Playing music is a popular activity among Tufts students and talent is abound on campus, whether it's singing, guitar playing or anything in between. In order for the music scene to function on campus, though, students need a place to practice - and the rooms in the basement of the Perry and Marty Granoff Music Center allow just that.
Thanks to a donation of $27 million from Perry and Marty Granoff, the center opened its 12 open practice rooms in February of 2007. A handful of other rooms are available for reservation, according to Staff Assistant in the Department of Music Danna Solomon (LA '11).
When the 12 Steinway & Sons grand pianos were initially ordered, the instruments were brand new, and eight were selected to be living room sized pianos, or medium "M" pianos. Eight Yamaha pianos, percussive instruments, electronic keyboards and world music instruments were also purchased.
Junior Ruben Sonz-Barnes, who is majoring in music, has been using the rooms for drum lessons and personal practice since he arrived at Tufts.
"It's great to be so close to a space where you can go and make as much noise as you want," he said. "There aren't that many places where you can actually really comfortably practice music apart from those spaces."
The practice rooms are also there for students who need space to write and record music, Solomon said.
"[Students use the rooms for] recording themselves, writing music ... There's a mix," he said. "Some use them for fun, or are involved in the department."
John McDonald, chair of the Department of Music, pointed out that the practice rooms can be a place for students to de-stress with music.
"Somebody who is in the habit of playing three or four things on the piano - always the same four things to calm them down or help them focus on what have you - I certainly hear that going on," he said.
According to McDonald, the demand among students and faculty for the rooms' resources is high. He said that instruments, most belonging to students and some to faculty, currently occupy all of the locker space in Granoff.
"It's easy to outgrow a space no matter how luxurious and large it might be, and I think we're pretty much at capacity," McDonald said.
Solomon agreed that the availability of practice rooms and lockers is sometimes not enough to satisfy demand.
"We would love to have more space, because everybody should be able to be ... as involved with music and the arts as they want to be," she said. "It's just not easy when more and more students want to use the space - which is great - but we only have a limited [amount] of space that we can give them."
Freshman Dan Callahan, however, has not had a problem securing practicing space so far. He uses the Granoff practice rooms at least once a week for rehearsals with his band or for personal sessions on the drums.
"Without [the practice rooms], no Tufts bands could exist. We need them, no doubt. I'm glad that they're there as a resource," Callahan, also a member of the Tufts Jazz Orchestra, said.
The 12 open practice rooms are first come, first serve, and all practice rooms are accessible as long as the building is open - 7 a.m. to 1 a.m. on weekdays, 9 a.m. to midnight on weekends. A restriction, according to Solomon, is that practice room users need to sign in at the front desk after 5 p.m.
Although Callahan said he doesn't have trouble reserving practice rooms 21 and 22, which are specifically for students in small jazz combos, he feels that this might promote exclusion in the music scene on campus.
"It's kind of nice for the people in jazz band," he said. "The downside, though, is they're only supposed to be used by you and other jazz band people. What if you can't be in one of the jazz bands [but want to use those jazz-related resources]?"
"It's tough, because on the one hand I would like to say that I wish some of the bigger rooms, like 21 and 22, were open to a wider group of people," Sonz-Barnes added.
He pointed out, however, that when rooms are available for anyone to use, the space and the instruments are often mistreated.
"At the same time, what I've found with [room] 24, for example, is that because it's open to more people, the stuff that's in there gets more abused and misused," he said.
Maintaining the practice rooms is vital to the success of the space, according to McDonald, especially since instruments are finely tuned items.
"We're all for the space being used to its maximum potential, [but] we have to protect some of the spaces ... just because of what their function is. I think that we've tried to inculcate a culture of responsibility in the building," he said. "We fall from that occasionally, and so I would ask that anybody who uses even the open practice rooms respects the space - leave it the way you found it."
The users of the practice rooms do not have to worry about the tuning of the instruments, as the pianos in each of the 12 open practice rooms are tuned at least once a month, according to Solomon. The spaces are also cleaned regularly.
"We have had some issues in the past with people respecting space and equipment," Solomon said. "A lot of our policies have been derived because of issues that have arisen since the building has opened. We try to respond to them as best we can."
By following these guidelines, students can do their part to ensure that the practice rooms continue to provide the community with the space they need to play music.
"It is great that [the music program] is growing and thriving," Solomon said. "It's really wonderful to see so many students involved. We hope that growth continues and that we'll be able to continue to accommodate it."
