Music practice rooms open
By Aaron Kokoruz
Staff Reporter

A TCU residence hall and a music building now have something in common: Waits Hall and Ed Landreth Hall are both home to practice rooms for music majors.

The $275,000 project involved nine new practice rooms being built in the basement of Waits. It will give music majors more space to practice individually or in small ensembles, said Richard Gipson, director of the School of Music.

“It could have very easily been one of those neat ideas that never happened,” said Gipson, who is also a music professor.

He said much of the success of the project should be attributed to Roger Fisher, director of Residential Services, who backed the idea of using the basement space in Waits.

“It sounded like an interesting idea when he (Gipson) approached me,” Fisher said.

The new practice rooms come with state-of-the-art technology and are soundproofed, Gipson said. Two of the nine practice rooms have the ability to change the acoustic settings to simulate being in areas such as auditoriums and even living rooms, he said.

The cost of this feature was $14,000 of the total $275,000 project cost, Gipson said.

Josh Schechter, senior music education major, said that the entire project is well worth it and much needed.

“There was a desperate need to improve the facilities,” Schechter said. “It was especially bad during finals week.”

Gipson said music students will be able to use the practice facilities on a first-come, first-served basis. At the end of the semester, students may have to reserve times, he said.

Music students will be able to practice from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m. — the same hours they’ve always been able to practice, Gibson said.

All the practice modules can be taken apart and moved somewhere else if need be, Gibson said.

“In the event that we need to move them to, say, a bigger practice facility, we can,” he said.

Ashley Hollis, a Waits resident, said she is supportive of the project.

“My roommate is a music major, so I understand the need for more practice rooms,” Hollis, a sophomore social work major, said. “ Having the practice rooms in Waits won’t be that much of an inconvenience for me.”

Safety won’t be an issue for residents because access to the residence area and practice rooms has been set up with ID cards, Fisher said.

Fisher said music students will not have access to the residence area, and the residents will not have access to the practice rooms.

An open house to dedicate the new practice rooms will be from 3:15 to 5 p.m. today in the basement of Waits.