Acoustical design of special purpose rooms in schools: Music rooms

Design strategies for music education rooms in elementary, middle, and high schools based on an impulse response-based theory are presented through a series of case studies of existing, renovated, and designed rooms. The strategies include providing sound reflections to allow the instructor to hear individual groups of students as well as to allow the students to hear each other, controlling room volume and absorption to allow early sound reflections for clear hearing, and simultaneously provide diffuse, low-level running reverberance to enhance musical qualities, providing for clear verbal communication between teacher and students and limiting background and intruding noise levels. The impulse response-based measures are reduced to a series of architectural systems that can be implemented using alternate construction systems to meet budget requirements. Standard design concept sketches communicate the intent of the acoustical design to Architects, School Board members, Design Builders and music faculty.