Practice Room Dynamics
It is far too often that I hear whole performances that range no further than MP to MF. It is as if sudden and powerful mandatory limits have been placed on the possible range of dynamic expression. I am convinced that there is a dual reason for this. Players often find themselves practicing in tiny, dead rooms. Since we tend to develop a dependence on auditory sensation there is a normal tendency to control the volume of tone production by increasing the physical sensations of effort. Together, these factors kill dynamic range and increase physical tension.
In its most extreme form the worst possible practice room is an anechoic chamber. In one of these specially designed rooms no sound is reflected. All the sound is absorbed by the walls, ceiling and floor and NONE returns to the player. The first time I played in one of these rooms, I was struck by how quickly I tired. With no external feedback from reflected sound I was not able to gage the relationship between effort expended and volume produced. When I increased my effort it seemed I was playing louder, but with only internal feedback to tell me something about my volume, I was unable to guess at my dynamic level with any accuracy. It was as if I had gone partially deaf. And indeed I essentially was. I had no feedback from the environmental space.
With no feedback, all I could do was play at a volume I judged to be comfortable. Moving outside this comfort zone – a narrow one I might add – seemed useless and tiring. It was unrewarding play in extreme dynamics since there seemed to be absolutely no payback for the extra effort expended. It is this experience that convinced me that the traditional small, dead practice room is in itself a culprit in the crime of limited dynamics and truncated musical expression.
It takes a great deal of effort to explore the extremes of volume. We will get tired when we play loud. But we still have to pursue pianissimo and fortissimo and become so well acquainted and comfortable with these regions that there is no barrier to using and even living in them. It is extremely unrewarding to work at these volume extremes in these tiny, dry rooms, but large halls for private practice are hard to come by!
The trombone is one of the few instruments of the orchestra capable of producing actual volume changes from pp to ff. Most instruments have to “fake” a certain amount of this dynamic scale or compress it to the point that adjacent volume markers (example: mezzo forte to forte) are really quite different (see "Catagorical Perception). Since trombonists can make the full difference between pianissimo and fortissimo we should work diligently at being able to produce all of this range with beautiful, controlled tone. Composers call upon all the moods of the trombone, funereal to manic – we need to practice outside of our tendency to play in the limited, boxed set of dynamics we allow ourselves. We cannot allow our room environment to determine our limits of expression.