Is it reasonable to ask a serious string player to use a mute?

Post date: 2021-03-05 07:03:51

The teenage daughter in the apartment below ours practices cello 14 hours a day, every day. 7am to 9pm, 7 days a week. Needless to say, this drives us round the bend. She has turned her nose up at other measures to make changes to her practice that would improve our lives. Is it unrealistic to expect her to use a mute?

We complained six months ago about the noise (put a short note through the door). The parents appeared at our door saying, "It's her whole life!" and later sent us a three-page letter explaining why she wouldn't be able to accomodate our requests to practice in a different room some of the time (the acoustics weren't as good, she would have to carry a music stand between rooms, and she didn't like the light).

However, the reason they gave for the non-stop practice was apparently that she had auditions for music college in December. Her family is not musical, and she had started learning late (aged 10), so she needed to practice so much to allow her to catch up with others. To an extent I was sympathetic to this situation. We were promised the noise would be reduced come December, and so it was... for about two weeks.

Now the sound is as bad as ever, I don't know why. We didn't hear anything from the family. By text, I requested an update a couple of days ago, and we are going to meet tomorrow. I am anticipating that they will provide a fresh reasion why she simply must fill our home with unwanted sound every waking hour. I want to make them see that she must use a mute some of the time, that this is the reasonable thing for any musician to do. But is it? I am aware that some musicians don't like them. But is it the case that even musicians who don't like them realize they still have to use one for the sake of the neighbors? Or do you simply get nowhere in music without a "fuck everyone else" attitude?

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