 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: BassClarinetGirl
Date: 2005-01-01 03:07
I was wondering how the acoustics of the room you are playing in effect your sound. I have a friend who's cousin is part of a great marching band program, and he practices his tuba in the bathroom, because "thats the only acoustically good room" in his house. I practice in my basement, because my dad won't let me practice anywhere else. Does the layout of a room drastically effect how you sound or your overall tone?
Becks
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Author: Contra
Date: 2005-01-01 03:21
More carpeting will reduce the echoes than a bare room of stone.
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Author: msloss
Date: 2005-01-01 04:28
Absolutely. Room dimensions (shape, volume), objects in the room, texture and depth of surfaces, frequency content of the instrument, temperature, humidity, air pressure, and your position in the room all contribute to your sound. When you play an acoustic instrument, you are playing the room as much as you are playing the instrument.
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Author: LeWhite
Date: 2005-01-01 10:25
A room that doesn't have too much reverb but isn't completely dead is the best idea; that way you can still hear mistakes but be relatively happy with your sound.
__________________
Don't hate me because I play Leblanc! ![[down]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/smiley23.gif) Buffet
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Author: John O'Janpa
Date: 2005-01-01 14:20
Room acoustics make a huge difference in sound. I practice in my den, which is acoustically dead (carpets, drapes, upholstered furniture). The only audible reverberation comes from my acoustic guitar (sitting nearby) on certain notes.
When I warm up before wind symphony rehearsals (almost empty bandroom,
hard walls, ceilings, etc.), I am always surprised, for the first riff, at how much louder and reverberant I sound.
A zillion years ago I did a paper on concert hall acoustics. Paper is long gone, but one thing I remember is that the number of people sitting in the hall even made a significant difference in acoustics. A concert hall that is "live" when the seats are empty can be "dead" when they are filled.
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Author: Arnoldstang
Date: 2005-01-01 15:14
I assume when you are using the word "sound "that you mean sound to the listener. You sound a certain way to yourself and a certain way to each person that listens to you....they sit in different seats and have different ears. For practicing you might try to approximate the performance room as best as possible. This will make you more comfortable when the performance takes place. Ideally...If you were going to play a concerto you would practice it in a concert hall with the orchestra there and an audience. If you practice this concerto in your bathroom it might sound great but it will be quite different when you perform. One suggestion is to use a minidisc recorder when practicing....set it about as far away as a listener might be and do some practicing. That will give you some idea how you sound from that distance. In the jazz realm it is not uncommon to see a sax player practicing in a corner about 6 inches from the wall...the sound jumps right back at him....this is probably very useful especially if you want to hear what a microphone that is close to the instrument will pick up. Obviously total objectivity is a real quest as even different microphones color the sound they are picking up. I realize I have strayed from the original question but hopefully my ramblings are relevant. Thanks
Freelance woodwind performer
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Author: Arnoldstang
Date: 2005-01-01 15:18
Upon further thought, Use any room that works for you. If an important concert is coming up....then practice in a larger room and record yourself. If you aren't used to a large room you may overblow . Thanks
Freelance woodwind performer
Post Edited (2005-01-01 17:34)
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2005-01-02 00:12
I always practice in my room or in the basement. Both non-"ideal" places to practice (carpeting mentioned above, basically accoustically dead). However I never thought much of it. The other day I went by a fellow players house because she wanted to go over the songs we were playing for the upcoming concert. When I played in her house, I thought I sounded TEN times better due to the accoustics! Her house has very few decorations and stuff cluttering the walls (since her and her husband rent and will have to move away soon, they figure there's no point to clutter) with wooden floors.
I start to wonder if I would sound as 'good' in an accoustically good room if I hadn't had practiced in such a dead room that exposes so many of my bad aspects and forces me to work on them so much . . .
Alexi
US Army Japan Band
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2005-01-03 18:56
You balance things off when you practice.
At Interlochen, there are rows of tiny practice rooms built of stone. If you close the window, you almost go deaf from the reverberation. This is great for your ego (which can get bruised when you encounter someone like Larry Combs), and actually has some real uses. You can hear changes in tone color easily and can work on getting more high frequencies into your tone, to make it carry better.
The ultimate, of course, is singing in the shower. A Buffet lucite clarinet with plastic pads and a Legere reed would sound awesome.
Heavily damped rooms bring you back to reality. In one story, which may be an urban legend, David Weber and Ralph McLane took turns going into a stuffed closet and getting the other to say how well his tone projected through the clothes and door. http://test.woodwind.org/Databases/Klarinet/2001/04/000053.txt
The best way to adjust to room acoustics, I think, is to have someone with a good pair of ears go out into the hall and relay impressions back to you.
Ken Shaw
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