing different keys together to layer up the sounds in any way you like. Tap each key to start the sound. Tap it again to stop the sound.
How to use:
- Open the YouTube videos of New York, either in another tab or on another device. Choose your favourite one to create your soundtrack to!
- Make sure to mute the video.
- Have a go at playing each of the sounds on the grid, and think about which you might use at different times in the video.
- lay the video, and use the grid to make your soundtrack! You can play each sound one at a time, or you can layer them and have lots of sounds at the same time.
- Have fun!
Video 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AY6FDIec6-Y (sunny central park)
Video 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72Irs8Ff6dk&t=115s (rainy New York)