Would you let your kid do this?

[ducklite]

I just got back from walking the dog. A kid on the far end of the block is probably about 11. He just started school, and obviously just started taking trumpet lessons. He's outside in the driveway "practicing." Which because he's probably had maybe one lesson at this point means that he's blowing into the thing in order to make any noise possible come out of it.

I'm far enough away that I can't hear him, but the poor neighbors! Would you let your kid practice his trumpet (or any other instrument for that matter!) outside in the driveway?

Anne

 

[mommasita]

Never..

I have an 11 year old son, and I would NEVER allow that outdoors...

He has his drums in the soundproof basement, and believe me, that is where it will stay.

 

[MichelleVW]

Nope...not unless I live FAR out in the country and had no neighbors..

 

[Beth76]

No way!

 

[taximomfor4]

No I wouldn't allow it. In our house, instruments are practiced in the owners' bedrooms.

Of course, Irish Dance practice must be done in my dining room because that's the only place the dance squares fit -- so that must be practiced during the day when nobody in our own house is trying to sleep.

As for the trumpet in the driveway, I hope the neighbors don't have a napping baby!!

 

[NeedaVacation03]

We live out in the country so I would probably say yes. But then again my kids play flute and clarinet so they are not real loud. So far they have not ask if they can play outside. But they have played for several years so it actually sounds like music.

 

[taximomfor4]

Forgot to tell this little story about kids when they first start an instrument. My brother started playing alto sax. He was bad, REALLY bad, even for a beginner. We had a German Shephard named Thales. Usually, whenever my brother began practicing, the dog cried so I let him into the basement or outside.

Well, one day, I was in the shower when my brother began practicing (sounded like a strangling goose). I heard a super-loud crash-BANG. Thales had BROKEN THE WINDOW out of the back storm door to get outside, and way from my brother's practicing!!

If my brother had practiced in the driveway, the house values would have plummeted on our street.

Beth

p.s. My brother quit the sax. He loved his sax, but loved his dog more.

 

[RI&BMOM]

Nope - all of our kids are in the band and it can get pretty noisy inside our house when they are all practicing, especially before performances. I can not imagine them doing it outside.

 

[freckles and boo]

It couldn't be any louder than the hordes of teenagers trying to shout over one another as they walk home from school. Noise passing as music really doesn't bother me, though. My kids have had toy instruments and percussion instruments since they were tiny. We have "parades" up and down the stairs and through the house. The piano lesson scene from the Aristocats is regularly reproduced on our piano (although now that my older daughter is taking real lessons she isn't "banging" any more). I would be respectful of my neighbors and insist my child played indoors, but I don't think I would be terribly annoyed if one of the neighbor kids did this.

 

[SharkyGoddess]

My son practices inside, but he is 1st chair Sax and I love listening to him. I will say though, before I would worry about my son's Sax playing bothering anyone outside, I would have to complain about the guy across the street who "tunes" his race car daily from about 5 until 9 or later on the weekends, his daughter and her friends who can't seem to hear one another no matter how closely they stand to each other and sound like Lemurs bellowing back and forth, then there is another neighbor who's daughter (in her 20's) sits right outside my bedroom window and argues with her SO, or their inability to turn the "chirp" feature off of their cars and wake me and get the neighbors dogs barking at all hours when they come and go. My point to all of that, unless you are deathly quiet, there are probably many day to day things you do that annoy people around you.

 

[SwedishMeatball]

It would depend if I liked my neighbors. JK!!

 

[Talking Hands]

My daughter has been known to practice outside at times. Neighbors never complained. In fact they would come out to listen. She would go to competitions in elementary school and teachers from the middle and high school would stand outside the door to listen. I can't even think of a time that she sounded terrible. She picked up viola and it was hers! And it still is. Of course she has upgraded to a better instrumnet now, but she still has her first baby viola. We bought it for $1000 and people have offered her up to $6000 for it.

 

[petrymom]

It would depend if I liked my neighbors. JK!!

 

[kathie859]

You see/hear all sorts of things in the 'burbs. If one of the neighborhood kids took up practicing an instument in his driveway, as long as it wasn't midnight, I wouldn't mind at all. I always kept the windows open in the summer when the kids were home and outside playing because I enjoyed the sound so much.

There's someone about 3 blocks from us who has taken up the bagpipe. He plays in his garage with the door open (I've walked by to check it out) That's ok, too. It sure beats loud mufflers and kids blasting gosh-awful music from car audio systems cruising the neighborhood!

 

[LittleBlue22]

did this boy's parents have their windows closed? maybe he was sent outside to practice for a reason. just sayin. hmm, if this kid was my neighbor.... I'd definately be hiding as far away as I could or find a reason to leave the house.

Come to think of it, I remember practicing my tap dance routines in our garage/driveway with the music blaring.

 

[Karel]

I have to listen to the neighborhood's teenagers - young adults party until 3 or 4 AM so I'd have no problem letting my kids practice their musical instruments outside.

We don't have central air and usually the windows are open in our house anyway, so even playing inside there would be music leakage.

 

[SplshMtn99]

We lived in the country & only had a few houses near us. I used to practice my clarinet outside. The elderly neighbor said she liked it.

My bedroom was in the attic. No air conditioning. SUPER HOT. Outside was just cooler.

 

[SwedishMeatball]

We lived in the country & only had a few houses near us. I used to practice my clarinet outside. The elderly neighbor said she liked it.

That's because she'd turn off her hearing aid.

 

[SplshMtn99]

That's because she'd turn off her hearing aid.

No, she didn't HAVE a hearing aid.

Actually, I was pretty good. I played 3 intruments & taught private music lessons as a senior in high school. So, it actually was music I was playing.

 

[GlowingEye]

I played the oboe for a little while. My parents MADE me practice outside. I couldn't even practice in the basement. Then, when my little sister took up the cello, she practiced in the family room every night... Argh!