Playing outside for fun…

Ok, I found a place that is in a local park nearby, it’s a large permanent gazebo and has really cool acoustics inside. I know this because I was humming a tune in it while exploring a ways back. I’m thinking of going early one morning and play my fiddle there because I really want to hear what it sounds like. Do any of you (or you and your mates) play music outside on a regular basis just for fun (not busking) or because you’ve found an interesting place? I’m a little worried it might attract people and I’m not quite sure I want that, although perhaps I should consider myself lucky if it attracts people!

I have run into a number of pipers who practice outdoors, but their justification is usually to prevent getting kicked out of their lodgings! B-)
I tried to play my whistle near the ocean once, but the crosswind made it unplayable. My harmonica accompanied me on many camping trips while younger. The great outdoors can inspire your creative energy.

I really like playing outside. Though the sound is often not too good. But having a barbecue and playing tunes with friends is just nice. I played in strange places just to hear the sound there.
SAbine

Yeah, I love playing outside.

In fact, I play at a public park with a permanent gazebo with fun accoustics. .. .

You don;t happen to live in north carolina?

Hehe, nope Wormdiet I don’t. Though sometimes I wish I did 🙂

Yup, I like it if the weather’s nice. Sometimes we go play in a picnic gazebo in the park because the sound is so fun.

Me and my mate play in Grant Park, Chicago, Tuesdays and Thursdays weather and festival permitting, third air vent northeast of Monroe Street on Columbus Drive from 11:30 am til 1:00. Just for fun.

Now you’re supposed to pay the COC $50.00 for a busking permit. We were approached by the coppers one day and they asked “where’s your permit”? We explained that we were just practicing at lunch and that we had jobs and as you can see, no case was open to receive profit from our noise. They rode off and let us be seeing that there are more important crime problems in the windy city.

Nothing regular, but I do enjoy playing outside. I encourage it and expect it will not get on anyone’s nerves.

I had a workshop in Madison WI last year, and brought my fiddle down. At lunch, I went to the park across the street. They had a shelter with a beautiful view looking across the city and lakes. I wandered around the shelter trying to find the best spot for the sound. I have no idea how far the sound carried, but I did get an odd look or two when I went back to my car.

Yep, gazebo in the park on warm days. I think of it as my mental health break from work.
I am also lusting after the chance to sample the acoustics in a new pedestrian underpass under a road they just built in the neighboring town.

Practice, practice, practice, Jim….
😀

Not to put a downer on things, but I play inside for fun too

Hehe, I love to play inside most of the time. Especially in one friends basement where it’s really cool in a hot summer and the drinks stay cool too.

Tulloch: Beware. There are creepy, moist things in basements.

Batlady, that’s not a nice thing to say about Michael Gill.

Inside, outside, curious places… (cut to the “distant memory” video fx of wavy lines, etc). A memory of stepping into the 3rd floor stairwell in Pattee Library at Penn State and hearing slow airs being played by a pair of flutes at the top landing. Very nice acoustics, and loooooooong reverb…..

--Bob

No, no, Jode; I think MG is more of the dry, brittle sort. ;-D

But I could be wrong….

tee he

Juvenile humour on par with the challenges of my day job…

very interesting bob

I played outside like fifteen minutes ago. It was really pretty and I wanted to be outside, but I also wanted to continue playing, so yeah I combined the two. It does sound different outside though, kinda leaves you naked. No nice accoustics of a bathroom to cover up your intonation.

I played to some cattle in a field one summer’s morning when at a festival. They said they found it very moo-ving.

Oh, OUCH, Donough… *smirk*

No baa serving Guinness in a cattle field though. Hope you didn’t annoy the neigh-bours, Donough.

Barnyard fun. 🙂

Time for a *snort* from Zina.

I don’t play outside anymore. The last time I did it, the change in humidity caused my instrument to quack.

But seriously it is nice to duck outside for the odd tune.

Donough, if you must pun -- make them decent puns at least for God’s sake!

😉

IS there such a thing as a “decent” pun!?

Uughh - you fellas are shockers!

They had a competition to see if a decent pun could be made. There were ten entries and hopes were high that one would win -- but no pun in ten did. 😎

aiiiieeeee…..Make it stop!!!!

Border Collies play outside for fun

I love playing outside around a campfire which is a very common occurence at festivals in NZ and Australia. Can go till the sun comes up. There’s nothing quite like it, sitting around a fire, sound of creek over there, a few mates, lots of grog etc etc. We always do it at nearly every festival after the opubs have shut. Also do it at parties in summer. Sessions outside are great. Does this happen in USA or Europe?

Oh by the way, along the farm theme in this thread:
Knock Knock
Who’s there?
Interrupting sheep
Inter..baa, baa, baa

My 7 yo gave me that. I love it…………………. The joke I mean
And what does LOL mean????

The best sounding busking I have done was in a subway with a 3 second echo - better than a reverb box!

Or the top of an alpine valley - hear the sound coming back seconds later.
Watch out for the avalanche though!

“Does this happen in USA or Europe?”

It happens at the week-long summer music camp I’ve been going to for the past 20 years or so. It takes place in the coastal California redwood forest in an area that was developed for such things back in the 30s. It has beautiful vintage cabins and large dance halls as well as ample kitchen facilities and dining areas.

There’s an area out side with a fire pit and it’s fixed up into a Middle Eastern style 24 hour out-door cafe that sells all kinds of teas chai, and coffees, but you bring your own booze. It also sells pastries and other desserts, and sometimes people will show up and sell fresh, hand-made tamales and tacos, or have the apparatus for making crepes. Anything’s possible though, one time someone brought a load of oysters in – yum.

The fire pit has logs and benches around it to sit comfortably on for playing tunes -- or just listening. Late at night the music echoes back from the cathedral of redwood trees in a way that is magic, and sounds even better from a moderate distance. We also have sessions in the nearby dining rooms, but sessions can happen anywhere in the vicinity. During the day is great too because you’re in warm but filtered light coming through the redwood trees and people will play tunes just about anywhere. But the sessions at night are great; I’ve played until sunrise too many times there.

I carry a whistle in my pocket at gigs cause I like to play in places with cool acoustics. I played under stirling castle and under the arches in an italian square recently, the sound was amazing. I get a few curious glances from passer by tho. 🙂

More to the point, does it happen in New Zealand. We know what goes on there. No wonder you liked the sheep joke kiwiman.

Dow
there are lots of things that happen in NZ, especially after dark, like playing tunes etc. It can get very cold though so you have to wear a wooly jumper quite a lot.
Jack, sounds absolutely fantastic. If I ever get over there, I will come and find you and those big Redwood trees.

The only people I see playing around here are the couple of standard buskers that play at the entrance to the convenience store and the one guy who plays his fiddle at the entrance to the liquer store. I’ve always been envious of the liquer store guy becasue where he plays the acoustics sound superb… mind you, everything sounds and feels great around the liquer store right?. Well it’s good to hear so many of you do, perhaps I might give it a try.

Once winter finally ended in Rhode Island, I immediately set myself up on my 2nd floor porch and pick (mandolin, octave mandolin) whenever I can. The sound’s not too bad--particularly for the octave. Sometimes I have to compete with emergency vehicles or loud Hispanic music from neighbors on one side. (The other side are punk rockers with a drum circle---three minutes of drumming following by a quick “Oi! Oi! Oi!”)

Years and years ago while attending the University of Exeter in Devon, I spent a lot of time busking on the high street (guitar) but found the traffic and acoustics too tough to handle flat-picked fiddle tunes. I turned to strumming until some very helpful policemen directed me to a better spot with good foot-traffic and better acoustics. (They must have taken pity on an American student abroad--either that or the grumpy accordian player by the Marks & Spence was trying to get me off the high street.)

JdTeehan

Luckily, I live beside the sea and often go outside and play a few tunes (weather permitting). The local harbour is a nice spot and I usually slip in a few hornpipes and watch the boats go by. 😉

I was at the Catskills Irish Week a few years ago, and two or three of the beginning whistle players would get together in the yard in front of the rooming house to practice the A part of their first tune together, struggling up toward the penultimate note, which they always missed, because it crossed the octave barrier. They did this over and over and over. Worst, they were early risers, and got in a half hour of practice before breakfast. Agonizing to those of us who were up late the night before, to say the least. To this day, a friend of mine who knows the tune only has to start playing that A part to cause me to groan in agony!!!! ;-(
Of course I couldn’t complain too much, because after breakfast, I joined a beginning accordion class that was held outside of a small hotel down the road--I can only imagine what the late sleepers thought of us! 🙂

Of ccourse, if you don’t have the benefits of any close reflective surfaces you will gradually loose the top frequencies with distance away from the source - this is why the scots great pipes sound better from a distance………there was a piper who used to practice early in the mornings in London, in the middle of Hampstead Heath. You might have thought, with all the far less pleasant urban noise about, people might have appreciated it, but no, someone complained and he was stopped.
There is a very pleasant ambiance to playing, especially with a few friends, in the open air, and it does avoid the noise levels rising too high which can happen in enclosed environments.
I say, unpack your instruments and go with it !

Hey Gurnsey Pete, I have Tanglefoot’s Captured Alive Album, good stuff 🙂 Being Canadian, I particularly enjoy your Canadian COntent… especially Secord’s Warning.

…Wait…must’ve been a different band, haha, sorry 🙂

“They did this over and over and over. Worst, they were early risers, and got in a half hour of practice before breakfast. Agonizing to those of us who were up late the night before, to say the least. ”

This is the dark side of the summer music camp I was describing. 🙁

local highland pipe players pratice on my local pitch, ive played in my yard several times, its fun if its a nice day out.

ive had an idea to play on this one mountain i was at in sligo. theres a spot with no wind(and the sound would echo ionto the valley), this would be for a eerie sounding pipe player out of a story….and not to mention the view is awsome. that would make a great album cover- the band playing a session on a mountain…if mountain top sessions ever become popular i’ll take the credit🙂

if you think about it, each instrument could have its own kind of geographical sterotype. put a piper on a mountain/hill, fiddler (on the roof..lol jk) in a hmm, cave prehaps?(then we wont have to look at them🙂, put the flute player in a hall or a big room, put the accordion player in a closet so we dont have to listen, and the bohdran player hmm, they’re fine in the pub, the whistle perhaps in a cove or lagoon(someplace with water), and i cant get the image of a harp player in a castle out of my head. well i dont know what in the world im writing about..boredom does strange things to people, what was the original topic again?

At the GHB two-week bootcamps I went to as a wee lad, things could get a bit military. Wake-up call was a piper marching down the (very reverberant ) halls of our college dorm at 7:00 am or so. As much as I love pipes, they are the worst way to wake up in this world.

What camp is that, Jack?

… and banjo player sitting in the tree.

“What camp is that, Jack?”

http:www.LarkCamp.com

oops! 😲

http://www.LarkCamp.com

The past few days it has been so hot (we don’t have air-conditioning) that we sit out on the front porch of our semi-rural home and play. I love it, but I sometime flashback to THAT scene in Deliverance.

Shore got a purty mouth, donnee?

A few years back I figured I’d use my lunch hours to practice playing whistle in the park. I like to play along with the walkman so there I was waaaay off in a secluded area sitting on top of a picnic table, facing the forest, one ear plug in and one ear plug out so I could hear myself. Totally deep in concentration and with eyes shut (which makes me hear better). Then I feel a “jiggle”….the table is moving……totally surprised I look to see an entire family (mom, dad and two kids) sitting behind me at the table looking on with big smiles. It caught me SO much by surprise I practically bolted off to the other side of the park with heart pounding. I’m sure they thought I was nuts but in hindsight I suppose the smiles were a good sign at least.
🙂

One more time I was practicing playing rolls on the whistle (also in a park). Had to leave though cause very soon after starting I was getting dive bombed by birds. Seriously!

I’ve also played flute and whistle in the car out in parks. That’s safer although here in Australia to play the flute in the car you either have to move to the passenger seat or open the driver’s window. Gets some funny looks for sure but at least the “dribble” falls outside.

Yes it’s very peaceful. During winter, bathroom is a good alternative. Great acoustics.