Where do you go to play?

[fluti31415]

When I travel, I use the stairwells of hotels or other public buildings. Find a high rise, and you'll be all alone, usually, because everyone else takes the elevator. No one has ever come to see what it is that's making that racket.

[picardy third]

I figured that this would be the thread to put my frustations! I play publicly in a group in an auditorium that seats about 3,000. The stage is very large and everything is real state-of-the-art with an Adium in-ear monitor setup to reduce stage volume.

My frustration comes in (and I was experiencing this last night at rehearsal) when we are working at fairly high stage volumes with drums, percussion, piano, etc (the Adium cuts down on the stage volume from monitors but the loud acoustic instruments still create a lot of noise on stage). Even though we are using in-ear monitors with our own person Adium mixes, I get really frustrated, because I can't hear my instrument so well. My tendency is to blow harder which in turn causes overblown "squeaks". While I can hear myself in the mix, I have trouble feeling when I'm about to blow to hard, as I would when playing by myself or in a 3-4 person ensemble. When I have the ear pieces in I can hear whatever is miked, I just miss out on that person feel I have with the instrument (because the ear pieces can act in isolating you from the stage volume). If I pull out one ear, the stage volume is so loud, I still don't get the person feel with the instrument.

Anyway, I've learned to deal with it. I just remember not to blow too hard. I just wish it felt like it does when playing in my living room! I feel the performances are never as good as the at home practice.

P3

[Mitch]

You could try this:

Remove one or both earpieces and place a glazed quary tile (about 1 foot square) on a music stand as close as you can stand it with the flat surface square to your face - move around to get the best reflected sound from your whistle.

[burnsbyrne]

I usually play in the dining room/computer room although I will sometimes roam around the house testing the acoustic properties of the various rooms. We do not have air conditioning and have all the windows open so everything I play during the summer is clearly heard by the neighbors. Once, after playing along with midis on the computer, I stepped onto the front porch to go somewhere and received an ovation from my next door neighbors and their guests who were sitting out on their porch. There ensued a short tinwhistle lecture/demonstration during which they asked "You get all of that music from that little thing?" Little did they know how much music a GOOD player can get out of it.
My wife works nights so I am often home while she sleeps. I wait until she gets up before playing the whistle. The one important lesson I have learned about that is that I should never whistle until she has had her third cup of coffee.

[talasiga]

OK. Class dismissed. Now you can all go out and talk to each other.

[DCrom]

When I travel, I use the stairwells of hotels or other public buildings. Find a high rise, and you'll be all alone, usually, because everyone else takes the elevator. No one has ever come to see what it is that's making that racket.

I've done that more than once. I've also been known to practice on the walk in front of the hotel (away from the taxi rank), or on the roof (I once spent a week working on the 24th floor of a high-rise in Seoul), or (mid-day only) quietly in my hotel room.

It's been a bit easier since I took up flute - more wind resistance and better volume control. I agree with Redwolf's rule of outdoor practice: play tunes you know well.

At home I practice just about anywhere in the house when we're all awake, but I generally try to find an empty room so they don't *have* to listen to the umpteenth repition of whatever tune I'm currently working on.

[Innocent Bystander]

Redwolf, I appreciate your concern for your neighbors and others when playing. I'm surprised by the number of people who play outdoors in national parks, wilderness areas, camping, etc., with no regard for those who are trying to enjoy a quiet interlude away from the craziness and noise of the world. "Nobody else is around" to me is not reasonable - how in the world would you know that? Because you can't see them?
Anyway, it's a little pet peeve of mine and it's nice to hear somebody is interested in their neighbors.

Susan

I only get to practice in the park, because my family are whistle-hostile. That's because we're all Autistic Spectrum Disorders sufferers so we are all acutely noise-conscious. They've started complaining about the guitar too. Could I be getting worse?

I only practice in the park at lunchtimes, 1.00pm to 2.00pm and I feel that's reasonable. It's a small park, and I can see if anyone else is there. This park is next to a Business Park, and there are frequently fork-lfit trucks clanking and banging. If anyone is there before me, I usually ask them if they mind me practicing. No-one has so far. In fact one lady who lives by the park made a point of coming over to thank me for playing. And the last guy who complimented me on my playing remarked that he heard me practicing at Christmas on Cockmarsh (a big open space on the other side of the river).

I could practice in my garden. It's not a big garden. My neighbours, bless, them, said it was really nice and they'd like to hear more. My daughter threw a hissy-fit and cried for an hour.

The choice for me is practicing in the park or not practicing at all.

On Midsummers day I went up Coombe Hill. Sometimes things happen up there. There wasn't anything special at the weekend (the solstice was on Wednesday). But I was there with a couple of friends and I played a few tunes on the whistle. Some kids came closer to listen. And as we were climbing into the car, a guy said that he liked the playing, and that at first he thought it was somebody's mobile phone!

[jhouse01]

my husband and I just rented a rehearsal space in downtown Cincinnati (we're working up a duo, 2 guitars, and I play electric.) I'm also in a rock band, so I sometimes need to play pretty loudly through my amp and fiddle with settings, and my neighbors in our apartment building don't deserve that

Anyway, the rehearsal space is great--our first pennywhistle song is "Brian the Brave" from Mel Bay's "Irish Tin Whistle Book", and with husband on guitar, I'm loving it.

Funny thing is, it seems all the other bands in the building are heavy metal or at least hard rock--and half our age. If they can hear us, they must think we're insane!

[Black Mage]

Well, when I'm on campus and the weather is nice (warm, not windy, and preferable sunny) I'll just find a spot near the pond or sit atop a low wall outside that art building or near the music building. However, if the weather is not cooperating then I like to grab a seat in the back stairwell of the art building. It's really just a three story concrete shaft, but the acoustics can be really good depending on where you sit and how the echo interacts with the stairs. If I have my Dixon low D with me I'll also sit in the main atrium of the art building as well, huge open area inside with a perfect echo.

[Dave Parkhurst]

I sit in front of the TV and play. Drives my wife up the wall.
Dave

[riverman]

I recently returned from a conference in a larger city.
I was surprised at the places you can find to play in the big city (NOT your hotel room)!
I played Enach Cuan in a parking garage (free reverb!) and sounded almost professional (to myself, mind you)!
I played on this patio with trees, bushes and chairs beside an insurance company. It was fourth of July weekend, so no one was around. I played on this bench in front of a bank. Traffic noise kept me from being obnoxious.
I think the key is to move around. Play a few tunes, then move on before you can be shot. Also, avoid most high As when possible. People really hate high As and Bs on a high whistle.
If you follow these rules, most people who pass you will smile.

...with pity, or pleasure!

[blackhawk]

I think the key is to move around. Play a few tunes, then move on before you can be shot.

Always a worthy goal.

[Tom Dowling]

For about 10 months of the year, i.e., when it is not too cold, I practice up to an hour most evenings in the large and cavernous garage in the apartment building we live in here in Brooklyn Heights, NYC. The garage is not heated and is partially open to the elements, so that when it is real cold, you just can't play--the fingers stiffen up. The garage provides a nice echo--bad for recording, but great for practice. I tend to play close to where our car is parked, and I keep a small portable CD player/boombox in the trunk and some CDs with old favorites and new tunes I am working on, so I have accompaniment if I want it. The garage venue has, to date, also been visited by such C & F luminaries as Bloomfield and Philo as well as by the fine whistle maker, Colin Goldie. Whether playing solo or with other folks, it is real neat to be playing and watch the odd passerby stop and look up and around to see where the sound is coming from. I've been at this for over 7 years and I have never heard a complaint from any member of the nearly 250 families that live in the building. The feedback I do get is positive, so I'm sticking with it.

My wife does not object to my playing in our apartment, but I find that I am less inhibited (and not worried about playing on the high end of the high octave) if I am in the garage.

There are also a few nice tunnel walkways in Prospect park--Brooklyn's answer to Manhattan's Central Park--that have really great echo. However, you have to 'tune out' the foot traffic, since people use the walkways for the intended purpose of getting from one place to the next.

On weekends, the really good playing places (echo-rich tunnels and so forth) in Central Park tend to be taken up by buskers, many of whom get there early in the day to stake out their turf and play their specific kind of music. They tend to not want to 'jam' as they there for the bucks, which I respect and understand.

For recording, I use our living room and a set-up of equipment hooked up to my PC. I usually wait until the wife is out of the apt. if I plan to record--the old inhibitions again. I just play more freely when I have the place to myself.

Tom D.

[Jayblau]

Anywhere and everywhere i can. But i am very aware that there is nothing in this world more painful to listen to than someone learning their instrument.

Cars are very good places. most sound engineers will test their own mixes in there car.

Like the tiled bathroom idea ! nice lil wee room reverb.