Acoustics in the Practice Room: Is Deader Better?

For students, practicing is maybe the biggest and most challenging part of life. With all of the directions students are pulled, it is important to make every moment, every day, and every week count. To some extent, one practice space is as good as another; however, changing things up can be extremely beneficial to musicianship and morale. It pays to think about what a space allows you to hear, and what it might mask.

Many musicians think that a reverberant room makes them sound better. This is true to some extent, but it points to a bigger question of how room acoustics impact practicing. Most people I know think a "lively" equals "friendly," and "dead" equals "unfriendly." Generalizations like this one are dangerous, because they totally neglect the intimate relationship between the instrument, the player, and the room.

How do various kinds of rooms affect our practice? That is the question we should ask. Different rooms and acoustics allow players to hear different facets of their playing, and practicing in all types of spaces gives the most complete picture of sound, articulation, phrasing, and intonation.

There are many different classes of practicing spaces that should be used in combination to full advantage. Specific types of spaces I will mention are small rooms, large live rooms, large dead rooms, concert halls, and outdoors.

The worst type of room for practicing is the typical college practice room. Often, these rooms are small drywall boxes with acoustic treatment on one wall, and carpet on the floor. They are neither live nor dead, and their size does not allow the sound to spread out. Lots of hearing damage happens in these rooms, because the sound level is so high. On top of all this, these rooms give the musician absolutely no idea how the sound will disperse in a bigger space.

Many musicians think that practicing in a reverberant space is bad because it makes them sound artificially good. Quite the opposite is true when practicing certain passages with lots of arpeggios. How can this be? Since the notes blend together somewhat, you can hear each note stacking up to make a chord, which reveals intonation problems. I remember a attending a masterclass several years ago with a brass quintet. One of the members pointed out how reverberant the space was, and told the student group that intonation was especially important with notes hanging around for a long time. The student quintet was not particularly in tune, so the sour notes and chords rang in the room for all to hear. A large gymnasium is a great live space for practice. There is plenty of reverb to keep notes hanging around. You can also put a recorder far away in order to hear how articulate and clean you sound actually is. Very often, passages can sound sloppy at a distance even though it sounds fine up close.

A good place to practice is a large rehearsal room. This kind of space is usually heavily treated with acoustic material, so the sound is pretty dead. The large space enables the sound to disperse, and not destroy your hearing as quickly. There is no "beautification" of tone from reverb, so you will get a real picture of your sound, especially if you record yourself from a good distance. Large rooms are my preferred place for practicing, but they are often hard to get, and colleges are often weird about one individual reserving a lot of time in the large rehearsal spaces.

A concert hall is probably where musicians spend the least time, but practicing in performance spaces is essential. The sound and feeling of playing in a performance space is nothing like the sound and feeling of any other space. It can feel foreign and throw off the best prepared performances. It doesn't take much time to get the feeling of a space, but if you are giving a performance, take advantage of any time in the room you have available. If you are playing in a chamber group, take as much time as you can to find good seating positions. You will be surprised at how hard it can be to hear other people on stage, and moving just a bit can make all the difference. Recital halls at colleges can be fickle, because architects design fancy looking but acoustically poor spaces, and because budgets often impose "value engineering" (read "cheapening") of the materials and construction.

The last type of space is outdoors. By reading this paragraph, you agree that I am not liable for any damage that might result from playing your instrument outside. Practicing outside allows the musician to hear only what the instrument is doing. There is no interference or help from a room, and the sound has virtually infinite space to disperse. You hear exactly what you are doing and what you are not doing. There is no accumulation of sound that artificially helps phrasing. Shapes tend to disappear, so they will need to be exaggerated, and tone will seem emptier since there is no feedback from a room. If you are adventurous, throw a recorder up on a stand a few feet away. You will get the most brutally honest picture of your playing.

I am not putting any practicing space above any other, except that small closets are bad. Alas, these small closets often have one qualification that other spaces don't--they're available. Always give a thought to how the space is affecting what you hear. Deader is not always better! No two spaces give you the same picture of your playing, so move around and take advantage of it.