winding up the neighbours

peter_forshaw · Jun 13, 2008

Hi all
time for a new subject I think, after all the great info and advice re mouthpieces, a problem has arisen for me that I am sure some of you will also have experienced. Namely complaining neighbours.

I suppose living in a terrace is not the best place to be when practising, but I have no other choice, so a solution has to be found!

Surfing the music shops I see there are available practice bags, and some sort of bungs that you shove up each end of the horn.
As these are not cheap, ?89 and ?35 respectively, I wonder if anyone has tried these, and are they any good?

Opinions and advice most welcome. 🙁

dooce · Jun 13, 2008

Get a very large and aggressive alsatian/doberman/bull terrier? At least it will stop them coming round to complain.

peedee · Jun 13, 2008

dooce wrote:
Get a very large and aggressive alsatian/doberman/bull terrier? At least it will stop them coming round to complain.

I daren't they'd probably complain.

Col9 · Jun 14, 2008

We have a similar problem, end terrace house and annoyed neighbors. Only with us we have 4 of us practicing, a bari a tenor a trumpet and a french horn. We explained to them that we have to practice and that we will with them in mind. We wont practice during songs of praise or coronation street. or after 7:30pm in the evening. Other than that it wont go on for hours but they will have to put up with it a bit. Then we remind them that it could be worse and we dont play drum and base 24/7 and never have party's.

We seemed to have reached a happy medium where they have a lighthearted moan from time to time and we just get on with it hopefully not being to annoying.

Col.

jadoube · Jun 15, 2008

Our neighbours 10 year old decided he wanted to play sax too - best solution all round.

peter_fitton · Jun 15, 2008

Have looked at these muting devices myself in the past. The bag things and the e-sax mute are prohibitively expensive (especially the e-sax - ?450 for a tenor from sax.co.uk), so that leaves the spongey things. I seem to remember Nachoman saying that these only reduce the sound by about 30% and not the 50% claimed by the manufacturers :S still, possibly worth investigating.

In the meantime, try playing directly into a clothes filled wardrobe. You feel stupid but it really does make quite a difference.

Cheers

Peter

Mikec · Jun 15, 2008

I think Col9 has it right. Playing a musical instrument is a perfectly legitimate thing to do. If you play at reasonable times and for a reasonable length of time no-one has any grounds for complaint. Any formal complaint would, I'm sure, not be acted upon by the noise police.

peter_fitton · Jun 16, 2008

Not entirely sure that's true, Mike. There was an item on Radio Manchester news a few months ago about a couple who both played violin in a local orchestra - the Halle I think. They had their fiddles confiscated by the council after neighbours complained about the noise. And they didn't even practice in the evenings 😡

Peter

Mikec · Jun 16, 2008

Peter Fitton wrote:

Not entirely sure that's true, Mike. There was an item on Radio Manchester news a few months ago about a couple who both played violin in a local orchestra - the Halle I think. They had their fiddles confiscated by the council after neighbours complained about the noise. And they didn't even practice in the evenings 😡

Peter

On the face of it that's horrifying, but perhaps they played for many hours? I remember a pianist being fined locally for excessive noise, but he was playing for up to eighteen hours a day, which is unreasonable by any standards. If you play your Hi-Fi too loudly for too long at times when it disturbs your neighbours, it's liable to be confiscated, but the vast majority of us have Hi-Fis which we use reasonably with no problems, I can't see why a musical instrument shouldn't be the same.

tryinghard · Jun 16, 2008

Hi there,

I got one of the spongy sax mute things, three separate bits of orange sponge to stuff into parts of the sax. It brings the volume down, but only by a shade in my opinion. I wanted to be able to play in the house when the kids went to bed - no joy.

I've stopped using it as it doesn't deliver what I needed, but it might be enough for you.

As an amateur, I'd say it equivalent to "playing softly" without a mute.

Pjonah · Jun 16, 2008

Col9 wrote:
We have a similar problem, end terrace house and annoyed neighbors. Only with us we have 4 of us practicing, a bari a tenor a trumpet and a french horn. We explained to them that we have to practice and that we will with them in mind. We wont practice during songs of praise or coronation street. or after 7:30pm in the evening. Other than that it wont go on for hours but they will have to put up with it a bit. Then we remind them that it could be worse and we dont play drum and base 24/7 and never have party's.

We seemed to have reached a happy medium where they have a lighthearted moan from time to time and we just get on with it hopefully not being to annoying.

Col.

During Songs of Praise!! Jeeks is that still running?

Draw a pentangle on the front of your house, dress as goths and adorn your house with Goats skulls, it works every time, when I have a family like Ned "adiddly" Flanders living next door! A few low A semibreves on the bari at 2.00 in the morning is usually enough to get the hounds baying.

Nice one!

PaulyT · Jun 16, 2008

Peter Fitton wrote:

Not entirely sure that's true, Mike. There was an item on Radio Manchester news a few months ago about a couple who both played violin in a local orchestra - the Halle I think. They had their fiddles confiscated by the council after neighbours complained about the noise. And they didn't even practice in the evenings 😡

Peter

The council/Police don't just come along and confiscate stuff. They investigate the complaints, check noise levels, issue warnings and then, if all else fails, they take action. Still a bit of a bugger having some oik from the council confiscating your Stradivarius though!!

Col9 · Jun 16, 2008

Draw a pentangle on the front of your house, dress as goths and adorn your house with Goats skulls

17 or 18 years ago that would have been almost normal behaviour for us. >:)

Still got my painted leather jacket somewhere.

Col.

jonf · Jun 16, 2008

Peter Fitton wrote:

Not entirely sure that's true, Mike. There was an item on Radio Manchester news a few months ago about a couple who both played violin in a local orchestra - the Halle I think. They had their fiddles confiscated by the council after neighbours complained about the noise. And they didn't even practice in the evenings 😡

Peter

I wouldn't read to much into what you hear/see/read in the media. A few years ago I had a job which resulted in very frequent news publicity, and I can say that, absolutely hand on heart, every single story, be it in tabloid, on the telly, broadsheet or whatever, was at best highly selective reporting. Much of it was a complete fabrication.

If there was a confiscation order against two musicians, I wonder what else was behind it. Exercise of any sort of legal powers by statutory authorities is a complete pain in the arse, generally only used as a last resort, and I find it very hard to believe some bloke at a council took action just because he felt like it.

jadoube · Jun 16, 2008

...every single story, be it in tabloid, on the telly, broadsheet or whatever, was at best highly selective reporting. Much of it was a complete fabrication.

I'm sure you'll not be the least surprised to hear that's still true today Jon.

peedee · Jun 21, 2008

Only with us we have 4 of us practicing, a bari a tenor a trumpet and a french horn.

Blimey, I'm glad I don't live next door to you!
No, actually, I wish I did, then I might be able to join you!
Thanks for info, I'll remember the Songs Of Praise bit. 😛

peedee · Jun 21, 2008

Jadoube wrote:
Our neighbours 10 year old decided he wanted to play sax too - best solution all round.

Thanks for that, unfortunately the moaning neighbour is past having kids. They have three on the other side, but they not the ones moaning, in fact they said they quite enjoy listening to me practicing! Don't quite know how to take that really. :S

peedee · Jun 21, 2008

Peter Fitton wrote:

Have looked at these muting devices myself in the past. The bag things and the e-sax mute are prohibitively expensive (especially the e-sax - ?450 for a tenor from sax.co.uk),

In the meantime, try playing directly into a clothes filled wardrobe. You feel stupid but it really does make quite a difference.

450 quid? that's more than the sax is worth. I'll settle for the wardrobe, have to be the wife's though, she's got more clothes than me! 😛

peedee · Jun 21, 2008

Mikec wrote:
I think Col9 has it right. Playing a musical instrument is a perfectly legitimate thing to do. If you play at reasonable times and for a reasonable length of time no-one has any grounds for complaint. Any formal complaint would, I'm sure, not be acted upon by the noise police.

Yeah, quite agree about the legit thing. Trouble is, the neighbour is not reasonable. I hope they do call the noise police round, then if its not over the accepted level, then maybe they would shut up.

peedee · Jun 21, 2008

TryingHard wrote:
I got one of the spongy sax mute things, three separate bits of orange sponge to stuff into parts of the sax. It brings the volume down, but only by a shade in my opinion. I wanted to be able to play in the house when the kids went to bed - no joy

Thanks for the info TryingHard, looks like i'll have to go for the practice bag. I'll let you know if it works.