Can anyone please tell me 'what' to do with very noisy upstairs neighbors . . .

[czernyragtimepianoplayer]

Hi! I live in an apartment on the 2nd floor and my neighbors on the 3rd floor right above me have these crazy kids that run around alot, but whats most distracting is that the 'Dad' is at home all day with his 'son', and while I practise each day, except Sundays, they both sit right above or very close to my piano playing and while I'm studying my piano Etudes, Method Books, Piano Pieces, Piano Exercises, etc. etc....this "Father & Son" our always TALKING rather LOUDLY while I'm in-between a piece, or just before a piece -- and they really "critic' most all of my piano practise sessions, and it's most anoying for me as I can hear every little thing that they say!  The Father has had some piano lessons I know, but I don't know any of the people living above me, as I'm shy, and they're super shy towards me, but I get upset to hear them say this should have been played this way, and then the son asks so many strange and 'dumb' questions as he's never had piano, never will as he always says he 'dislikes' piano very much, so I'm going to move to a different apartment, but not for about 3-4 years from now, as I'm saving to "own" my own place, need a BIG down payment...So, what in the world can or should be done about these 2 most anoying "talkers" up talking on 'my' ceiling??  They know that I don't want them to 'chat' over everything I do 6 days a week 5-8 hours/day everyday, my landlord told them to stop the 'chatting', and the Dad to go out and get himself a job, he won't or can't, or doesn't need to cuz' his wife works, and his son could go to school, but they don't believe in state schooling, it's free, but they prefer to 'home teach', so I feel that I'm really in a mess here with their noise distracting me BIG TIME!!!  WHAT TO DO ABOUT THESE 2 "CHATTER BOXES"??   Would anyone out there please offer me some sensible, civil, legal, good advice to get the very distracting noise pollution off my ceiling for the next 3-4 years, as they're never moving nor is they're "situation" ever going to change - so they say....  Thank you ALL, in advance

[brogers70]

What are they supposed to do about that damn guy banging away at the piano under their floor? What are their legal options?

I think you're just up against one of the drawbacks of living in an apartment. Digital pianos and headphones work well if you do not have your own house. A decent digital is a lot cheaper than a mortgage.

[visitor]

Reminds me a little of a blog comment I once read
"My neighbor was banging on my door and wall last night at 3 and 3:30am! Yes three in the morning, can you believe their nerve?! Luckily I was already awake and up practicing my Bartok etudes...."

Seriously there I little you can do except but the digital and invest in good isolating or notice cancellation headphones or buy top notch ear plugs ad play louder on the acoustic to drown them out.

[hfmadopter]

Well as someone who owns both a very good digital piano and a grand piano ? I can tell you that should the day come where I have to live in an apartment situation that is not sound proof I would only bring the digital there. Secondly, I own ny own house and the reason I bought the digital in the first place was so as not to disturb people at 3 am when I like to work on my music most. That time of day is when I'm most creative. And really it was because my sister in law was staying with us for several months.

So there in lays your answer from my perspective. Not only did I feel I may disturb someone staying at my house in our guest room but I really didn't want them hearing my every piece of work structure unfolding( aka a non finished product).

Perhaps you don't realize how rude you actually are coming off to your neighbor if your living situation is that transparent sound wise.

[timothy42b]

You have chosen to give them the power to annoy you.

Take it back.

You can't do anything to stop them from talking.  You have 100% control over how you react to it, but you are choosing to give that control away. 

Ignore them unless they are a physical danger.  Play your piano as much as you want, responsibly during allowable hours.  (many countries have designated quiet hours; I don't know where you live but your comment about Sundays suggested you might be in one of them.  I ignored them in Germany and had an interesting result.) 

[Bob]

Try some earplugs maybe?  That will still allow you to hear.  You'll play even louder to some extent.  But you won't be able to hear anything beyond the piano. 

Then get some Schoenberg....

[samwoodall]

I'm struggling to believe this, your playing the piano and are complaining about neighbours making noise talking? you should consider yourself lucky they're not complaining about you, live and let live.

For some more practical advise, you can get noise cancelling foam and attach to your ceiling.

[slane]

YOur neighbours have chosen a very childish and unconstructive way to tell you (what should be obvious, as other people have pointed out) that your piano annoys them.
Consider this. Normal converstation is about 60db. A piano, even an upright, typrically reaches 100db played quite normally. The volume of truck traffic. Not good for your ears either.

You might like to look at this page
https://www.stevespianoservice.com/Online-Piano-Parts-Catalog/piano-soundabsorbers.htm
You might also like to consider treating the ceiling to reduce the noise, for instance with sound absorbing flibreglass batts. Difficult and expensive in an apartment.

If you have a neighbour mediation service where you live, you might like to contact them to mediate in a grown up way so that you can wok together to fix the problem.

But the simplest and probably cheapest thing to do is buy a digital piano.

[bernadette60614]

Some options:

Use the chatter as a way of testing your focus.  I'm lucky and have attended probably 70 piano concerts (Brendel, Kissin, Goode, Lang) and there is inevitably someone in my hearing distance who decides that the "softer" pieces, e.g., Chopin Nocturnes make it easier for them to 1) chat 2) open candy wrappers 3) flip through the program.  I guess my "death glare" isn't very intimidating, but I haven't found a way to quiet these people. So, I've just forced myself to focus.

Or, play a lot of Phillip Glass very loudly...

[gregh]

I guess my "death glare" isn't very intimidating, but I haven't found a way to quiet these people.

It's simple. If someone unwraps a candy bar during a performance, stand up and face them, and say in a clear and assertive voice "Be quiet, you oaf! We're trying to enjoy the music!"