So Dinsdale, how was the gig?
A couple weeks ago, I spent the night at a friend’s place - we’d gone out Saturday night & returned early Sunday morning. Around 8:30 AM, the neighbor with whom she shares a wall started blasting his freaking stereo. I banged my fist on the wall repeatedly to alert him that perhaps he should turn his shit down. Of course, if I’d been slightly awake, I’d have realised that no way could my fist compete with his stereo system unless I put it through the wall.
After repeated pounding with no result, I decided I needed to go alert the child that he had unhappy neighbors. I’d fallen asleep in my long black dress & still had remnants of black makeup under my eyes; I was pissed off; I was exhausted; I was sweaty. In sum, I was quite a nasty picture.
I had to pound on the door, naturally, for him to hear me. When he answered the door & gave me a blank look, I smiled sweetly, batted my eyelashes, & said, “Hi…I’m very tired. I’m very much in need of beauty sleep. I’d really very much appreciate it if you’d turn your music down”
“Oh man, it’s too loud, huh?”
“Um, yeah. I pounded on the wall, but I didn’t think you heard me, so I came over”
“Nah, I didn’t hear any pounding, but I’ll totally turn it down…You live here??”
“Uh…I’m visiting someone. Thanks for turning it down. Seeya”
Dinsdale, your neighborhood brat-band’s website made me cry. Bad site! Bad site! Go away!
Another drummer checking in here…
Sorry about your situation even sven. I wish more beginners would learn a little courtesy. Whenever I moved into a new neighborhood, the first thing I did was introduce myself to those living around me. I immediately gave them my phone number and asked them, if I ever disturbed them, to call me rather than the police and I would stop disturbing them. I soundproofed my practice area as much as possible and would ask them if it was working ok. All young drummers need to learn to respect others. It’s a loud instrument.
Having said that, I would ask that you not do anything to necessarily discourage someone from learning a musical instrument, even the drums 
Perhaps talking to the parents or even just talking to the future drummer himself in a nice rational way will help you achieve some peace.
Good luck!
Go pick up the most annoying instrument to learn. Saxophone, Clarinet, Trumpet, something. Everyone should learn how to play an instrument anyway.
Actually, can you sing, if so take up voice training, and learn some Opera, or Arias. I am about to start up again - Soprano, myself.
Practice, Practice, Practice.
The solution is simple. Become a volunteer police officer in your town/city. Then, when the drummer (or in my case, a DJ-in-training) decides to play their vile rot at 2-3am, give them a ticket. After the third one, you can get them on ‘Disturbing the Peace’ (or whatever your towns equiv. law is), and take them in! (My mysterious midnight DJ got the hint after the 1st ticket.)
‘Musicians’ seem to think they have a God-given right to play their shit as loud as they want, whenever they want. Demonstrate otherwise, and you will have peaceful nights ahead.
Hell of a generalization there, Brutus.
True. Rephrase it to 'Some musicians…etc.
Okay, heres an update.
Despite my initial panic, it isn’t an actual drum set. Instead, it seems to be a variety of hippy drums. I can’t really complain, because they arn’t that loud and they don’t play at absurd hours. But this guy must not have a job. I estimate that he spends about half of hours between 10AM-10PM drumming. Unfortunately, those are my “sitting in bed petting the cat and reading” hours (yay unemployment!).
And he sucks. Oh god does he suck. You’d think that playing all day would make him good. But no. Oh no.
So this isn’t exactly a terrible unlivable situation. Rather, it is a slight yet constant annoyance. It’s something that I can’t do anything about, and probably have no right to complain about, but it is something that is going to bug me until one of us moves out. Why, oh why, must our neighbors always be hippies?
You might still drop him some lessons, if you can find some on the 'net.
Glad to hear your situation isn’t as bad as you thought it was. Just give him a few years, I’m sure he’ll learn something in that time.
Rilch - it was much quieter than their practices earlier were. That evening, they came around to tell their neighbors they would be playing for about 45 minutes. Which I thought was the neighborly thing to do. Then it rained briefly just before they were to start. As a result, I believe they moved into their garage with the door open, which was quieter than if they were in the driveway.
They pretty much sucked, but I was in some lousy bands myself in my time, and they are really young. There were a lot of nubile young girls standing around trying to look cool/slutty. Made me feel old as I walked by with my dog.
Opal - does that mean you will not be signing their guestbook to say which member of Manual you would like to screw? (Their parents must be SO proud!)
Which reminds me of one of the many jokes I heard while learning the pipes:
Student: Why do we have to march while practicing?
Instructor: A moving target is harder to hit.
Well, I discovered last night (at midnightish) that my neighbor also has a bass, which he plays as poorly as the drums.
A bass? Try playing some Charlie Parker at him.
Jeff Olsen,
Just wondering if you meant the bassist, Charlie Mingus? Parker was a sax player.
I was trying to think of some hot bass player and Bird is the only one I could come up with, even though he’s not known for bass. One could probably find a fine bass solo in his recordings though.
If not, blame the Muppets for giving me the idea.
[hijack]
Actually, someone that can humble just about any bass player is a guy names Victor Wooten, from either his solo work or with the band “Bela Fleck and the Flecktones”.
As far as drums go, anything with drummer Dave Weckl playing on it should have the same effect.
Of course, there are many others out there as well.
[/hijack]
2 of my neighbors have drumsets. And we love them so.