Education and Inspiration through the ancient art of storytelling!
GROWL, HOWL, MOAN AND GROAN: SOUND EFFECTS AND STORYTELLING
The importance and magic of sound effects was a lesson I learned early. Almost twenty-six years ago, in my first professional appearance I was performing in a high school gymnasium which was acoustically atrocious. More than 300 students were in the stands, which started twelve feet off the floor. I was in the middle of the gym and it felt like there were oceans of space between us; not at all like the intimacy of the campfire where I began spinning tales.
I was two-thirds through a tall tale that was not working. I could hear the chatter beginning in the back corners of the room. Like a wave, the noise grew and swept down from the corners through the crowd. I was loosing them. I needed to act immediately. At this point in the story, I was hunting with a shotgun. Call it divine inspiration, call it dumb luck, but the next moment I shot, made a big exploding noise and did a double backwards somersault across the floor.
At the time I knew it was a cheap trick, but it worked. Everyone's eyes were glued to me and they listened and watched for whatever might happen next. (I also knew that the stories needed more substance if I was going to continue to hold them. I quickly ended that story and switched gears into something a little over their heads thinking it might challenge them to listen more closely.) In the moment, the exploding noise got their attention and woke them up to the possibility that it might be worth listening to these stories.
Though this example is a little rough, it clearly shows how a simple sound can capture the attention of the listener. Beyond that, sound effects can help to create a mood, or set the tone for the story. A well chosen, well-timed noise can also add humor or grief, fear or suspense, deepening the emotional impact of the tale.
A few years later, I heard Jay O'Callahan tell a story about a poet and a minstrel who tried to tame a wicked force. When he was introduced, he walked up to the microphone and whistled a lonesome wind sound. The audience was immediately entranced and entered an expectant silence. The tone was set, an air of mystery had settled upon the crowd.
Currently, I am the father of 18-month-old twin daughters. When I read aloud to them, they point to all the animals and moo, cackle, baa or bark along with me and then we all laugh together. This point came up in a workshop I recently conducted for parents. One parent commented that her children, now in the third and fifth grade, still laugh at a parody of an animal sound. We are never too old to laugh at this kind of silliness. Ed Stivender's cock-a doodle-boo- hoo-hoo always gets a laugh in his version of "Jack and the Robbers."
On another plain, these sounds create a cognitive dissonance that catches the listener off guard, shatters their expectancy, their sense of "ho- hum I know where this is going." The listener is more engaged mentally, and listens more closely, trying harder to figure out what is going to happen next.
Jump tales, scary stories with a lot of crash-boom-bang, are based on this idea. The trick in this instance is timing. If the listeners expect the bogeyman to jump out now, make them wait a minute until their guard is down. If they know it is going to happen in a few minutes, make it happen now, before they are ready. There is one jump tale that I tell with lots of squeaking doors and soft spooky voices that startles 90% of the audience at five different points when I shout, "It got him!" By the third or fourth time everyone is expecting it, but if the timing is right they will jump anyhow!
When I am learning a story, during rehearsals, I keep my ears open for a place to growl, howl, moan or groan. When Abiyoyo, a terrifying giant swallows a cow in one bite, a loud burp always gets a laugh. A great horned owl's who-oo-who- who-who adds a level of authenticity to Jane Yolen's Owl Moon.
Whether a sound effect is a cheap trick or master's tool is measured by how well it supports the underlying goals of most tellers: Is it entertaining? Does it challenge the listener to enter more deeply into the story? Does it add to the experience in a way that is artful and thought provoking?
