We are just completing an addition on our house. It is a big empty room right now and the acoustics are kind of cool. I spent quite a bit of time playing my flute in there over the past few days and I almost don’t want to fill it up with sound-absorbing things.
One of the colleges I went to used to be a convent and had a big chapel. If you clapped your hands once, the sound continued for nine seconds. It sounded great, although the organ-players had a hard time since the organ was in the front, but the pipes were in the back, so there was a delay between the time the note was played and the time the organist could hear it.
Anyway, it made me wonder. What places have you played that had great acoustics?
On the job. I work as a service writer in an auto repair shop, and the acoustics of the shop are surprising: if a radio is playing at the far end from me, its volume where I sit is pretty much the same as if I were right next to it. Needless to say, my common-sense assumption tells me that said radio is louder than it really is because of this odd phenomenon.
Flute sounds great in the shop. I don’t have to apply much volume, and the whole shop gets filled up with sound.
There’s a tunnel going under a roadway on my
wife’s campus, and I play in there. Oh, it sounds
grand. Today I was playing in the Lutheran
Seminary nearby where I live, there’s a place
with groin vaults, as they’re called, and
it echoes OK, but the tunnel is better.
A old lady came over and said it was
wonderful–talked with her for half an hour.
We’re lucky to have the means to make
people so happy.
This past summer, on our trip to Washington state, some guy was playing a NA flute on one of the ferry’s (the partially enclosed front of the boat - if you’ve been on a Puget Sound ferry you know what I’m talking about) and boy, did that sound GREAT ~ haunting, echoing and something I am going to remember hearing for a LONG time.
We’ve recently moved into a new (to us!) house, and don’t have much furniture to fill it, and my “flute” sounds pretty good in just about every room!
Near where I live is an 18th century tower known as “Alfred’s tower”. It is built from brick and is triangular in section.I don’t know it’s hieght but it must be 200-300ft tall and is visible for miles arround. I have played my pipes inside , slow airs sound great due to the perfect 1 repeat echo. I am told that the sound heard from the top is even better, a ghostly distant hollow effect . The guy who looks after the tower is really into music and is always keen to let people play inside.
Piano showrooms are always fun to play in due to the strings ringing in sympathy with the music.
My current workplace has an enclosed stairwell. Since it’s an extremely high-ceilinged building, even though we have only three stories it runs somewhere over 50 feet top-to-bottom. And one wall is mostly windows, so it feels extremely light and airy.
Wonderful acoustics - makes my tinwhistle playing sound far better than it really is. I usually manage 20-30 minutes a day playing there at lunchtime, and have earned an entirely undeserved reputation as a skilled musician in consequence. I won’t try flute or fife there yet, though - too easy to fool myself about progress (and too easy to deafen myself, with fife!).
As little as possible, according to some counts. I would be the one (whether officious, helpful, seedy, put out, brisk, or uninterested: one sees all kinds) you would come up to when your ride is ailing, and to whom you say, “Make it stop!” while I push buttons on a 'puter, and then I take the work order to the tech, and say, “Make it stop!” I’m the liaison between customer and mechanic, and communication is key, especially since neither client, tech, nor myself are mind readers (despite the occasional apparent assumption to the contrary, and usually with unhappy results). Actually, I seldom have time to play at work, but it’s great when the shop’s quiet and the phone’s taking a break.
I always wanted to work in an auto repair shop,
but I’m all thumbs. Maybe I could be
a service writer.
I daresay you’d be the man for it, but at an auto dealership you’d be at the heart of the storm, wedged as you’d be between the needs of the sales dept. and those of the regular repair clientele. Much teflon and a good perma-grin are required; mechanical knowledge is not essential, but may be looked for by some employers. Shop managers ought to have some mechanical knowlege, in any case. The job doesn’t necessarily pay well, either.
It’s often seemed to me that mechanics who work
in service stations are happy people,
especially sort of low-key places,
Acme Auto Service, not the Honda Dealership.
I’ve often received immensely helpful
service free, by people
who seemed unprententious and
glad enough to be there, enjoyed
being useful. So I thought
it might be a good life, if I’m reborn
with mechanical aptitude.
As you say, too, the acoustics are promising.
Thanks, Jim
This hall is based on the Greek “Whisper Dome”. The shape of the dome is a perfect half Ellipse. A tiny whisper made at one foci, can be heard clearly 200 feet away at the other foci. The ratio is 2/1 length/height. The Holywood Bowl is based on the same principal but uses 1/4 of an ellipse.
