<p>Question for current student - how are the practice rooms at Colgate? My son is a pianist and it seems to be the one thing he cares about when he visits schools. Are they available to non-majors? Some of the schools we've visited have them in the basement and are windowless, some have windows.</p>
<p>Colgate has great piano rooms downstairs at Dana with windows looking out at the snowfall. I believe they are open to anyone if not in use.</p>
<p>I can’t tell you how many hours I spent in those practice rooms when I was a student at Colgate years ago, and I’m not even a musician! I found that off-hours it was always possible to find an empty practice room in what I considered Colgate’s most beautiful building, the Dana Fine Arts Center, to listen to (recorded) music. Remember LP’s? It’s how I studied for the various music and some fine arts courses I took. They even used to have turntables in the rooms for that purpose. Today, they’re all set up for musicians to practice, and no one needs a turntable anymore. </p>
<p>On my more recent visits to Colgate, I’ve visited the Dana Center and always found some of the practice rooms busy with musicians. And the view is fabulous out onto the snow-covered fields in front of the building. One of my favorite spots at Colgate. </p>
<p>You might call the music and/or theater department (which I think now occupies the Dana Arts Center now that Fine Arts has moved to a bigger building nearby) and ask more specifically about any “rules” they might have regarding these rooms. As for me, I always just showed up and I imagine that’s still the system. It’s a small college and the number of musicians wanting to practice in a practice room is never going to be very large. Good luck.</p>