[Cheryl Davidson]

Hello all,

Has anyone had ever tried to practice when noise or enough room is a problem?  Let me explain.

I went camping, took family with me because we all needed to make some good memories while we grieve the loss of my Grandpa.  It was awesome, beautiful, inspiring, and mixed with relax time, sharing, grief recovery, and work.

Of course I packed my guitar, with high hopes of practicing.  It was very hard to concentrate.  The other campers around me at the park were quite in to their R&R too, because many had radios or stereo’s (or several) going nearly 24 hours a day.  I tried, but could not get in a good practice because of all of the noise.  I do not have an electric guitar, so I cannot plug in headphones to block outside noise.  The park is surrounded by a large lake, so I had limited space where I could go.  I didn’t give up; just concentrated and kept trying.

I wondered if anyone else has experienced similar challenges, when you had limited space with excess noise?  What would you try?  Thoughts, please.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Col 3:16

[Jonathan]

Hey Cheryl,

 

That’s gotta be frustrating. Nothing like going camping for some peace and quiet and people are blasting their radios all around you.

Sorry you had that experience. You can always try to play and sing louder. Because you’re in close proximity to yourself, you can play and sing loud enough to drown out any noise, unless it’s a crazy circus going on, in which case just pack it up and take your losses.

I know when I started out, it took me a while to build enough confidence to sing and play as loud as I do now, and I notice that with new people who join our worship team. The reason is, the louder you are, the more noticeable your mistakes will be, and so you tend to play and sing softer in the early stages of playing for others.

If I could go back, I’d tell my younger self not to be so afraid of making mistakes in front of others. Mistakes is the only way to learn how you should be doing something right. If you don’t make any mistakes, you will never progress.

Ok, sort of got off topic, but there’s my two cents?

You never fail until you quit!

[Cheryl Davidson]

I lasted for about a half hour, then I did pack it up.  It was a circus.  I do not think I could have outplayed the loudness, as the radios/CD/MP3/boats/cars/trucks/RVs/etc… were using amplified speakers.  Helped possibly because of the valley terrain, some boat radios from the lake were resounded off of the hills surrounding the park.   You could hear as if you sat beside the radio, even when hundreds of yards away.

The positive from this experience is that I tried in a challenging environment.  The hardest to play was a steady rhythm.  I tend to follow (not lead) in music, so I fell short of keeping rhythm with all the off beats resounding in my ears.  Just shows that even a bad practice can yield a learning experience!

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Col 3:16