What Do You Do When You Have Neighbours Who Hate Your Sax Playing?
What Do You Do When You Have Neighbours Who Hate Your Sax Playing?

What Do You Do When You Have Neighbours Who Hate Your Sax Playing?

saxophone mute, blue, electronic,
Vibes Sax Partner Source: vibesmusic2006 on eBay.com

A thread I read on SOTW this morning, got me thinking about my living situation. I have made a conscious decision not to move back into Vancouver. This decision is primarily due to the fact that I play a very loud instrument.

As likely many people know, Vancouver has some of the most expensive real estate on the planet. Twenty years ago I nearly bought a house there. It’s too bad I didn’t, because today the most I could afford is a condo—and not even a very big one.

I live in a suburb of Vancouver. This allows me to have a house, in which I can make as much noise as I want from 7:00 AM to 11:00 PM. After 11:00 at night, it’s possible that the neighbours could phone the police about my playing, but it’s highly unlikely.

My studio is situated in the centre of the house, and the only room of the house that is partially underground. The chances of being heard outside are pretty close to nil—unless I have the windows open. 😉

In the thread Help! My neighbours hate me… , the OP, ThelmaTheSelmer, described an incident that left her rather shaken:

I was playing alto for a while and now I’ve got my beautiful new tenor and tonight I was practicing and I literally heard this: “Shut the f*** up you p****k” repeated continuously and quite agressively. When I played my alto, my neighbour Jon banged on the wall so I saw him and sorted things out and assured him I wouldn’t play before 11am or after 10pm. Tonight, I don’t think the guy shouting out was Jon. Whoever it was though, they obviously hate my guts and I don’t want to **** them off any more as they sounded, very very angry, it was quite frightening…

To try and quiet her playing down, the OP tried a saxophone mute. That didn’t really work. Nor did playing in different areas of the house, or playing softly.

 

A variety of SOTW members chimed in with all the usual suggestions (e-mutes, playing in the closet, soundproofing a room, etc.). One member also provided photos of custom practice chamber that she had built, which was very unique.

After 79 replies to the original post, I’m not sure that ThelmaTheSelmer is any wiser. Really, what is the answer?

A friend of mine lived in a townhouse in White Rock. In her basement was a totally soundproof room. She told me that the previous owner had been a drummer. Yup, that’s one way to do it. I can’t imagine what that would have cost though.

If money is not barrier, your choices are pretty limitless. However, most musicians I know, don’t have a great deal of excess money to soak into a room. And if you’re renting, that likely doesn’t make much sense anyway.

In any event, I thought this was something worth writing about. Since the majority of the world’s people don’t live in single family homes, just how do those of you who live with neighbours close by, deal with your instrument’s noise level? Have you taken to practicing somewhere else? Did you invest in an e-mute? Did you build a soundproof room? Or did you come up with some other creative idea?

…this is just my blog. My “real” website is www.bassic-sax.info. If you’re looking for sax info, you should check it out too.There’s lots there!
 

6 Comments

    1. Hi Rob.

      Which are you talking about? I mention a sound-proof practice room that someone built, but also show a couple of products. Are you talking about the Vibes Sax Partner? If so, I originally saw it on eBay, but more recently—like this morning—I found their website that they created for South Africa. (At least it provides brochures and videos to check out.) This website from China seems to be the company’s main site—at least I think it is. It contains a lot more info than the one they provide for South Africa.

      After checking out all the info, if you are interested in ordering one, I would suggest you check eBay to see if they are still available there.

      As for practice rooms, there are companies that make them, but they are expensive. Most players on SOTW have made their own. I’ve never done any research into them, but I suspect a search on SOTW would turn up a wealth of information on the subject.

    1. Hi there Emmanuel. Welcome to my site.

      That looks really good. Congrats on that project.

      This type of project you took on is very inspirational to people I think. It gives us an idea of what is possible in a small space, and for a fairly small amount of money as well.

      Thanks for dropping by and sharing.

      Regards,

      Helen

  1. Willard Wood

    Hi, My early career was ALL Big Band and Church Hyms circa 30’s and 40’s. I first record my songs on my keyboard All in the key of eb which means I don’t have to learn to play my alto in diferent keys. I use big band and jazz accompaniments and I play only between one and five PM daily. My neighbors in the mobile home park compliment my playing and a few sit on their porches to hear better !!! Common sense tells me that 8 AM or 10 PM playing would change their response dramatically !!

    Have a nice day–

    Willard

    1. Hi there Willard.

      Welcome to my site. I’m sorry it’s taken so long to reply to your comment.

      I think that being considerate to your neighbours is definitely the key to harmonious relations. (Pardon the pun.) 😉

      Unfortunately, I also suspect there will always be some cases when no matter what you do, your neighbours will not be happy. In those cases, some form of sound-proofing (either in the form of a room, or an e-sax) will be necessary.

      I would think also, in some places or neighbourhoods, you just don’t want your neighbours knowing you have a sax. Why invite trouble? What can’t be heard, can’t be stolen.

      It’s a sad commentary on the current state of our society, but people regularly get their houses broken into by desperate addicts, willing to steal anything that they can get a few bucks for at a pawn shop. Their first stop after the pawn shop: a local dealer, to buy the crack, or other street drug.

      For these reasons and more, sometimes no matter how good my relations with my neighbours, and how far they live away from me, I prefer to not have them know my sax business.

      Thanks for the visit Willard. I hope you drop by again sometime.

      Regards,

      Helen

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