Volume "concerns" during practice?

[Byrdmando]

I live in a very small house. About 900sq. feet. I have a six month old son that goes to sleep at 7pm. I usually can not start practicing before 10 or 11 at night. As soon as I do start practicing, inevitably, I will hear my wife say from upstairs that I am "playing to loud and going to wake the baby". I am already trying to play as quietly as possible and still make the music sound as it should.

Do any of yall have this problem and if so, what have you done to remedy it? Do they make some kind of tool that will mute an acoustic instrument (mandolin/guitar) but allow you to still have the "feel"?

Any help would be appreciated.

Byrd

[man dough nollij]

This has come up before, with some interesting suggestions. Something I'd like to try is to put a balloon in each soundhole, blow them up to where they more or less fill the body with no tension, tie 'em off, and leave the knot sticking out. When done, just pop the balloon. I've never seen any balloons down here, or I'd try it myself. Luckily the dorm rooms in my building are like bomb shelters.

[journeybear]

Sometimes I do my late night "practicing" on my electric - unplugged, of course! If you don't have one, you can get a MandoBird on ebay for around $150.

I don't think balloons are going to stop the sound, unless they're filled with water or sand or something more dense than air. You could try stuffing the holes with bandanas or T-shirts or something like that. Or maybe something rubber, like bike inner tubes. I dunno. Seems to me the important factors are density of material and tightness of fit.

Good luck!

[John Flynn]

I have tried putting stuff in the sound hole on ovals, either a sponge or socks (clean!). That works, but it's a pain. I've also tried using a pressed felt ukulele pick. That works pretty well. But the best thing I've tried is the easiest of all: I take my right hand and put it is the "loose fist" pick grip position that is most often recommended. Then I just extend my index finger so it protrudes toward the strings. I use my fingertip as a "pick." It feels very natural to me, but it's very quiet.

[Bertram Henze]

No good muting the mando - it takes much of the response and all of the fun out of it.

Wherever I have to avoid disturbing anyone I practise sitting on the passenger seat of my car, the instrument case on the driver's seat (with the back rest tilted back). The windshield gives very good reflection.

Bertram

[alanz]

A solid body electric mandolin with a Vox Amplug AC30 plugged into a set of headphones makes for nearly silent practice.

[250sc]

I know it depends on the baby but when they're tired babys can sleep through a marching band. You might not have to be as carefull as you think. Convincing your wife could be a problem though.

[Miked]

How about a pair of earplugs for your wife?

[Bertram Henze]

I know it depends on the baby but when they're tired babys can sleep through a marching band. You might not have to be as carefull as you think.

There is a point. If the baby is used to hearing the mandolin from the time of pregnancy, he might even wake up when the playing stops.
It is not easy to prove, though. For instance: you play, baby sleeps; wife says "stop it", you stop; baby wakes up and cries, wife says "see what you've done!"

Bertram

[Rando7]

Maybe not a popular answer for your wife, but if the baby gets used to a very quiet house that's what he'll want from here on out. If he gets used to music being played in the house he'll adapt pretty quickly. I'm not saying to crank an amp to 11 and do power chords but some low-key acoustic stuff should be OK. And tell your wife to quit yelling down the stairs, she'll wake the baby!

[Coy Wylie]

Try wedging a piece of foam rubber next to the bridge. It will mute the sound but not totally.

[Dragonflyeye]

Get a white noise machine for the baby's room. I use one (set on "Yosemite Falls") and can sleep through any high-volume, late-night TV that my husband's indulging in. And I'm a light sleeper! I practice mandolin with him sleeping 50 feet away (another small house), and it doesn't bother him. I got my machine at Sears for about $20.

Anita

[John Ritchhart]

Tell her that the practice sounds are sublimnally wiring your child's brain for music and mathematics and not practicing loud enough for him to hear is irresponsible.

[Steve Cantrell]

I began playing mandolin when my wife was pregnant with my son David, and then began practicing in earnest when he was an infant. As a result, I had absolutely no volume whatsoever and had to basically start from scratch when I began playing with others. I had no control over the pick when playing at any volume besides don't-wake-the-baby. You might consider some porch-picking, or maybe even some low tech methods like drop ceiling tiles on the walls and towels under the doors.

[aphillips]

Yeah the Bill Monroe Effect is even better than the Mozart Effect...its science.

[Jill McAuley]

I'm gonna try the unplugged electric mandolin route - just put some $$ down on an 8 string Jerman. Will probably play it plugged in with a friend's band and then have it as my unplugged late night practice mandolin, which will keep both my neighbors, and my dogs happy. The "quiet enjoyment" clause in my lease means that the Pomeroy has to go to bed by 10pm, trouble is that I very rarely feel like ceasing to play by 10pm. Of course the Jerman will open up a whole other can of worms - I'll most likely stay up til the wee hours playing once it gets here, with total disregard for the fact that I have to get up early for work the next day... It's a hard life if you don't weaken....

Cheers,
Jill

[journeybear]

I have a four string MandoBird, and it's pretty plinkety-plinkety unplugged, but that's OK. Late night "practicing" usually means figuring out chords, playing through chord progressions, or running scales, so tonal fidelity isn't paramount, just geting the notes right ...

[mandroid]

My friend , a professional [big expensive loud grand piano] pianist , has made a building built within a building and a foot of dead air in between, as the music room in his converted garage.
double inner/outer doors double widow in each wall etc. , can't hear a thing standing right outside, with both doors shut .

[journeybear]

I want that! Can I have that for my bedroom? Oh, never to be awakened from slumber ahead of time, ever again ... ... ... ... ...

[abuteague]

You are adapting your life to the baby.
But the baby also adapts to you.

Do you really want your baby to have difficulty sleeping unless it is perfectly quiet? Do you really want to take a vow of silence for 10 to 12 hours a day? What are you going to give up next, solid food?

You play Mandolin after all, a most inoffensive instrument. We are not talking about a banjo here. If it was banjo, perhaps I would understand. Banjo or bagpipes and I'd say take it out of the house; your SO has a point.

My wife and I took our little newborn to our choral practices for 8 months. It was fine. It was a routine. Sometimes she would fall asleep, and sometimes she would babble a little. Now she is 7 and loves to sing and sings confidently. Coincidence?

If my daughter has real difficulty falling asleep, she sometimes will ask me to come in and play my electric unplugged. I'm happy to accommodate her.

I for one think that little ones can use all the subliminal background mando music possible. Don't practice mandolin less now that you have a little one. Play more. Make music part of how you interact with your little one. I say practice at night, as it does the child no harm and it energizes you to be the best parent you can be. It keeps you sane. I feel just obnoxious if I feel like I haven't had time to do the things I love to do like play mandolin, and that is no way to be an effective parent. You are taking care of yourself.

I have two children and I make no apologies for playing music at any hour of the day or night. We have 1100 square feet or so. After the kids go to bed, I might play mandolin or ukulele, but not fiddle. That is because I'm not all that good at fiddle yet. Sounds terrible like a sickly cat. I play fiddle at noon time and if they are home, the rest of my family goes outside suddenly to do yard work. My wife might play cello though at night if she is so inspired.

Well, good luck. That is a tough spot to be in. Keeping peace in your home is important, but don't give up being who you are.

[journeybear]

Keeping peace in your home is important, but don't give up being who you are.

This really sums up the quandary Byrdmando is facing. I've neve endured parenting and the changes it will put you through, so I'm not a good source of advice. I prefer to think, though, that the OP's wife may have been having a bad day and didn't understand the effect her statement had on him. I do run into a somewhat similar scenario with my roommate, who gets upset when I make even the tiniest bit of noise at night, but seems quite unaware how her letting the screen door slam is jarring, despite my mentioning it repeatedly. I dunno, people just seem oblivious to the golden rule. Can't we all just get along?

I'm a little concerned because we haven't heard from Byrdmando since he posted concerning his vexing situation, and I do hope he hasn't taken the wrong bits of advice to heart, acted on them, and set in motion a calamitous chain of events.

[Jim]

My children often fell asleep while I or my band were practicing and that was in my mostly electric days. All three turned out great and are musicians and music lovers as well. When bed time for your child arrives take the child and your mandolin and play/sing him or her to sleep.