Klarinet Archive - Posting 000089.txt from 1998/05

From: "John J. O'Neill" <avodah@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Clarinet Specific?
Date: Mon, 4 May 1998 01:15:08 -0400

Several years ago, when I was an apartment dweller, I had difficulty in
practicing my clarinet because of neighbor hostility. (I don't think that
it was the quality of my playing, but rather just the fact that I was
playing at all.) Practically everytime that I played, the neighbor in the
apartment below would bounce a basketball off his ceiling. I tried to work
around this by incorporating the 'bounces' with metronome settings, but
they just weren't even enough. In desperation, I would go to a shopping
center's parking lot and park far away from other cars. (In those days,
Sundays were always good because the shopping centers were usually closed.)
It was raining the first time that I did this, so I could even use the
windshield wipers to keep time. No one bothered me as I played, but a few
drivers did circle around me. I guess they wondered why a lone car was
even there on a Sunday. In retrospect, I suppose that, with wipers going,
windows steamed, and noises emanating from within, all this looked highly
suspicious. Anyhow, I did not practice this way very often because the
cold of winter and the wood of my Buffet were not compatible. Also, it was
difficult to balance the music atop the back of the front seat.
Everything was solved, however, when I bought my own house. David
Blumberg's post evoked this memory, which, incidentally, is really true.

J. O'Neill

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