To expect my neighbour to stop her son playing the recorder in the garden?

[Alonero]

Not sure if I’m being precious but I need a sanity check.

Next door’s little boy (8ish?) has taken up the recorder and every single evening he’s out in the garden squeaking away. He’s clearly just learning – bless him – but it’s the same few notes over and over, really loud and really shrill. It’s been going on for a couple of weeks now and honestly it’s starting to drive me up the wall.

We’ve had all the windows open with the heat and it’s impossible to relax. You can’t have a conversation in the kitchen without it sounding like you’re being heckled by a flock of geese. I tried to hint to his mum the other day – said something like “ooh, we’ve been treated to quite the performance lately” – and she just laughed and said he’s a musical genius in the making. Right.

I don’t want to be the grumpy neighbour who ruins a kid’s joy but surely there’s a time and a place? Or at least… maybe indoors with the windows shut?

AIBU to think a bit of peace in your own garden isn’t too much to ask?

You can’t have a conversation in the kitchen without it sounding like you’re being heckled by a flock of geese

🤣🤣🤣 sorry op but this is brilliant

With sympathy I agree

Gosh I think it's rude and inconsiderate to practise an instrument with the window open, let alone actually outside - even if you are musically proficient. I don't think this is acceptable at all, as a regular thing.

Oooh you've actually inspired me. Our neighbours are obnoxiously noisy. I might try sending the children out for recorder practice every now and then just to remind them noise travels.

I have no issue with chatting, but noone wants their neighbour'S music taste imposed on them every weekend

Every night when he starts go out with a tambourine and join him.

@Alonero You can create a mute for the recorder quite easily with a bent piece of cardboard - it fits in what I think was called the fipple. Suggest you make a few and lob them over the fence in a weighted envelope. (Or attached to a brick, depending how you're feeling.)

I’m impressed! My son will do 5 mins of his keyboard practice at most!

It will drive me up the wall, but it is his garden.
Plays (or commits the offence ) during normal hours, and is a child that has probably been kicked out from somewhere else.

I remember when I played bloody Titanic over and over in a 3bedroom flat. Not surprised my mum ended up like that.
Can’t wait for my child to start playing it too…I need to check if playing inside the greenhouse is legal or if there’s some grey areas there🥲

This would be really unpleasant and it is selfish of his parents to inflict it on other people deliberately.

But as he's just a kid, it's less than an hour and at some point he will likely move on as the recorder is a shit instrument, I wouldn't say anything. Best hope he doesn't take up drumming though...

Get the radio on next to your open window and listen to Classic FM to drown it out.

Hopefully he will retreat back indoors.

Good idea. They might broadcast a nice recorder concerto to give the kid some inspiration

Look up the Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet. Drown him out with them. And invite him in to yours to hear them and make the point that he can sound like them if he stops overblowing and covers the holes with his fingers properly, ALL THE TIME. Make that point to his Mum too...

Just heard this programme trailed on the radio. It's on at 4pm this afternoon. The radio has been listening to you all!

At school I call the recorder the instrument of the devil and tell students there’s no point practising as it will still sound bad (I am not a music teacher!)
Having said that I can still play ‘Bobby Shafto’ from memory 45+ years after learning.
There was a recorder exam for schools in my area in the 70s and we had to playBobby Shafto INDIVIDUALLY one after the other - parents were invited - like the world’s worst show - there were over 100 of us playing the same ‘tune’.

@MumofSpud That's horrible, hope you are not a teacher. I used to run a recorder club and it was to give kids who had no chance to learn an instrument some of the joy of achieving that, getting better at something, playing in a group and performing. Every instrument requires work to get better. I didn't allow any random screeching of it as I knew adults would just slag it off if they heard that. Music is so powerful and not every child can have the opportunity to play a £20k harp or a beautiful £10k silver flute, both of which are a bit easier on the ear to start with. Happily, a £15 recorder can take you to grade 8. (Not the five pound ones, they are rubbish I admit.) Music is more than being a professional, there's so much evidence of the benefits for every child, whatever their intended career, any education 'professional' who dismisses the power is very ill informed.
Sadly, most people give a recorder as a joke present to annoy parents etc. I'd happily teach any child who wanted to learn.

Please don't tell your students that. Please.
It was the instrument on which I learned to read music and first learned the joy of making music together in groups.

It led to a lifetime of music making and bringing others togethet to make music. A small acorn from which great oaks grew and spresd their branches to many communities.

Please dontbsay this to them. You could be cutting off something very important. If more people made music together there would be less conflict. If more young people had the opportunity to make music together their confidence and ability to cooperate grows and there is a mass of evidence that their academic results improve.

I know your post was meant to be a joke ... I get that. But maybe there is more at stake than you think.

I know, I was quoting you as an example of what OP could potentially look forward to - sorry that wasn’t clear.

Ah right, you were picking up on the ensemble comment. :-) Sorry.

You're fortunate.

My mum occasionally stuck be in the back garden with my piano accordion.

HELL NO!!! That's mental torture. His mother probably can't stand the row in the house so makes him go outside.

He’s never going to get better if he can’t practice, is he?

Poor little blighter! If he doesn't practise he won't get any better 🙃

We've always encouraged our kids if a musical interest is shown as generally love music - classical , rock, pop and for DH jazz.

I'd be more patient OP but my views are contrary to a lot of others on this thread.

No problem. I quite like the idea of a recorder ensemble, I’d forgotten but that was definitely a part of the Music Cup at school!

I agree with this. Young people's participation in music making and the funding for it is absolutely dire in the UK at the moment. We risk having a generation who will be bereft of all the short term and lifelong benefits that making music can give them, other than those whose parents have money.

Recorders are cheap, small and robust enough that they are accessible for children from even the poorest and most chaotic families. Nobody should be discouraging them from picking one up and having a go.

It really isn’t. Professional recorder players make a beautiful sound. It so definitely one of the worst in the hands of a novice, agreed - but if you do t go through that phase you’ll never get top musicians. I don’t just mean on recorder. Learning the recorder is the first exposure to creating music many people have. Many of them go on to learn something else.
Stopping it (as at leat one poster has said they’ve done) is a bit like saying it’s sooooo boring hearing their child stutter through a first level reading book so every time they start just hide the book (or better, throw it away). Shortsighted.

Music is so good for mental development too, even if nothing further comes of the recorder playing. https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/why-is-music-good-for-the-brain-2020100721062

I agree he should probs play indoors in this case though.