How to pimp your practice room

#PracticeRoomDays

Here you will find product tips and tricks that will help you to optimise the use of your rehearsal room. Whether it’s for saving space, keeping things tidy, preventing accidents, improving acoustics or simply making your space look awesome, all of these tips are worth a read…

??????

1. Cable Spaghetti

We all know what it’s like to trip over a cable, or at least being confronted with a floor of “cable spaghetti“. This is a common hazard but avoidable if you have the right accessories such as wall-mounted hooks for your cables like the Millenium Cable Holder. Another way to avoid tripping over cables is by investing in a Cable Bridge (the name is self-explanatory). Cable ties are also an indispensable accessory to keep all of your cables wrapped properly and keep them from slithering across the floor like snakes in a jungle! And lastly, coding rings might help to avoid fights about whose cable is whose!

2. Magic Carpet(s)

To keep your gear, especially the drums, from slipping and shifting position on the floor it’s wise to purchase a drum rug. Other benefits of rugs are that they soften the surface you stand on and if you’re doing this for many hours this could save you from some knee and back pain. In the winter months rugs can also make the room slightly warmer and cozier by retaining heat. Rugs can also contribute to the acoustic treatment of your room by absorbing certain unwanted frequencies that reverberate off the floor. And lastly, they look cool!

3. Keep it together!

The most annoying thing when learning new songs is trying to see the sheet music on the floor or watching it fall off the amp and scattering about like autumn leaves. Get a music stand and save yourself some stress!

4. Get comfortable

Unless you’re young and full of energy you may want to sit down and play at one point or another during your rehearsal. Many brands make stools for guitarists, bassists and, of course, drummers…

5. Hear your amp!

Sometimes the size and shape of the room doesn’t allow you to place your amp in line with your ears and its sounds gets lost in the (very loud) mix. One way to solve this problem is to get an amp stand and tilt your amp, upward, towards you.

6. No more broken headstocks

Don’t risk breaking the headstock on your guitar, which often happens, embarrassingly enough, because it fell when you leaned it against a wall or an amp. ? Treat your precious instrument with respect and get a guitar / bass stand. It will save you many hassles…

7. Mic stands

Choosing the right mic stand depends on its purpose. If it’s for a singer who doesn’t play an instrument then a straight mic stand is probably the best solution as it saves a lot of floor space. It consists of a heavy, usually round base, and a straight height-adjustable rod which holds the mic. But if the singer also plays guitar, bass, keyboard or drums the rod would inevitably get in the way of the instrument, and potentially cause a lot of frustration. In this case a mic stand with a boom arm is ideal. These allow you to adjust the mic’s position vertically as well as on the horizontal plane offering much more flexibility.

8. Make the room sound great…

This is where the process of creating a great sounding room gets a little technical… Acoustic treatment requires some research, hours of listening, a good pair of ears and maybe even professional assistance. What it basically entails is listening for reflected frequencies that disrupt the desired sound of your music. This can either happen when there are too many right angles in a room, if the ceiling is too low or if the materials of the walls, floor and ceiling produce poor results. Diffusors and absorbers can help to significantly break up or trap these unwanted frequencies but the placement of them is not as straightforward as you may think because each room is different. Read more about this topic HERE.

9. Step into the limelight… and fog!

Lighting is a very important part of the rehearsal process. You want to play with enough light to be able to see what you are doing, but remember that when you perform live you’ll probably be playing in low light. So it might be good to put up some colourful rope lights, for example, or use coloured LED floodlights or alternatively an LED cloth on the wall(s). To add even more atmosphere to your rehearsals, why not add a bit of fog, for example with an ADJ Fog Fury Jett  or another fog machine?

10. Keep those brews chilled!

It can get really hot in a rehearsal room: amps overheating, bodies sweating and ideas glowing like hot light bulbs! Drinking water and staying hydrated is very important when playing music. Equally important is having a cold soft drink or beer between sips of water 😉 Marshall has created the ultimate music accessory: the Marshall Fridge! Hey… Christmas is coming up…

If you liked these suggestions on how to improve your practice room let us know in the comments and please post any other suggestions, we’d love to hear them! ✍️

Joe has been singing since he can remember and started playing guitar when he was 10. He's been using it as a songwriting tool ever since. He is passionate about melody and harmony and admires musicians who create these in unique ways. Check out his alternative / indie projects Best of Feelings and Zef Raček.

Show all blog posts by Joe