A couple years back, I set about buying a piano, which
required me to not only think about space, but to actually organize it. At the
time, I had a notion to turn our smallest room into a compact and efficient
studio. Put my digital piano in next to my computer, have all my musical
accoutrements in the near vicinity, install some music software, put all my
nice instruments in a separate room with my grand piano, and I’d have
anefficient little composer’s space. Its nativity was right on plan.
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| Who wants to write a song here? |
Then I started getting more involved in online reviewing, and products started to roll in. Pretty soon, my composer’s space had deteriorated into a miniature Amazon warehouse. It was good to have the delineated space for tax purposes and for keeping some of the clutter out of the house, but it was bad for composing, of which I did none. Something had to change.
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| Before the junk |
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| After the junk |
The first thing I did was cut back on the reviews and
declutter. That at least gave me some ground to recover the space. With the
addition of a dedicated music making computer and some MIDI controllers,
however, I was soon recompacted into my tiny space. It was then we decided to
sell the pool table and use the billiard room as a studio.
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| View of the future studio from the top of the stairs |
Unfortunately, the billiard room was essentially unused for
about ten years, other than to store boxes and gizmos Mrs. S and I had lost (or
never had) interest in. That meant it needed refurbishing – wall repair, new
switch and socket covers, a paint job, a working toilet, usable furniture –
before it could be used as a studio.
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| View of the future studio back toward the stairs |
That’s where we are now. The contractors – a plumber, an
electrician, a painter – arrive Monday. Also arriving Monday is the nascence of
my new composer’s studio.
