Where do you practice?

[Dreamer]

Right now I practice in my bedroom, but lately have been thinking about practice places since I go to college in a couple of years. So where do you practice?

[mutepointe]

I practice where I @#$% well please. I'm an old man. I practice a lot waiting in my car. Now that summer is here, playing outside is an option. I like practicing in my pool or on the water. The sound carries on a lake. If you have the opportunity to play in a stairwell or a cave, go for it. You'll sound good.

[Feadoggie]

I practice where I @#$% well please.

I'll second that!

Feadoggie

[Dreamer]

I practice where I @#$% well please.

I'll second that!

Feadoggie

I'm still pretty bad at all the instruments I decided to learn, Penny whistle, guitar, harmonica, fife, and keyboard (The keyboard is bulky and has a headphone jack, so no practice worries). They would probably kick me out of any stairwells, but it would be fun to while it lasted and funny to have them kick me out. As for in the car I have the opportunity when there is any reason to wait in the car. So far it is my favorite place to practice. I shall begin to roam around playing, sounds like this will be fun!

[Denny]

I practice where I @#$% well please.

I'll second that!

Feadoggie

d'uh thirds

[MTGuru]

So where do you practice?

Practice what?

[ytliek]

I practice where I @#$% well please.

I'll second that!

Feadoggie

d'uh thirds

I got last, I'm a "newbie"

So where do you practice?

Practice what?

[Innocent Bystander]

I practice where I please.

The U.S. in general has larger houses and more open space, both enclosed and outdoors. Here in the U.K. there is a greater population density - rooms are smaller. Comparatively speaking, space is at a premium.
I share a house with three other people all of whom have varying degrees of autism - we are all Aspergers Syndrome types - and all of whom are extremely sensitive to noise. I am permitted to play classical guitar in the house, but not whistle.

Once I practised at the end of the garden. The neighbours made a point of remarking how much they enjoyed it, and my family objected bitterly.

Now I take my bag of whistles to work, and lunchtime is my practice session. I go out to the park, five minutes walk away. Sometimes I get rained off, but not that often. The dog-walkers know me, and sometimes in summer the children come and ask questions and wangle a go on the whistles. Because the climate is mild, it's rarely too cold to play. Oddly enough, it's in March and April that my fingers go numb. In January and February I'm bundled up warm and my extremities don't lose so much heat.

The post-office is nearby, and the postmen have told me that they can hear the tunes a mile away. The people who live around the park sometimes thank me for playing, saying that it cheers them up in the middle of the day. Nobody so far has indicated that they object. I've even been invited to perform elsewhere.

I'm glad I don't live somewhere with a greater population density, like Japan or the Phillipines. I don't know how people manage there.

[Hotblack]

I practice in our spare bed/computer/study/office/music room (a multiple use space if ever there was one). We're on the end of a terrace so only one neighbour to annoy and as I work odd hours I can practice during the day without disturbing anybody. I occasionally practice in either the bathroom or the kitchen for the acoustics.

[kkrell]

I've even been invited to perform elsewhere.

As have I - anywhere else.

[maki]

I practice just about everywhere. I usually keep a rugged Susato Whistle in my pocket.
The exception is when I'm with my wife who does not like me playing in public.
Even with my very low level ability I've gotten compliments on my playing form strangers.
Of course they don't know what good Irish Music is.

[Dreamer]

So where do you practice?

Practice what?

Playing MUSIC on an instrument

I've even been invited to perform elsewhere.

As have I - anywhere else.

Me too! Luckily only my family has "invited me" so far.

[Katharine]

I have trouble with this too. I live in an apartment, and the kitty can't stand anything higher than a B-flat whistle, so... I try not to practice at home. Bad enough my neighbors have to listen to me sing. (I've tried tape and blue-tack as mutes, but I've found the problem with both is that they mute the low notes too much and the high notes barely at all, which is like the opposite of what I need...)

Often I'll practice in my car (I have a carport so it doesn't get too hot), because I'm not gutsy enough to practice out in the yard; half the neighborhood would hear me. At work, I'll go across the street to the duck pond and sit at the picnic table there (but if anyone is about, I suddenly become very interested in studying my music until they are gone).

As you can imagine, this makes winter practice tough.


I just don't have the chutzpah to take my whistle somewhere and practice where people could hear me. I'm still pretty bad at it, so it's not a good idea. (And even if I were smashing at it, I'd still be embarrassed. Plus, I'd hate fielding the questions-- I'm there to practice, not explain whistle theory to every person who walks by... I'm not nearly social enough for that sort of thing.)

Wish I had a woodshed.

[mutepointe]

I have some comments to say about you folks who don't like playing where people could hear.

Back in the day, BAC (before air conditioning), we got to hear what our neighbors were up to. There was always someone in our neighborhood who was learning an instrument. One of the kids across the street practiced accordian the whole time I was growing up. I remember "Hang on Sloopy" a lot. We all heard him make mistakes and we all heard him play nice. It was nice to hear him progress.

I've lived in a few places. In some of the neighbors that I lived, I was the only musician. The neighborhood where I live now has an electric guitar player that plays country and a rock band that is playing loud. There is also a guy who plays electric guitar or bass but I've never heard him play but he sure does get a lot of company at his house that just stops by for a few minutes. That's it out of around 100 people. Playing musical instruments is almost a dying art around these parts. You wouldn't think so. The new kids in the neighborhood will come up to me when I'm playing on my porch and ask me if I'm a music teacher. I guess that's the only adult they've ever seen in person that plays music.

Play in your neighborhood. It adds flavor. People enjoy the music. If they don't, they'll turn up their TVs.

I suppose if your whistles are too loud, you might try flutes or bamboo whistles. I have some bamboo whistles that are quiet. You might even try some other instruments. Harmonicas can be quiet.

[Katharine]

Can't do it. I refuse to be "that guy." I hated the people who used to live below us with a passion because their kids were always screaming (and crying. And throwing temper tantrums) at the top of their lungs. I don't want my neighbors hating me similarly-- "OMG, there she goes again with her high-pitched squeaks and squawks. It's not bad enough she was singing opera last night?" I'd like to think they might enjoy it...but... *I* don't even enjoy it. I whipped out a tune for my partner a couple weeks ago (granted, I was just tossing it out there real quick so it was a bit worse than normal) and all he had to say was, "Oh my." I took the hint (part of the reason I only practice all of my various musical endeavors when he is not home is because he has actually left the apartment before while I'm practicing, because he feels I'm being too loud and he doesn't want to be there and be embarrassed when the neighbors come complaining). I am honestly afraid that one of these days I'm going to get a nasty call or letter from management about all the amateur music coming out of my apartment. When the guy across the hall moved in, I instructed him to feel free to bang on the door if it got to be too much (luckily he's not done so yet).

At least the geese that hang out at the pond haven't attacked me yet when they hear me play; I think that's the best I can ask for.

I generally like hearing music (unless it's awful-- one of the former downstairs neighbors also kept playing the same piece over and over on their crappy-sounding piano and over the course of MONTHS did not improve on iota), but I'm a music geek-- I can't expect other people to feel the same.