Klarinet Archive - Posting 000148.txt from 2004/09

From: "Karl Krelove" <karlkrelove@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] Interesting conversation - giving lessons in residence
Date: Wed, 8 Sep 2004 22:41:50 -0400

This is a hard one to react to for me. I have never gone to a student's home
to teach - I've always taught at my own home or at a school. I did teach in
an apartment for awhile, but it was a duplex, the owner lived below us, and
he agreed explicitly that it would be alright to teach in the apartment as
long as it wasn't late at night (or early on Sunday morning). This situation
is different because it's evidently unfolding in an apartment complex of
some kind.

The writer clearly doesn't mean it when she says she doesn't want to cause
her neighbor any trouble - if she meant it she would have dropped the
subject once she and her clarinetist/neighbor had discussed it. The trouble
is she doesn't give the clarinet teacher above her much in the way of
alternatives. Either she (the clarinetist) moves her teaching to some other
site - the students' homes, rented commercial studio space or a school to
which she would have to refer students (and be paid less) - or, if her
downstairs neighbor decides to complain formally, she needs to move out. The
lease seems a little problematic - what is "loud" noise, is it generally
understood and consistently enforced that the provision means "later than
9PM" even if it isn't explicit, did the clarinetist discuss teaching in the
apartment with the manager before the lease was finalized (and receive
permission), does anyone else in the complex near these two apartments make
objectionable noise to which the writer has not objected...? It doesn't seem
to me that any clarinet student plays loud enough to qualify as "loud" in
apartment terms. Sometimes unpleasant, perhaps, but not "loud." Where, I
wonder, does the upstairs neighbor do her own practicing and why, if it's in
the apartment, has the letter writer not complained about that? Etc....

The letter writer sounds to me like someone who needs more to keep her
busy - too much TV and free time. If she files a formal complaint, the
manager will need to deal with it, and it may well mean asking the
clarinetist to move out, but it seems as though a person could tolerate
nearly anything not physically painful for four or five hours a week - even
beginning clarinet students. I think if the letter writer is not "totally
unreasonable" she is being at least somewhat so.

My 2-cents...

Karl Krelove

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Stacy-Michelle [mailto:stacy-michelle@-----.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, September 08, 2004 7:37 PM
> To: klarinet@-----.org
> Subject: [kl] Interesting conversation - giving lessons in residence
>
>
> In doing some research on clarinet teaching, I came across this
> interesting thread at
> http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/apt/msg010310341286.html
> regarding "noise" in apartment from teaching clarinet lessons.
> Below is the original post and I got a good chuckle from some of the
> responses. I'd like to know what you all think about the issue:
>
> "Hey everyone...I was wondering if you could give me some advice as
> to what to do about my upstairs neighbor. Every Monday (sometimes
> sunday) she holds clarinet lessons for some children from about 4pm
> to 9pm. Since she lives directly above us, so the sound from the
> clarinet goes directly down and fills our living room. We have tried
> to ignore it and turn our television up, but even that has not been
> enough to drown the noise out. When we asked if there was any way to
> suppress this, the woman claimed that this is part of her income and
> can do nothing about it. Now, I'm not totally unreasonable, and i
> try to understand that....but in all fairness, she signed the same
> lease my husband and I did....the one that states no loud music (of
> any kind) is permitted. I even called my management office to
> explain the situation and they just told me how my neighbor was a
> part of a local orchestra, so thats why we kept hearing music and
> that they can't do anything about the noise because it doesn't occur
> after 9pm (although my lease does not say anyhting about certain
> times) They also stated that if we "wanted to" (in a rather annoyed
> tone) we could come down to the office and file a formal complaint.
> I don't want to cause any trouble for my neighbor, I simply want her
> to be a little more considerate of her neighbors. I love my
> apartment and plan to move in a year and a half...so i dont want to
> move out now....I just wonder if anyone has any suggestions as to
> what i can do to peacefully change this. "
>
> --
> Soulfully,
>
> Stacy-Michelle Valentine
> http://culturallysound.com
> February 2005 "Ebony Rising" clarinet recital at NYU
>
> "Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If
> you
> don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. They teach you
> there's
> a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to
> art." - Charlie Parker
>
>
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>
>

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