"all This Noise", Annoying neighbours!!! Options

[Flute_Crazy]

Hi all,
I live in a semi-detatched house, and recently the neighbours have been complaining about all the music practice. I can kind of see what they mean - after all, sitting through two hours of flute, saxophone, clarinet and piano they must get pretty annoyed. However, we are usually done well before 7:00, and never play at inconsiderate times. We've tried to sort this out by playing in the office (as the only rooms that aren't attatched to the other house are the kitchen, bathroom, and downstairs loo), but I'm not convinced it's working. It'd be great to have a sound proof room, but this isn't at all practical.
Has anyone had this problem before, or have any suggestions of how to keep the noise to a minimum, and keep the neighbours sane?
Thanks!
Ruth
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[bonerat]

Our house is semi-detached also and the rooms that are normally used during the day ajoin the party wall so I practise on the far side of the house in the small office which would normally be the box bedroom. I make sure that all the doors between the rooms are closed as this helps and also close the double glazed windows which cuts down the sound travel too.

Are the rooms that adjoin the neighbour's house carpeted, that would prevent a lot of sound travel across the house from the room you are playing in. Also could you use a keyboard for some of the piano practice so it could be done without disturbance. It's a bit of a compromise for you, but better than falling out completely with the neighbours, since they must be putting up with quite a lot at present with so many instruments. If I have to practice my flute later in the evening I do some of the practice silently, so I work on finger flexibility without disturbing anyone and save the long notes for a more convenient time. Could you do this alternately with the wind instruments so there isn't noise from all of them every day?

Our local conservatoire has practise rooms for hire at a very reasonable rate, and my daughter's school has practice rooms the pupils can use too. Do you have access to anything like that locally for some of the louder practise sessions (particularly the sax!)?

[x_Pengy_x]

Well one of our neighbours has never actually said anything about the practice, but whenever my brother or I begin to play, he turns his television to a really offensive volume; more than enough to drown us out!

If you practice in the day then I'm sure they can live with it..
Do they work at all? If it's possible, you could practice when they're at work.

Unless neighbours are musicians, theres no way they'll ever understand..

Its all part of being misunderstood music geniuses eh (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

xx

[snhs]

It might seem rather odd but you may want to try practicing in the bathroom, Sir James said at one point that it can actually give the best acoustic in most houses, and you'd be away from the neighbours.

There's not really anything else that you could reasonably be expected to do, maybe spacing it out would keep them happy but i doubt it (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif).

[Teigr]

I'd suggest talking to the neighbours - they're probably sick of all the noise (which is what it probably seems like to them and, to be honest, even someone who is into classical music probably isn't going to really enjoy listening to loads of practice (it's not so entertaining to listen to as pieces!)) and feeling frustrated. From their perspective it's something beyond their control that invades their home and quite possibly causes distress as much as anger.
So, let them feel that they have some control over what they have to listen to. Explain to them that you need to do x ammount of practice on each of y instruments, that you understand that the sound carries and assure them that you want to make it as painless as possible for them. Find out if there are particular times they really would like a bit of quiet (maybe for mealtimes or a favourite TV program), if there are any times/days when they're out, etc. See if they're willing to conduct an experiment - you'll play for a few minutes in each of several rooms in turn, at an agreed time, and they can grade them according to which they hear the most/least. If there's an opportunity to limit practice on one particular instrument to times when they're not there, get them to tell you which they find the most annoying to listen to. Invite them to keep you posted about things like if they're having guests for dinner or if someone is feeling ill, so you can make a special effort to either schedule your practice to avoid doing it then, or at least keep to the quieter instruments or the quieter pieces/registers - ask that, in return, they keep you posted about when they won't be around and you can play more.

I used to live in a mid-terrace house with thin walls. I hardly ever practiced any music at home, apart from flute which I played in the extension or the kitchen, for short periods of time and never late in the evening. Unfortunately the people next door were lowlifes and played loud "music" (pretty much just pounding bass) at all times of the day and night, for hours at a time, usually so loudly that there was /nowhere/ in our house that we couldn't hear it and so we couldn't hear the TV at all (with it set to normal volume). Having been on the receiving end of unwelcome noise, I think the worst things are not knowing how long it's going to go on for or when it might suddenly start up and having no control over it at all - not being able to get it turned /down/ (let alone off) if someone in my house had a bad a headache, not knowing which evening might be quiet so we could have friends over for boardgaming, etc.
The sort of noise we were getting was very different to music practice and much much louder and more persistent and it was often late at night (and sometimes in the wee small hours of the morning) and our one attempt to ask politely if they could just turn the bass down a little as someone had a headache was met with threats of violence, so I would imagine that your neighbours are already feeling less unhappy than we were (you don't play late, it's not pounding bass, etc.), but they'll probably be more understanding about it all if you give them some sense of control.

Make it clear that you do need to practice and that "none, ever" is not on the cards, but that you really are willing to work with them to make it as unintrusive as possible and that you're happy to accomodate occasional days/evenings where they really need a break from it. Maybe you'll find that they don't mind you practicing between 7-8pm (which at the moment you don't do), but would prefer quiet during the hour before that, perhaps when they're eating? Your idea of inconsiderate times (after 7pm) and their idea ("why do they always have to do that when I want half an hour of peace and quiet before the kids get home?") might be rather different. Maybe they'd really like Sunday afternoons to be quiet, but wouldn't mind much about Friday evenings (or vice versa)?

If they know you're trying really hard to work with them, hopefully you'll find that they reciprocate and start saying things like "we're going to be away this weekend - make as much noise as you like!", so that you get "extra" times when you know you can practice more.

T.