Posted by John Swensen on July 14, 1999 at 16:35:46:
What is the best practice room to use:
1) For the best sound or to help develop the best playing, regardless of practical considerations?
2) For acceptable sound, given the need to isolate your glorious playing from the less appreciative?
For me, the bigger the room, the better I seem to play, in terms of tone, intonation, dynamics, and phrasing. One year I worked at a company with a high-ceiling, 300-seat training/shareholders-meeting room that was away from other offices and usually empty after 5; I got to know a few curious security guards, but no one ever asked me to leave. That room was about the only thing I miss about that job.
The worst rooms for me are small and acoustically dead; my horn doesn't want to resonate below mp and seems to max out around mf, not at all like in a larger room. I wish I could figure out how to make a small room work, though, so I could practice after my wife and kids are asleep.