Why you should practice in different rooms

Hi everyone, this is instructor Joy. I want to share my experience today, this week, about my rehearsal. I am preparing a performance. I'm going to play several concertos and show pieces in a hall. One of the pieces was a Mendelssohn concerto that I'm playing. And I realized how important it is for all the violinists to play and to practice in different rooms. I'll tell you why. So this is a passage, one of the passages. Yeah, so Mendelssohn's third movement starts like that. And I did not like it. So this didn't sound very good. So I worked on it. I found a spot where it sounds beautiful and ringing. I realized that if I use too much bow, and I'm in lower part of the bow, therefore, it sounds like a dry bread. So I did not like it. So I worked on it to make this part sound good. So I figured out, simply, and then I used less bow. So it sounds much nicer. And I thought, ooh, bingo, I found a solution. And then, in the last rehearsal, I went to a big hall where I'm going to perform in a couple of weeks. And I played, of course. And I could not hear myself. So I was too soft. I was too soft. And the accompaniment was much louder. They couldn't hear me. Even I couldn't hear myself. I mean, it sounded like a little noise, but you couldn't hear what I was doing. And I realized, I forgot that my studio sounds very nice and big and echoing. But in a hall, it's often carpeted, has lots of curtains, which damp the sound, which mute the sound quite a bit. And when the hall is larger, most of the times, the sound gets lost, too. And on top of that, when there's a lot of people sitting in the audience, even more drier. Even the sound doesn't get protected even more. So I've learned my lesson. I still have a couple of weeks to fix. Yes, you should try to make your sound beautiful. But it is important for all the bandits to make it sound big. So instead of that, I realized I have to do this. So it may sound a little aggressive to our ears. Because it sounds like, oh my gosh, so loud. But you will be surprised, in a big hall, this sounds sweet. And especially with an accompaniment, whether it's a pianist or orchestra, you should be heard. Otherwise, your hard work is going to get all wasted. So practice in different rooms. Let's say, I have only a small room. Then go out. Go out, find a way in the park or the Elysium Church. Whether you could use their sanctuary or one of their prayer rooms after the Sunday services are all done. If you could use them for practicing. So you get familiar with different rooms. So you can adapt the acoustics. That way you have another chance to fix before your performance day. Also, generally, it would be very helpful if you can just practice loud. So much so that it's a little bothersome. It is always easier to get softer at the last minute than get louder in the last minute. You are already under the pressure. And then if you try, let's say you didn't realize that one on the day of performance. You realize, oh my gosh, it's so soft. And you try to get louder, your body instantly gets tense. And you will be losing control. And that's all mess. But getting softer is rather the other way. You can relax your muscle. So even if it's too loud, just practice loud. Just go for it. Go for it. Play really loud. So that your body adapts to play loud while being relaxed. This was a big lesson. Luckily, I have come to fix it. And I hope you get a chance like I did. Oh, one last tip. When you are practicing in a large sounding room like I do, because I have a wooden floor and there isn't much stuff. We tend to get softer when it's too loud for our ears. Stop your ear. Don't use one of those specialized things that you can do. Just use simple Kleenex to stuff your ear. At first, you will feel like, oh, I can't hear anything. But just reduce the sound just now that you can still hear. And that helps you to get comfortable playing really, really loud without hurting your ears. I hope this video was helpful. Thank you very much for watching. Please give me thumbs up and subscribe. Bye-bye.