Patient and Staff Feedback: 
- I wasn’t keen on that, it felt as if you were trapped. 
- It’s too claustrophobic. 
- I thought it was like drums. 
- I’m used to silence, and I was watching the trees outside whilst listening. They seemed to come together. 

Notes: Does it bother you that you don’t know what you are listening to? 
- I wouldn’t mind, but I would try to find out what it was. 
 - I like listening to sounds that create a visual picture in your head. 

Underwater

Patient and Staff Feedback: 
- Very calming.
- Takes you out of the space and put you somewhere nice and warm.
- If I had to choose one, that would be it. 
- I could listen to this for a good wee while. 
- It was very relaxing I thought.
- They also liked the humming in the background (musical themes seemed to be generally welcome).


Forest

Patient and Staff Feedback: 
- I loved that. 
- You can hear the birds and picture the sky in that one. 
- So authentic, you thought you were at the beach (thanks to the good quality of the recording).
-It was very relaxing, I really enjoyed it. 
- It could be mixed with sounds of children that evokes thinking of them playing in the beach. 
- Duration could be for a while; it’s very easy to listen to, I could listen for about half and hour. 
- This example changes, this is definitely a good thing. 
- There were lots of different sounds which were interesting to listen to. 

Notes: Best reaction to a soundscape, everyone seemed to be engaged with the sound mainly thanks to more variety and better quality of the recording.

Seaside

Patient and Staff Feedback:
-	Makes you want to go to the loo.  
-	Too much water. Could be nicer with more background sounds (birds, crickets etc).
- I think it’s really nice. 
- Generally better response comparing to the previous samples (possibly because it was richer in terms of variety)
- That sounds quite natural.  
- I could listen to this for over 15 minutes. 
- It’s lovely isn’t it? 
- It evokes a relaxing mood. 

Meadow

Patient and Staff Feedback: 
-	Just gave me a headache, I wanted to get up and walk out. 
-	I lay back with my eyes closed and found it pretty good as I could picture countryside.
-	I like the idea of listening to a mix of different animals e.g. frogs mixed with crickets.

Note: The dynamic nature as well as the piercing mid-frequency contents of this recording didn’t lend itself to the listening situation. 

Frogs

Patient and Staff Feedback: 
- More relaxing than the kids playing 
- Positive and relaxing sound 
- You can picture yourself out in the country; I would listen to it for longer than a couple of minutes. 
- It was a figure me out sound, I wasn’t sure what I was listening to. 
- Could be nicer with higher volume.

Note: Some patients were unable to distinguish the high frequency content in the recording. This is definitely something to be considered by composers. 


Crickets in Foxley Wood

Patient and Staff Feedback: 
- Lengthy spell would be difficult to listen to
- I think it would be nice with nursery rhymes in the background 
- I would like the volume to be lowered
- When I close my eyes I pictured kids playing
- If you imagine the garden, grandchildren and family will be playing in the park, and patients love to see children and dogs in the garden.  People always pull back the curtains to see the children playing. 
- I wouldn’t be all that keen on it, it’s confused. 
- I am too old for that.
- It is important to hear spoken words with Northern Irish accent.	
- I would like a local song in the background, perhaps something like ‘My Aunt Jayne, the Belfast Skipping Song’. 


Children

Patient and Staff Feedback: 
- Very happy atmosphere.
- That was nice; the sounds (of the children) was more muted. 
- It’s like you were sitting up in the stands and all the kids are swimming. 
- It was noisy and too loud. 
- It would be better with a shorter spell.


Pool

Patient and Staff Feedback: 
-	The rain is lovely. 
-	Always very pleasant to listen to the rain.
- Didn’t realise what sound it was but it was very nice to listen to. 


MusicandSonicArts