Piece Comment

Review of "Learning To Breathe"


The topic of high school academic stress is a familiar one to teens across the nation - and that fact in itself should speak to adult listeners, as well. Even with only one narrator, this piece features a variety of audio, including snippets of Zoe Sheinkopf's personal "audio log," ambient noise of her high school, and the song that helped her through it all. These were edited in wonderfully, though at times, it is hard to hear the narration over the various background noises, and the audio clips are a bit quiet. The music was a nice touch, both aurally and in terms of Zoe's story, but I believe it would sound better if the .mp3 file was edited in directly as opposed to recording it with a mic (perhaps that's not legal; if so, my bad). I could also hear page turning. In summation, check volume levels, and you've got a great, full-circle piece detailing a high schooler's journey with stress.

PS. I especially like the title!