Piano Playing Noise Daily from Neighbors
Recently bought an attached brick house and now we are going crazy on a daily basis listening to our neighbors learning how to play piano. The noise level in intolerable and they play right at the time when we come home. We tried to reason with them many many times, asking to move the piano…
Recently bought an attached brick house and now we are going crazy on a daily basis listening to our neighbors learning how to play piano. The noise level in intolerable and they play right at the time when we come home. We tried to reason with them many many times, asking to move the piano away from the common wall or to play at different times, to no avail. My husband gets soo upset that he called police once and it did not lead to anything. When can we do, our house is turning into a nightmare as we can’t even relax after difficult day at work. We are even considering selling. Any advice on how possibly to resolve this situation? The neighbors are very stubborn and are not willing to compromise even a little bit. Any advice will be appreciated.
Thank you!
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?
Wow. I’m glad I have good relationships with my neighbors. If I didn’t, and one of them came to me and told me not to do something, anything, for an hour in the afternoon, in my own house, that wasn’t illegal, I think I’d tell them to f- off.
I’ve lived under nightmare neighbors, guys who would throw a tennis ball around their apartment at two in the morning for their big dog to chase. I’ve lived over people who blasted the “Rent” soundtrack every Saturday morning, for several hours, so loud that our walls vibrated and the pictures shook. And I’ve lived over a guy who complained constantly because I exercised every day for 30 minutes in the middle of the freakin’ day.
You’re overreacting and trying to get control of something that you have no right to control. Get over it. Buy the kid some manuscript paper as a peace offering and leave it at that. Or, make your life miserable over something petty. Your choice.
Amy
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.
I also don’t think that an hour of piano practice in the early evening is such a serious issue, and tend to agree with other posters that when it isn’t the piano, you will tend to be annoyed by some other types of sounds emanating from your next door neighbor’s home….
Go for the soundproofing and try to lighten up a bit, and above all, don’t be foolish and
do spiteful things as some posters have advised… try to take a deep breath and try to “mend fences”… deescalate the situation
before it takes on a life of its own.
I’m sure that there are tons of folks on this site who wish their only noise issue was hearing an hour of piano practice in the early evening!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.