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Playing into the wall....

4K views 21 replies 15 participants last post by  ZootTheSim 
#1 ·
Hey guys

I always practise facing the wall so the sound bounces straight back at me. I know alot of people do this... I love the instant satisfaction you get from hearing your own tone right up in your face.

Anyway, my concern is that this may lead one into a false sense of security with regards to sound projection, intonation, phrasing and general evenness of tone and technique over the whole instrument...

Does anyone else feel that this could potentially be an issue?
 
#2 ·
You can indeed get a distorted view of your own projection and depth of tone or lack there of by playing constantly against a wall or mirror.
I balance my practice by playing in the middle of my music room, which gives a better perception of what the listener is hearing and forces you to really work on the airstream/tone and projection/volume control.
In addition to recording yourself, playing in as many acoustic environments as possible will help you develop an accurate snapshot of your true abilities! Cheers.
 
#5 ·
I'm not a big fan of playing into the wall, for exactly the reason you state: it's easy to get a false impression that you are a god among men and your sound is all-knowing and all-powerful....

Then you actually play a real-life gig that likely doesn't involve blowing into a wall, and the shocking smallness of your sound in this new, more realistic context becomes a bummer and a distraction....

Lots of folks have talked about how good it was for their sound to practice in "the great outdoors," where there's nothing to "juice up" your sound and make you thing you're putting something out that you ain't. (And I think of Sonny practicing on the bridge, and I think about his great big sound, and I think "I gotta find me a bridge somewheres...")

Since the great outdoors is often not available, when I'm practicing I try to play in as large a space as possible, and if necessary I try to deaden up the sound -- sometimes I'll drape a quilt over a music stand, raise it up high and play into that.

My gig situations almost always have friendlier, livelier acoustics than my practicing situations, and that makes playing them feel pretty good....
 
#7 ·
I agree that playing into a wall, while giving that instant gratification, is probably not a great thing to do all the time. At the other end of the spectrum, an old college-mate of mine was trying to increase his volume for playing lead alto in stupidly loud big bands at school. So he spent a lot of time in his practice room/ bedroom playing into his open closet, right into the hanging clothes there. It totally sucked up all of his sound, and got him to play louder and louder. The downside is that a technique like that could also get your sound to spread out and lose focus.
 
G
#8 ·
why is it that you sound really good when playin against a wall?
like i know its partly bcoz ur sound is being projected right back in ur face, but isnt that wat the audience hear when the wall is removed and replaced with people ...of the human species?
 
#9 ·
Yes thats exactly what I was getting at... playing into the wall can be extremely gratifying but can be mis-leading. I actually find it very hard to stop using the wall... that how much more satisfying a prac session can be for me blowing into the wall.

Although I can usually tell from the sort of sound Im getting off the wall what state my tone and chops are in... and I really do love hearing my self mic'd up at gigs, so for me the main issue is probably with pitching of upper register notes.

As far as playing outside Ive often thought that would be an very good way to develop balance over the whole horn and also be excellent for improv and idea generation.... just blowing for hrs out in nature - free associating - I think would do absolute wonders for chops and tone.
 
#10 ·
What playing into a wall will do is actually mislead you. Different frequencies bounce differently, and some get absorbed into the material, so what you're getting is your sound minus any really low frequencies resulting from airiness or buzz or whatever. I really think that the best way to work on tone is to both play in the middle of the room as saxismyaxe said and also record yourself, to get the full range of frequencies of your sound, with minimal muffling and loss of waves.
 
#11 ·
a word of warning about outdoors...

Living as i do in rural Minnesota, with the nearest neighbor a quarter mile distant, I often take one of the horns out on the deck with me and play into the woods. It does seem to help develop the tone, and there is always the chance for a duet - either with an echo, a stray coyote or the occasional moose.

But in the late spring, summer and early fall - roughly that six week period here without snow on the ground - going outside without being drenched in deet is chancy at best. The insect repellent of your choice (mine is Deep Woods Off) may have a tendency to do bad things to the lacquer on your horn. I found this out to my dismay when bare brass patches started to appear on my bari after playing outdoor summer evening concerts with our municipal band.

My advice then -- when flights of biting bugs are big enough to blot out the sun, stay inside and play against the wall (and wear long underwear the rest of the year).
 
#12 ·
Re: a word of warning about outdoors...

The insect repellent of your choice (mine is Deep Woods Off) may have a tendency to do bad things to the lacquer on your horn. ).
That's very bad news, but I'm glad to know it ahead of time.
 
#14 ·
The danger with playing into a wall too much is that you get accustomed to that sound and feedback. You then play a gig out into a room and you might be really frustrated because you don't have that immediate bounce back of sound. I try to mix up my practice with playing into a wall but also with walking around the room and playing into the room.
 
#15 ·
What I notice is that my sound is much brighter and buzzier playing into the wall than playing out into an audience from the bandstand. This has led me on occasion to pick a duller-sounding setup at home only to find that I can't be heard on the stand. It also gives false readings when comparing things. For example, right now I've got several tenor mouthpieces I'm trying out, but I don't regularly play tenor with a band - I swear, I cannot tell for the life of me which MP I like better just playing it in a room, either facing into the wall or out into the room. I mean, I can assess response at each end of the horn, or ease of altissimo playing, or intonation, but sound quality? Can't tell squat. Need to get a gig on tenor.
 
#16 ·
I believe the sound playing into the wall is a truer sound to your ear about what is coming out of the front of your horn than playing into an open room. I find it very similar to the recording I get from a mic that is 12-24 inches in front of my bell. When playing into a room the sound gets diffused into the room before it gets back to your ears..........
 
#19 ·
I didn't play into a wall for the first 8 years of playing sax (was a wee lad) and when I did, I hated it because it was too much! I had always practiced in big spaces, so I had grown accustomed to trying to fill a big space. Nowadays I play into a wall on occasion to get a different feedback, maybe low volume playing or to listen closely to an articulation.

It's fun, it can be useful, but as with anything if it's all you do, you're limiting yourself.
 
#20 ·
I think saxes are pretty darn loud without playing into a wall.

There seems to be as many threads advocating using hearing protection as there are suggesting you play into a wall...

Me - I don't do either unless there's a drummer involved. Then I try to hide behind a wall and use hearing protection....
 
#21 ·
my concern is that this may lead one into a false sense of security with regards to sound projection, intonation, phrasing and general evenness of tone and technique over the whole instrument.
Playing into a wall is entertaining, just like mindless doodling on the sax. I get that "man, I sound great" feeling. I can always get rid of a false sense of security by recording myself. For further humility I record myself with a backing track. Suddenly the issues of tone, tempo, note choice, etc., reappear. It's a back to reality moment.

Mark
 
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