Recess! Media

Even though it’s summer, and we have several months of recess, here’s a pop quiz. What do all of these have in common?:

Brief Sound Clip:

You’d be right if you guessed that they’re all made by the human voice — and if you’ve got a bunch of bored but resourceful kids in the back of the van, with their own headphones and a long car trip ahead, you can turn them loose on master sound-maker, Fred Newman’s Mouth Sounds, How to Whistle, Pop, Boing, and Honk for All Occasions and Then Some. The book comes complete with a CD/DVD that, along with being great fun, also is a good starting point for learning about the physiology and the surprising possibilities of the human voice.

With his instructions, your young audiators can happily practice how to bark, chirp, roar, chatter, trumpet, gobble, honk, croak, and growl. Newman also shows how to do any number of musical instruments (and musical numbers — like ducks quacking out a version of “The Blue Danube”). He explains the rudiments of imitating vehicles, electronics, appliances, noises (like raspberries, woozies, and zerberts), and voices — all sorts of voices. Here’s Newman describing what you need to do to sound like a baby:

Brief Sound Clip:

Put them all together, and you get things like a 20-second version of the movie, The Titanic. Ah, such skills can make a long car ride — even longer for some ears — or they can give your kids something that they can bring along with them for the rest of their lives.

Brief Sound Clip: