Piano Playing Noise Daily from Neighbors

Crowngardener's suggestion makes a lot of sense, much more than anything you wrote. I can't believe you called the police.

Posted by: guest at August 31, 2007 1:17 PM

seriously - you called the police?

sounds to me like you, too, "are very stubborn and are not willing to compromise even a little bit."

Posted by: guest at August 31, 2007 1:27 PM

Turn on some music.

Posted by: guest at August 31, 2007 5:35 PM

I can't believe you are getting in the way of some adorable little child's piano lessons. Move to a different part of your house to rest when you come home from work. It's a piano, not a pimped out stereo system.

Soundproof your walls. That's all you can do.

Posted by: guest at August 31, 2007 6:28 PM

You should chill out. Ever heard about property rights? Not only do you have them but so does your neighbors. And if they ain't breaking any laws you shouldn't call the police. You are just harrassing them. You have options. Soundproofing is one. Moving to a deserted island is another. Trying to get in touch with other people on this planet may take too long if you go the traditional therapy route. But there are meds that can probably speed things up for you.

Posted by: guest at August 31, 2007 6:50 PM

I believe that if you ask someone nicely to compromise or try to reach a solution satisfying to all and they dont want to cooperate, there is only one thing left to do. Its war baby. I would play my music ,preferably rap or rock n roll really loud when they are playing the piano.Get a drum set and play along. You know what they say? If you cant beat em ...join em.An eye for an eye. Do unto others....and on and on.

Posted by: guest at August 31, 2007 7:00 PM

"She can practice whenever she wants because she is a stay at home mom"??? WTF, you don't have children obviously. I'm guessing you paid a lot of money for your house and you feel you have some extra rights that other people don't. What an asshole you are for calling the police. you should move to another asshole neighborhood so you feel at home.

Posted by: guest at August 31, 2007 8:51 PM

If quiet time is so important to you, you should consider purchasing a detached house with a large lot away from any major road and air plane flight routes.

Posted by: guest at August 31, 2007 10:14 PM

where's Mom Vidalia?

Posted by: guest at August 31, 2007 10:19 PM

I know your hell. If you're serious about selling, do it. You spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to attempt to live like a human in this god forsakened cesspool of a city only to be held hostage by inconsiderate fucks who refuse to admit that they don't live in the suburbs. There are different rules that should be applied when you live on top of eachother and people don't get it. Spare yourself from the tumor. You'll have no peace until you leave that town,

Posted by: guest at August 31, 2007 10:44 PM

guest 8:51 go wash your mout out

Posted by: guest at August 31, 2007 10:46 PM

Maybe they are trying to get you to sell by annoying you with their piano playing. Don't play into their hands! LOL!!!

Posted by: guest at August 31, 2007 11:21 PM

10:44 also needs to wash his/ her mouth. A PIANO is making so much noise you can't rest? Not a crying baby, barking dog, loud fight, drunken party, blaring TV, power tools, treadmill, drumset or other common city noise. Perhaps you are extra sensitive to noise or a very light sleeper. The sound-proofing is probably a good idea for you, because when the piano player's schedule changes, there will certainly be some other noise which will be so loud and annoying that you will still be unable to rest.

Posted by: guest at September 1, 2007 8:08 AM

All y'all obviously have only experienced occasional noise before. Anybody who has been a victim of chronic noise knows exactly what is driving the OP crazy.

10:44 makes perfect sense. It's the person making the chronic noise who refuses to recognize they live in a city not the suburbs. It's the person who chooses to make chronic noise they KNOW bothers their neighbor, who should accomodate their neighbor and do the soundproofing.

Ironically, noisy neighbors always expect their other neighbors to not make noise. It's all about them all the time. Try blasting loud music and you'll see how fast this neighbor complains, trust me. This isn't an issue about noise, it never is. It's an issue about people believing they are more special than other people and have more rights than everyone else.

Besides, what dumbass buys a real piano in NYC? You have to buy an electric piano so you can turn the volume down on it. Anybody I know with a piano in their apartment here, has an electronic one. Duh. It's not like this little kid is Mozart, he doesn't need a concert grande in there. So on top of being selfish, these people are stupid.

Posted by: guest at September 1, 2007 9:02 AM

No, it's the OP and people like 9:02 that are being unreasonable. A piano used to be a staple of middle class life. Playing one, even badly, is not a crime. The neighbor's kid is not playing the bagpipes,learning the trombone, or even drums, for Pete's sake. We live in a city, there's always going to be noise from somewhere, and much of it you can't control. If it's so horrible, than it is up to you to soundproof your room, because you probably blew any chances of peaceful solution by antagonizing the neighbor.

I've lived in neighborhoods with lots of musicians - violinists, trumpet players and opera singers, of which I was one. We all made deals with our neighbors, and adjusted our schedules accordingly, as much as possible. No one ever practiced after 9 PM. However, we all did practice. Perhaps if the OP hadn't gone about it with the demand that they not be bothered, ever, the parents wouldn have been more accomodating. No one likes to be told they can't do something that is perfectly legal, especially for their child. Either try again to work it out with the neighbors, without an attitude that they are wrong and you are supremely right, or start soundproofing.

Posted by: guest at September 1, 2007 9:28 AM

I lived above a family whose child started piano lessons. For the first couple of months it drove me crazy, but then I learned to ignore it. By the time I moved, several years later, I realized I was actually going to miss it, because it had become rather enjoyable to hear the kid getting better and better at playing.

My suggestion: go have a drink after work so you won't be home when they practice.

Posted by: guest at September 1, 2007 9:37 AM

I'm a little confused here. I'm sympathetic to noise issues, but you are saying that your neighbor plays the piano for ONLY 1 hour every day at the same time. And it's in the early evening, not too late at night.

I really don't think your neighbors are being unreasonable. Being willing to compromise is one thing, but they have started at a pretty low level. The two things you've asked them to do -- move the paino to a different wall or play at a different time (and you are basically telling them the only different time allowed is when you are out of the house) is a compromise I wouldn't make for a neighbor (and I'm very obliging generally), unless I could do that easily. Believe me, with fireplaces, etc., re-arranging a room so a piano is somewhere else is not some simple task. And that is clearly the best practice time, and frankly, not at all an unreasonable one. Geez -- the noise you complain about is limited to a single hour a day, and it's the piano. If you can't find a way to cope with this, you really are going to have problems living in NYC because most people experience far worse noise (we have a neighbor in a rock band that practices, and don't get me started over teenagers blasting loud music for hours.)

I know it's annoying at the beginning, but one hour a day is really reasonable, and you are the one who should find a way to cope. People here posting that you should start a war over this are giving you horrible advice. That's really a way to destroy neighborly relations when your neighbor has not yet done anything very awful.

Posted by: guest at September 1, 2007 10:43 AM

You need to get over yourself. Practicing piano for an hour a night, even if you don't like it, is normal behavior. You sound overly entitled to me.

Posted by: guest at September 1, 2007 11:49 PM

shalman,

maybe you should work on your front yard when the neighbors are playing the piano.

or go to another area in your house.

you are way overreacting. this is so minor - i can't imagine how you'd react to a real problem, and frankly, you'll be screwed if you ever need something from your neighbor.

it's nyc, of course there's noise - what did you expect?

Posted by: guest at September 2, 2007 11:53 AM

"The paino playing is indeed very loud and it is EVERY day for an hour after we come home. I can't get any rest after work in my own house. "

this sentence tells it all.

i bet you work on wall street and think you work harder than everyone else. you have an overinflated sense of entitlement.

it's a little kid. practicing the piano. for an hour. seriously.

if i had to guess, i would guess that the people have been "unapproachable" is probably b/c you were a jerk about it and they find people of your ilk moving into their neighborhood to be annoying.

Posted by: guest at September 2, 2007 12:03 PM

Just be glad your neighbor didn't decide to play the drums.
Get over it.

Posted by: guest at September 2, 2007 3:01 PM

Out of curiosity, if you'll even have the courage to answer the question now...

What neighborhood is it anyway?

Posted by: guest at September 2, 2007 4:52 PM

Yeah, be glad it's just a piano. We live next door to a very active RC church. Sundays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m it's nonstop, starting with a relatively sedate organ Mass, then going quickly downhill to a roof-raising drum thumping charismatic Spanish language I don't know what the hell it is but it sure is loud and annoying.

I can't believe you poisoned the well with your neighbors over an hour of piano playing. Sure it's a PITA but as they say, whatchoogonnado?

But what the hell, since your neighbor already hates you, I'd fight fire with fire and face your speakers to the wall.

Posted by: guest at September 2, 2007 11:50 PM

No, I'm sorry, Johnny, but the OP is the one being uncivil here.

A piano is a time honored staple of Western life. There was a time before radio and tv that every home had one, and music making was an honored form of entertainment for the home. Having a child discover the joys of making music is as old as music, and in our Western society, a piano is usually how most children are introduced to it. A child who learns to love making music is better disciplined later in life, better at math, generally better in school, and often more likely to stay out of trouble, and is more self assured and self sufficient.

If you have a piano already at home, why should you go out and buy an electric one, so your one neighbor doesn't have to hear your kid practice for one hour a day? Is it civil to call the cops on them? How absolutely absurd. We have serious crime, in terms of noise, we have all night parties, or other real quality of life concerns. But a child playing scales and Mozart for an hour a day is worthy of the police? Next they will be calling because of crying babies.

Get over it, OP. Go somewhere else, soundproof your home, or move to the top of a hill in South Dakota. That's about the only place you aren't going to get the everyday noises of living in an urban area.

Posted by: guest at September 3, 2007 11:54 AM

the OP is gross.

please don't even dignify this with so many responses.

he/she's a loon.

plain and simple.

Posted by: guest at September 3, 2007 5:07 PM

Honestly, if this post isn't a big sign New York is over, I don't know what is.

This used to be a place where kids played stickball out in the street all evening, where artists, musicians and performers used to be out in full force, where you couldn't walk down the street and not hear someone practicing their tenor sax for a broadway performance of Miss Saigon later that evening. Or a young singer practicing for her Metropolitan Opera audition or a young String Quartet from Juilliard practing the Ravel Quartet.

It's come to the point where an hour of a kid (btw, how do you KNOW that this little one won't be the next, Mozart?) can't even practice their piano for an hour a day without the cops being called. It's absurd and it's sad.

HGTV's slogan has it right. Start at home. If we don't do something soon, this country will soon be nothing but a bunch of boobs sitting around a computer all day.

Oh wait...

Posted by: guest at September 3, 2007 5:14 PM

Hard to believe the police did nothing when you called them. They should have arrested the little twerp and thrown him behind bars for twenty years.

Posted by: guest at September 3, 2007 5:58 PM

I don't know. On one hand, it's only an hour. On the other, I don't doubt that it's really irritating, because anyone learning how to play the piano is repetitive and has little control and the sounds themselves are simple (for learning purposes).

And if it were at the exact time I come home every day, I would probably politely ask, in the context of other things, if the time of practice could be moved up just one hour or so. And nobody knows how the OP approached the situation. There isn't enough information here to judge.

It could very well be that the OP "poisoned the well" over a small issue (it's only an hour and definitely not worth getting worked up over).

It could also be true that the OP politely asked for a concession about the time and was met with an overly defensive response, in which case the piano-mom is the one who's out of bounds.

It is a city, which means that you have to understand that your noise impacts other people. You have to at least try to play along!

I think, of course, that children have the right to play the piano. But if doing it even a half an hour earlier in the day would make the situation more win-win, and if the mom isn't even listening... then who is the asshole there?

Other win-win solutions:

1. Do a yoga class or something right after work
2. Go to work an hour later if you can
3. Get an ipod and some noise cancelling earphones, and learn a language or something while you putter around your house for that first hour.

Posted by: guest at September 4, 2007 8:01 AM

Thank goodness we don't have lawns here to mow.

Posted by: guest at September 4, 2007 1:08 PM

Court TV is looking for feuding neighbors for their new reality show Neighbor 911 - you should go on the show and have an "expert" mediator help you work out the problem!

Posted by: guest at September 4, 2007 3:40 PM

or the piano player's parents should call the police for harrassment.

they'd have a better case against this psycho than she does towards them.

Posted by: guest at September 4, 2007 4:25 PM

one hour a day at the same time every day is actually very considerate. It means you know exactly when the noise will occur and can plan around it. One thing that may help you is one of the those white noise machines. They are very effective in blocking out unwanted noise. Get a couple of them and put them on while playing occurs. But you do sound like an asshole.

Posted by: guest at September 4, 2007 6:02 PM

It's bad enough to call a person you know an asshole in anger but to direct all this at a person that you don't know and have never met? Don't the name callers know that the way that they choose to see others is the way that they will be seen?

I agree that the child should be allowed to play the piano. I guarantee that as clearly as some may think that they see this person's shortcomings- their own are as glaringly obvious to others. Our emotions cause us to miss things that we should know and to become blinded and irrational- all of us. And, the jury is out. Read the posts.

If you have some wisdom- please be a gentle teacher.

When it is cold we run for a sweater- when we are hot we want a fan. The best things are found when we sit in our discomfort and see what is on the other side. There is probably joy and understanding.

The best wisdom that was shared here.
- I lived above a family whose child started piano lessons. For the first couple of months it drove me crazy, but then I learned to ignore it. By the time I moved, several years later, I realized I was actually going to miss it, because it had become rather enjoyable to hear the kid getting better and better at playing.

Good luck with learning to share the joy of a child and to approaches each new thing as though it were the dawn of time. What an incredible gift to be able to hear that music.

Posted by: guest at September 5, 2007 3:35 PM

thanks mother theresa.

Posted by: guest at September 5, 2007 5:26 PM

wow...i'm a first-time reader, and I am amazed at how venomous this discussion is. The name calling, profanity, and the lack of consideration that both parties could be at fault is a bit shocking.

Of all the threads here, the one dealing with interpersonal relationships - not renovating a dilapidated domestic anachronism - is the one that gets this crew heated. it's been an education.

Posted by: guest at September 6, 2007 2:40 PM

I can not believe what I am reading, when you can call someone an a..hole an stay annonymus shows the type of individuals that you ARE NOT.
Yes Im for the kid playing his piano.(why not let him play an electric one with earphones?) We have forgotten to be a good neighbor, and I can understand why he would call the police, you have many neighbors that are very agressive, and if you would go up to them and ask them to lower the volume you would be putting your life at stake. I would rather call the police and let them deal with the noise problem. It is always a good advice to call the police first!

Posted by: guest at September 10, 2007 4:35 PM

I'm sorry to tell you that there is not much you can do except:

Ignore it-
may be hard to do if you have sensitive hearing

Move out-
But you have no garantee that you won't have the same problems again.

Build a wall-

Get political-
pass a law to limit the decibels, condos have it!

Get even-
give yourself a gift, buy a 200watt system

Posted by: guest at September 10, 2007 4:49 PM

Hate to break it to you, but people have been complaining about pianos on the other side of the party wall in brownstone houses ever since they first became popular in the Victorian era. The music is undoubtedly loud, since the wall in your apartment is probably acting as a giant tympanium against the back of the upright piano. Since the kid's just learning to play, the music is undoubtedly rife with wrong notes, bad tempos, and endless repetitions, which is undoubtedly annoying.

Historically, I only know of one successful solution that made both sides happy. Thomas Carlyle managed to butter up the ego of his nextdoor neighbor and she was so tickled that she agreed to adjust her practice time--temporarily. Whether you're charismatic enough or have the proper opening for pulling this off is another story. Perhaps you could make them an apology gift in the form of a music book focused on quieter etudes and Chopin-esque pieces. This would at least nudge the child away from more bombastic pieces as they progress.

On a final note, I wouldn't start a music war with your neighbors. That's just going to turn it into a control issue (if it isn't one already) and could potentially escalate the conflict. You're already annoyed at them taking time from your life, so why turn this dispute into a new hobby? Perhaps "grin and bear it" is a more appropriate phrase for your situation than "ignore it."

Posted by: guest at October 30, 2007 6:00 PM

I am going through the exact same thing. The lady next door to me plays piano from 7.30am to 10pm at night. I have no idea when she actually eats and possibly her hands must be blistered from playing everyday!!!
I'm at a point where I just don't know what to do. I play music to try and drown it out, but the piano is actually louder than the music!! You can actually hear the music in every room of the house, there is no escape. I am currently 7 months pregnant and the constant noise is really stressing me out in which should be a happy time.
If it was for just one hour a day, I'd be supportive, it's do-able. But this is too much. We've complained but to no avail.
Should I have a lawyer draft a letter to her? Not really sure what to do next!
My husband and I both work but days I've been off sick, she's played during those days too. She doesn't work, she use to be a therapist and now just does this everyday. I wonder if she perhaps is teaching in there as nobody could play themselves for so long everyday surely?
We've put up for this for last 6 months, everytime we are home. I'm at breaking point, and dreading 4 days off for thanksgiving because I'll have her everyday interrupting our quiet time and it will just ruin our holiday.

Posted by: guest at November 18, 2007 4:08 PM

Just read through this. Wondering how things have worked out? Can the original poster tell us the happy/sad ending to the piano playing drama? Also, curious about the last post: Did our new mother resolve her piano nightmare?

Posted by: guest at February 28, 2008 3:44 PM

I can sympathize with OP, I lived in an apartment under a piano player years ago, and it was not just for an hour a day, but every night until 10 or 11 pm. It was so loud I could not watch TV, listen to music of my own choice or read a book. He refused to compromise on the hours, or do any soundproofing and I ended up moving for the sake of my sanity. (I was told by the landlord that the piano player was within his rights as long as he did not go past 11pm).

Hope soundproofing helps you, since the neighbor refuses to compromise (although I must say if it stays at the level of an hour in the early evening that's not so bad) it's either that or move. Hope you have found some resolution to this since you posted back in August.

Posted by: guest at March 7, 2008 12:14 PM

Must say I am having the same experience as OP out on the West Coast in a townhouse condo. All day and into the evening. If it were only an hour, set time, each and every day, it would be much more tolerable; but to hear it in every room of the place at 10 am, 3pm , 6:15 and again at 8:10pm, is simply too much. It's amazing how much this can put one on edge when trying to read, listen to one's own soft music or have a conversation, especially when writing the mortgage check at the same time. Too bad that individual rights don't also include noise intrusion and pollution like smoke or other things as the stress and life disruption can be horrific.

Posted by: guest at March 11, 2008 10:27 PM

I am having the same if not worse experience with my neighbor living in an apartment. I am a student, my neighbor is a student.

For 1 piano session she typically plays scales for about 20-30 minutes per day. She plays studies(scales + HAMMERING CHORDS) for an additional 20-30 minutes. She plays classical music for 30 more minutes. She may play 1-3 piano sessions a day.

The scales tend to get quite aggravating because you hear the same notes over and over and over again for an extended period of time. My ladyfriend finds it even more aggravating as a more experienced piano player because she doesn't play the scales right apparently.

The studies are the most annoying because it consists of the annoying scales plus the same chords being hammered like the keyboard of an office worker with a Blue screen of Death.

She plays classical music the least which tends to piss me off because at least theres a melody in it. On top of this she finds a place to stop in each song at least 5 times to repeat the same bar over and over again.

I like taking naps. I am quite grumpy when I get woken up when I don't want to be.When she wakes me up with the scales and studies as she always does, the rest of the day I tend to be fuming. When I am trying to do work, I cannot do it while she is playing scales and studies. She is most likely a music student so asking her to practice less often would end up with nothing. I do feel like telling her she's fairly talentless for how much she practices though.

I play PC games on a very competitive basis. If she's allowed to practice the most annoying crap for hours @ ~80dB I could play with my 250 watt speakers, so she could hear the sounds of endless gunshots during the evening for hours. However I respect the fact that I'm living in an apartment and I wear headphones.

Maybe piano players could do the same and do something about the fact they produce some of the worst noise pollution besides civics without mufflers.

You can't afford an electric piano and headphones? Get a different livelihood and don't make someone else's life worse because you aspire only to be a musician in an apartment.

Posted by: guest at April 8, 2008 12:47 PM