I live in a house where all the previous owners took serious shortcuts with repairs and renovations. Our kitchen was a prime example - carpeted in grey with a nice glued down red/orange/black/yellow psychedelic carpet beneath the grey carpet.
Well, we had it ripped out and had black/white checkerboard vinyl laid down two weeks ago which looks age appropriate for our house, and now the kitchen is the perfect flute playing room (an unintended, but excellent result). This room drastically improves my playing - for example, yesterday my wife, who had been in the back half of the house, called out to ask what CD I was playing because she really liked it…what fun it was to say it’s no CD - just me playing.
I work on cellular telephone equipment for a living. I keep a plastic Yamaha fife in my truck for downtime at a site. I wouldn’t neccessarily call it “Nirvana”. I mean the planets don’t align and the secrets of the universe aren’t revealed to me, but I do sound better.
I also practice in a small room as opposed to the largish living room of my house because my tone sounds much better and it makes my overall playing relaxed. But don’t be cheated, it can develop false feedback and an illusion concerning your own playing. I’ve heard players projecting a much greater tone in acoustically much worse environments than myself in my own nirvana so I sometimes think sticking to such a nirvana on longterm can even be harmful. Yes, I also love playing in my nirvana-room but I sometimes check what I can do elsewhere.
Having been lurking here for years, this is my first post now so “Hi, everyone”.
I have no delusions about my playing ability - I’m fairly self critical - but my wife’s compliment was heartfelt and there are those moments when just everything clicks.
I spend most of my time practicing in the basement where acoustic ceiling tiles, a low ceiling, and lots of junk deadens the sound remarkably. Our house is too small to play very often in the kitchen (if I play there, everyone upstairs is forced to “enjoy” my playing as well) - so playing time in the kitchen is a rare treat.
Second: when one of twins finally left for his own place we changed his room into a music room. Small through rug, two book cases and a cabinet. It rocks. BUT, I sometime drift into the living room for the softened effect. In the music room the dog howled but not in the livingroom. A cat drifts into the music room and curls around my ankle. Sometimes he reaches up and drags his claws down my pant leg. Is there a message there?
Second:
There’s a synagogue in my town, a historical building, out of use for decades. From an architectural and acoustic point of view, it’s said to be a peculiarity. We used to organize gigs in it and take my word, the noise of a clap wanders around for about a minute. I remember how confused our sound engineer was. Now that’s the place where I want to spend an hour or two with my flutes alone. Fun for playing around with tone colours.
Last winter I had a gig with a storyteller friend at an event in Much Wenlock. Part of what we were booked to do involved a spot in place of the sermon in the mediaeval parish church on the Sunday. The acoustic was stunning - not overly echoey, but very rich and carrying. My projection was huge, and I don’t have the most reliably strongest flute tone! I actually had to play more quietly than I do practicing at home. I was able to indulge in dynamic expression in a way I have rarely achieved. I played the 1st, slow movement of C.P.E. Bach’s A minor solo Sonata as an introduction, and a Welsh air as a backing behind a poem that was part of the verbal element my friend contributed. I just soared solo, but was able to back the speaking voice subtly and without overpowering it, everything retaining great clarity. It was so enjoyable. I’ve played in other churches and it isn’t always such a good experience - can be boomy and “dirty” with delayed echoes etc. or a battle to “fill” the space This was just perfect. I’d love to record there!
That’s an excellent point, Levente! I can see it becoming addictive to always hear that seductive tone, and choosing to play in it if you have it available. I know when I had perfect acoustics of an empty apartment available to me for a short time, I loved it, but I found I had to play very differently than my regular place in my livingroom, holding back quite a bit.
It does take a bit more work in my regular carpeted environment, but no doubt that it’s the place to learn to play in the more difficult acoustics.
That synagogue by you does sound like it would be fun to play in though!
That’s an excellent point, Levente! I can see it becoming addictive to always hear that seductive tone, and choosing to play in it if you have it available. I know when I had perfect acoustics of an empty apartment available to me for a short time, I loved it, but I found I had to play very differently than my regular place in my livingroom, holding back quite a bit.
It does take a bit more work in my regular carpeted environment, but no doubt that it’s the place to learn to play in the more difficult acoustics.
That synagogue near you does sound like it would be fun to play in though!
I like my front room, where the high ceiling can reverberate with a resonance that touches my soul. I am often tempted to look up towards the 60-foot high dome as I play and enjoy how the frescoe artwork appears to sway in the soft candlelight. Sometimes, I will play a delicate slow air as the choir assembles quietly in the gallery, their swishing robes the only sound cascading down to me along with the flute tones that literally fill the room until it feels as if we will all move as one in an upward ascent into the cosmos.
I get that feeling in my stair well, even the crassest noodling sounds wonderful… then I go back into my livingroom and I sound ten times worse than before my expedition, which is why I don’t play on the stair much…
I play all over the place, but most often with a whistle in my truck as I’m driving – one knee on the wheel. I get a lot of looks, and I stop if traffic is heavy. Not city driving. I live 25 minutes from town and the drive is on a highway. If you think that’s crazy, sometimes I’ll wear a set of safety earphones to muffle the sound some.
Off-road, my favorite spot is in my showroom, standing in a doorway that is framed with old heart-of-pine boards about 12 inches wide. There’s one spot where I stand and the sound is amazing. The bathroom is a good place - sitting on the edge of the tub-and-shower.
