What I've noticed in small rooms is that they favor certain harmonics & resonances MUCH more than others, and those harmonics are almost always not in tune with any regular notes. And, as usual, strong resonances are accompanied by strong anti-resonances, and those frequencies dampen anything you'll send out the bell.Paul M wrote:I practice in a large room if a can. Does anyone else have the problem in small rooms of getting tired quickly? I swear when I was at school and had to use a practice room, my lip couldn't take more than a half hour, and it just felt so stale and raw. My accuracy seemed to be down the tubes too.
Now if I was in a large room, I could play for hours with no problem.
My guess: Because the tuba's wavelengths are so long, its sound doesn't just bounce around the room -- it just builds acoustic "pressure", and the room severely interacts with the playing itself.
Because you want to play with the most resonant sound, you're going to be fighting the room-induced intonation problems, and you'll also be fighting the pitches that are severely dampened because they don't fit with the room at all. That's why your chops will get tired more quickly.
I hated our practice rooms because of this. I used to come back after dinner and go into our band room, where its domed ceiling would still give me feedback on articulations.
