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What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
I ask out of curiosity but also for practical reasons: as small an instrument as the whistle might be, for example, its sound can be pretty piercing, especially in the higher register. Not fun for neighbours (or your spouse, if he/she works at home).
So far, my favourite place to practise is outdoors in as isolated a place as I can manage:
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
"If you're the practising type, what's your favourite place outside of sessions?"
I don't know if it was meant to come out that way but "Outside of sessions" is where it should always be. A great way to upset your fellow musicians is to use a session for practice.
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
Love the photo!
I grew up in an extremely remote area and have a deep appreciation for the outdoors... I like to practice there where possible myself... I restrict this activity to the less inclement seasons however!
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
To John: I would never use a session for learning a tune unless it's specifically a learning session. But I gathered from earlier discussion threads that some tend to do most of their playing in sessions rather than on their own.
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
I know I'm lining myself up for a cheap shot with this one, but I recently discovered that my bedroom is perfect. It has just the right acoustics. It also is the maximum distance from my neighbor in the triplex, and it has encouraged the lonely, anxious dogs next door to feel less lonely and be less barky. (They're too scared of strangers to handle my actually going out and socializing with them, unfortunately, poor things.)
I would practice in the park during my lunch break, but too many people already have the same idea. I wouldn't be able to hear myself think, let alone play, when the weather is warm enough to have a fiddle outdoors.
I do have a favorite formula for practicing. In front of the TV watching golf with the sound turned off! I really don't like golf, I never watch it. But somehow, when I am practicing, I can just play for hours while the guys hit those funny white things around. I need some other stimulation or else boredom just gets the better of me and I lose concentration. Golf seems to be the perfect thing. The other sports just don't work at all.
What I can't imagine doing is practicing in a session, or thinking of a session as in any way or form any type of practice. That's a good way to ruin a session for someone else!
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
We have a biggish bathroom that's my favorite place to play my fiddle. The acoustics are great, especially for fiddle. I like to play guitar into a corner or against a wall so I can hear myself. Most guitars sound very different out front compared to how the player hears it.
Sometimes I play a harmonica while commuting to work. Occasionally, I pull out a whistle at traffic lights.
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
I really have no option about playing place - thankfully guitar is a rather quiet instrument. First, I tried to play it on the traffic lights, but this works only in a British-style car, with a free space to your left (see how smart the islanders are!).
So it's my room. Always on the same chair. Always between 11 pm and 1 am. Thanx heavens I didn't get hooked on uilleann pipes.
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
Inkygirl: love the photo. Ever try ice fishing? Perhaps there could be a pied piper effect on the fish.
I am an incorrigible Woodsey Nutcase. I have several favorite spots along a local river; under a 400 year old oak tree, in a nice little notch in a bolder by some rapids, and a place where the a hillside looks like the face of an ancient nature spirit.
What do you say to the police when they pull you over for trying to play guitar and drive with our knees?
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
Back on topic.
In winter, at the big window overlooking the bird feeders in the snowfield.
The rest of the year, at the same window, overlooking the flower garden. The bird feeders get removed or otherwise they become black bear feeders.
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
WOW - what a location for playing tunes I'm really envious now because we hardly ever get snow like that here in the Emerald Isle [1962 was probably the last time we had a really heavy snowfall].
And you have neighbours that can hear you out there?
Our kitchen is a great spot and if you need to keep it quiet from the neighbours [not a problem for me as my nearest neighbour is a about a hundred metres away on the other side of our drumlin] then the acoustically sound loo works well.
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
"I know at least two people who play the whistle at traffic lights. Non-traddies must think they're lunatics. "
Actually, I AM a lunatic. Not the hyper, over-the-top type, but the quiet, walking-through-the-woods-under-a-full-moon type.
I prefer doing most things outside under a big oak tree (attach prurient tangential topic here), but from a purely sonic point of view the music sounds better when there's something to reflect it. Playing outside is like participating in the natural soundscape. Jamming with the birds and squirrels and wind and water.
All God's critters got a place in the choir
Some sing low, some sing higher
Some sing out loud on the telephone wire
Others clap their hands or paws or anything they got...
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
I seem to recall a suggestion on an earlier thread about muting a tin whistle. After reading it, I taped a kleenex (tissue paper) around the soundhole of a whistle in such a way as to allow just enough air out that the notes are identifiable, yet the whistle is very quiet. (is it really called a soundhole? my novice whistle skills are evident)
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
Smashing Photo, Inkygirl!
I'm another Woodsey Nutcase. The family hate me practicing the whistle at home, so I do that in Claytons Meadows. I can get there at lunchtime from work.
Even better is up on the woods at Winter hill.
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
Well I usually play fiddle in my bedroom or kitchen but the best place was the large wall-to-wall tiled bathroom in house #3 of the Bunbeg holiday homes in Donegal. Just in case anyone's passin' through...
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
Thanks Inkygirl for the lovely photos.
I live in a rural area but always play in my kitchen, or if the fire's going, staring into the flames.
I was thinking only last night of going to a rath on May Eve to see if I could coax the fairy pipers out.
Now I feel encouraged to try playing outside....when it's stopped raining.
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
Occasionally when I practice at the river, the wildlife will visit. Deer are curious, frogs will chirp in perfect rhythm (or maybe vice versa). If I have a stereo with pipes, or I play bodhran, or especially both, vultures will circle over head. I have to reassure them I am not a screaming, dying animal (pipes) thumping about (bodhran).
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
Great photo - where was it taken? We have plenty of snow here in Helsinki as well, but the constant -20C (not at the moment, though) makes outdoor music a bit too sporty.
Our brand new building at the University of Helsinki has loads of air and thus perfect acoustics. After 18.00 it is just a perfect place to practice - most people have gone home, there are no neighbours to disturb, and music sessions make the idea of going to work much more pleasant than just going to work. Moi!
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
I forgot about stairwells. Back when I usta make business trips, I would take my fiddle along and play with a mute in the hotel. But he said it was too loud, so I put a mute on the fiddle. If anybody was in an adjacent room, I'd go play in the stairwell. Most people take the elevators, so it was fairly private but I did get some peculiar looks from the rare passerby.
Sometimes I think about getting one of those travel guitars that breaks down and fits in a slender bag about as long as the strings. I spend most of my lunch breaks sitting in my car listening to godless infidels spewing liberal propaganda on the radio (and eating), so I could take a break from that and play some tunes. But for the price of one of those units, I could buy one third of a new banjo. There's hardly anything to them, so why aren't they cheap?
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
Girvan should be good this year. Officially, they have Danu and Daimh on the bill, Hoepefully, they'll join some of the sessions too.
The Harbour Bar and The Royal can also be good for Irish sessions.
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
I have just moved from a modern Wimpey house to a traditional tenement flat in Glasgow. With the wonderful acoustics provided by the high ceilings and bare wooden floors, my fiddle has never sounded better (if it wasn't me that was playing it, it might actually sound quite good!). As a result, I have been playing much more than I ever did in my old house!
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
i wish i had more time to practise these days, but working on it too slowly for my liking . . .
i prefer to stand with guitar, so wearing it and wondering around the flat (lino-floored), in and out of the kitchen and bathroom via the hallway plus the one ''boxy bit'' outside the living room door, under the stairwell, which is a great bounce-back-in-your-face ''acoustic space'' _i love playing under these stairs on quite afternoons
meanwhile (upstairs), the proffessional bassoon player praticeses on his electric bass _i've never bothered to on mine, just the gigs
and the young alternative comedian (top floor) plays acoustic guitar as part of his live act _so all in all, a proper housefull of g-string nutters . . .
_i nearly forgot to mention the young girl nextdoor who praticeses her folk-based pop songs in her bathroom (in turkish)
What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
I ask out of curiosity but also for practical reasons: as small an instrument as the whistle might be, for example, its sound can be pretty piercing, especially in the higher register. Not fun for neighbours (or your spouse, if he/she works at home).
So far, my favourite place to practise is outdoors in as isolated a place as I can manage:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/debbieohi/7034212/
but living in a city makes this hard to achieve too often. Plus the fingers get a mite cold in the winter.
If you're the practising type, what's your favourite place outside of sessions?
Debbie
# Posted on March 22nd 2005 by Inkygirl
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
"If you're the practising type, what's your favourite place outside of sessions?"
I don't know if it was meant to come out that way but "Outside of sessions" is where it should always be.
A great way to upset your fellow musicians is to use a session for practice.
# Posted on March 22nd 2005 by Johannes J
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
Love the photo!
I grew up in an extremely remote area and have a deep appreciation for the outdoors... I like to practice there where possible myself... I restrict this activity to the less inclement seasons however!
# Posted on March 22nd 2005 by bestcraic
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
To John: I would never use a session for learning a tune unless it's specifically a learning session. But I gathered from earlier discussion threads that some tend to do most of their playing in sessions rather than on their own.
# Posted on March 22nd 2005 by Inkygirl
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
I know I'm lining myself up for a cheap shot with this one, but I recently discovered that my bedroom is perfect. It has just the right acoustics. It also is the maximum distance from my neighbor in the triplex, and it has encouraged the lonely, anxious dogs next door to feel less lonely and be less barky. (They're too scared of strangers to handle my actually going out and socializing with them, unfortunately, poor things.)
I would practice in the park during my lunch break, but too many people already have the same idea. I wouldn't be able to hear myself think, let alone play, when the weather is warm enough to have a fiddle outdoors.
# Posted on March 22nd 2005 by sara g
What an odd question, I like it!
I do have a favorite formula for practicing. In front of the TV watching golf with the sound turned off! I really don't like golf, I never watch it. But somehow, when I am practicing, I can just play for hours while the guys hit those funny white things around. I need some other stimulation or else boredom just gets the better of me and I lose concentration. Golf seems to be the perfect thing. The other sports just don't work at all.
What I can't imagine doing is practicing in a session, or thinking of a session as in any way or form any type of practice. That's a good way to ruin a session for someone else!
--Eliot
# Posted on March 22nd 2005 by Eliot
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
This may be strange but
1. The bathroom/washroom...very nice acoustics and I can really hear the finer points of my playing.
2. The car....a nice place to do the real grunt work of playing and memorizing.
# Posted on March 22nd 2005 by michael_coleman
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
We have a biggish bathroom that's my favorite place to play my fiddle. The acoustics are great, especially for fiddle. I like to play guitar into a corner or against a wall so I can hear myself. Most guitars sound very different out front compared to how the player hears it.
Sometimes I play a harmonica while commuting to work. Occasionally, I pull out a whistle at traffic lights.
# Posted on March 22nd 2005 by Bob himself
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
Wow, that was a peculiar synchronistic cross-posting.
# Posted on March 22nd 2005 by Bob himself
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
I know at least two people who play the whistle at traffic lights. Non-traddies must think they're lunatics
# Posted on March 22nd 2005 by 2ndFiddle
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
I play my fiddle both in the kitchen and the bathroom. Both have excellent acoustics, especially when I take the towels of their racks.
My parents are rather worried about my choice of playing area...
# Posted on March 22nd 2005 by Winnowill
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
I practice the spoons in my prison cell here on death row.
# Posted on March 22nd 2005 by GaryAMartin
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
Are you the guy from the song: The Spoons Murder?
# Posted on March 22nd 2005 by Phantom Button
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
I think he's the host of the "Big House" concerts.
# Posted on March 22nd 2005 by joesmith
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
Hanging upside down from a trapeze, like Will.
# Posted on March 22nd 2005 by Q
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
I really have no option about playing place - thankfully guitar is a rather quiet instrument. First, I tried to play it on the traffic lights, but this works only in a British-style car, with a free space to your left (see how smart the islanders are!).
So it's my room. Always on the same chair. Always between 11 pm and 1 am. Thanx heavens I didn't get hooked on uilleann pipes.
# Posted on March 22nd 2005 by EastPole
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
Inkygirl: love the photo. Ever try ice fishing? Perhaps there could be a pied piper effect on the fish.
I am an incorrigible Woodsey Nutcase. I have several favorite spots along a local river; under a 400 year old oak tree, in a nice little notch in a bolder by some rapids, and a place where the a hillside looks like the face of an ancient nature spirit.
What do you say to the police when they pull you over for trying to play guitar and drive with our knees?
# Posted on March 22nd 2005 by CeolCairdeas
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
"I'm proud to be an Okee from Muskogee. Gotta light Orificer?"
# Posted on March 22nd 2005 by joesmith
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
Back on topic.
In winter, at the big window overlooking the bird feeders in the snowfield.
The rest of the year, at the same window, overlooking the flower garden. The bird feeders get removed or otherwise they become black bear feeders.
# Posted on March 22nd 2005 by joesmith
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
One field on distance of 400 kms from Moscow...
Nobody can hear you!
# Posted on March 22nd 2005 by Sandy3
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
The tunnel underneath Sydney Central Station between 3 and 5am.
# Posted on March 22nd 2005 by Dow
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
My sofa, watching Television.
# Posted on March 22nd 2005 by gian marco
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
WOW - what a location for playing tunes I'm really envious now because we hardly ever get snow like that here in the Emerald Isle [1962 was probably the last time we had a really heavy snowfall].
And you have neighbours that can hear you out there?
Our kitchen is a great spot and if you need to keep it quiet from the neighbours [not a problem for me as my nearest neighbour is a about a hundred metres away on the other side of our drumlin] then the acoustically sound loo works well.
# Posted on March 22nd 2005 by breandan
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
"I know at least two people who play the whistle at traffic lights. Non-traddies must think they're lunatics. "
Actually, I AM a lunatic. Not the hyper, over-the-top type, but the quiet, walking-through-the-woods-under-a-full-moon type.
I prefer doing most things outside under a big oak tree (attach prurient tangential topic here), but from a purely sonic point of view the music sounds better when there's something to reflect it. Playing outside is like participating in the natural soundscape. Jamming with the birds and squirrels and wind and water.
All God's critters got a place in the choir
Some sing low, some sing higher
Some sing out loud on the telephone wire
Others clap their hands or paws or anything they got...
Or play their fiddle?
# Posted on March 22nd 2005 by Bob himself
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
I seem to recall a suggestion on an earlier thread about muting a tin whistle. After reading it, I taped a kleenex (tissue paper) around the soundhole of a whistle in such a way as to allow just enough air out that the notes are identifiable, yet the whistle is very quiet. (is it really called a soundhole? my novice whistle skills are evident)
# Posted on March 22nd 2005 by ceciltguitar
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
Fiddle and whistles - Walking around my living room.
Pipes - Leaning against my living room chair or sofa of sorts..
I wish I could play the pipes standing up, it'd be easier for me since I can't stay in one area for very long ~_~;
cheers,
Armand
# Posted on March 22nd 2005 by fiddlinviolinin
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
well- i'm one of those who spends hours in their bedroom, fiddling....!
# Posted on March 22nd 2005 by aaron b
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
Smashing Photo, Inkygirl!
I'm another Woodsey Nutcase. The family hate me practicing the whistle at home, so I do that in Claytons Meadows. I can get there at lunchtime from work.
Even better is up on the woods at Winter hill.
# Posted on March 22nd 2005 by Innocent Bystander
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
Well I usually play fiddle in my bedroom or kitchen but the best place was the large wall-to-wall tiled bathroom in house #3 of the Bunbeg holiday homes in Donegal. Just in case anyone's passin' through...
# Posted on March 22nd 2005 by Lizzy
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
Thanks Inkygirl for the lovely photos.
I live in a rural area but always play in my kitchen, or if the fire's going, staring into the flames.
I was thinking only last night of going to a rath on May Eve to see if I could coax the fairy pipers out.
Now I feel encouraged to try playing outside....when it's stopped raining.
# Posted on March 22nd 2005 by Sharon the Flute
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
Occasionally when I practice at the river, the wildlife will visit. Deer are curious, frogs will chirp in perfect rhythm (or maybe vice versa). If I have a stereo with pipes, or I play bodhran, or especially both, vultures will circle over head. I have to reassure them I am not a screaming, dying animal (pipes) thumping about (bodhran).
# Posted on March 23rd 2005 by CeolCairdeas
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
Great photo - where was it taken? We have plenty of snow here in Helsinki as well, but the constant -20C (not at the moment, though) makes outdoor music a bit too sporty.
Our brand new building at the University of Helsinki has loads of air and thus perfect acoustics. After 18.00 it is just a perfect place to practice - most people have gone home, there are no neighbours to disturb, and music sessions make the idea of going to work much more pleasant than just going to work. Moi!
# Posted on March 23rd 2005 by Miia
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
I really like to practice in stairwells. i.e. school, hotels.
I also like the acoustics in my bathroom. My fiddle sounds great in both places.
# Posted on March 24th 2005 by winkie
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
I forgot about stairwells. Back when I usta make business trips, I would take my fiddle along and play with a mute in the hotel. But he said it was too loud, so I put a mute on the fiddle. If anybody was in an adjacent room, I'd go play in the stairwell. Most people take the elevators, so it was fairly private but I did get some peculiar looks from the rare passerby.
Sometimes I think about getting one of those travel guitars that breaks down and fits in a slender bag about as long as the strings. I spend most of my lunch breaks sitting in my car listening to godless infidels spewing liberal propaganda on the radio (and eating), so I could take a break from that and play some tunes. But for the price of one of those units, I could buy one third of a new banjo. There's hardly anything to them, so why aren't they cheap?
# Posted on March 24th 2005 by Bob himself
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
Thanks for the photo compliments. 'Twas taken in northern Ontario, on Canoe Lake.
Love the traffic lights answer.
Also, thanks for the whistle muting idea!
Debbie
# Posted on March 24th 2005 by Inkygirl
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
I fiddle in my bedroom on lonely nights
# Posted on March 27th 2005 by natharious
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
Sharon - surely you will be in Girvan on May Eve? Quite possibly playing a tune or two in the Ailsa if I'm not mistaken [and I hope I'm not]
# Posted on March 27th 2005 by breandan
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
Girvan should be good this year. Officially, they have Danu and Daimh on the bill, Hoepefully, they'll join some of the sessions too.
The Harbour Bar and The Royal can also be good for Irish sessions.
# Posted on March 27th 2005 by Johannes J
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
I have just moved from a modern Wimpey house to a traditional tenement flat in Glasgow. With the wonderful acoustics provided by the high ceilings and bare wooden floors, my fiddle has never sounded better (if it wasn't me that was playing it, it might actually sound quite good!). As a result, I have been playing much more than I ever did in my old house!
# Posted on March 28th 2005 by aliblue
Re: What's your favourite place for practising your instrument?
i wish i had more time to practise these days, but working on it too slowly for my liking . . .
i prefer to stand with guitar, so wearing it and wondering around the flat (lino-floored), in and out of the kitchen and bathroom via the hallway plus the one ''boxy bit'' outside the living room door, under the stairwell, which is a great bounce-back-in-your-face ''acoustic space'' _i love playing under these stairs on quite afternoons
meanwhile (upstairs), the proffessional bassoon player praticeses on his electric bass _i've never bothered to on mine, just the gigs
and the young alternative comedian (top floor) plays acoustic guitar as part of his live act _so all in all, a proper housefull of g-string nutters . . .
_i nearly forgot to mention the young girl nextdoor who praticeses her folk-based pop songs in her bathroom (in turkish)
# Posted on March 30th 2005 by lisaniska