So, you've been practicing for a long time and everyone knows it because the sound of a saxophone is very penetrating and it can even pass through solid walls and your neighbours will either love it or hate it. Then one day your girlfriend or wife jumps up and down on your saxophone and renders it useless. Or maybe your husband or boyfriend buries it in concrete, or your father hides it away forever, or your brother fills it full of glue. Anyway, you get the idea. The repeated sound of a saxophone in a confined space can drive anyone crazy listening to it day after day.
So off you go to get another one and you find a nice family who want to sell a saxophone, both adults working and the son or daughter has had enough of practicing.
You walk away with a nearly new sax for a lot less than its new price and its better than the one you just lost that got smashed to bits.
You're happy. But it doesn't last long. You realize the same thing will happen again unless you can cut the noise of your sax playing right down somehow.
Soundproofing one of the bedrooms or the kitchen is not really an option unless you live alone, and it doesn't really stop the sound from carrying anyway. So down to the shed at the bottom of the garden it is then, if you have one and everyone breathes a sigh of relief.
Playing the sax really can upset people when the same sounds are repeated over and over again, day after day.
But there are plenty of things you can do: there are schools and universities that hold night classes that will get you out of the house for two hours of good playing, and you can learn a lot that way being with others, and usually the class will be run by someone who knows how to play, and often at the end of the year there will be a gig for all to invite friends, family and public to come along and see you play.
Having to find somewhere to practice where you don't bother anyone will happen sooner or later and always after the threatening letters come, and most certainly after the environmental health become involved or the police have been called and your playing has now become a nuisance. So what do you do? Playing in a field or woods is OK until it rains, and in winter it can be too cold or the snow is too deep to leave the house.
For adults, playing under a motorway can be one option, or anywhere you can find that is sheltered and away from people.
Driving to a mountain top is good when it's dry. There are bags you can slip over the sax that muffle the sound, but these are cumbersome and not much fun. Practicing when everyone is out or at work is an option, but there will usually be someone hearing it, and most usually it will be the one who has complained about it to the authorities. Moving home every six months is another option, but that doesn't always work: the new neighbours may dislike the noise even more than the last ones did.
Hiring a room at a school or college can be an option, but they do close for weekends and holidays. The park is also a place to go, but again, only when it is dry, unless there's a bandstand you can use.
Musicians tend to play wherever they can, the lucky ones can play at home, the others have to keep finding places to play and practice where they don't bother people so much they get asked to stop or move on.
Over the years, as you go from place to place playing, you meet many interesting people who will compliment you and tell you not to give up. Sometimes you will wonder why you began all this. What could have possessed you to take up the sax in the first place? Maybe it might have been better to have played the keyboard instead; at least the sound can be turned right down on them.
And then you will find yourself one day in a place playing, and everything will come together for you, and your playing will sound amazing, and you'll know that all the years of hard practice was all just for this moment.
End of part two
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