I'm currently an undergrad student at a music school and during the school year I have access to the practice rooms where I can practice anytime I want, for as long as I want and make as much noise as I want without bothering my family or neighbors, but during the summer I don't have this luxury. I'm afraid that my incessant practicing is going to drive my parents crazy so I have been thinking about building a little pratice module in my bedroom to try to dampen the sound. I'm on a very tight budget so it is not like I can spend a couple of thousand dollars to sound proof my room. I was thinking of buying some plywood and egg carton foam that they use in studios and basically building a box. Does anyone know if these materials will help dampen the sound at all? Or, does anyone have any ideas about how not to drive your family and neighbors crazy? I have a "silent brass" practice mute but you can't actually practice with those things. Thanks for your help!

Hi, Adam! The topic was recently discussed in this post:

http://www.trumpetmaster.com/vb/f134...tly-46695.html (How can I play quietly?)


What I wrote was:

The easiest way probably would be to use standard material.
Usual side lengths when it comes to isolation material such as
wall panels and others are 300, 600, 1200 and 2400 mm.
Two kinds of material are common; glass wool and rock wool.
Rock wool drissles off more, but glass wool makes your skin
itch if you get it on your body. From an acoustic point of view,
they´re both good. An american company called Armstrong
makes panels like these.


A nice box could be built with six panels that are 600x600 mm.
In the front panel a hole maybe 200-300 mm should be made
(or any size that you find convenient. Try out the smaller sizes
first). When you make the hole, dusty stuff from the panel may
occur. Make hole outdoor!


The panels have to be assembled somehow,
maybe like one of these options:

* You could build a wooden box and glue the
panels on the inside.
* From the place where you get the panels,
you most likely can get some metal
profiles that could hold them together.
* Just gluing them together isn´t a good idea.
They´re not strong enough for that, I think . . .
* If you use thick material like 100 mm, they
just might be able to stand by themselves.


Place the box in a book shelf at a suitable level.
Throw out books that only your parents read.
Don´t tell them that I said that!
GOOD LUCK!!

I agree that mutes aren´t any good sollution.
In the earlier post mentioned you´ll find that
many others agree on this, too.

As above, but you could build a practice booth for a few hundred I guess, things to remember:

The foam is good to stop sound reflections in the mid to high range inside a room but does little to stop the sound going out. You need density to soundproof a room. An insulation product for walls called rockwool in the UK works well. I have build wooden frames to fit tightly in my windows, each frame if stuffed with slabs of this rockwool then covered with an old bed sheet.(This process could be used to make a small practice 'room' Remember the more airtight you can get a space the better, seals around doors and windows, and keyholes blocked the better. Seal on every joint on your box. Remember the denser the wood and rockwool the better the result, also if it it air tight, have a ventilation system, I have a long mdf tube 25cm square lined with rockwool with an extraction fan at one end. The shorter the extraction tube the more sound will escape. if you don't want to build an extractor fan duct just remember to open the door often. Don't forget the floor, sound loves to travel through solid objects, so a double floor with insulation is good.Remember even with professionally made practice booths (2m x2m x2m costing £5000) the outside sound is lowered by 30 decibels.

Blow into a closet filled with clothes. There is nothing cheaper with that amount of damping.

Find a church hall in your area. A couple of services for practice rights is a good trade!

Finally a day or 2 outdoors per week really builds POWER.

Finally a day or 2 outdoors per week really builds POWER.

SCARRY!!!

What are you supposed to do THERE?!?!?

If you're intent on building an enclosure be aware that you need to be able to breathe to play the trumpet and also, it'll get hotter than Hades in there unless you provide some kind of relief. Dealing with just those two issues alone might make this project less feasible than ROWUK's suggestions. Check with your folks before assuming they have a problem with what you consider incessant practice - I know if I had made numerous self sacrifices throughout your childhood so you could focus on your music studies I'd be thrilled to listen to every measure you played.

Originally Posted by rowuk

Blow into a closet filled with clothes. There is nothing cheaper with that amount of damping.

That's what I used to do when I was in high school. Cheap and easy to do.

Originally Posted by Sofus

SCARRY!!!

What are you supposed to do THERE?!?!?

When I play outdoors on the lake Vänern in Sweden, I blow down block houses. Here is one of my targets:

ever get any complaints? very nice place to practice also I might add

I am an advocate of the Owens-Corning basement finishing system.
Ask your parents for a 10X10 foot area of the basement. Contact your local Owens-Corning representative by web site and build a professional practice room. I suggest you spend the money framing it with 2X4's but sheath it with the Owens-Corning panels. You should also invest in a 5000 BTU air conditioner from Wal-Mart and install it in the side of the practice room. The heat will dump into your basement and you will be cool. The A/C unit is a sound leak but you can work on isolating it with a baffle system.
If you live near St. Louis, MO. call 314-993-1184 for information and product.