Since some have expressed a desire for more on-topic posts, here’s my contribution for the month.
I have recently moved from a tiny two-story townhouse to a larger multi-level house: you know, the kind that has three different short flights of stairs: a few leading up to the bedrooms, a few leading down to the family room, etc. My piano and my whistles reside in the “living room”–the room immediately inside the front door.
Anyway, to my point: a couple of weeks after we moved in there was a really big thunderstorm one night. My little boy was scared of all the noise so we sat on the floor in front of the big window in the living room with the lights off and watched the lightning. It was a spectacular show (I happen to really like rainstorms/thunderstorms) and I decided it would be fun to get out one of my low whistles and do some improvising. I was surprised and delighted at the lovely echoey sound all those different levels of rooms made!! The whistle sound carried really well and it sounded surprisingly pretty.
Anyone else want to share any experiences or places where you’ve had really good acoustics/sound?
I was a littel disappointed with the sound of the Copeland low-D when I first got it. Then I thought maybe the problem was the built-up area around the window, that it might block some of the sound. So I played it in the bathroom. It made all the difference in the world.
Our daughter still naps, and on the weekends I usually play for at least an hour during her nap. So I play in the room on the opposite end of the house, which happens to have very little on the walls, plus a sliding-glass door. That room is EXTREMELY bright, and is wonderful for the flute or low whistle, but sometimes taxes my ears playing the D whistle.
I teach music at a university and had always thought of our recital hall as having good acoustics…which it does. But a student tipped me off to go play in the entryway of one of the large campus buildings (see http://www.cedarville.edu/home/ It’s just inside the doors where the people are walking in the picture). This entryway, 30 or 40 feet high, has acoustical qualities like a cathedral, and any two notes on a cheap whistle sound like heaven!
I agree with Chas about the bathroom, that’s definitly the best place in my house to play too. I guess something about the surface of the tiles or mirrors bounces the sound off better? I have no idea. I’m guessing it’s the same reason so many people love to sing in the shower, though.
I have found a whistle friendly “guard shack” at work. The guard collects whistles and flutes (of what quality or variety I’m not sure). So anyway he’s up for the occasional whistle tune. The accoustics are really quite pleasant there, the ceiling is about 13 or 14 feet high, the floor is tile and something like 12 by 15 ft and there is plenty of glass on three of the four walls. My cheap whistle sounds like a million bucks in there!
We have a big old apartment with lots of rooms with high ceilings and oak floors, but one room, the dining room in the center of the apartment, seems to make all the whistles come alive with the biggest brightest sound. It’s also a room that has two doors to shut me in. I play almost exclusively in that room because I need all the help I can get…
The best was under a bridge over the Santa Ana river just before it enters the ocean in Newport Beach, Ca. The sound of the ocean and the gulls mixed with the echos to make a wonderful sound.
The worst was when I tried to play at the Pleasanton BART station while waiting for a train. This station is located in the center divide of a freeway with a lot of truck traffic. The road noise completely drowned out the sound of the whistle. People sitting on the same bench didn’t notice that I had pulled out a whistle and started playing.
When we first bought Whistler’s Highlands about a year ago. I would come after work up to the empty house to do various things prior to movin in.
Of course, I was armed with the Burke. So I would practice and walk around. Part of it was the thrill of moving out of the apartment where I couldnt practice because of the crone upstairs. But also, I checked out the resonant places. Bathroom of course, with floor tile and shower stall tho the echo was a bit annoying as it got muddy. But in the hallway is the cold air intake for the heater. Man, blowing toward that thing was legendary.
Just a little bit of sound reflection or echo can lift your spirts whilst playing and make practicing more fun..
I rather like whistling in our bathroom Probably for the same reason people like to sing in the shower. I’ve yet to actually take my whistle in the shower with me, although it would be a worthy experiment. My shower whistling would definitely sound better than my shower singing.
I work at a TV station that airs Monday night football, so Monday nights have a lot of down time while we wait to go on air. I thought for sure one of our soundproof edit bays would be great for whistling. I don’t bother anyone, but it just sounds really flat. The garage, on the other hand…fabulous!
That’s so true…I was a lot more psyched about practicing/playing after finding out my low whistles sounded so good in here…much better than I can normally make them sound! I am also loving the fact that I now have a huge lovely back yard that I can go out and play in and not have houses smashed right next to me.
Hey Desert Whistler, my in-laws live in Chandler! We were there visiting over Christmas.
Bathrooms, bathroooms, bathrooms! They have the BEST acoustics! I was actually going to post a topic on this very subject today…
My work bathroom makes me sound heavenly, I try to sneak in a tune at the end of the day after everyone has gone home.
And…at the Getty Museum, the ceilings were high and the bathroom steely, there was no one else around, I HAD to try. WOW! What a sound. It wasn’t until I came out with the whistle in my hand that my Dad, who had been in the Men’s room, said, “Oh, that was YOU?” He could hear the music and wondered what it was. Just goes to show, you aren’t always alone when you think you are, even in bathrooms.
What’s the so-called formula? The music is maybe 90% player and 10% whistle? I’d say it’s more like 80% player, 10% whistle and 10% acoustics. It can REALLY make a huge difference.
I will try whistling in the shower one of these days…
We have an old manufacturing facility at work that we’ve annexed as a warehouse but haven’t really put that much stuff in yet. The floor is 120’X80’ and the ceiling is 30’ up–all concrete block and slab construction, the reverb just goes on and on…'course I get some funny looks from the guys on the forklifts.
At home we’ve just finished putting laminate down in the living and dining rooms, and man, what a difference it makes not to have that carpet in there soaking up all the sound. I think Kar is right about acoustics–even my rickety old piano sounds better in there, and it hasn’t been tuned in ages.
There’s a stairwell at work I love - 3 tall stories (nearly 60 feet from top to bottom), hard wall surfaces, a glass wall to the outside . . . Reasonably soundproof, too, and very little used except at lunchtime. I usually take a practice break there in the afternoon.
Our living room at home is pretty nice, too - medium sized room (15x18) with a vaulted ceiling and a hardwood floor. Sounds vastly better than the carpeted guest bedroom/study I use when the kids are practicing their piano outside.
I have this big 50 foot tall hallway in the building where my shop is and I call it my “Whistle Testing Area” (not to be confused with Missle Testing Area).
Wow, I just logged by 500th post. For me that’s quite a bit.
Fun posts…I’m loving hearing about all the different/unusual/and workplace places for good acoustics! I am particularly enjoying imagining the looks on the forklift guys’ faces.
I like to whistle on my back deck which overlooks a steep grade, dropping about 100 vertical feet into a hollow (in these parts we say “holler”). The hill and holler are populated with tall grass, locust and poplar trees, and writhing masses of fragrant honeysuckle. At the bottom of the hollow is a creek. Across the creek the land rises again, more slowly this time to a ridge about a quarter a mile away. This slope is mainly maple, oak and black walnut. The best time to play is on late summer evenings when the valley fog starts drifting up through the trees. Sometimes you can glimpse deer and wild turkey in the holler. The whistle notes mix and swirl in the vapor. It’s rather magical.
Probably for the same reason people like to sing in the shower. I’ve yet to actually take my whistle in the shower with me, although it would be a worthy experiment. My shower whistling would definitely sound better than my shower singing.