Practicing without driving those around you nuts

[doctorapatite]

I practice in the afternoon (I’m retired), and my wife is working in the her office in the next room.
I can play baritone ukulele or tenor guitar quietly enough that it doesn’t bother her, but there’s no way to keep the volume down on the Bouzouki or tenor banjo, so I generally don’t play them unless she isn’t home.

Okay I think we've got a solution:

STEP 1: Borrow a bouzouki.​

STEP 2: Play the bouzouki for a few weeks at all hours of the day and night. Talk about forming a bouzouki quartet that would meet at your house once a week. Discuss detailed aspects of bouzouki history during dinner. Get mad and storm out of the room every time someone brings up that Monty Python sketch, but also make the music from that sketch your ringtone because you are complicated.​

STEP 3: Intervention.​

STEP 4: Begrudgingly agree to go back to the ukulele, even though you prefer the bouzouki.​

No one will ever complain about the ukulele again, for fear of reminding you of your long lost true love, the bouzouki.

NB: Depending on how much you want to push it, you might even ask for a newer, fancier uke in compensation for "giving up the bouzouki you love so much".