You might not like it, but get some sort of recording device and a metronome. The recording device to highlight problem areas and the metronome to force you to work out problems. You will enjoy your room much more when you can play cleanly. I was having trouble playing a run, so when I was at my pro daughter's house a few months ago , I asked how she would finger it on her viola. Gave me a fingering that was so much better, but it was worse than starting from scratch.
Having some sort of recording setup in a dedicated room is a must for me.
Silverangel A
Arches F style kit
1913 Gibson A-1
Of course if you enjoy the 'coziness' of carpet there are alternatives...
We just moved, and I've been in the process of renovating a blank beige box of a room into my office/music room. Carpet on the floors, and tongue & groove wood on the ceiling and shiplap on two of the walls.
I also built in some storage cabinets and a desk (doors still in progress).
Last edited by Matt Harris; Feb-21-2018 at 12:44pm. Reason: Sideways picture
1918 Gibson F4
2016 Northfield NF-5S
2017 Black Guitar Bodied Octave Mandolin #42
We downsized, and I took residence of such a music room 6 months ago - still haven't done much (anything) with it ...but to my defense it does what I *need* - a fireplace with a corner next to it to stack, and a set of windows. I'm pragmatist wrt instruments . Unfortunately the room is too small to decorate much - the rest of it similarly stacked...I just think of it as a garden.
No fridge, but a table and a mantel..
I have such a room, but haven't done anything to enhance the acoustics yet. I'm definitely going to pull up the carpet, and will probably do a thin microtopping of concrete and make it resemble pieces of flagstone. Or maybe just go with a hardwood floor. Either would help the acoustics.
The walls, as discussed in a different thread, I made to resemble a log cabin. I have a lot of odds and ends and antiques hanging on the walls, as well as my instruments. For seating, there is a wooden park bench and 3 cast iron chairs that my grandpa made out of tractor seats and horse hames The crowning jewel is a painting I bought at an auction years ago that my wife absolutely hates. That's the only place in the house I can hang it!
In the photo below, I had my daughter photoshop my old Gibson A1 into the old man's hands. In the real painting, he's holding a candlestick. That painting always creeped out my wife and kids for some reason.
It ain't gotta be perfect, as long as it's perfect enough!
I knew a guy years ago who had the finest sounding D 28 I've ever heard. His music room was 10x12 with one chair, a hardware floor, a super reverb and a guitar stand. That was it. Playing that guitar in that room was wonderful.
Silverangel A
Arches F style kit
1913 Gibson A-1
I think we've discovered a new phenomenon: the mando cave.
And sadly, I don't have one. Y'all are making me jealous!
Mando-shed perhaps? /ducks
• Seagull S8 • Weber Y2K6 • David Hudson Bloodwood Didgeridoo (C#) •
I don't get this carpet thing - wouldn't you want to hear the sound from your instrument reflected back at you with maximum efficiency?
Tiles, I say, tiles on all six sides of the room!
the world is better off without bad ideas, good ideas are better off without the world
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