Appreciate how the right and left side of your body are exposed to different soundscapes. On one side is an open valley; the sounds from this side will reach you from farther away and might be human-made (car engines, machinery, voices). On the other side, you will be in closer proximity to the forest and its non-human inhabitants.
The vegetation—its presence or absence, and the ways in which it conforms to either side of the trail and over your head—is like a strangely-shaped wall with windows that let in, filter, or block sound.
The features and distribution of these intermittent, organic obstacles create a slow-paced, irregular pattern that emerges as you walk.
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Pick up a small piece of material (wood, stone or a dead leaf) and bring it as close as possible (without blocking it) to the ear that you feel is less exposed to sound. The proximity of the object to the ear canal alone will have a slightly amplifying effect on the sound.
Slowly move this object closer and further away from your ear.
Notice how this simple acoustic filter colours the sound by reflecting it before it enters the ear.
Rub this material lightly with your fingers and try to balance the level of sound reaching your two ears.
Let go of this object and, as you walk, think of your ears as two objects of flesh and cartilage, constantly filtering sound before it reaches you.
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For us humans, hearing is mainly a matter of detecting tiny variations in air pressure over time.
We breathe in and out all the time, creating a sound that not only can be heard by others, but also changes the way we hear, both by creating a different pressure in the cavities of our head (mouth, nose and ears, which are all connected), and by creating subtle air movements around us that affect the way we hear. We cannot see air, but we can hear its effect, for example when wind moves leaves.
As you walk, think of breathing, wind and sound as an invisible choreography of air that you can appreciate through listening.
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As you walk, look for a relatively continuous sound whose source you can locate visually, for example, a bird singing in a tree or a stream of water.
As you move away from this sound source, continue to listen.
Notice how your ears continue to perceive it, while our eyes don’t.
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Shift your attention from the short-lived acoustic events happening around you, near or far (your footsteps, the tip of your walking stick hitting the ground, individual cars or planes, etc.).
Listen for sounds that feel like they were there before you passed by and will continue after you leave, such as the lapping of a distant waterway, the distant roar of traffic, or the repetitive patterns of cicadas.
Concentrate on these and think of them as a river of sound made up of many short-lived acoustic events.