Maybe someone can give me the advice I need on how to change my mental block.....this may seem silly but it's bugging me!
I live in a small studio apartment with neighbors upstairs and on both sides. I want to practice my tin whistle. Now I have played a lot of music over the years, and am very disciplined about practicing. I know you have to put in hours and hours of playing the same part over and over again to get it right or fix the bad habits you've picked up...But I can't do it if I know people are around listening!
I don't know what this is about, other than I know how irritating it is to listen to someone practice, and I'm trying to be a good neighbor. But it's like I tense up and have to stop if I know people are eating their dinner above! This is stupid, I know, and it's not like I'm terrible or have no timing, I'm just woodshedding like you have to do.
I try to find different times to do it, but I think all around me are retired/stay at home moms/ self-employed, so there's ALWAYS someone around! AAAAAHHHH! The big city is closing in on me!
Anyone else find a solution to this? I'm starting to think I should go into work early and spend an hour on the roof and hope no one comes up for a smoke.
I used to walk to work through a park very early in the morning, about 6, and there used to be somebody regularly playing Scots Highland pipes there! Wendy ann
My husband works third shift, and sleeps during the day. To practice tin whistle while he is napping upstairs, I take a pipe cleaner and put a hook in it about 1/2 inch from the end. The hook goes inside the windway, and the spare length is wrapped inelegantly around the whistle. It reduces the sound to an audible whisper, and I can still get the full two octaves out of it. Another method of muting a whistle is to put a hunk of something gummy on the blade and pushing it around until you get the proper mix of quiet and tone. I use a folded piece of a half a piece of unchewed gum for this. A third method is to take a small strip of cellophane tape and close the windway vertically in half or so. By doing this I was able to play at night in a hospital without anyone fussing at me.
There are also narrow bore whistles that are less piercing than the standard ones.
The reason I prefer my first method is that it is completely removeable (I've had residue from tape) and lets me play with the same air pressure as I normally use.
You can also consider setting aside a room dedicated to practicing. Soundproof it as well as you can, using carpet, wall hangings, egg cartons, insulation panels heavy furniture.
BUT...if the issue is that you can't seem to play while someone is listening,...go to the most public place you can, where someone is bound to hear you, and play until you get over the anxiety.
I work at home, so usually have time during the day to play when no one else is around. Yes, it's easier to play whatever you want (as many times as you want!) when you know no one else is listening.
At other times in my life, I've resorted to a number of solutions to the privacy thing:
- Use a mute (for a whistle, I've heard taping over the windway works)
- Borrow or rent a practice room somewhere. Schools often have music practice rooms, but really all you need is a place where you won't bother anyone. Bands sometime rent mini-storage units to rehearse in.
- Learn to play at a whisper, without a mute.
- Use empty egg cartons and foam to sound proof a closet or other small room in your home.
- Find a low-use public place to play--city parks, a corporate campus, parking lots and garages, laundromats, etc.
- Offer to teach your neighbors how to play whistle. Then they'll be annoying you at all hours.
Most of your neighbors are likely to be taking, listening to their stereo, or watching their TV when you're practicing -- and don't even notice you. Just make sure you don't practice at night when they're sleeping. If you ask them about it they'll probably say things like: "You do what?" "I never hear you." "Oh, I thought I heard that a couple of days ago... sounds nice." "I used to play the tuba."
You could practice the low whistle; I've never heard one of them sound too loud or unpleasant. You'd probably need much bigger lungs, and a canister or two of oxygen. And finger extensions - I know a good surgeon.
Yes, sound proof your toilet with egg cartons, then you won't even hear yourself taking a pee! Seriously, it's probably the only solution. Wcs are small, so the soundproofing is cheap. Egg cartons are as expensive as the eggs. No good renting or borrowing a room elsewhere, since practice happens when you feel it, not when you've got to use a room.
I seem to remember Enid Blyton's Famous Five used to have midnight meetings under their bedclothes to discuss super adventures, lashings of tongue sandwiches for a midnight feast, etc. You could make a tent uder your duvet; it'll be hot, so minimal clothing. Borrow the pipe from your cylinder vacuum cleaner for ventilation, even better if it's an old one with a 'blow' option - you have a ventilator, and they often resonate in D for a pleasing drone. Or arrange a flap, and put the fan heater on cold, facing you. Otherwise you'll suffer from an excess of carbon dioxide. But at least your hiccups'll stop. If you need the dots to practice you'll need a torch too. And on second thoughts, don't bother with the tongue sandwiches either. Actually, tongue's pretty disgusting.
Since I play the accordion, before everyone else is up and about, me being an early riser, I have resorted to a keyboard, with earphones, and the only noise anyone else heard was the annoying clicking of the plastic keys. That doesn't help you though, never seen an electric whistle. Hey! Market opportunity!!
Does a whistle play underwater? You'd need to do a hippopotamus, and keep your nostrils out in the open. Again, minimal clothing.
Reading above about the encounter with highland pipes in a park - I used to live in Walmer, a little suburb of Deal (where I now live) and Walmer has a nice castle. Deal is a Cinque Port (this is a quaint English thing round the Kent and Sussex coast, some charter from hundreds of years ago), and the cinque ports have a Lord Warden, who comes to stay one weekend a year, ceremoniously, in Walmer Castle. Until she died, the last Lord Warden was the Queen Mother. Well, one Sunday morning I woke up at 7.30am to hear the distant strains of the highland pipes. Who the hell can that be at this time on a Sunday morning? I thought. Later, relating this tale to my brother, he told me the Queen Mother did not use an alarm clock, but employed a piper solely for the purpose of playing under her window every morning at 7.30am.
The castle was about a mile away, so that's a lot of people getting an early morning call. I don't think anyone would have complained. Ah, but then we are English...
A boy in my class at school was learning the clarinet and used to go into the local park fairly early in the morning to practice before going off to school. Sure enough, one year there was a report in the local paper how an unseasonably early cuckoo had been heard in that park.
Trevor
If my wee laddie's around, my practice goes pear shaped. I want to spend "quality time" with him, and the rest of my fambly, of course. Also, Ro, my girl, has to get her piano (and sometimes violin) pracko in. Then after 8.00pm there's a moratorium while the wee man enters the Land of Nod (Tir na Nod). Then I might get some odd half-hour in, but I don't really like practicing on my own too much. I prefer sessions.
I re-started practicing at lunch time in a lecture theatre where I work, but I can't handle doing that too much. I usually like to run at lunch times, to get out the building. So on days when I'm practicing at lunch I have to run to and from work (both ways added up maybe 7.5 - 8 miles.)
At weekends I'm either away from home at our caravan, or if at home, there's usually a DIY reason for not getting out of London.
I get away with this situation because I did used to practice a fair bit, and that I reckon has now become hardwired into the various components of neuronal circuitry in my brain. But, unless I continue to update by getting big lumps of pracko in when I can, then I do experience attrition of skills.
I used to get some practice in on the 'ol concertina during my lunch hour sitting on the steps of the Saint Francis of Assisi church next door to where I was working in North Beach. A few people would sit on steps nearby and eat their lunch -- and they didn't seem to mind at all. And the occasional tourist would stop and make remarks like, "Look Mable, it's a push-fiddle. Din yer pappy play one of dem?" But one day, I was practicing away, and the setting was very much like what I just described... when all of a sudden, to everyone’s astonishment, a pile of newspapers over by the wall started to move and a homeless guy emerged from beneath and shouted, "CAN'T A GUY GET ANY SLEEP AROUND HERE?!!!"
I practice both the piano and the button accordion under the house (in a room, not a crawlspace I hasten to add), and the house is only weatherboard. The neighbours are less than ten feet away. Talking to them across the fence the other day I casually mentioned that I hoped the playing wasn't too loud - the answer was that they heard the piano occasionally if they were in the back garden, and they'd never heard an accordion at all.
Then a saleslady came to the front door (upstairs) while I was hammering away on the box and said to my wife "oh, what lovely flute playing!". Make of that what you will - it still puzzles me somewhat...
When I lived in England I used to walk home past a junior school gym hall in which there was an Irish piper in full regalia practicing most nights. Not sure why he used to dress up to practice, but it was probably the only place for miles around he could let rip.
I definitely agree about talking to your neighbours; you'd be surprised how often people just don't hear what's going on next door.
A couple of years ago when I was learning to play the cello I was also very conscious of my neighbours being able to hear me (especially the guy who'se lounge room was next to mine. I discovered through careful listening that he liked to watch TV every night between 7 - 8 pm, so that's when I did my practice, as he wouldn't be able to hear my playing.
PS Don't think of it as "practice", think of it as "playing". It seems a small difference on paper (computer screen) but can sometimes make a big difference to your attitude - it worked for me!
I used to do some snare drumming and would practice for hours on end on this great rubber pad, which I thought no one could hear. Then one time my neighbor said they could hear me but they thought it was great. She said she listened to it, closed her eyes, and it was like drops of rain on her rooftop.
Actually, in my old house, I had a huge bathroom/wc, which resonated superbly, as many lavatories do, being mainly devoid of fabric.
I used to shut the lid cover, and sit on the loo seat for an hour or so playing my accordion, just for the instant reverb. My playing sounded loads better. So if you can avoid it, DON'T soundproof the loo.
In my present house, I've designed my big kitchen especially for sessions - big quarry tiles on the floor, and split banboo rolled binds at the windows. Luckily I have a detached house, but the kitchen is absolutely great to practice in.
I'm sorry Paddywhack, this is not kind of me, as I'm rubbing salt in your wound. My humble apologies.
During the summer when its hot I open the windows to practice or rather "play" the piano in our front room, and very often I get a gathering of people outside the house to listen to the music.Mostly I think though its an excuse to stop and chat to their neighbors.(some people need an excuse).
A friend of mine,who has a farm,recently bought an old red public telephone box at an auction for 450 quid.He keeps it in the front garden of his bungalow as an ornament and it looks great.It could easily be carried inside by a group of people and when you consider what pipers,fiddlers,box-players,fluters etc.pay for their instruments-into thousands, you would have to admit that whistle players get off pretty light at less than a fiver for a nice whistle-so why not invest in a practise studio like my mate,who incidentally,has pulled a lot of birds as a direct result of his owning a big red box.
Supporting what Tyghress said, I found that a great way of getting rid of my inhibitions about playing was to go busking! It was terrifying to begin with - I went alone - and I played terribly for the first few tunes, but then realised that I was just part of the scenery, most people didn't even look at me, and then I started getting money which was nice
After that, I worked on Iona last summer and in the evenings I would go up Tor Abb (the mound in front of the Abbey) and play there - it was a fabulous place to play, with brilliant acoustics, and one evening as I was playing, people started appearing gradually, with food, drink, other musical instruments, and some even started dancing! It's brilliant the way the music brings people together like that, it always does, if you play with feeling, and you shouldn't be shy!
Kitchens are definitely the place to blow. Quarry tiles, no soft furnishing (well apart from the top of the cooker but that's another story) and instant reverb. I can get a sneaky hour to myself most late afternoons. On the other hand here in boring Devon, there are no neighbours for miles and miles and my mum is deaf....but I'm too knackered to play a note! Maybe tomorrow
I think it's good that you're sensitive to your neighbours and others within earshot.
Hearing someone play can be lovely, but it can be incredibly annoying when you're repeating that tricky phrase over and over in order to "nail it". I know this because Mrs Bren as reminded me many times.
However, although the sound of a whistle may carry in open air, it seldom if ever penetrates walls. And, as annoying as lack of sensitivity is, the flipside is that something played boldly is less irrritating than something played hesitantly. Play up until they complain.
Nice one Sarah, we must have the same kitchen mentality! I do the sneaky hour first thing in the morning - my son is two floors away up in the attic and needs a bomb to wake him at that time.
But how come the top of your cooker is a soft furnishing? Doesn't it catch fire when you boil an egg?
I've never had a blow in my kitchen. Is that because I play the accordion?
I also agree with Hayley about busking; it's great for ridding yourself of inhibition. I'm normally quite a shy performer if I'm in a spotlight on my own, but after busking for a while, with no personal disasters, you stop worrying too much about what you sound like. I have suffered in the past from being too inhibited about practising within earshot of other occupants of my house. You have to live with them! I'm actually not as bothered about what the neighbours think.
When my son was about 14, and into Eminem etc, not ITM (he still isn't), he begged me not to practice when his mates were round. Why? "Well, Dad, I don't want to go to school and get the nickname 'Son of Paddy'." !!!
It's good to know I'm not the only one suffering from inhibitions or shyness. But I am happy to say that I spent a couple of hours over the weekend playing (not practicing) with the newly discovered 'tape over the hole' system on my whistle, and was delighted with it. And even better, today, when I was sure no one was around, I even took the tape off, and was playing with more confidence....just wait til 6 months from now, I might even have improved!
Jim, I reckon you're definitely on to something there... correlation between girlfriend and practice, or lack thereof. No girlfriend means I can come back at 1 in the morning, practice till 4am and no repercussions! I'm living in a caravan, so no thin walls and no neighbours to complain...
I definitely think my playing's advanced significantly more in the last year than it would had I been in company. Occasional loneliness just acts as a further spur to play more of those melancholy slow airs... and then some rousing reels to cheer meself up again!
See I just knew that there was something about men who have special relationships living alone with their instruments..... Hmmm nuff said.
As for my cooker, Pete, it isn't supposed to be a soft furnishing but things sort of get left by the infamous "it wasn't me person" who lives in our house and it turns into a soft furnishing and unless the infamous magic fairy normally me clears it up we have soft furnishing!!!!
AAAAARRRRGHHH! Devon is SOOOOO boring and now instead of going to the session tomorrow night it looks like I have to set up a computer for one of the grey surfing friends my mother has acquired!!! Will I survive????
When my husand was learning the banjo he'd walk across the street on his lunch hour to the town cemetery and park himself among the headstones to play. He said it was the only place no one ever complained.
We had a great session one weekend in my apartment and things livened up quite a bit when the wine was flowing and some more when some people started to dance. It heated up considerably more when the young couple downstairs inevitably came to complain at around 10pm.
I heard next day that this same couple met another (elderly) neighbour in the lift and complained that people had been in my apt. the evening before actually dancing in time to our music.
"How nice", she replied, "so few people can actually keep time these days"
Jim, Rog - nice thoughts but luckily I only have to survive Devon for 2 more days before I return to civilisation! Having grown up there I know what it is like .... believe me Bampton would be a heaving metropolis in comparison to here!
I am now off to practice on my own assured that there will be no neighbours to complain. Oooh come to think of it my mum's kitchen has quarry tiles.....
practice practice practice
practice practice practice
Hello there:
Maybe someone can give me the advice I need on how to change my mental block.....this may seem silly but it's bugging me!
I live in a small studio apartment with neighbors upstairs and on both sides. I want to practice my tin whistle. Now I have played a lot of music over the years, and am very disciplined about practicing. I know you have to put in hours and hours of playing the same part over and over again to get it right or fix the bad habits you've picked up...But I can't do it if I know people are around listening!
I don't know what this is about, other than I know how irritating it is to listen to someone practice, and I'm trying to be a good neighbor. But it's like I tense up and have to stop if I know people are eating their dinner above! This is stupid, I know, and it's not like I'm terrible or have no timing, I'm just woodshedding like you have to do.
I try to find different times to do it, but I think all around me are retired/stay at home moms/ self-employed, so there's ALWAYS someone around! AAAAAHHHH! The big city is closing in on me!
Anyone else find a solution to this? I'm starting to think I should go into work early and spend an hour on the roof and hope no one comes up for a smoke.
Thank you!
# Posted on July 10th 2004 by swearbox
Re: practice practice practice
I used to walk to work through a park very early in the morning, about 6, and there used to be somebody regularly playing Scots Highland pipes there! Wendy ann
# Posted on July 10th 2004 by wendyann
Re: practice practice practice
My husband works third shift, and sleeps during the day. To practice tin whistle while he is napping upstairs, I take a pipe cleaner and put a hook in it about 1/2 inch from the end. The hook goes inside the windway, and the spare length is wrapped inelegantly around the whistle. It reduces the sound to an audible whisper, and I can still get the full two octaves out of it. Another method of muting a whistle is to put a hunk of something gummy on the blade and pushing it around until you get the proper mix of quiet and tone. I use a folded piece of a half a piece of unchewed gum for this. A third method is to take a small strip of cellophane tape and close the windway vertically in half or so. By doing this I was able to play at night in a hospital without anyone fussing at me.
There are also narrow bore whistles that are less piercing than the standard ones.
The reason I prefer my first method is that it is completely removeable (I've had residue from tape) and lets me play with the same air pressure as I normally use.
You can also consider setting aside a room dedicated to practicing. Soundproof it as well as you can, using carpet, wall hangings, egg cartons, insulation panels heavy furniture.
BUT...if the issue is that you can't seem to play while someone is listening,...go to the most public place you can, where someone is bound to hear you, and play until you get over the anxiety.
# Posted on July 10th 2004 by Tyghress
Re: practice practice practice
I work at home, so usually have time during the day to play when no one else is around. Yes, it's easier to play whatever you want (as many times as you want!) when you know no one else is listening.
At other times in my life, I've resorted to a number of solutions to the privacy thing:
- Use a mute (for a whistle, I've heard taping over the windway works)
- Borrow or rent a practice room somewhere. Schools often have music practice rooms, but really all you need is a place where you won't bother anyone. Bands sometime rent mini-storage units to rehearse in.
- Learn to play at a whisper, without a mute.
- Use empty egg cartons and foam to sound proof a closet or other small room in your home.
- Find a low-use public place to play--city parks, a corporate campus, parking lots and garages, laundromats, etc.
- Offer to teach your neighbors how to play whistle. Then they'll be annoying you at all hours.
# Posted on July 10th 2004 by Will CPT
Re: practice practice practice
Most of your neighbors are likely to be taking, listening to their stereo, or watching their TV when you're practicing -- and don't even notice you. Just make sure you don't practice at night when they're sleeping. If you ask them about it they'll probably say things like: "You do what?" "I never hear you." "Oh, I thought I heard that a couple of days ago... sounds nice." "I used to play the tuba."
# Posted on July 10th 2004 by Phantom Button
Re: practice practice practice
You could practice the low whistle; I've never heard one of them sound too loud or unpleasant. You'd probably need much bigger lungs, and a canister or two of oxygen. And finger extensions - I know a good surgeon.
Yes, sound proof your toilet with egg cartons, then you won't even hear yourself taking a pee! Seriously, it's probably the only solution. Wcs are small, so the soundproofing is cheap. Egg cartons are as expensive as the eggs. No good renting or borrowing a room elsewhere, since practice happens when you feel it, not when you've got to use a room.
I seem to remember Enid Blyton's Famous Five used to have midnight meetings under their bedclothes to discuss super adventures, lashings of tongue sandwiches for a midnight feast, etc. You could make a tent uder your duvet; it'll be hot, so minimal clothing. Borrow the pipe from your cylinder vacuum cleaner for ventilation, even better if it's an old one with a 'blow' option - you have a ventilator, and they often resonate in D for a pleasing drone. Or arrange a flap, and put the fan heater on cold, facing you. Otherwise you'll suffer from an excess of carbon dioxide. But at least your hiccups'll stop. If you need the dots to practice you'll need a torch too. And on second thoughts, don't bother with the tongue sandwiches either. Actually, tongue's pretty disgusting.
Since I play the accordion, before everyone else is up and about, me being an early riser, I have resorted to a keyboard, with earphones, and the only noise anyone else heard was the annoying clicking of the plastic keys. That doesn't help you though, never seen an electric whistle. Hey! Market opportunity!!
Does a whistle play underwater? You'd need to do a hippopotamus, and keep your nostrils out in the open. Again, minimal clothing.
# Posted on July 10th 2004 by petemay
Re: practice practice practice
Reading above about the encounter with highland pipes in a park - I used to live in Walmer, a little suburb of Deal (where I now live) and Walmer has a nice castle. Deal is a Cinque Port (this is a quaint English thing round the Kent and Sussex coast, some charter from hundreds of years ago), and the cinque ports have a Lord Warden, who comes to stay one weekend a year, ceremoniously, in Walmer Castle. Until she died, the last Lord Warden was the Queen Mother. Well, one Sunday morning I woke up at 7.30am to hear the distant strains of the highland pipes. Who the hell can that be at this time on a Sunday morning? I thought. Later, relating this tale to my brother, he told me the Queen Mother did not use an alarm clock, but employed a piper solely for the purpose of playing under her window every morning at 7.30am.
The castle was about a mile away, so that's a lot of people getting an early morning call. I don't think anyone would have complained. Ah, but then we are English...
# Posted on July 10th 2004 by petemay
Re: practice practice practice
hahahahahaha... brilliant Pete!
# Posted on July 10th 2004 by Phantom Button
Re: practice practice practice
Wow, what a weird gig that would be -- the Royal Alarm Clock. hahaha
# Posted on July 10th 2004 by Phantom Button
Re: practice practice practice
wow! these are all excellent suggestions, and thank you very much!
Especially liked the one about soundproofing the toilet until I can't hear myself pee! hahahahahahaha!
# Posted on July 10th 2004 by swearbox
Re: practice practice practice
A boy in my class at school was learning the clarinet and used to go into the local park fairly early in the morning to practice before going off to school. Sure enough, one year there was a report in the local paper how an unseasonably early cuckoo had been heard in that park.
Trevor
# Posted on July 10th 2004 by lazyhound
Re: practice practice practice
What, the Hornpipe, the Cuckoo?
If my wee laddie's around, my practice goes pear shaped. I want to spend "quality time" with him, and the rest of my fambly, of course. Also, Ro, my girl, has to get her piano (and sometimes violin) pracko in. Then after 8.00pm there's a moratorium while the wee man enters the Land of Nod (Tir na Nod). Then I might get some odd half-hour in, but I don't really like practicing on my own too much. I prefer sessions.
I re-started practicing at lunch time in a lecture theatre where I work, but I can't handle doing that too much. I usually like to run at lunch times, to get out the building. So on days when I'm practicing at lunch I have to run to and from work (both ways added up maybe 7.5 - 8 miles.)
At weekends I'm either away from home at our caravan, or if at home, there's usually a DIY reason for not getting out of London.
I get away with this situation because I did used to practice a fair bit, and that I reckon has now become hardwired into the various components of neuronal circuitry in my brain. But, unless I continue to update by getting big lumps of pracko in when I can, then I do experience attrition of skills.
# Posted on July 10th 2004 by Key Maniac Lad
Re: practice practice practice
I should have punctuated my penultimate sentence in that post, to read:
....and that, I reckon, has now become hardwired...
# Posted on July 10th 2004 by Key Maniac Lad
Re: practice practice practice
I used to get some practice in on the 'ol concertina during my lunch hour sitting on the steps of the Saint Francis of Assisi church next door to where I was working in North Beach. A few people would sit on steps nearby and eat their lunch -- and they didn't seem to mind at all. And the occasional tourist would stop and make remarks like, "Look Mable, it's a push-fiddle. Din yer pappy play one of dem?" But one day, I was practicing away, and the setting was very much like what I just described... when all of a sudden, to everyone’s astonishment, a pile of newspapers over by the wall started to move and a homeless guy emerged from beneath and shouted, "CAN'T A GUY GET ANY SLEEP AROUND HERE?!!!"
# Posted on July 10th 2004 by Phantom Button
Re: practice practice practice
I practice both the piano and the button accordion under the house (in a room, not a crawlspace I hasten to add), and the house is only weatherboard. The neighbours are less than ten feet away. Talking to them across the fence the other day I casually mentioned that I hoped the playing wasn't too loud - the answer was that they heard the piano occasionally if they were in the back garden, and they'd never heard an accordion at all.
Then a saleslady came to the front door (upstairs) while I was hammering away on the box and said to my wife "oh, what lovely flute playing!". Make of that what you will - it still puzzles me somewhat...
When I lived in England I used to walk home past a junior school gym hall in which there was an Irish piper in full regalia practicing most nights. Not sure why he used to dress up to practice, but it was probably the only place for miles around he could let rip.
# Posted on July 10th 2004 by bc_box_player
Re: practice practice practice
I definitely agree about talking to your neighbours; you'd be surprised how often people just don't hear what's going on next door.
A couple of years ago when I was learning to play the cello I was also very conscious of my neighbours being able to hear me (especially the guy who'se lounge room was next to mine. I discovered through careful listening that he liked to watch TV every night between 7 - 8 pm, so that's when I did my practice, as he wouldn't be able to hear my playing.
# Posted on July 10th 2004 by Ptollemy
Re: practice practice practice
PS Don't think of it as "practice", think of it as "playing". It seems a small difference on paper (computer screen) but can sometimes make a big difference to your attitude - it worked for me!
# Posted on July 10th 2004 by Ptollemy
Re: practice practice practice
I used to do some snare drumming and would practice for hours on end on this great rubber pad, which I thought no one could hear. Then one time my neighbor said they could hear me but they thought it was great. She said she listened to it, closed her eyes, and it was like drops of rain on her rooftop.
They grew marijuana in an aquarium.
# Posted on July 10th 2004 by swearbox
Re: practice practice practice
Actually, in my old house, I had a huge bathroom/wc, which resonated superbly, as many lavatories do, being mainly devoid of fabric.
I used to shut the lid cover, and sit on the loo seat for an hour or so playing my accordion, just for the instant reverb. My playing sounded loads better. So if you can avoid it, DON'T soundproof the loo.
In my present house, I've designed my big kitchen especially for sessions - big quarry tiles on the floor, and split banboo rolled binds at the windows. Luckily I have a detached house, but the kitchen is absolutely great to practice in.
I'm sorry Paddywhack, this is not kind of me, as I'm rubbing salt in your wound. My humble apologies.
# Posted on July 10th 2004 by petemay
Re: practice practice practice
During the summer when its hot I open the windows to practice or rather "play" the piano in our front room, and very often I get a gathering of people outside the house to listen to the music.Mostly I think though its an excuse to stop and chat to their neighbors.(some people need an excuse).
# Posted on July 10th 2004 by Justintime
Re: practice practice practice
A friend of mine,who has a farm,recently bought an old red public telephone box at an auction for 450 quid.He keeps it in the front garden of his bungalow as an ornament and it looks great.It could easily be carried inside by a group of people and when you consider what pipers,fiddlers,box-players,fluters etc.pay for their instruments-into thousands, you would have to admit that whistle players get off pretty light at less than a fiver for a nice whistle-so why not invest in a practise studio like my mate,who incidentally,has pulled a lot of birds as a direct result of his owning a big red box.
# Posted on July 11th 2004 by cos
Re: practice practice practice
Supporting what Tyghress said, I found that a great way of getting rid of my inhibitions about playing was to go busking! It was terrifying to begin with - I went alone - and I played terribly for the first few tunes, but then realised that I was just part of the scenery, most people didn't even look at me, and then I started getting money which was nice
After that, I worked on Iona last summer and in the evenings I would go up Tor Abb (the mound in front of the Abbey) and play there - it was a fabulous place to play, with brilliant acoustics, and one evening as I was playing, people started appearing gradually, with food, drink, other musical instruments, and some even started dancing! It's brilliant the way the music brings people together like that, it always does, if you play with feeling, and you shouldn't be shy!
# Posted on July 11th 2004 by haylien
Re: practice practice practice
Kitchens are definitely the place to blow. Quarry tiles, no soft furnishing (well apart from the top of the cooker but that's another story) and instant reverb. I can get a sneaky hour to myself most late afternoons. On the other hand here in boring Devon, there are no neighbours for miles and miles and my mum is deaf....but I'm too knackered to play a note! Maybe tomorrow
# Posted on July 11th 2004 by Sarah the Flute
Re: practice practice practice
I think it's good that you're sensitive to your neighbours and others within earshot.
Hearing someone play can be lovely, but it can be incredibly annoying when you're repeating that tricky phrase over and over in order to "nail it". I know this because Mrs Bren as reminded me many times.
However, although the sound of a whistle may carry in open air, it seldom if ever penetrates walls. And, as annoying as lack of sensitivity is, the flipside is that something played boldly is less irrritating than something played hesitantly. Play up until they complain.
# Posted on July 11th 2004 by Bren
Re: practice practice practice
Nice one Sarah, we must have the same kitchen mentality! I do the sneaky hour first thing in the morning - my son is two floors away up in the attic and needs a bomb to wake him at that time.
But how come the top of your cooker is a soft furnishing? Doesn't it catch fire when you boil an egg?
I've never had a blow in my kitchen. Is that because I play the accordion?
# Posted on July 11th 2004 by petemay
Re: practice practice practice
I also agree with Hayley about busking; it's great for ridding yourself of inhibition. I'm normally quite a shy performer if I'm in a spotlight on my own, but after busking for a while, with no personal disasters, you stop worrying too much about what you sound like. I have suffered in the past from being too inhibited about practising within earshot of other occupants of my house. You have to live with them! I'm actually not as bothered about what the neighbours think.
When my son was about 14, and into Eminem etc, not ITM (he still isn't), he begged me not to practice when his mates were round. Why? "Well, Dad, I don't want to go to school and get the nickname 'Son of Paddy'." !!!
# Posted on July 11th 2004 by petemay
Re: practice practice practice
It's good to know I'm not the only one suffering from inhibitions or shyness. But I am happy to say that I spent a couple of hours over the weekend playing (not practicing) with the newly discovered 'tape over the hole' system on my whistle, and was delighted with it. And even better, today, when I was sure no one was around, I even took the tape off, and was playing with more confidence....just wait til 6 months from now, I might even have improved!
# Posted on July 11th 2004 by swearbox
Re: practice practice practice
How about talking to your neighbours and saying "Don't listen"
# Posted on July 11th 2004 by showaddydadito
Re: practice practice practice
Jim, I reckon you're definitely on to something there... correlation between girlfriend and practice, or lack thereof. No girlfriend means I can come back at 1 in the morning, practice till 4am and no repercussions! I'm living in a caravan, so no thin walls and no neighbours to complain...
I definitely think my playing's advanced significantly more in the last year than it would had I been in company. Occasional loneliness just acts as a further spur to play more of those melancholy slow airs... and then some rousing reels to cheer meself up again!
# Posted on July 12th 2004 by rog
Re: practice practice practice
Oops, that should have said "no thin walls with neighbours behind 'em to complain".
# Posted on July 12th 2004 by rog
Re: practice practice practice
Ah the old ones are the best.
Jock: "I just moved house and the neighbours are terrible - always shouting and banging on the walls."
Hamish: "So what do you do"
Jock: "I just ignore them and carry on playing the pipes."
Dave
# Posted on July 12th 2004 by showaddydadito
Re: practice practice practice
See I just knew that there was something about men who have special relationships living alone with their instruments..... Hmmm nuff said.
As for my cooker, Pete, it isn't supposed to be a soft furnishing but things sort of get left by the infamous "it wasn't me person" who lives in our house and it turns into a soft furnishing and unless the infamous magic fairy normally me clears it up we have soft furnishing!!!!
AAAAARRRRGHHH! Devon is SOOOOO boring and now instead of going to the session tomorrow night it looks like I have to set up a computer for one of the grey surfing friends my mother has acquired!!! Will I survive????
In angst Sarah
# Posted on July 12th 2004 by Sarah the Flute
Re: practice practice practice
oh well, you've always got Sidmouth to look forward to...
# Posted on July 12th 2004 by rog
Re: practice practice practice
When my husand was learning the banjo he'd walk across the street on his lunch hour to the town cemetery and park himself among the headstones to play. He said it was the only place no one ever complained.
# Posted on July 13th 2004 by winterhawk
Re: practice practice practice
There's a joke in there somewhere...."What do you call a banjo player in a cemetary? A good start."
# Posted on July 13th 2004 by Will CPT
Re: practice practice practice
We had a great session one weekend in my apartment and things livened up quite a bit when the wine was flowing and some more when some people started to dance. It heated up considerably more when the young couple downstairs inevitably came to complain at around 10pm.
I heard next day that this same couple met another (elderly) neighbour in the lift and complained that people had been in my apt. the evening before actually dancing in time to our music.
"How nice", she replied, "so few people can actually keep time these days"
Joe
# Posted on July 13th 2004 by Joe Quinn
Re: practice practice practice
Jim, Rog - nice thoughts but luckily I only have to survive Devon for 2 more days before I return to civilisation! Having grown up there I know what it is like .... believe me Bampton would be a heaving metropolis in comparison to here!
I am now off to practice on my own assured that there will be no neighbours to complain. Oooh come to think of it my mum's kitchen has quarry tiles.....
Sarah
# Posted on July 13th 2004 by Sarah the Flute