I was looking at music stands and a number of them do not have solid backs, rather, they have holes through them, like shown. Are these just for aesthetic purposes, or do they have a practical purpose?
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18Probably just to save on weight/cost.– MattPutnamCommented Jan 26, 2017 at 23:10
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16And so you can dig the first violins in the back with your pencil....– Нет войнеCommented Jan 26, 2017 at 23:12
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2This isn't really a music question, is it?– leftaroundaboutCommented Jan 27, 2017 at 0:41
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2It makes it easier to blow the charts away when shredding. :P– JohnCommented Jan 27, 2017 at 2:35
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12@leftaroundabout Surely questions about the paraphernalia for a hobby/activity/profession are relevant to that hobby/activity/profession?– Kyle StrandCommented Jan 27, 2017 at 20:35
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8 Answers
They save weight. They don't save a large percentage of the overall weight of the stand, but they make it less top-heavy and therefore more stable when raised high or angled back a long way.
Just to expand on the question of "why not just make it thinner?" - the reason for that is because a thicker sheet with holes will be stiffer than a thinner sheet with no holes with the same amount of metal in. It won't necessarily be stronger in every loading mode - indeed it may be weaker in some - but with a structure like a music stand, wobbliness becomes a problem long before breakage does.
answered Jan 26, 2017 at 23:16
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4Also, @tarun, when performing outside, it allows wind to flow through the stand and not take the stand with it. It may or may not be a primary reason, but it's effective. Commented Jan 27, 2017 at 5:16
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14@Micheal - once there's music or books on it, there won't be that advantage. Don't forget the clothes pegs!– TimCommented Jan 27, 2017 at 8:57
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The holes are also useful for giving you a place to clip clothes pegs to stop the page blowing away. For small pieces of music, eg: A5 format, you can't just clip them to the stand at the edge of the stand. Commented Jan 28, 2017 at 4:15
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Why not make it even lighter by making the holes larger and hexagonal, giving an appearance similar to a (very thick) chain-link fence? Commented Jan 28, 2017 at 19:23
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2@TannerSwett Probably because a round hole is considerably easier to manufacture than a hexagonal-grid pattern. Every sharp corner is prone to start cracks– BowdzoneCommented Jan 30, 2017 at 7:12
A loose page settles faster on the stand (and is easier to remove) when the air behind it can escape. That's at least the reasoning behind the namesake "vent hole". In practice, this is of relevance at best when you are playing from one large scotched-together wobbly monster sheet. In that case both the settling time gain as well as the removal time may be noticeable: if the monster sheet keels over and peels off the stand, you want it do so while you are still having your hand nearby.
As soon as several loose sheets stack up, the difference is unlikely to be noticeable unless you have static electricity involved.
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6Interesting point, but I don't think this is a reason. Not only is this effect, as you say, completely irrelevant when you have multiple sheets on the stand (as you usually will), it's also not important with single sheets because the bending of the paper as you grab it is enough to quickly vent air behind it. Only if you used music printed on hard cardboard would this matter. — In fact, the only real effect of the venting is a negative one: if playing outside, the sheets are easier caught in the wind! Commented Jan 27, 2017 at 0:56
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1"one large scotched-together wobbly monster sheet." My favorite.– coteyrCommented Jan 28, 2017 at 9:57
I run the sound system at my church, and I have found that the music stands with holes make it easier for the musicians and vocalists to hear themselves in the stage monitors. The solid music stands can block a lot of the sound from the monitors. Of course a thick book on the stand with holes, also blocks the sound. But the sound easily passes through a few sheets of paper.
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@topo morto is correct when he talks about weight. It most likely lowers the centre of gravity of the stand, stopping it from falling over. Another major reason is that it would reduce the weight of a shipment of these stands. The weight saving on one stand might only be a few grams, but the weight saving on a container full off these would be significant enough to save on shipping costs.
I joined this StackExchange site just to post this. Not sure why I care.
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None of us can remember why we care anymore.... if we ever did. Welcome to the site! Commented Jan 30, 2017 at 8:39
I agree that weight is probably the reason, but that can't be the whole story – you could always achieve a lower mass by just making the stand out of thinner sheet metal.
The problem with that is that it would lack the stability one expects from a proper orchestral music stand, for two reasons:
- Strength of elements that are much thinner than wide scales with the square of thickness (while mass increases only linearly). Therefore, if you use just a little bit thicker metal sheet than would be needed as such, you can already cut out a whole lot of weight in form of these holes (which also reduces strength only linearly).
This is actually the same reason that the stand stands on metal tubing, rather than heavy solid pillars – at the same mass (where you'd rather call the wires), these would be much weaker! - Not all parts of the surface need to have the same strength. In fact most of the forces hinge on the center, where it's attached, and on the edges. That's why there are no holes in the lower center part, and the edges are folding back.
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3Due to the physics of tension, a thick material drilled out like this can be stronger than a thin material of the same mass. Commented Jan 27, 2017 at 1:38
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I'm not at all convinced by point 2. There are no holes in the bottom center, since also the mounting of the foot would cover them anyway and it would look strange. Different thickness would be incompatible with the production method, where simply a piece of sheet metal (same thickness anywhere) is bent.– guidotCommented Jan 27, 2017 at 7:46
Sam is correct when referring to shipping costs, but has missed out a bit. The less material used in manufacturing, the lower the cost. Also, the metal that would have been in the holes would be used to make more stands from the original metal. Result, Holes mean more manufactured units with a lower unit cost.
When using a music stand with a solid back in a recording studio around super sensitive mics vocalist and other instruments can resonate the stand and you can actually hear it in certain circumstances. The holes seem to cut down on the resonance.
Now that I'm playing a trumpet, I realize that playing with the horn directed at the music stand will make it sound muted. Holes might give me something else to shoot at. While On-Stage Music Stands web page attributes their holes to save weight, the reason I would switch has to do with sound. It just doesn't seem to be enough weight or cost savings just to talk about steel.
