Play in large rooms.

For most players, the larger the room you play in, the more comfortable you will be about opening up and playing on the center of the pitch. If you can’t hear it, you can’t play it. Small or “dead” rooms encourage small, “dead” sounds. Give yourself the gift of playing in an auditorium, church, or other room designed for musical communication as often as possible.

Tip:

• When you are playing in a large room with good acoustics, look out into the room, and especially listen for your sound as it collects and bounces around the far corners of the room. Then ask a friend to listen to you while standing just in front of your bell. Then have the listener slowly walk backwards away from you while you continue to play. In most cases, the most resonant, complete sound will be heard after your listener has moved a certain distance away from you. Keep your concentration at least this distance in the future in order to better connect with your audience, wherever they are.

We have performed this test many times at our shop with many people. The lightest Monette instruments usually start to sound “good” at about 5-8 feet. Our SAMADHI instruments usually start to sound “good” at about 70-80 feet!

For more information about the relationship between frequency, wave-length, and projection, please refer to the section on Sound Concept and Resonance, or refer to any physics book.

Proceed to Think music >>