Audio and the acoustic therapy of spaces

Is the church for sale? :-) Really cool Tom! 

I don't know about therapy but I always pay attention to how the space around me sounds.   It's very educational and interesting. 

Nice story- Tom.
most Churches do have excellent acoustical spaces. Very soothing, relaxing for troubled minds.

Love it Tom!

This past Sunday morning I attended a Homecoming service with my GF in rural central Alabama at a 180 year old Baptist church. The church is no longer used - except for the once-per-year homecoming services. It’s a tin-roofed, white-washed wood frame building approx. 30’ X 75’, built on brick piers on land my GF ancestors donated back then.

The interior was primitive but in very good condition. Floors, walls and ceilings were all done using 5 or 6" horizontal pine boards, tongue and groove, I presume. There’s no electric service so the high narrow windows were open to allow air flow. The pews were long and consisted of horizontal wooden slats separated with openings between them similar to park benches. There were more comfortable than they looked. The only feature of the church that wasn’t purely functional was that the interior ceiling didn’t follow the peak of the roof. Instead, it arced across the sanctuary from roof line to roof line. An old, upright piano stood in one front corner and a rusty pot-belly stove was in the other.

When we entered and sat down three guitarists were playing- rehearsing, it turns out because they would occasionally stop and converse while looking at sheet music.

The service itself was 90% music, all old-time church songs. They probably played and sang 15 to 20 songs and we were invited a few times to open up the musty hymnals and join in.

Right away, I knew I was in a special place. The acoustics were wonderful. (The preacher even remarked about this.) We were seated near the back and the room was only 25% filled. Lots of open space. But the guitars and singer’s voices seemed to resonate with the building. I am always amazed at the quality of local musicians, people you would never guess could sing and play guitar if you saw them at the Piggly-Wiggly.

It was the closest thing to time travel I have experienced in a long time. Really good, spiritual music that sounded wonderful in an old church. Uplifting.