Practicing is disturbing my neighbor

[casenote]

I live in an apartment building and my neighbor who lives in the unit directly below me is being disturbed by my piano practice.  I'm trying to get a sense of to what extent I should adjust what I'm doing and to what extent he needs to deal with it.  He can hear the sound of the keys being pressed down.  Also, the apartments are in a nice, newly renovated, but old building.  As a result, the keyboard is on a hardwood floor, and the floor is slightly uneven, so vigorous playing often results in the base of the stand rocking back and forth.  It's a good, very sturdy stand, so that's not the issue.  

Would putting a rug under the keyboard help remedy this?  I can't move it anywhere else, and I need to practice.  At the same time, I don't want to disturb my neighbor.  Obviously, he's going to hear something when I'm playing, the question is just how much is reasonable.

Note: I am always playing with headphones after about 10 PM.

[gyzzzmo]

buy some thick rubber or other dampening material and put it under the piano.

[birba]

Just don't let it get to you.  I know what it's like to practise and think you're disturbing the neighbors.  Rugs and rubber matting under the piano, and perhaps covering the back of the piano if it's an upright with a blanket.  But after that, don't get phsyched up over it!

[birba]

Sorry, I saw you have an electric keyboard.  There should be no problem there if you can regulate the volume.

[mrba1979]

Buy a large boom box (I do not know if that is what they are still called).  Put it on the floor in an incospicuous place so that it may or may not be comming from your apartment and play it as loudly as possible.  When he comes asking just simply deny that you have done any such thing.  Do not worry your other neighbors will do the same.  If the cops are called remember to trash the box before they get there.  Flush the parts down to flusher if need be.  This might sound difficult but a sledge hammer should just do the trick and it will also ad to the noise.  Do this for around six to eight weeks then just simply stop and he will more than likely not complain about the piano any more.  Also remember to play the worst music possible.  Rap should work or country if you are in a pinch.

Good Luck

  

[casenote]

Yeah I have an electric keyboard so the music itself is not the issue because I can use headphones.  The biggest thing is that the stand rocks back and forth because of the slight uneveness of the hardwood floor.  I'll try putting a rug and/or rubber under the stand, hopefully that quiets it, if not, I'm not sure what else to do.

[thalbergmad]

Get some Schumann scores and spread them over the floor. These are ideal as they are excellent noise reducers and have no other value whatsoever.

Alternatively, shoot your neighbour. Piano is too important to be interrupted by some grizzled old fart who is being over fussy.

On second thoughts, play Schumann and he will shoot himself.

Thal

[ramseytheii]

Get some Schumann scores and spread them over the floor. These are ideal as they are excellent noise reducers and have no other value whatsoever.

Alternatively, shoot your neighbour. Piano is too important to be interrupted by some grizzled old fart who is being over fussy.

On second thoughts, play Schumann and he will shoot himself.

Thal

Even though I disagree with every word of this post, I think it is one of the best I have ever read on pianoforum!

Walter Ramsey

[Bob]

I had a similar situation once.  I put towels, wrapped up into pads, and used that as a buffer between the keyboard and stand and the floor.  Solved the problem right away and the keyboard was still sturdy enough to practice on.

The more barriers and space you can get in, the better.  If you really wanted to, put the whole keyboard and your playing spot up on a huge piece of wood to create a false floor. 

I would think a few towels would do it though, although I don't know exactly how your set up.

[timothy42b]

I guess this is an appropriate time to post one of my favorite Mark Twain quotes.  Substitute piano for trombone, of course.  (I play both badly.)  Maybe if you shared this with your neighbor it would help. 

***

 If it please your neighbor to break the sacred calm of night with the snorting of an unholy trombone, it is your duty to put up with his wretched music and your privilege to pity him for the unhappy instinct that moves him to delight in such discordant sounds. I did not always think thus: this consideration for musical amateurs was born of certain disagreeable personal experiences that once followed the development of a like instinct in myself. Now this infidel over the way, who is learning to play on the trombone, and the slowness of whose progress is almost miraculous, goes on with his harrowing work every night, uncurled by me, but tenderly pitied. Ten years ago, for the same offense, I would have set fire to his house. At that time I was a prey to an amateur violinist for two or three weeks, and the sufferings I endured at his hands are inconceivable. He played "Old Dan Tucker," and he never played any thing else; but he performed that so badly that he could throw me into fits with it if I were awake, or into a nightmare if I were asleep. As long as he confined himself to "Dan Tucker," though, I bore with him and abstained from violence; but when he projected a fresh outrage, and tried to do "Sweet Home," I went over and burnt him out. My next assailant was a wretch who felt a call to play the clarionet. He only played the scale, however, with his distressing instrument, and I let him run the length of his tether, also; but finally, when he branched out into a ghastly tune, I felt my reason deserting me under the exquisite torture, and I sallied forth and burnt him out likewise. During the next two years I burned out an amateur cornet player, a bugler, a bassoon-sophomore, and a barbarian whose talents ran in the base-drum line.




      I would certainly have scorched this trombone man if he had moved into my neighborhood in those days. But as I said before, I leave him to his own destruction now, because I have had experience as an amateur myself, and I feel nothing but compassion for that kind of people. Besides, I have learned that there lies dormant in the souls of all men a penchant for some particular musical instrument, and an unsuspected yearning to learn to play on it, that are bound to wake up and demand attention some day. Therefore, you who rail at such as disturb your slumbers with unsuccessful and demoralizing attempts to subjugate a fiddle, beware! for sooner or later your own time will come. It is customary and popular to curse these amateurs when they wrench you out of a pleasant dream at night with a peculiarly diabolical note; but seeing that we are all made alike, and must all develop a distorted talent for music in the fullness of time, it is not right. I am charitable to my trombone maniac; in a moment of inspiration he fetches a snort, sometimes, that brings me to a sitting posture in bed, broad awake and weltering in a cold perspiration. Perhaps my first thought is, that there has been an earthquake; perhaps I hear the trombone, and my next thought is, that suicide and the silence of the grave would be a happy release from this nightly agony; perhaps the old instinct comes strong upon me to go after my matches; but my first cool, collected thought is, that the trombone man's destiny is upon him, and he is working it out in suffering and tribulation; and I banish from me the unworthy instinct that would prompt me to burn him out.

[lostinidlewonder]

You can make as much noise as you want so long it is done during appropriate times and not extremely loud (I doubt a digital piano can really cause that much noise even on max volume). You have the right to practice the piano in your home, anyone who thinks you can't can go try to get the authorities to make you stop, good luck on them.

Builders have the right to power up their tools in residential areas at 8:00am (depending on areas, but that is what it is over here in West Australia), they can start making noise and all and there is nothing we can do about it. So if your neighbor has a problem of listening to piano playing they really have got too much time on their hands.

[perfect_pitch]

I had a neighbour complain about my Piano playing... apparently Stravinsky seemed to rub her up the wrong way and she filed a compaint to the council.

How did I solve the problem - I kept playing and she gave up complaining.



I'm sick of the arts being squashed about because of pricks like the one 'casenote' mentioned.
Considering it's an electronic keyboard, and you have the right to practice - I say PLAY AWAY!

[l. ron hubbard]

Or how about you actually consider that you are not in the center of existence and that others deserve privacy just as you deserve playing? Reach a compromise with the neighbor. Some people, especially the elderly need silence. If no compromise can be reached then consider practicing at a college or school. Plus they usually have acoustic pianos, albeit bad ones.

[richard black]

Yes, slightly soft feet under the legs of the keyboard will do it. High-density packaging-type foam rubber is good for that but as others have said, folded towels will serve if you've nothing else. I can see your neighbour's point - dull thudding like that is probably a lot more annoying than the playing itself would be!

[rc]

That is a hilarious quote, timothy!  I've got to read more Twain

As for bothering neighbours, I imagine hearing the clunking of keys would drive me nuts after 10PM.  My brother once told me he could hear the clunking of my digital through the floor, when I moved into an apartment I left a note for the person below me warning that there may be clunking and to let me know if it was a problem...  But that apartment had solid floors and they never heard a thing.

My next move was into a house with a bunch of students, and I decided to go for a basement room so's it wouldn't be an issue.

Once upon a time I had the luxury of sleeping in a very nicely done seperate garage with an upright.  That was nice!  I could play into the wee hours without borthering anyone - on an acoustic!

[soitainly]

 As a lifetime apartment dweller this issue is always a concern. My keyboard I am sure makes quite a bit of noise from the bed of the keyboard, I live on the ground floor so its not being transmitted there. I am sure my neighbors can here it so just try to keep my pracitice to reasanoable hours.

 Regardless of any legal issues, to me it's just common courtisy to try and get along with people who live in densely populated areas. I would talk with the person in concern and try and figure out times when it might be better to practice without disturbing him. Some people are unreasonable about any little noise and while I wouldn't just blow him off, you do still have the right to practice. Some suggestions like some padding on the floor will certainly help. Maybe move the keyboard to a spot thats not directly over where he may be sitting. Maybe consider moving to the ground floor.

[musicus]

I live in an apartment building and my neighbor who lives in the unit directly below me is being disturbed by my piano practice.  I'm trying to get a sense of to what extent I should adjust what I'm doing and to what extent he needs to deal with it.  He can hear the sound of the keys being pressed down.  Also, the apartments are in a nice, newly renovated, but old building.  As a result, the keyboard is on a hardwood floor, and the floor is slightly uneven, so vigorous playing often results in the base of the stand rocking back and forth.  It's a good, very sturdy stand, so that's not the issue. 

Would putting a rug under the keyboard help remedy this?  I can't move it anywhere else, and I need to practice.  At the same time, I don't want to disturb my neighbor.  Obviously, he's going to hear something when I'm playing, the question is just how much is reasonable.

Note: I am always playing with headphones after about 10 PM.

If he can hear the sound of the keys being pressed, perhaps he should
take up the piano as a career...

[casenote]

I had a thing of egg crate foam lying around, so I put that on the floor under the keyboard stand.  It does a good job of insulating the sound, but now my concern is that it poses a fire hazard with the electrical wires resting on it.  Anyone ever used an egg crate under their keyboard for this purpose?  I think my neighbor would rather hear piano practice than wake up and find the building is on fire.

[gorucan]

Get some Schumann scores and spread them over the floor. These are ideal as they are excellent noise reducers and have no other value whatsoever.

Alternatively, shoot your neighbour. Piano is too important to be interrupted by some grizzled old fart who is being over fussy.

On second thoughts, play Schumann and he will shoot himself.

Thal

´

I cracked up reading this
But REALLY if you already have digital piano and the neighbour still claims your practising is disurbing him "because of key rocking" then he must be shot.

[lontano]

A friend of mine once lived in a low-rent 3rd floor apartment, and whenever he turned on the TV or Stereo, even very softly, or if sometimes we were just talking, the old lady from the apartment below would bang her broom handle against the ceiling shouting louder than we ever were about all the noise we were making. It was absolutely ridiculous, yet the landlord, when he got complaints, always blamed him.

I'm now facing my own concerns, however no one's complained yet. I'm just (slowly) getting back to practicing piano (Yamaha studio) for the first time in 15 years! You can imagine where my never-great technique currently must be, so learning to play again is not something most people care to hear. I live in an apartment, fortunately on the first floor, so I'm only conscious of the people upstairs, who never bother me, but I can guess that as I play more often and repetitiously things might become uncomfortable. And I'm probably just self-conscious at how awful my playing is (yet remarkably, in the many bleak years I spent without a piano I believe I learned a whole lot about performance just by studying scores and recordings), so maybe the path toward Parnassus might not be as long as I first thought.

L.

[lontano]

Get some Schumann scores and spread them over the floor. These are ideal as they are excellent noise reducers and have no other value whatsoever.

Alternatively, shoot your neighbour. Piano is too important to be interrupted by some grizzled old fart who is being over fussy.

On second thoughts, play Schumann and he will shoot himself.

Thal

Whew! And I thought I had a problem appreciating Schumann! Somehow I feel relieved. I guess for some of us (certain) music hath charms to enrage the savage beast!

At least you're honest!

Lontano