Favorite Sweet Spots To Play

[richard]

Hello folks

 

I have found a number of great places to play my Anglo that have wonderful acoustics and really allow me to savor the sounds that come out of my concertina.

In theses places that enhance the sound of my instrument I have had some of my best moments of playing....so much pleasure!

 

I was wondering if others have favorite spots that they frequent that enhance their sound and pleasure?

 

 

 

I especially like the sound I get playing on a staircase in a hallway between the poured concrete walls of The San Francisco Art institute. The sound is bright but not too echoey.

 

There is a wonderful gallery there (with a great fresco by Diego Rivera) that has wood floors. It is about 50 X 100 feet, and a ceiling about 50 feet high. The room is modeled after a Spanish church. That space is just too much, the smallest sound is loud and echoes for seconds. It is too much but is fun too, in small doses.

 

In the Golden Gate Park there is a tunnel that is about 60 feet long, 14 feet high, and it is semi circular in shape. This tunnel has very nice sound enhancing qualities and gives the instrument a monumental sound with out being over powering and distracting. I like to practice there on warm days.

 

I have to admit I have been found in bathrooms at work practicing. I really like the sound, and I don't care if I seem peculiar.

 

I have had the fun of sounding off a few notes in the grand entry hall of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. That was good clean fun. I would like to try Grand Central Station some day.

 

Richard

Edited April 18, 2005 by richard

[Mark Evans]

Richard, I too have a couple of favorite spots...

 

The little stone chapel at my college. Beautiful acoustics. I leave for work early, go in there leaving the lights off and play. As the light in the east becomes stronger and filters through the stained glass, ah perfection. An afternoon session is also wonderful, different light, different windows.

 

Each slight difference in pressure and finger response stands out.

 

Oddly enough my dinning room is the other. All horse hair plaster and wood and a lovely green color along with a portait I painted of Dominique and daughter Camille. Very nice resonant sound.

Edited April 18, 2005 by Mark Evans

[JimLucas]

Oddly enough my dinning room is the other.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Sometimes typos carry more meaning than the "correct" word.

I wonder whether this one might even have been unconsciously deliberate.

 

Just how loud is the din, usually?

[Mark Evans]

Very loud indeed. At least I got Alistair right !

[Mark Evans]

In fact loud enough that from time to time me darlin' has looked up from her knitting and looked towards the front door. I know it's time to move to the porch and bother the neighbors .

[RELCOLLECT]

mine is the sunroom on the back of our house. When you open the windows the breeze floats through, and you have a lovely view of the yard, bird feeders, and the little woods beyond. I have been out there noodling around with chords recently, and it just seems peaceful.

 

Greg

 

 

edited for spelling

Edited April 18, 2005 by RELCOLLECT

[Pam B]

In fact loud enough that from time to time me darlin' has looked up from her knitting and looked towards the front door.  I know it's time to move to the porch and bother the neighbors .

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

I guess I enjoy bothering my neighbors too --- I have a porch on the back of my house that looks onto a hill - when conditions are right - the sound resonates right up the hill - at least I enjoy it. I haven't heard from any of the folks up the road.

[Helen]

This wonderful thread has inspired me to try out different places.

 

Thanks

 

 

Helen

[Rod Thompson]

Limestone caves often have near-perfect acoustics - or so the guides tell us.

 

I have played the concer in the Mammoth cave in the US, and the Cammoo caves nearer to home - the richness of sound from a little lachenal is astounding.

[lildogturpy]

My front room is perhaps my favourite so far, all wood floors.

 

In the opposite direction - the worst place I've found so far is playing in the drivers seat of a car in an underground parking lot (parked )

[Dave Prebble]

Hi all

 

 

I dearly long to try the British Museum Library Reading room

 

 

Dave

[JimLucas]

Limestone caves often have near-perfect acoustics - or so the guides tell us.

I have played the concer in the Mammoth cave in the US, and the Cammoo caves nearer to home - the richness of sound from a little lachenal is astounding.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I have sung -- shanties in the tall room, Amazing Grace in the big chapel -- with friends in the Wieliczka salt mine, near Krakow. Amazing resonance!

 

I didn't have the concertina with me. Maybe just as well. Does salt form vapors in the air?

 

There are also certain spots on certain streets where the resonace is surprisingly good. (And sounds so much better than the artificial "echo" built into sound systems and used on far too many recordings.) Unfortunately(?), those never seem to be the best spots for busking, as they are roads less travelled.

[bellowbelle]

....I was wondering if others have favorite spots that they frequent that enhance their sound and pleasure?....

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Presently, my tent(s). And, my car, I guess. (Today, I took my concertina to the parking lot of McDonald's to try a certain progression.)

 

I guess the sound is not actually enhanced, but those are the only places where my cats won't bother me, and I can actually relax while I play, not feel like I'm just waiting for something to pounce on me.

 

Though, the one cat that goes outside would start 'attacking' the tent walls, when I played, last summer. It's not that the cats don't like my playing -- they love it. That's the problem!

 

I have two tents in our yard...just put up the second one today. We have a big yard, but our house is smallish. I won't boot out the cats because we have birds of prey and sometimes coyotes, and whatever else. Our two newer cats are simply not woodlands-savvy...we'd lose them in no time.

 

I do have a porch, that's okay, but it's got too much going on....doubles as the potting shed, etc., so there's no way to lean back and relax.

 

I get backaches, I like to play lying down, sometimes!

[Henk van Aalten]

One of my favorite places is a small camping in the Northern Eiffel (Germany) at the border of the small river Ruhr. Sitting at the river in the evening when the fog is coming over the water. At the opposite site there is a slope on which a tiny village is situated. The moon above the pine trees... Playing slow tunes like "Eleanor Plunkett" sounds great!

 

During day time at 8:00, 12:00 and 18:00 the curch bell sounds from the village at the opposite side of the Ruhr. It gives a nice rhythm to play a slow hornpipe like Anne's favorite. After some practice I succeeded to play the last note just with the last beat of the churchbell. It gives a kick!

[Dave Prebble]

I have sung -- shanties in the tall room, Amazing Grace in the big chapel -- with friends in the Wieliczka salt mine, near Krakow. Amazing resonance!

 

I didn't have the concertina with me. Maybe just as well. Does salt form vapors in the air?

 

Hi Jim,

 

I once took a concertina to work with me and played away a quiet inspection shift down one of the North Staffordshire coal mines at a depth of 4200 feet.

 

Is this a record I wonder?

 

It will be for the UK as these were, and still are the deepest workings in the British Isles. The temperature of the rock was some 50 deg centigrade and the humidity was very high but you may rest assured but no concertinas were harmed in this record attempt.

 

If any of our South African friends have done similar, this depth could be trebled !

 

Any advance on 4200 feet ??

 

Dave

[JimLucas]

I once took a concertina to work with me and played away a quiet inspection shift down one of the North Staffordshire coal mines at a depth of 4200 feet.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Gives a whole new meaning to "the lowest note" on your instrument.

[bigsqueezergeezer]

Any of the canal tunnels in England are good, but especially Netherton in the Black Country. It is 3072 yards long, and cavernous, being wide enough for two boats to pass and uniquely having a towpath on both sides of the channel.

 

Derek

 

Edited to make "side" plural

Edited April 19, 2005 by bigsqueezergeezer

[Animaterra]

Nelson Town Hall in my own little village is the best place I've played as far as acoustics go. It's a 200-year old wooden building and it just rings.