Posted by Leland on November 06, 2003 at 15:20:41:
In Reply to: Re: Practice-room sound posted by in part... on November 06, 2003 at 13:25:03:
Yup, the smaller room will mess with your acoustics. That's only because they're smaller than the wavelength of many of the tuba's pitches. Some notes will become more prominent (room resonances, usually), and some will simply disappear. I would even find that a room would resonate strongly at a pitch that is about 30 cents away from what I'm supposed to be playing, and I'd have to fight the urge to play with that massive resonance in order to get to the correct pitch.
Smaller instruments don't have as many resonance issues with small rooms, but the player will also need to be thinking about having that much sound crammed into a small space. The required amount of sound for any performance can be much greater than is comfortable in a small practice room.
Bigger rooms -- large rehearsal halls -- won't screw around with resonances very much because they're too big to interfere with the tuba's wavelengths. Big rooms don't always have to be echo chambers, either -- designed correctly for practice purposes, they can be acoustically inert, with no interference and very little reverb. If I can help it, I'll listen to the reflected sound from the ceiling to hear fuzz and tonguing problems.
Outdoor playing is great for being able to just cut loose and not having any interference from walls, ceilings, or buzzing ductwork. It won't let you hear directly what's coming out of your bell, but it sure is nice otherwise.