Practice paranoia

Duck

Member
57
UK
I try to be reasonably diligent about practicing, and whilst it doesn't always get done every single day, it's usually at least three or four times a week. The problem I have is that I am paranoid about my neighbours hearing and being bothered by my sub par playing, which by the very nature of practice is repetitive and mistake laden.

This then causes a lovely feedback loop, as my anxiety over annoying my neighbours actively worsens my playing, making me more anxious and so on. As I'm slowly making progress the music is getting more complex and frequently higher in pitch amplifying the problem. If I know my neighbours are around I will play as quietly as I can, ruining my tone and frequently struggling to play cleanly after 20 minutes.

I realise that this is dumb, and I should just man up and get on with it, but If any of you have advice on overcoming these anxieties, or at least arresting their direct affect on my playing I would be very grateful.
 
Learning to play quietly is a good skill to have so that time isn't wasted. Any time you are worried about your playing it is bound to have an impact on the sound as you won't relax.

If they have never complained I wouldn't worry 🙂

Jx
 
Playing into the wardrobe seems to be a relatively common way of 'muffling' the sound (as long as it's not a built-in one on a shared wall!).
 
Buy a detached house?

I'd prefer it people (including Mrs W) couldn't hear me practising, but it's just something you have to learn to live with. If you can manage an hour practising altissimo on soprano without feeling guilty then you know you've cracked it. Good luck.
 
If you're on good terms with your neighbours, have a word and ask if it's bothering them. Sounds like it probably isn't. I don't even know the name of the person currently living in the other half of our semi, he avoids eye contact whenever I see him. So no guilt for me right now.

As for the vanity side of it, remember that if you sound good when you're practising, you're probably practising the wrong stuff.
 
totally with the OP. No problem performing in front of thousands, I struggle if someone can hear me practice. just have to learn to ignore them
 
Playing into the wardrobe seems to be a relatively common way of 'muffling' the sound (as long as it's not a built-in one on a shared wall!).

Mix this idea with some studio foams (cheap from ebay I gues) and get a nice practise cabin for yourself. It might not stop the noise completely but I am sure it will reduce things.
This is what I am planning to do when I start living in my own place anyway I never tried it but when I was in highschool we built a studio with my band members and we had to stop the drums bothering all the neighbourhood so we covered everywhere with wood, foam, and studio spongey stuff and it worked.
 
No need to line the wardrobe. The clothes in the wardrobe muffle the sound. Move suits aside just enough to poke the saxophone in and blow away.

Take the sax for a walk to the park. I used to take mine for a walk along the local canal or out into the countryside. I sat in a meadow one day playing with my eyes shut. When I opened them I was surrounded with cows.
 
I used to wonder if my neighbors can hear me playing. Even though the houses are on 1 acre lots I can hear when somebody down the street is blasting their stereo. My wife said she could hear me when she went to the mailbox out on the street. Nobody has ever said anything at all, good or bad. I don't even worry about it anymore.
 
Playing quietly is a good thing to be able to do. I feel bad about it sometimes too, we're in a detached house but the neighbours still hear. Luckily they are normally quite forward in telling me when they can hear improvements 🙂 It almost certainly doesn't bother them as much as it bothers you, if that's any consolation.
 
Normally I have no neighbours, but a couple have moved into the house next door for a while, coinciding, sadly for them, with my teacher's determination that I shall not avoid learning scales any longer and that I can use my week off work to make a good start on them.
 
I shall not avoid learning scales any longer.

That is my problem. With neighbour I feel like having an audience,
Usually I leave my songs noodling for when neighbours are at home.

I used to have a housemate that hated jazz, but she loved falling asleep while I was practicing Rascher's 158 studies.
 
That is my problem. With neighbour I feel like having an audience,
Usually I leave my songs noodling for when neighbours are at home.
Yeh, I've felt pretty self-conscious today. But I shall have to get over that, as I must learn them, I don't want to see his face at my next lesson if I haven't.

I used to have a housemate that hated jazz, but she loved falling asleep while I was practicing Rascher's 158 studies.
😛 I've heard that Rascher's studies can have that effect - on the saxophonist too sometimes.......
 
Thank you for all the great feedback and suggestions, it's very reassuring to know that I am not alone in my discomfort.

Moving sadly not on the cards, but I think I shall try shifting my practise into a small back bedroom - no wardrobes, but plenty of books and bedding to try and absorb some of that pesky sound. Also I can shut the door on that room and am unlikely to hear my neighbours moving about, which is the really off putting thing. If I can't hear them then hopefully they will cease to exist...at least in my mind, and I can get back to dutifully practising scales as well.

It really is amazing what an almost catastrophic effect tension can have on my playing, I need to work on overcoming this as much as anything else I'm learning.
 

Similar threads... or are they? Maybe not but they could be worth reading anyway 😀

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