Making Your Practice Space

When building a practice space for your band, generally the main problem being dealt with is volume, a.k.a. not pissin' off the neighbors. Below is a number of suggestions to help remedy the situation before it gets to be a problem.

For starters, the phrase garage band should not be misunderstood. Though the garage can be a great area to jam, due to it's many different surfaces, and ample sound reflection, unless you are in the woods, or a long way from any neighbor, this will not be a good place to play. Obviously, in any residential neighborhood, the basement is the best place for noise.

As a whole, many of the same ideas presented in "Building Your Home Studio, Lesson 2 - Construction" is also applicable in helping sound-proof your space. In many cases, sound-proofing is not possible in the truest sense of the word. Sound will always leak out unless you take extreme measures. What will help is tuning the room, so as not to make the room boomy and obnoxious, like a raquetball court. Not only is this an unpleasant environment to jam in, it is also letting much more sound out, and, bad sound at that.

Thick quilts, studio foam, office cubicle dividers, furniture and other soft materials will help absorb and present a more even, controlled sound, and the more sound soaked up downstairs, the less that gets outside.

A couch and a couple chairs work well for absorption as well, and since many amps sit on the floor, they are also at the level of the sound, the best location to soak it up.

In the area of instrument location, consider placing the amps on the opposite side of the room from the person using it. Put the bass amp by the guitarist, and vice-versa. This may sound dumb, but think about it. Now many times have you heard the bass player yell at the guitarist to turn it down, and the guitarist gets mad because he can't hear his amp...sound waves take time to fully develop, so standing right next to the amp will not help you hear it in a high volume situation, standing away from it will.

Also, place your amps toward a corner of the room, not flat against the wall, facing the opposite wall. Doing this will help disperse the waves around the room, rather than just bounce right back at the amp and end up create a "phase cancellation". You may find you can actually turn down at that point and practice a little quieter.

Also, DON'T position yourselves like your on a stage...your not! Face each other, stand in a circle if your must. Seeing each other playing and each others face will help you communicate without talking. You will find that you may start using head nods, knee bends, and other bodily movements as cues to when solos are ending, when to start bringing the song down, or pick it up. It can help make for a much more free-formed, and unique experience out of each show. If a guitarist is particularly "on" one night, start using these cues and let him solo longer, if the keyboardist feels inspired, or the vocalist starts doing a "Jim Morrison" ramble, start using the body cues. This will make every show different and exciting, and it all starts by paying attention to each other in the practice space.

Finally, believe or not, the quiter you can practice, the better and more productive each practice will be. Obviously, some instruments, such as drums, don't have a volume knob, so you have to at least hold your own against that, but it is not necessary to "turn up to 11". Practicing that loud is actually counter-productive because everything is a big, audible mush...keeping it quiter will help everyone hear everything more evenly, and keeping it quiter will also make it possible to hear the vocals at practice. I realize that is a very novel idea, but it helps:-)

Bottom line is, don't turn up like your playing an arena, your not, your in your little practice space, and the sound does have to be adjusted accordingly. It will make for a better practice, and thereby, make better music.