Select Your Practice Room Carefully

Where do you do most of your practicing? Is it in a band room? Do you slave away every day in a practice room? Is most of your time practicing spent in a small room, a big room, a room with drapes and heavy carpet? Where you practice regularly will affect your playing in many ways.

I have to admit that my practicing is done most often in a wonderfully designed room. The dimensions are ideal for what I want and it was not an accident that my practice room is as wonderful as I could imagine. I was lucky enough to design it myself. From an acoustical standpoint, the length and width as well as the ceiling height is right out of a recording studio blueprint. In addition to ideal dimensions, I have incorporated changeable features which allow me to easily alter the room’s character. The reason I have been so particular of the room’s sound characteristics is that not only do I practice in this area, I also do my recordings here and our trumpet ensemble rehearses here. I love this room but I must get back now to the reason I have posted this material.

My current playing includes the Branson Trumpet Ensemble, a brass quintet, weekly duet playing with a good friend and seven days a week playing a show in Branson. Each venue is different and consequently posses their own challenges. The Branson Trumpet Ensemble performs often in churches as well as schools and auditoriums. We have also performed in massive convention centers without amplification. The theater where I am currently performing holds about 250 people and is on the darker side of the sound, i.e. carpet, drapes etc. Each playing condition has different affects on my playing style. Dark rooms need a little edge and the lively rooms require a little darkening. Now what does this have to do with your practice area? I will explain.

If you confine the bulk of your practicing to a typically small, lively practice room, you will be hindering your development as a trumpet player. Performing in a small, cramped room as most school practice rooms are will limit the amount of sound you are developing. It doesn’t take much air to fill up a practice room. It does take more air to fill up the recital hall you will eventually perform in.

Suggestion #1 Big rooms and small rooms

If you practice only in a small room, find a larger room to do your practicing. It is much better to practice in a large room and perform in a small room than it is to practice in a small room and perform in a large room. You must get used to filling the room and if it is small, you are limiting your potential.

Suggestion #2 Dark rooms and lively rooms

Rooms which accentuate the high overtones will give your sound a bright, sometimes edgy quality and because of this affect on your tone quality, you will tend to back off on your strong playing and thus limit your breadth of tonal control. No one enjoys a shrill sound and in a bright room, you will have to control your sound in order to sound good to your listener. The flip side of this would be the dark room which soaks up your sound to the point that you are drained of energy, trying to get on top of your sound. In both cases, your eventual performance can be hindered by the unusual condition in which you are performing.

Suggestion #3 Distant audience and close audience

If you are trying to play a soft passage in a large hall, there are times when your soft dynamics will have to be increased by two levels in order for your audience to even hear your notes. On the other hand, if you are playing a full fortissimo dynamic and your bell is about six inches from the face of your listener, you will have to back off.

Suggestion #4 Stages and curtains

Where you sit on a stage can make a tremendous difference in how you are heard in the audience. The height of the ceiling above your head will affect your projection in every hall. Close attention to your surrounding is very important in your performance in public.

The reason I have listed these suggestions is to illustrate to you the importance of practice area. If you most often practice in a small room, you will not develop the power and projection needed to perform in a large auditorium. If you always practice in a large auditorium, you will find it very uncomfortable when playing in an intimate setting. If you constantly practice in a lively, bright room, you will feel as if you are prematurely wearing down while performing in a dry, dead room.

Suggestions for improvement-

• Vary your practice area daily. Just the act of changing your practice area will put more excitement into your practice sessions.
• Try practicing outdoors if the weather and the neighbors will permit. You will never fill up the outdoors and trying to do so will increase your air intake as well as your projection of your sound.
• Find the deadest, darkest room in your area. Practicing under these conditions will also teach you how to put an edge on your tone. The advantages you will gain in filling your horn will be surprising.
• Try practicing in a bright, reflective room. The reflectiveness of such a room will force you to adjust to a darker, broader tone quality in order to sound full and rich without the room’s tendency to brighten your sound.
• Try practicing duets with a friend and instead of sitting side by side, face each other so that you are playing at each other. You will learn quickly how to control your dynamics in a close area.
• If you have access to an auditorium, spend a couple days a week in that room. Each time you practice in the larger room, place your music stand at different locations and point your instrument in different directions. Become conscious of the different affects the room makes on your sound as well as your dynamics.

In conclusion I would suggest that you begin experimenting with different surroundings and locations when you practice. The reason I became so conscious of this part of my practice routine came about one day when I realized that I had been practicing in a very lively room which made me sound great but that same week I had to perform in the large convention center in town. We had no amplification, the room was huge and the carpet soaked up every note we played. By the end of the performance I was exhausted. So for your own sake, change your practice area as often as you can and never be caught in an inhospitable surrounding.