Ever been yelled at by the neighbors for practicing?

[slide_advantage_redoux]

I guess this is something that every musician has experienced. You are minding your own business, trying to improve your musical skills and a neighbor takes offence.

Care to share any colorful memories of such events? I'll go first.

When I was in the Jazz Knights big band at West Point/USMA I shared a place with another musician (from the concert band). One evening I was in my bedroom practicing. The apartment had the old exposed heating pipes. As I was playing (around 9pm) I began to hear banging on the pipes in the corner of my room. Not thinking it was in response to my practicing, I kept going.

Then all of a sudden I hear these wonderful words of encouragement from my upstairs neighbor (which incidentally were the first words he ever spoke to me):

"WHY DON'T YOU SHOVE THAT HORN UP YOUR ASS?"

And this neighbor was the same guy who would play his stereo full blast all the time. We never complained about it. We just figured it was the compromise of apartment living.

About this time my clarinetist roomate walks in and asked what happened. I shared what the guy yelled. Then my roomate asks me to let him see my trombone. He takes it, aims it directly at the ceiling and proceeds to create the most elephantine noise I have ever heard outside of a zoo.

You just have to love tolerant people!

Edited July 22, 2007 by slide_advantage_redoux

[7/4]

Back in the mid-'80's I had a neighbor who was really into calling the cops on my gtr. playing. We were on the 2nd floor with a driveway between the windows - separate buildings. One afternoon, the bass player and I were digging into Zappa's Black Napkins and the cops showed up. Later I borrowed a Sousa tape off my Dad and waited 'til dark. Cranked up the boom box and in between phrases of Stars and Stripes Forever, shouted "Fuck You!" over and over.

Ah...I'm sure they loved me, but they never called the cops again.

Edited July 31, 2007 by 7/4

[Joe G]

I have been yelled at for practicing, but I don't have any funny stories.

[catesta]

No, but I've yelled AT the neighbors for practicing.

Not music though, just stupidity.

[Jim Alfredson]

When I lived in Ann Arbor, we were in this shitty apartment on the ground floor. One night I came home to 2" of water in the entire apartment. I had vinyl records on the floor, my Hammond C2 and Leslie, etc. But that's another story.

Anyway, yes I had a Hammond C2 and Leslie in the apartment to practice on and I put the Leslie in the corner, one wall of which was the "shared" wall of the apartment next door. The folks that lived next door were a pair of 70+ year olds that never left their apartment and their total loser of a son, who had to be approaching 40 but lived with his parents and smoked pot all day. But man, did he have an awesome Camero!

So all day, every day, all I heard from their apartment through the walls was the TV. It was always on and it was always blarring. One afternoon I'm practicing the organ and they start yelling at me through the walls to stop. It is 2pm in the afternoon. I keep playing. They start getting mad and pounding on the walls. I yell, "What's wrong? Can't hear the goddamn TV?" Then I play even louder. They threaten to call the cops. I said, "Go ahead! It's 2pm in the afternoon!"

This went back a forth a bit but never really escalated. A few months later the flood happened and we got the hell out of that place. I always wanted to wake up really early on a Sunday morning (like 5am) and start playing church hymns extremely loud for them, but I never did.

[randissimo]

No, but I've yelled AT the neighbors for practicing.

Not music though, just stupidity.

I had a young teen aged student who had an anal neighbor who would call the cops within 2 minutes of his practicing. This happened so frequently my student though determined became frustrated and stressed out and the family knew the whole sheriff's dept on a first name basis! The kid got so frustrated at one point he considered quitting and selling his drums! At one point I thought about getting about a dozen drummers together and havin' a LOUD JAM in front of the neighbors house! :rsmile:

After I made the suggestion several times to the family, they finally looked into the ordinances in their neighborhood and township and found out he could legally practice during certain hours and the neighbor would just have to lump it..

Edited August 1, 2007 by randissimo

[7/4]

That's the weird part, my story happened during the day time. I just didn't know the laws...

[Jim Alfredson]

Most ordinances state that anything between 8am and 6pm on weekdays is fine (the times shift a bit for weekends). Think of how many times you've been awakened by road constuction crews or the neighbor's leaf blower or someone doing work with power tools. Why is practicing an instrument any different than that?

[Chalupa]

I've been yelled at and I've yelled at others.

I've found that talking to the neighbor in question yields better results than calling the cops. Most people would rather work out some kind of compromise instead of getting hassled by the cops/landlord. There is a house across the street from us(we live in a row house on a tiny street) that is a rental. When a bunch of loud kids move in I make it a point to introduce myself and explain that I follow the Sangrey 10/10 rule(not before and not after). When I've yelled at people its been for not honoring the 10/10 rule or for playing TOO LOUD. Example - the kids across the street will do stupid shit like practicing w/ the windows wide open and putting their amps right IN the window. I mean that's not acceptable behavior at ANY time of day. About a week after the latest group moved in they decided to have a full band practice w/ a drummer, windows wide open on a Sunday at 11:00pm. I'm mean c'mon! Close the fucking windows dumb asses. So the next morning I had a talk w/ two of the kids and it's been relatively quiet for the past two weeks. Crossing my fingers....

[Chalupa]

Oh and I forgot to add... earplugs are great for sleeping

[Man with the Golden Arm]

I had to yell at my condo neighbors when i lived in providence. shared a bedroom wall and them boys always played the slide trombone loudly, so to speak...

[catesta]

I had to yell at my condo neighbors when i lived in providence. shared a bedroom wall and them boys always played the slide trombone loudly, so to speak...

Years ago I was living in a condo with paper thin walls.

I thought the dude next door was playing a trombone but it turned out to be gas.

[Free For All]

I had to yell at my condo neighbors when i lived in providence. shared a bedroom wall and them boys always played the slide trombone loudly, so to speak...

Years ago I was living in a condo with paper thin walls.

I thought the dude next door was playing a trombone but it turned out to be gas.

[catesta]

I didn't mean to imply....

[mikeweil]

Once a neighbour asked me to close the windows when her child was sick, but I was never yelled at, luckily.

I was yelled at a few months ago when I was still hauling stuff around between first floor and basement at 11 pm, with the lights on, on the outside. But those neighbours always complained about everything, and their landlord had enough soon after and made them leave. Their successors are freindly and have nice children.