Room Acoustics (Practice vs. Performance)

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Hi all,

My background is an architect, and an amateur flute player. I am always
interested in space, sound, in relation to music performance and composition.
Recently, I start to think about the room acoustics in relation to flute
practice and performance.

Practice:
I understand if the room is too dull, the tone will not be as flattering and one
tends to force the sound more. Yet, my thinking is: if one awares of that,
wouldn't it be better to practice in such a room and make beautiful sounds? 'cos
when one goes to an ideal room afterwards, the tone will always be better.
Versus, if one always practices in an ideal room, then when one plays in an
environment with acoutical condition less than ideal, one will not have the same
balance.

And if one "projects" well in a duller room, then would one "projects" even
better in a room with better acoustics?

One the other hand, if it's about the player's capacity to adapat the room
acoustics, then should one practice in as many conditions as possible?

What will be the recommendation for (not for an ideal room), but for an ideal
practice "experience" for optimal growth?


Performance:
As audience, I have experienced halls with poor acoustics where the the
different speeds of early reflections of different instruments are exaggerated -
slower strings, faster brasses, etc. Despite the poor acoustics, I notice for
good soloists - flautists, pianists, etc. alike, when they play concertos with
the orchestra in such halls, they seem to be able compensate the different
speeds of early reflection and stay in sync, i.e. they will delay a bit with the
attacks or make slower attacks when the dominant part is with strings, and keep
the attacks normal/earlier when the dominant part is with brasses(as if they can
place their ears from the vantage point of the audience!)

I wonder whether my observation is in line with what the professional players
actually do under those circumstances, and how would they train themselves when
they are at home, or somewhere practising on their own?

MA

[Tarandros]

Hi all,


Practice:
I understand if the room is too dull, the tone will not be as flattering and one
tends to force the sound more. Yet, my thinking is: if one awares of that,
wouldn't it be better to practice in such a room and make beautiful sounds? 'cos
when one goes to an ideal room afterwards, the tone will always be better.
Versus, if one always practices in an ideal room, then when one plays in an
environment with acoutical condition less than ideal, one will not have the same
balance.

And if one "projects" well in a duller room, then would one "projects" even
better in a room with better acoustics?

One the other hand, if it's about the player's capacity to adapat the room
acoustics, then should one practice in as many conditions as possible?

What will be the recommendation for (not for an ideal room), but for an ideal
practice "experience" for optimal growth?


MA

I'd suggest it really depends on what problems you need to address and that could be helped by a different acoustic. I remember when I was about 15 I was having problems with too quiet a tone and too tight an embouchure. This came about largely because I'd been practising in rooms with a very dull acoustic, so I was unable to tell whether my sound was projecting or not. Part of the advice I received from my teacher, apart from loosening my embouchure, was to practice in a more resonant acoustic. I was at school at the time and therefore after classes were over I used to practise in one of the empty classrooms because they had a very reverberant acoustic, and I worked on the Moyse Sonorite exercises a lot in those environments and it helped enormously.

On the other hand, if the problem is with say, breathiness of tone, then it could be better to practise for a while only in a dry acoustic because a resonant acoustic will help to mask deficiencies in purity of tone, making it more difficult to sort out that particular problem..

For general purposes, I'd say a reasonably resonant acoustic, but not too resonant is ideal and as an acoustician, you'll know that this can be achieved even in a small room by having little furniture in it, perhaps laminate flooring rather than carpet, and hard reflective surfaces such as large pictures or prints on the wall mounted under glass. Kind regards, T.