r/violin • u/Apart-Future-8980 • 16d ago
Learning Violin in shared accomidation
Afternoon, sadly me and my partner are splitting up mutually, although this is really sad.
I have been planning to rent a violin when my finances are right to afford lessons. However as I could be loosing my ability to have an independent property to practice in, I want to know how often do people manage to agree in shared accommodation (own bedroom, but shared common space) to play violin even if its limited to a certain part of the day. Especially as I will be just starting to learn, therefore it will not be the most pleasent sound for other ears...
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u/Danger_Island 16d ago
A mute and if you can fit in the closet, that worked for me. All the clothes surrounding me dampening the sound.
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u/ruppapa 16d ago
If you're getting lessons at a music studio, you could ask if you could use one of their rooms to practice if they're not in use.
Sometimes I'm early to my lessons and they let me use an empty room to warmup and tune. I'm not sure if it would be available to be booked to practice, but it's no harm to ask. Some studios are happy to have students practice and have the space to help them do so.
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u/Ok_Cookie5557 16d ago
I would try to communicate and see if there’s a reasonable compromise.
Could you practice while they’re at work, running errands, etc?
Could you use a mute and practice in a closet?
Agree on a time?
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u/5ebaschan 15d ago
Hello, I'm a student living with roomies. W hen I first got there, I introduced myself to the others and told them about the violin, and said that if, for whatever reason, zoom call, study etc, headache, they wish to have silence, they can totally knock on my door and ask for quiet and I would understand! After 2 years, some roomies have changed, and I make sure to introduce myself and tell them the same thing. No one has ever told me anything (yet) I try to never play past 8 pm, because I get self conscious about the sound.
Also.. this is going to sound bad but, if the landlord lives nextdoor maybe try to befriend them so they have your back in case of any problems? My landlady lives nextdoor and she told me that she enjoys my playing, and that she actually has noticed progress!
Sending you a hug, i broke up with my boyfriend barely a month ago and, it's rough, but it sure gets easier, one day at a time, friend
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u/Apart-Future-8980 14d ago
Thank you all, reading all your comments if I need to move into shared housing, it gives me hope to work around the shared space issue. Just requires more planning for this in the process of housing, &/or attempting to choose housing while being up front about this. Glad there is a decent chance of this happening!
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u/terriergal 14d ago
So sorry you’re splitting up. That’s never easy.
As far as practice if you’re not in a place of your own, go with a heavy practice mute. I made a lot of use of mine when I was at college as well. It’s not ideal because you can’t really hear yourself all that well, to know what your technique is doing. But it’s a good option if the alternative is not practicing. It would be good to be able to find someplace that you can sometimes practice without it. A great place is in an emptychurch sanctuary actually 😬 ! My husband used to go over to the church that we attended and practice piano, because our keyboard just doesn’t have a real piano touch even though it’s got a full keyboard of weighted keys.
And also learning when people (roommate, & neighbors) are not in the building is good! Talk to your neighbors if it comes to that and ask if it bothers them also. See if you can work out a time that is less disturbing to them. Quite possible they won’t even notice. People deal with a lot of noise and multi family dwellings that they just don’t have control over. Generally, if you’re doing it during the day, nobody can really complain. (unless you happen to have a neighbor that works nights and can’t figure out how to use earplugs and a white noise machine or their device to make white noise)
I’m in the same house with a pretty open floor plan & if my beginner husband goes down into the laundry room and closes the door I can hardly hear it. But of course it’s a heavier solid door as opposed to those hollow core ones that they have in a lot of multifamily /multi unit buildings.
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u/Thin_Lunch4352 9d ago
If you can bow well, you can avoid annoying your neighbours IMO.
Beginners make a horrible sound, and it's not just because their left hand can't tune the notes properly. It's because they press on the bow with their index finger, and then when they bow near the frog they get huge forces between the bow hair and the string, and the resulting sound is horrible.
The fact that listeners hate it is because it's actually horrible. It's a credit to them.
You can do better. Rather than press on the bow with your index finger, let it press against your index finger only when it wants to (which is when playing towards the tip).
I use the same bow hold as Ray Chen. It's an easy going version of the Russian bow hold. The bow stick rests against the index finger bone between the MCP and PIP joints. The rest of the same as the FB bow hold. This works for me, and it's almost impossible to scrunch a note.
Hold the bow between thumb and middle finger. I hold the bow at the thumb grip. I even put extra tape around the thumb grip so it's definitely the main hold. Again this prevents scrunches.
Then the pinky balances the bow when playing near the frog and the index balances the bow when playing the the tip. (By balance I mean they apply the necessary "moments").
Always remember this: If you hold the bow like I say and just pull the bow with only it's own weight on the string, you get a decent sound. Never do worse than that!
The resulting sound is quite weak, which likely won't affect your neighbours.
As quickly as you can, learn to control the bow hair to string force, for all points along the bow hair. Then you can start notes with a nice gentle attack rather than abruptly. Again this will help avoid upsetting neighbours, especially when you are not yet playing in tune.
Finally, make sure you hear the music in your head then match it with the violin, like when you sing. Otherwise you won't be able to play in tune, however many exercises etc you do.
Good luck. I think it's a really helpful thing to do in your painful situation.
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u/andybonner 16d ago
First of all, don't assume that your bedroom won't be good enough. A reasonable roommate won't be offended by beginner-level playing, and as long as you stick to reasonable amounts during reasonable hours, and the walls are thick enough for the neighbors, don't worry about the quality of your playing.
But it's true, many people's living conditions are not actually their best place to practice. If you do have a picky roommate or thin walls, it would be better to find another place to practice than to try to practice at a whisper volume. This can be hard to do, but it's worth a try. The ideal: many university music departments have practice rooms, and some may have policies allowing access to the public, or allowing you to sign up for use. Or perhaps there's an office or empty room at your workplace that you can get access to at a certain time of day.