Dealing with frustration to not being able to practice open at home

[mickael57280]

Hi, I would know if some people are in the same situation as mine.

I live in an apartment (project kind of), isolation is kind of non existant so practice my trombone open is not an option.
I can practice at my music school but it's not always open, so sometimes I can practice at home with a bremner mute.

The problem is that when I can practice at my school it make me angry because I must always take my car, find a free park place, walk 15 minutes, and when I make a pause between two practice sessions I feel I lost time because I have nothing to do, and I must do that 7 days a week.

When I have no other choice to practice at home, the necessity to practice with the mute is annoying but it's so much convenient to stay at home because you can practice when you want, don't have the urge to not waist time because you have a room at school only for 3 hours.

I often thought about leaving trombone for trumpet or sax just because I can buy a practice box to install at home.

So I want to know if someone there is in a similar situation and what do you feel about it.

Thank you

[harrisonreed]

I can only practice at work.

Leaving horns at work or school and having to drive to them to practice works out better. Having limited time forces you to become efficient and get better. You must have goals in mind and use your time to accomplish them.

You mention not being able to take a break because you feel you would waste time, and wish you could be at home so that there were distractions and things to waste time doing. It's kind of a backwards wish. Music should be thought of like your job. Go in, do your job, and then do the other things you want to do.

This is kind of a "first world problems" kind of situation. If your plan is to make a career out of music, get used to not practicing at home. You rarely will make enough to afford a house you can practice in that is close to where the music is, so you play at work.

[BGuttman]

Biggest problem with a practice mute is that they muffle the sound so you PLAY LOUDER. A practice mute that can atain the same volume as unmuted is a better choice. I like the Yamaha Silent Brass, but there are other practice mutes with either electronics or a stethoscope (Peascemaker). I was able to set up my Yamaha Silent Brass and my Peacemaker so that the sound with the mute was the same as what I heard without the mute. Note that Peacemaker is really intended for French Horn and only fit my bass trombone.

Of course you still have the problem of the resistance, but that's part of the game.

[Burgerbob]

Are you sure you can't play at home? I live in an apartment and I do.

[BGuttman]

Practicing in an apartment at odd hours (like 2 AM) is a good way to get evicted. Generally practice between 9 AM and 9 PM is usually OK. If you can't be home at that time you need to use some sort of sound deadening.

[harrisonreed]

Christian lindbeg built a room inside a room that was about a foot inside all the walls in his apartment to practice in

[Matt K]

I had an apartment lease that prohibited playing a musical instrument at all in the lease. Was a $50 fine... with increasing penalties for repeat offenses. I was occasionally tempted to pay the fine But I eventually settled on the Yamaha Silent brass mute. I actually didn't use it with the electronics all that much though they work really well for making sure you're playing at an appropriate dynamic (not over/under blowing etc.). ANd you can pipe in accompanying tracks and drones which is nice. I had my corner setup so that I could relatively easily get setup... I found that was one of the things that caused me to not practice was the labor of getting everything setup. Once it was easy... I practiced more.

That said... at least you have a place you can play acoustically. It isn't an all-or-nothing proposition. You can practice 3 days a week with the acoustic which will incur 45 (or 90?) minutes of walking which... isn't the worlds biggest deal. Only bring literally two or one thing to practice so you aren't carrying too much. Additionally, take a score or something else you're doing musically. If you only practice trombone, you aren't necessarily going to be the most well rounded player. There's a lot you can do on the classical front by listening and following along to a score. On commercial stuff, transcription is possibly half as important as being able to play. Then you're taking advantage of the 'break' in between sessions. (And you may well even get more done if you do several smaller breaks too fwiw).

And you say you also have to have to drive and find a place to park --- I don't know what your actual situation is but perhaps you could optimize that a little better. Is it a limitation because of how much you are carrying? Are there alternatives to carrying that much? Or other ways of carrying? E.g. I carried a hard yamaha case to school when I was in HS because I didn't really even know there were alternatives. I also drove because I lived in a relatively rural area and the bus would have taken multiple hours of my day whereas driving was a ~15 minute trip. At any rate, now when I take public transit, I really like using a gig bag and travelling as light as I can. I've found that I used to carry a LOT of unnecessary stuff. Another thing that I try to do is actually memorize things so that I can practice without the music itself. Works for solo repertoire, standards, excerpts, etc. It isn't totally practical to memorize everything but there are absolutely a few things that are great to have memorized. Even a decade later, I still can play Hungarian March in my sleep even though I seldom touch that anymore. But if I needed pull it out... I wouldn't even need to pull the music down off IMSLP lol

Another thing that's helped to consolidate what I carry is tablets. I used an iPad for a few years and recently switched to a used Surface tablet. You can get them for a pretty reasonable price used/refurbished. Doesn't necessarily help you foucs but it does help you carry things around.

Hopefully some of those ramblings helped. One final thing, I'm assuming you're not doing this but you may well be... but if not it, if you spend 10-15 minutes of the time you would have spent in a practice mute planning out what you are going to do that week... you can get a LOT accomplished if you're focused in say 3 days of practice. More, in my experience, than 7 days of unfocused practice. Trust me on that one. I did much more of the latter than I'd like to admit when I was in college.

[Pre59]

I've had to use a practice mute for over 10 years now, and I'm well used to it, but then I also use buzz aids etc. The trick is having a good open transition practice before the event, but then everyone else is warming up as well, so no big deal.
I made choice to live in a better area, with a better life, but having to use a mute.. I can live with that. (A Don Maslet.)

[mickael57280]

Hi, where I live is like projects you have in the US (I'm in France) so the music usually blasting is kind of agressive hip hop and in the beginning when I tried to play open I receive a quick knock on my door for the best or a loud "shut up your f*****g trumpet".

And can't build a room inside a room because I renting.

[bsantero]

I live in a major metropolitan area with neighbors and fairly thin walls. Practicing is a bear. Fortunately, I can practice at off-hours at work, but scheduling that is tough. My favorite practice mute for tenor is the BestBrass, not perfect for extreme ranges, but suffices for maintenance/technical studies as it blows decently free and kills enough of the resonance as to not bother people. The other best strategy is to get to know your neighbors, bribe them with baked goods, and ask them their schedules to see if there's a compatible "practice time".

[bsantero]

And can't build a room inside a room because I renting.

If you have the corner space, you can build a "collapsible" room that would break door when you move. Consider it furniture! I have a couple friends in NYC who have done this. If you need some ideas, I can reach out to them.

[harrisonreed]

I think Lindberg just built the room anyways.

[norbie2018]

It sounds like you want to make the best use of time when you're at your music school/practice location. Here's one method that might work for you:

Invest in a digital recorder if you don't already have one. Record and listen to your warm up, daily routine, etudes, solos, whatever you're working on. When listening, come up with specific goals to work on for that section of practice. If you have several limit it to 2, you can always revisit those other goals later. Practice with those goals in mind, recoding yourself and listening back. Listen to the recoding during practice time offers a chop break. You'll find yourself making efficient use of the practice time you have and your progress will likely speed up.

[2bobone]

Let's face it folks ---- we play an instrument that needs the "wide open spaces" to acclimate ourselves to a reinforcing semblance of what we really sound like to the rest of the world. I applaud the resourcefulness of those who can navigate their way around this dilemma with the use of isolation booths and practice mutes, but it is a problem that only seems to be less solvable as the years progress. In the early 60's I used a 3 Head Tandberg Tape Recorder to expand the physical space in which I lived in [a one stall garage converted to living space] by recording myself as I played and then tapping the the third recording head to play back over loudspeakers what I had played only an instant before. In this age of digital audio, this may seem oddly strange, but please believe me that it worked very effectively. By keeping me "fooled" that I was really in a large, open and reverberant space, I was able to breath accordingly, relax and play with an ease that nothing else at that time could provide. It was the world of analogue with all the attendant aggravations of cuing up reel-to-reel tapes, dealing with the mechanical realities of their relatively reliable transports and at the same time trying to concentrate on the music. Today, the only similar system I am aware of is the Yamaha "Silent Brass" system. it takes a bit of setting it up properly with high quality earphones and consciously using the power supply that comes with the unit. The battery unit simply doesn't supply enough juice to accommodate our transient-spiked output ! Try it --- you'll like it ! With the increasing density of our cities and the decrease of living space within them, we trombonists have our work cut out for ourselves.
To our friend who finds the daily hassle of commuting to a place where he can comfortably play in a rewarding manner a "chore", let me just say this ---- It IS a "chore", but one with a reward at the end that far surpasses the effort required. Being a professional musician ain't a "Walk In The Park" ! Whatever "Skin in The Game" you invest, you will profit on the far end in ways you cannot imagine while on the journey. Onward and upward !! Cheers to all !

[fsgazda]

Are there any nearby churches that you can talk to? I have a friend in London who trades use of the sanctuary for occasional free music for services. It worked out great for him.

[Doug Elliott]

There is plenty of "practice" you can do without the horn. Freebuzz, play "air trombone" with or without the instrument to work on slide technique and alternate positions, transcribe, listen to recordings of previous practice sessions....
Practice when and where you can, and do other stuff at home.

[Mikebmiller]

Pillows. The solution is pillows:

[SwissTbone]

Now that got me laughing for some minutes. Thank you for posting!

[SirJohn]

When I was in music school (which was forever since I went through and got my doctorate, too) I generally had to be at the school a minimum of five days of the week, if not every single day, so I just made sure I allotted adequate practice time during the day each and every day I was at school (even if it meant practice early in the morning). I would do the drive in anyway even on days where I did not have to be there. The concept of being in a music school and not being there almost every day is a little foreign to me (except after doctoral coursework is completed) given courses, ensemble requirements and whatever extra groups/recitals that you end up participating in. And, yes, I did all that while simultaneously working full time hours for several of those years. In some ways, getting in a practice room by myself and practicing was therapeutic for me and was generally more productive than when I eventually lived in a place where I could practice at home. Making an extra drive to school just to practice once or at most twice in a week I've always seen as part of the job of a musician and you can always plan to do errands after you are done practicing since you are out in the car anyway. It's a matter of planning your other activities efficiently around your practice time.

[jazztonight]

It's always amazing to me that neighbors will RARELY complain about a variety of loud and obnoxious noises outside that come from leaf blowers, motorcycles, helicopters (there's one flying overhead right now), jackhammers, and major construction going on all day, BUT the'll never hesitate to complain about some poor guy in his apartment, with the window closed, trying to practice his instrument (me).

I am learning to play the trombone (I play piano and flute), and use a practice mute (I found a lightweight Protective Liberty mute). So far, so good. But I rarely get a chance to play out. One thing I do sometimes is drive to a park and practice in the back seat of the car. I do what I must. As I get better on the horn (I've never played a brass instrument before), I'll think of other strategies.