For a beginner flautist living in an apartment complex, is there any way to muffle my playing so as not to incur the wrath of surrounding tenants?

Thanks.

Sorry, but I don`t think so. The flute would not play all the notes correctly if a mute was placed in the end of it like on Trumpets.
You could buy your neighbors ear plugs. Lol!
Maybe they will like to hear you play.

You could fold a mattress into a short cave, and play inside that.

\Alternatively, do a search on "active noise reduction". This is where an electronic device listens to the sound and creates the same sound, but out of phase, so that the original sound is cancelled out.

This technology is used for ear muffs that ACTIVELY cancel out the sound of the engines.

This can be a real problem for apartment dwellers. It is difficult to muffle the flute because the sound does not really come out of the bell like a trumpet. Because of this, trumpeters now have an excellent device for practicing quietly.
Not sure how the sound cancelling technology would work with a flute. In order to develop as a player a flutist needs to hear themselves. This includes playing in larger halls where there is reverberations and echos.

As Arak points out, it may be possible to build a soundproof chamber inside of your apartment room. I would choose a room that has less adjacant walls to others so that any stray sound will be lessened. One could build a small room out of inexpensive materials that blocks most of the sound so that the neighbors would not have cause to complain.
~Bilbo

Back in my apartment days, I found that the bathroom was a good place to practice (inside walls), but I didn`t have a roommate to worry about.

I also played in my car!! I drove out into a secluded area of a parking lot, or into the country (cows love my playing) as another option.

Good luck!

If you can`t soundproof your house, do limit the hours you practise: not before 9am and not after 10pm (or earlier if your neighbours have young children). Play in a room that doesn`t adjoin to the neighbours if possible and if you are at college/school/ university, use the practise rooms there when possible.

And play everything pianissimo, it`s good for your diaphram

You wouldn`t even need a soundproof "room", just a booth; something not all disimilar from an isolation booth in a recording studio. It could even be mobile. I`d make it where you could pipe in climate control.

Have there been complaints? I can barely hear my daughter practice in her room (closed door) when I`m across the hall in my room (closed door).

Now the husband with the trumpet is an entirely different story. MUTE!

Shoot the flutist!

Heavy fabrics (eg. decoratic rugs, fabric art) hung on walls help to muffle sound a bit. You could probably make a THICK fabric tent or small room enclosure that will really keep sound away from your neighbors.

As others have suggested. The cheapest thing may be to practice somewhere else. A friend`s house, a music store may allow this but may charge a small fee, a church, a music school, a regular school. a secluded park.

I like the idea of a sound deadening tent-small enclosure. Just as long as you have some air circulation. You don`t need to be totally sound-proof as long as you are fairly quiet. They don`t yell at you for running the TV at normal volumes. Do they?

~Bilbo

Well, if worse comes to worse, we can always shove a sock in the flute, right?

As i dont live in an apartment, I dont know what to say. I live with my parents and they just tell me to stop when they go to bed. I usually practice with my doo closed and my stereo booming, so a flute on top of that usually isnt much. When I stayed in Florida for a month and a half, I stayed in a hotel that was really picky about their "quiet time" so I went out on the family boat out on the water and played there for hours. Not realizing other people were around me at 9pm, I played and played and played. When I got off the boat to go back to my room, Many people said the sound carried and that it was very soothing (then again, it was my alto...) and they enjoyed it. My advice is if you`re poor, like me, just go out and play in the middle of nowhere (i live in the middle of nowhere, so its not an issue for me)

I hope this helped... It probably didnt because everyone else said the exact same thing. Good luck, though!





WAIT! Oh, you know those pad saver things? If you keep your pad saver in your flute while you play it, no air can move through the flute so it has no sound. Try that!

"I usually practice with my doo closed"


...that`s probably a good idea.

snotjello: you made me chuckle!

hey yall i here a lot of you saying that a mute kills the sound on a trumpet it really dosnt do much to muffle the nosie just thought i might clear that up

I wasn`t referring to a straight mute, or a cup mute etc. I was referring specifically to a PRACTICE mute which does decrease the decibels (volume of noise).