Sound Walks, together
AUTUMN 2023
Singing with the Exe On Saturday 23rd September I’m very pleased to be co-leading a Singing and Listening Walk along the Exe riverbank from Exeter Quay to Exmouth, blending our voices with the changing Exe habitats and tuning our ears to the river’s music.
We’ll learn simple songs of the river. There will be stops for refreshment and song, led by community choir leaders Sarah Pennington and Tess Read. And we’ll take time to listen to the river together.
The walkers will meet at Exeter Quay at 10am and arrive at the Railway Club in Exmouth at about 5pm where you can purchase hot drinks, cakes, pasties, and a range of beers wines and soft drinks. We’ll be entertained there by the Woodbury Whalers. If you’d like to bring a song to share, please do! (No amplification).
AUTUMN 2022
SoundTracks is a series of six free, family-friendly guided SOUND WALKS along Exeter’s Green Circle this autumn, hosted by RAMM (Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter).
I have been working with RAMM curator Tom Cadbury to explore the past and present of the Green Circle, a network of paths and lanes encircling Exeter. Now we need your help to explore the routes on a group walk. I will lead you along parts of the Mincinglake and Exwick sections of the Green Circle, and together we will notice the sounds around you, and imagine the sounds of the past and future.
Click the flyer below for more info and to book.
- Weds 28 Sept: Mincinglake – for adults with preschoolers
- Fri 30 Sept: Mincinglake – for nature and history lovers
- Mon 3 Oct: Mincinglake – community walk: all welcome
- Weds 5 Oct: West of Exe – for nature and history lovers
- Fri 7 Oct: West of Exe – for adults with preschoolers
- Tues 11 Oct: West of Exe – community walk: all welcome
SPRING 2022
I’m leading some EXETER SOUND WALKS, on Sundays 8th, 15th, 29th May, 12th, 26th June 2022 as part of Cygnet Theatre’s 40th Birthday ‘Dream’ Festival and Art Week Exeter. Drop me a message to find out more and join us!
I’m very happy to be resuming ‘SOUND WALKS, together’ on Sunday 20th June and two further dates in July.
What is a Sound Walk, together, like?
‘It was, I think, like a balm.’
‘In these days of post-Lockdown rushing around, [I] really appreciated the tranquillity of just standing still and listening.. .
‘I felt refreshed and far more relaxed than I have been for a while and now, as I walk or cycle from place to place, I listen to the other sounds: the sounds that I ignored before, the sounds of nature that are still there above the busy buzz of the traffic and I make my own ‘symphonies’.’ (Exwick News)
‘Thank you for the lovely Sound Walk which you organised for us yesterday.
It was so good to focus on listening to the varying sounds around us. It was an excellent exercise in mindfulness and giving the brain a rest from the sometimes cacophony of sound and everyday concerns! it really does help to connect with nature’
‘Thank you so much for the sound walk – it really was a special and inspiring experience. All your time, energy and expertise was very much appreciated. I feel my ears and my mind have been opened to new possibilities, and I am now practising listening in different ways in my daily life.‘
‘Thank you for an invigorating walk and as ever, after one of your events, a chance to think from a different perspective. I am now on the trail of further mysterious green boxes and their musical content. A new way of walking and listening. So thanks for all your tending.’
‘I felt really nervous about walking for an hour, I haven’t been moving enough and today gave me the motivation to do it. I feel so much better. I scarcely felt the gradient walking up St David’s Hill. I really do have difficult feet and it’s so important to keep moving.’
‘Thanks, Emma, for the wonderful evening experience. I keep meaning to walk in the evening alone and never get round to it, so this was a lovely, gentle way to do it. I am in love with that gate… 😉
I enjoyed sharing listening with others – I do it a lot on my own, but it’s great to have other people’s input and things others notice. I have been trying hard not to judge noise, as you say, but am often irritated by roads etc, so this was another step towards acceptance, perhaps, and just being interested.
Carry on with your wonderful listening sharing, I think attentive listening is so important, and, as you say, you remember sounds as you pass a place, which is enriching.’
‘I would have said, rather arrogantly, that I was anyway pretty well clued in to listening, as well as looking, when I walk. But – I have been noticing more, and differently, since your walk.
Although I don’t work directly with sound, I am interested in all kinds of perception, and how individual it is on the one hand, and on the other, the shared experiences it can lead to.
I was particularly interested in the way you talked about sound defining (describing?) space.
Also discrepancy between visual information and audio information – eg seeing a hedge/plants/leaves, but hearing birds
The way some sounds carry, while others are lost almost immediately.
Think that people would get lots of benefits from your walks especially at the moment – mindfulness, etc.
I still find it hard to think of traffic noise as music!’