I cannot count the number of times I have seen a home improvement show with bad advice on music practice rooms.
Without fail they add sound absorbing materials to the walls, floors and ceilings. This is exactly what they should not be doing.
Musicians like to hear what they are producing. Putting up the sound absorbing materials simply results in them playing louder.
People love to sing in the shower. There are two reasons: No audience. So no embarrassment. And the tiled walls reflect the sound so they sound fuller, richer and louder.
So the interior surfaces in a music practice room should be hard and reflective. Putting tile on the walls would prevent the walls from becoming resonant and transmitting the sound.
If the noise outside the music room is problematic (and that is probably why people add the sound deadening materials to the inside of the room) then there are effective ways to deal with that.
The most effective way is to build a room within a room. With the “interior” room completely isolated from the exterior walls. Sound deadening materials can be added to the surfaces in the space the separates the interior walls from the exterior walls.
Many years ago, I checked into a Holiday Inn in Newburgh, NY. It was adjacent to the airport and directly in the flight path. One wing of the hotel was open, the other was under construction. I was able to see how they were soundproofing the walls.
They used 2 x 6 top and sill plates for the walls and they staggered the 2” x 4”s. So every 14” there was a 2 x 4 mounted flush to the interior side. And in between there were 2 x 4s mounted on 14” centers to the exterior side.
They were stapling up and weaving between the staggered studs what looked like felt carpet under padding, but was probably some specialized acoustic padding.
They then closed it up with two (2) layers of sheet rock.
That isolated the interior from the exterior to eliminate resonance and the two thicknesses of sheet rock eliminated the tendency for the flat sheets to act as drum heads and vibrate.
The net result was that I slept well and did not hear the jets flying overhead.
They probably have better materials now (that was in 1972) but the principles are the same.
1. Isolate the interior from the exterior
2. Add acoustic insulation between the interior and exterior
3. Make sure that the interior wall will not resonate like a drum head.
They did have carpeting and acoustic ceilings which are sound absorbing, but that would (in my opinion) not be a good idea for a music practice room. The exception might be for a soloist practice room where no reflected sounds were wanted. But it your kids want to play the drums or be part of a bar band, then reflective surfaces are the way to go.
Without fail they add sound absorbing materials to the walls, floors and ceilings. This is exactly what they should not be doing.
Musicians like to hear what they are producing. Putting up the sound absorbing materials simply results in them playing louder.
People love to sing in the shower. There are two reasons: No audience. So no embarrassment. And the tiled walls reflect the sound so they sound fuller, richer and louder.
So the interior surfaces in a music practice room should be hard and reflective. Putting tile on the walls would prevent the walls from becoming resonant and transmitting the sound.
If the noise outside the music room is problematic (and that is probably why people add the sound deadening materials to the inside of the room) then there are effective ways to deal with that.
The most effective way is to build a room within a room. With the “interior” room completely isolated from the exterior walls. Sound deadening materials can be added to the surfaces in the space the separates the interior walls from the exterior walls.
Many years ago, I checked into a Holiday Inn in Newburgh, NY. It was adjacent to the airport and directly in the flight path. One wing of the hotel was open, the other was under construction. I was able to see how they were soundproofing the walls.
They used 2 x 6 top and sill plates for the walls and they staggered the 2” x 4”s. So every 14” there was a 2 x 4 mounted flush to the interior side. And in between there were 2 x 4s mounted on 14” centers to the exterior side.
They were stapling up and weaving between the staggered studs what looked like felt carpet under padding, but was probably some specialized acoustic padding.
They then closed it up with two (2) layers of sheet rock.
That isolated the interior from the exterior to eliminate resonance and the two thicknesses of sheet rock eliminated the tendency for the flat sheets to act as drum heads and vibrate.
The net result was that I slept well and did not hear the jets flying overhead.
They probably have better materials now (that was in 1972) but the principles are the same.
1. Isolate the interior from the exterior
2. Add acoustic insulation between the interior and exterior
3. Make sure that the interior wall will not resonate like a drum head.
They did have carpeting and acoustic ceilings which are sound absorbing, but that would (in my opinion) not be a good idea for a music practice room. The exception might be for a soloist practice room where no reflected sounds were wanted. But it your kids want to play the drums or be part of a bar band, then reflective surfaces are the way to go.
