Where do you practice

[Rick Denney]

My practice room is our living room, in which the piano also resides. My wife and I have a pact: When she can't take it (you know what I mean when I say that), I don't practice. The other 3.5 weeks of the month it's not a problem.

My wife plays the piano for her own enjoyment, and her playing never bothers me at all, except for those occasions when I can't take it (such as when I'm working at home, which happens about...once a month). On those occasions, she doesn't play the piano.

The pet rabbit likes the tuba, but the cat sits at the door and screams to be let out. I generally ignore her opinion, and she still comes to me for her hourly massage when I stop playing the tuba, so I guess there are no hard feelings.

The bigger issue is not the other residents of the house, but the neighbors. In our previous house, I practiced in a room set aside for that purpose in the front part of the house. The neighbor across the street complained because I was disturbing the sleep of her infant who she insists must have a room on the front side of the house, who must grow up with open windows, but who must still never be disturbed. I moved to the basement. The neighbor still complained. I stopped playing at 10 PM. The neighbor still complained, but that time I told her to get used to it (through her husband who had sheepishly informed me of her complaint, and who clearly did not want to be the bearer of my negative reaction). At the time, I investigated the sound ordinances in the town and determined they can mean what anybody wants them to mean, but only after 10 PM. I took up wood-working, too. A table saw is a lot noisier than a tuba, even with the garage door closed, heh, heh.

One question a friend of ours asked was, "How are kids in band supposed to practice?" I wonder what my neighbor will say when the people who bought our house complain when her precious baby grows up and joins the band (or, more entertainingly, forms a garage band with amplifiers and drums).

Moving out into the country was at least in part motivated by the desire to get away from snooty, nosy, and persnickety neighbors. I got fed up with accommodating all their little wierdnesses but them not accommodating ours.

Rick "who admits that the lady across the street may have been a music lover" Denney

[Rick Denney]

You could always practice in that fiberglass tube in your driveway...

Might as well get some use out of it.

Rick "just kidding...sort of" Denney

[Tabor]

I practice in the "treasure trailer" held together with sticks and glue!

[MaryAnn]

Well, in general, I don't practice tuba. Sorry about that. I seem to be able to produce the level needed for the amatuer groups I'm in, without practice outside of rehearsals. Not claiming any huge expertise, here.

Horn....in the living room, with the bell pointing into the foyer, because that's the best resonance in the house. One cat doesn't care, the other one bolts as soon as brass anything enters the room. I don't have time to practice more than one instrument seriously.

MA