Klarinet Archive - Posting 000152.txt from 2004/09

From: "Ken Wolman" <kwolman@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Interesting conversation - giving lessons in residence
Date: Thu, 9 Sep 2004 09:34:24 -0400

Donna Higgins wrote:

>
> Ormondtoby Montoya wrote:
>
>
>>council added a clause that says (paraphrased) "If it annoys someone, and
>>if a police officer agrees, then it's an illegal."
>>
> And probably unconstitutionally vague. Laws must *clearly* tell people what
> is prohibited. "If I'm annoyed and a cop agrees" doesn't cut it.

I would think that someone who is offended (and isn't everyone offended
as by Divine Right by SOMEthing nowadays?) needs to file an official
noise complaint, at which point the cop--surely a music critic--requests
you to damp it down.

> I don't know how long that clarinet teacher has lived in her apartment, but
> I wonder if she really thought about the practicing and/or lesson issue when
> she chose a place. When I was looking for a place two years ago, it was the
> foremost consideration (along with being able to keep my cats). I knew I
> would end up in an apartment because I had (and still have) no hope of being
> able to buy a house.

Common courtesy and common sense apply, don't they? I would never play
anything--including recorded music without earphones--after 10 PM on a
weeknight nor would I wake up at 6 on Sunday morning and blat away to
the frustration of people and their dogs.

> I found a ground-floor unit, bordered on three sides by the outside, and on
> the fourth side by a garage and laundry room. I have upstairs neighbors,
> but they've never complained. The current neighbors, in fact, play loud jam
> sessions on electric guitar and keyboard most evenings. I haven't
> complained because I'm out of the apartment most evenings, and when I'm here
> and I hear them I know it's safe to practice my Eb! :-)

They're smart: you're cutting THEM a serious break and they probably
know it. We had neighbors in another house down the block who had a
garage band you could hear from 200 feet away while they were IN the
garage. On summer nights it was like being in a dentist's chair. But
they didn't go beyond 9 or 10 PM and they did not start early. Hell, as
the Sartre quote says, may be other people, but sometimes you've gotta
share the brimstone and figure out how to make decent barbecue on the
hot coals.

> Plus, I don't want to give them any incentives to complain about me.

You protect each other, in other words. At least it's music. "If you
don't complain about my clarinet playing I won't accidentally let it
slip that you're running a brothel." Nice stuff like that:-).

> Another nice aspect of my setup is that I live 1/2 mile from my office. I
> often come home for lunch and I can usually get 30-45 minutes of practice in
> during the lunch break. It's great because everyone else in the building is
> at work.

Be grateful. That is an awesome arrangement. The only way I could
manage that would be to get a job stuffing and licking envelopes out of
my house.

> "L'enfer, c'est les autres."

Yeah, it can be. But there's that wonderful story that I always tell
wrong about the difference between hell and heaven....

ken
--
Kenneth Wolman
Proposal Development Department
Room SW334
Sarnoff Corporation
609-734-2538

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