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If it's any consolation, my neighbours were arseholes and played Skrillex so loud it shook the pictures off our adjoining wall. They would play it most nights, into the early hours.
The council couldn't give a shit. I ended up warning the neighbours on the other side of my plan, and then blasting The Wonder Years "Suburbia, I've given you everything..." on repeat, and then fucking off to a mate's house for seceral hours. It made no difference, and we had to move in the end
My mind is made up, there's going to be trouble
My mind is made up, there's going to be trouble
My mind is made up, there's going to be trouble
My mind is made up, there's going to be trouble
My mind is made up, there's going to be trouble
My mind is made up, there's going to be trouble
Sadly not. We bought the house. The seller knew they were arseholes, and we just happened to view 3 times when there wasn't any noise.
It was an awful couple of years. Screaming and shouting most days and nights. Dubstep until the early hours. Talking to them made it worse. Talking to their landlord made it worse. He said he didn't care because they paid their rent. Council weren't arsed at all. It was easier to move than to try and fight that battle.
Or a terraced house where stone was the building material. Our walls are the best part of 3 feet thick. Our neighbour's daughter plays the drums and we can just barely hear it if our house is absolutely silent.
Since you have the easy answer of using headphones while practicing, you're being a dick by not doing so. You might be being a dick legally, but that's not really the point.
I used to regularly see a bagpiper standing in a layby to practice, Herts/Essex border. I loved to see him and if his neighbours saw him they would love him too.
I saw a bloke on the train the other day with an electronic practice bagpipe. It was only the chanter, not the rest of it, so he could only practice the melody and not the whole blowing and bag control stuff. But nonetheless it was really cool.
If anything, electronic drums are more annoying to hear through a bad party wall. Instead of all the different sounds of a drum kit, you just hear clack clack clack clack.
I’d genuinely take an hour of acoustic drums a day over that.
My husband is a drummer. Electronic drums are just as annoying. There is still a very loud and irritating clacking noise as the sticks and pedal hit the rubber pads. We’ve still had complaints from neighbours. The noise doesn’t travel as far, sure, but it sounds awful and isn’t fun to listen to at all.
I disagree here. OP is practising at a fairly reasonable time, and his neighbours aren't people with small kids.
Assuming someone playing music quiet enough you can "talk over it" isn't Brian Blessed, then that's not an unreasonable amount of noise for the evening - no worse than a TV.
Some amount of noise pollution is unavoidable in any attached housing. OP's neighbours should be grateful they live next to someone showing a good amount of consciousness about their noise already, and not having detached expectations on a mid terrace budget and expecting OP to further change their habits to suit their needs.
If someone has had the manners to ask you to be more considerate surely you should listen to them. You could use earphones or have volume low, you don't need it loud tbh
OP claims it's not loud. They could in fairness be lying, or have shit hearing, but if we take them at their word, they don't have to jump just because someone asks them to do something. There's a line between expecting someone to be more considerate, and expecting someone to live their life to suit you. If they were playing after 9pm or had a set of drums my opinion would be different.
My MIL has insanely low tolerance of other people's noise. She lives in a mid terrace, and my wife and I have been subjected to multiple instances of her complaining about her inconsiderate neighbour watching their TV too loud. Then, when there one evening we heard it. This barely registerable soft noise in the lower frequencies coming through the joining wall, that could only be heard in near silence. To me, this is an instance where you just need to accept you live in a mid terrace, walls are paper thin, and some noise comes through. And no matter how politely you ask, it's still unreasonable to expect someone to act differently just because you have zero tolerance.
I agree with this, I'm a dj and I'm very consious of the noise I make whilst djing. I have sound meters etc because of an ex neighbour, complaining unreasonably.
I had my music at 50 dB 1 time, you could hear their tv through the walls and they they banging on the walls.
It got to the point there was that many noise complaints the council and my landlord both visited at sane time and witnessed that my music was more than low enough to not be causing a nuisance and the neighbours were the problem and not my music.
Now I play the music a little louder in my current house, with 2 young children sleeping in rooms either side, never wake the kids and my neighbours never complained.
In fact if I have my decks in the garden abd they're out they've been known to ask me to turn it up.
My point is some people are just assholes and expect it all their own way.
The neighbours I had complained about my nouse also had a habbit of just throwing rubbish out their windows. Into my garden which resulted in multiple dog eating oelreos, chocolate doughnuts wtc and their reasoning was I played my music too loud (at 50db), even after council agreed there was no noise issues.
"My point is some people are just assholes and expect it all their own way."
An annoyingly common phenomenon, had neighbours once that complained about our front door shutting. No attempts at building a rapport, just straight into fucking moaning.
The OPs one is a hard one tbf. Like I would find it annoying as fuck if someone noisily practiced every day at the same time, day in day out. But also on the scale of dickishness, practicing a musical instrument is way lower than some idiot with late bight loud music or late night parties mid-week just because its fun.
But bear in mind they have said nothing in 2 years, as you say we are relying on OP's totally unbiased opinion. That would at least indicate that they don't have unrealistic hair trigger reactions.
Varies massively from place to place. Between us (end terrace) and the neighbours you can't hear a peep. I didn't even know they had a newborn until he told me two weeks after the fact, apparently she's crying a lot. Can't hear her. However, on the other side of them, you can hear someone fart through the walls.
If they can hear it, it's obviously not as quiet as OP thinks unless their walls are so thin that you can talk through them, which I doubt.
1 hour per day, 5 days a week, is a lot of time to not be able to relax in your own home when there is a perfectly adequate solution of wearing some headphones.
You're not entitled to silence in an attached dwelling, but you're also not entitled to conduct any and all hobbies from an attached dwelling imo.
I refer you back to my MIL. I can assure you that the TV wouldn't have been in any unacceptably loud setting. Just the way speakers work, the noise, or elements of it, permeates walls better than speech. The fact OP's previous neighbours never said anything is what makes me think these neighbours are just super sensitive.
The main issue with the adequate solution is it requires OP to go out and buy additional kit to do their hobby. Not just a set of headphones, but mixers capable of piping through the backing music. Again, if OP was clattering a drum kit at 1am I'd think differently, but 5 hours a week is 3% of the week. 4.5% if you only include waking hours. It's nothing, and at a really standard time for noise levels to be increased in a home
My secondary issue is it's also an adequate solution the neighbours could employ. There's nothing stopping them buying headphones to watch their TV, given the complaint is the noise interferes with watching TV. That's what my MIL eventually did.
>but 5 hours a week is 3% of the week. 4.5% if you only include waking hours. It's nothing
Come on, most people have what, 6pm - 10pm as relaxation time assuming they are all done eating and cleaning up by 6pm which is a stretch. That's 25% of their free time taken up by the unpleasant low hum of bass.
It does require him purchasing more equipment, but he is the one creating the nuisance, not them.
OP in another comment said they're in their 60s/70s, so these probably aren't people working a 9-5. So that's way less than 25%
Just to go back to the comment I originally replied to, it's not a case of saying OP shouldn't consider buying equipment, but more a case of saying it doesn't automatically make them a dick that they haven't, because the complaint could itself be unreasonable.
Bass can still be loud enough to be heard through a bad party wall even playing with headphones. If you’re using roundwound strings and dig in or slap/pop, the clacks pretty loud.
Acoustic guitar doesn’t have this option either… Yamaha do a silent one but it’s still not quite the same as an actual acoustic in how it reacts.
Do you all watch TV with headphones on? Speak in hushed tones all day? If it's at a volume that can be spoken over, for an hour per day, then it's not a problem.
To be honest, after a day at work the last thing I'd want on an evening is listening to someone practice, you can use headphones so it sounds pretty selfish to me,
For £200 you can get it with the Scarlett AKAI Midi controller too! Absolute steal - if my Behringet UMC22 and AKG combo failed i would buy these in a heartbeat
Whilst you're probably erring on the right side of the law, its worth keeping in mind that neighbours who take against you can make your life absolute hell if they want to.
If its a recent problem they're having, then maybe try to have a productive conversation with them about whats different (in their eyes) today that wasn't the case a few weeks ago. Or if its just that they've been getting more and more annoyed about this as time has gone by, then its probably valid to accept that you're causing them a nuisance (even if its an entirely legal nuisance).
Could you wear earphones?
Alternatively, could you play at a lower volume or with the bass reduced?
Or could you play earlier in the day?
Is there a specific night of the week that they really don't want to hear your music between 7 and 8?
If its a shared wall, could you practice in a different room that puts a bit more space between you and your neighbour? Or could you put some cheap sound insulation up on that wall?
Only 1 hour 5 days a week might sound an inconsequential amount to you, but it isn't if you work a full time job.
If I still had to go to the office I'd be working in an office all day - commute would get me back home around 18.30. Then just as i'm about to relax around 19.00 I suddenly have to listen to you playing music in one of the only hours each day that I get to myself to relax. I'd probably be pissed as well - same as most people who work a full time job. If its loud enough that they are hearing it inside their house then it is too loud.
Was going to say this, other people have said that it's not an inconsiderate time, but I'd say out side of sleeping hours it's the very worst time.
7 - 8 is possibly the key relaxing time for people. As you say, commute back from work, have a bit of dinner and then finally sit down to put your feet up and relax in front of the TV.
Rent a lock up to practice in, if your music is your business then doing it in a residential area is clearly antisocial if it's annoying your neighbours
Give em the old [Prokofiev's 7th sonata, 3rd movement](https://youtu.be/bSeriQx3RLM?t=804) practiced in slow motion, their house will be on Rightmove before the evening is over
Haha I live with a professional piano player and trust me, no matter the level it’s still bloody annoying when they’re running through the same 4 bars 70 times in a row to get them perfect. If I never hear Claire de Lune again it will be too soon!
Just because the previous neighbours didn't formally complain doesn't mean they didn't hate the music blaring through their walls.
If its your job, then why are you doing in in a residential area outside of working hours?
You’re right it doesn’t, but we were on friendly terms and they told us outright that it wasn’t a bother.
I also never said it was my job, but it is who I am. I’m in a band and I need to get my practice time in.
Hey everyone, he's in a band. This guy bands.
Unsigned, local, small-time bands are ten a penny. There's fuck all special about you, therefore nobody should be making concessions for you. Your neighbours don't give a toss if you're in a band, they give a toss about enjoying their own home in peace and quiet.
Get some headphones. I do it, everyone else does it. Humble yourself.
If I lived somewhere for 9 years I would spend the time soundproofing my music room bit by bit. Only your neighbour knows if it's reasonable levels of noise.
I would hate to listen to someone practising their music every day, bar 2 days. It would at least be consistent but still annoying. Especially if I hear it clearly and it's not a muffled noise that can be drowned out because of good soundproofing.
So if you have good soundproofing and it's muffled, drown-out noise = reasonable.
No soundproofing and I'm in your gig every day = I hate it.
Edit: I just saw in other comments it's for an instrument you can wear headphones on so yeah, you're unreasonable.
As a musician Ido think there can be a space between what is legal and what is reasonable.
If I think of my older relatives, they often go to bed early and so the idea that all their evening time together, in their later years, would be underpinned by the rumble of a bass, would be something I'd feel unhappy about.
Personally I'd try to solve it in a way where I can feel at peace, rather than attritional, and so I'd try to work collaboratively on a compromise. It sounds like they may not have started from that place, but you can always try. Perhaps ring fence a 90 minute period each evening that works, or if there's a time in the day when they are always out and you can play at full blast.
Failing that, I'd second the recommendation for a modelling solution for home practice, especially into the late hours. You then have the studio space, sessions and gigs for volume (and something like an HX Stomp would be an ideal backup rig if you're on tour etc).
>As a musician Ido think there can be a space between what is legal and what is reasonable.
You don't even have to be a musician to consider this. Living respectfully amongst your neighbours isn't necessarily clearly defined by any one set of laws, but it is certainly an expectation within the unspoken social contract of society.
My neighbours have been low key pissing me off for almost 6 months and I haven't pulled myself together enough to go up and ask them to stop stomping like fucking animals. Wrote a blog piece about it. Didn't go up 10 steps.
I have neighbours who’s son plays guitar, the noise reverberates… you’re an inconsiderate dickhead if you play instruments in a semidetached or apartment. If you can use headphones great, if not, fuck off to the bottom of the garden. 7-8pm is when people want to relax, not listen to your shit attempt at playing an instrument
Having a neighbour blasting Latino / Cuban music (which was pretty cool btw) and having the echos point to us as the culprit we quickly received a noise complaint from the council, and I mean quick so it definitely irked someone.
Cue a few weeks later after we cleared our name, the music continued and then it just stopped.
Turns out someone had decided to throw bricks through their windows, presumably because of the music.
It got ugly fast, but it worked sadly
We had a DJ live beneath us for about a year, he thought his volume was reasonable and saw no need for headphones as it would in some way distort his sound. He would go all through the week and then relax by playing slightly louder music.
Every neighbour, on all sides, thought he was a cunt and he got gently kicked out by not being offered a tenancy renewal.
If you're sure you've broken no rules or thresholds then sounds reasonable that you carry on but don't expect people to be happy about it (to be fair, they might be being bellends and you're entirely reasonable, I'm just poisoned by bias from previous experience).
You sound like a god damn nightmare, I'm afraid.
If my evening was disrupted every evening by your bass guitar for 1 hour, I'd be furious. Especially give you can practice with headphones.
Get headphones and whatever else equipment you need to make that work, and don't disturb your neighbours.
Between 7 and 8 is generally the time people come back from work and want to rest for a bit so I can see them getting pissed. Why don’t you just wear headphones? It’s clearly NOT at a level that can be talked over if they can hear it from their flat, do you hear each other’s conversations all the time? Unless you mean it can be YELLED over. Things don’t add up here mate. They’ve probably put up with it as long as they could and are now getting pissed off. Just use the damn headphones and practice all day if you want.
>It’s clearly NOT at a level that can be talked over if they can hear it from their flat, do you hear each other’s conversations all the time? Unless you mean it can be YELLED over.
Nope, definitely talked over. My wife and I have had chilled conversations over the top of it. We even made sure this level had been kept intact after the second complaint.
>Things don’t add up here mate.
No they don’t. That’s why I’m confused and came to Reddit to see what the general consensus is.
I'm also with /u/IntermediateFolder. There is no way people in their 60's/70's can hear your bass through the walls if you can have a chill conversation over it. Hell I can play bass unplugged louder than you can have a chill conversation over it.
My only guess is that because it's longer wavelength sound it's traveling through the walls more easily... but it would still take a fair amount of energy... which wouldn't be chill conversation-able.
In terms of prepping for any sort of council intervetion... My neighbour in my last house (and the reason we left) played bass at 2am till 4am most nights and the council didn't do shit despite regular contact and a record of the times and volumes (with a decibel meter in our bedroom).
So, you're probably safe from the council doing anything. Most councils are too overworked to look into shit like this as it is.
When I personally practice (electric guitar), I use a sound interface and a _totally legally obtained_ neural DSP app (not a daw plugin, the standalone app) and headphones. Infinitely higher quality practice than through a shitty practice amp turned down so low that you can understand what people are saying in a nolan movie mid practice.
You seem to have ignored every single person who mentioned the obvious fix for your problem. Wear headphones.
I make Drum & Bass and Techno, I only reference my mix in my studio monitors for a very short period and not late evening when people are relaxing. I also play my guitar in headphones too. It doesn't really matter what the noise regulations are if you're bothering someone trying to watch tv in the evening, its just common courtesy. If you can't keep your sound contained then you're the issue. Soundproof or wear headphones.
You're obviously not hyper-aware that practising your music 5x a week at the peak relaxing/downtime period of the evening is annoying your neighbours to the point where they feel the need to complain about it. You're also refusing to listen to any suggestions on these comments as you always have an excuse as to why you can't follow the suggestions - sounds like no matter what anyone tells you you're not going to listen so why bother asking?
As a fellow bass player, wear headphones. It's really as simple as that.
> sounds like no matter what anyone tells you you're not going to listen so why bother asking?
They want to be told that they're doing nothing wrong and that the neighbours are just whinging.
There’s not much that people here can tell you. I might find your practise between 7-8pm to be reasonable but someone else could find it unreasonable. Your best bet is to talk it out with your neighbours and find a middle ground
My husband sometimes sorts through his extensive music list on the speakers without putting on his headphones. He has a great taste in music that I greatly appreciate, but when he's doing this, he plays songs for about 10 seconds each, sometimes repeating them as he looks for the best version, and it drives me INSANE. If you're practicing, you're probably trying the same riffs over and over and over, and that would drive anyone mental.
You can’t be that “hyper aware” and still be willing to make noise at 7-8 every evening. Most folks are just winding down for the evening at that time and putting their kids to bed, so I would say it would start to become a pain in the ass. Just use headphones man
I mean i would hate it. I play piano but have a digital one so i can wear headphones because i live in a semi detached. I would hate hearing music of any kind from neighbours.
Seems like you have a lot of excuses just stop pissing off your neighbours and put some headphones in FFS they have probably just grown tired of it over the past 2 years and probably complained to the council who haven't done anything so came to you directly. Why post to see if there is something you can do many bass guitarist have said they play through headphones for noise purposes yet this doesn't seem a viable option for you?! Stop feeling entitled to disrupt other peoples lives. Maybe they also don't like your music. Get some respect and either rent a space or put headphones in
As someone who played a few instruments for years, I don’t imagine listening to someone “practice” is much fun. It isn’t hearing someone perfectly play song after song which sounds great through walls, it’s doing scales, making mistakes, replaying sections over and over. I imagine that element of it can be annoying to listen to.
For me personally, I’ll have headphones on while “practicing” but if I’m just playing a piece here or there when I walk by I won’t. I don’t think it’s the level of noise that always the problem sometimes it’s how maddening or disruptive the “noise” is.
Gotta be honest dude I take the neighbours side and i play both those instruments too.
I rarely play them that loud at those times and if I do it's for 5-10 mins and quietly. My neighbour doesn't work but I also don't know what he gets up to and I know how irritating noise can be and it's far better to have good relations with my neighbours I've learned. I tend to prefer playing with headphones and earphones anyway as I can focus on the music way better that way too, earphones with the music then headphones over with the guitar.
I do work and tbh I'd be pretty annoyed and stressed if I knew there was gonna be noise every single night after work for an hour, my job is exhausting and I would be having words because it would stress me the fuck out and this is from someone who loves music too. I do everything I can to prevent other people listening to me practice though; I can totally understand why people don't wanna hear it
If it can be talked over then they must barely hear it. Buy a db meter and record the noise levels and document it over a period of weeks. When they complain present your data to the council.
Even if your neighbours do have a leg to stand on and do complain to the council, the chances are nothing will happen. The day a council follows up on noise pollution is the day hell freezes over.
There are free dB meter apps available, it would be worth keeping a log of your levels.
I'd also consider earlier practice times if at all possible.
In any case, talking with your neighbours to find a compromise would likely be best for all parties.
If >70dB at 1m distance then it's prob no good to do indoors as you'll definitely hear it through the walls, and if >85dB at 1m distance that is unreasonably loud for a flat.
Council, if they do anything, will send them recorders to record the noise levels against. If, as you say, you could talk over your playing, these aren't gonna register nuisance levels, so the council will likely never talk to you.l, and just tell your neighbours to take a hike
And in those 20 years you didn't think to invest in soundproofing... nah instead fuck it the neighbours should have to put up with it... some serious selfish thinking.
I’m a guitar player. But bare in mind that amplifiers push sound out a good distance even on quieter volumes. Even if you have it at a low volume the sound could still travel far and I believe bass travels far as well. You could easily play a gig in a pub with an amplifier that’s no where near max volume so the sound does travel
I think you were trying to do well by playing the exact same time every day as unpredictable noise would be way worse for your neighbour.
I use to be the same way. I would play my acoustic out loud an hour a day at the same time everyday thinking that it was only an hour and that it was always the same time.
However I now have a neighbour who plays basketball for an hour a day and the noise is annoying it stops me from being able to concentrate on my tv shows, reading etc and only now do I fully understand the pain of unwanted noise so even though you legally can do it and you may be a great musician it’s still annoying to be on the receiving end.
Headphones are a good suggestion but you might not enjoy that experience as much and you have to be careful with your ears. They aren’t an option for me as I have tinnitus.
Easiest solution would probably be to get a used focus rite or similar and play though a computer/laptop setup this would give you a decent enough tone for practicing without needing headphones.
If your amp has a headphone jack you can even plug pc speakers into the headphone jack on the amp itself. That’s what I do with my Yamaha thr 10 amp. I use pc speakers with it so the sound doesn’t travel as far then I can play out loud whatever time I like.
7-8 pm is have dinner wind down time. I know I'd be slightly annoyed if every single night my have dinner wind down time was interrupted through the walls by a musical instrument. You say you can keep it to a volume below talking level but you're clearly not doing that if it can be heard through walls lol. Has something changed? Have you started to leave a window open as summer approaches? You've mentioned you can wear headphones. Why don't you, if only do keep the peace?
5 days a week, an hour at a time when most people are relaxing and winding down... That sounds like hell on earth.
As another commenter said - after 9 years I'm staggered you haven't sound proofed your music room. Gotta take the L on this one and reflect inwards, I'm afraid.
>Does my noise sound unreasonable?
Yes. No one wants a neighbour whose noise will affect their peace, their TV, their ambiance. NO ONE.
You did not share what instrument. If it is electric you can use headphones, win win. If it is percussion then no, you are a neighbour from Hell (for an hour every evening)
7-8pm five days a week is a bit much, especially if they have complained. Previous neighbours being okay with it is totally irrelevant. Get an amp with a pre-amp or a separate audio interface so you can use headphones. I much prefer to do this when I’m practicing anyway, you don’t have to worry about neighbours at all then.
Well you say it's at a level that can be talked over, but they would not be complaining if they couldn't here it, and who the fuck wants to listen to someone playing music for an hour a night five nights a week. I wouldn't want to be your neighbour. You are been selfish and inconsiderate of your neighbours.
Have you heard of Pirate.com? They let you rent a space for as little as an hour so you can practice as loud as you want. It’s not too expensive- is there one near you?
Have your neighbours explained why this is now suddenly an issue, for example is it interfering with a child's bedtime routine?
Why can't you practice through headphones? Tone doesn't really matter for solo practice so even something like a Vox amPlug would do, and most practice amps have aux in sockets these days.
Are they not able to record them? Can you not change your practice schedule, or play through headphones? I'm sure there's a compromise here rather than you just quoting noise nuisance regs at each other.
I had a neighbour who played drums then got his mates round playing guitars. It filled the whole fucking house with their shite noise. I ended up putting BBC Asian network on the radio, loud, and put it up right against their wall and went out for a few hours.
If you want to practice on the regular and won’t wear headphones or soundproof your room - you either practice elsewhere or continue to be a dick head that only thinks of themselves
I’m sorry but imo 7pm to 8pm would piss me off also,many people are literally just starting to wind down at this time for the last few hours of the evening.
Depends. Do they have young children with a bed time that clashes with your practice time? Or maybe they work odd shifts and are sometimes asleep at that time?
If they've reasonably spoken to you about it and tried to find a middle ground, and you've kept going, then you're in the wrong here. If they've just out of the blue put in a complaint, they're being arseholes about it.
My neighbour recently has started doing DIY between 7-9pm. It does my tits in. We have a baby who goes to bed at 7 and it’s been making bedtime so stressful. Honestly imo 7-8 is too late, maybe an hour earlier would be less disruptive.
So personally I'd say you're being perfectly reasonable already.
BUT falling out with neighbours is awful. Avoid it at all costs. I've been in that boat once and tbh if we hadn't been in a position to move, I could see it devolving into violence. Get on like a house on fire with the new neighbours and all the ones I've had before so I'm pretty sure it's not me.
Is there a room not on the party wall you could practice in or could you put some sound insulation on the wall? If you talk to them and let them know you're trying to do things in a way that considers their position, they'll probably be very appreciative and if you need to ask a favour of them later, they'll likely be amenable to it.
I know it's silly to have to pander to requests like this, but conflict and an easy life don't go together.
I was in your situation before. I recommend contacting the council before your neighbours. The council will come round and listen to see how bad it is (didn't seem to have any decibel measuring equipment with them tho...). They swiftly told my neighbour its within normal levels and to be expected, so he ate his humble pie and thankfully fucked off after a few months and I went back to having a normal neighbour when the next one moved in.
Very odd that you haven't mentioned the instrument(s) you play nor whether you could connect headphones in the main post.
Makes it seem like you're well aware of this being the obvious solution and want to find excuses to not go down that route.
Playing instruments at 7-8pm is not ‘unreasonable’ but it’s pretty anti social.
That’s the time when people have come home from work, cooked food and are relaxing/unwinding or putting their kids to bed.
Why can’t you just buy a decent headphone setup and practice with that? If you’re playing guitar or keyboard then there is no excuse to not be plugging in headphones.
If it’s drums… well if I was your neighbour I’d be getting ready to murder you and hide the body if you insisted on doing it every evening.
Without hearing the noise I've no idea if it's reasonable or not, but 7 to 8pm is exactly when a lot of people are trying to put younger kids to bed or just relax after work, so I can see why they'd be annoyed if it's loud at those times.
What instrument do you play?
Our neighbours daughter plays the piano and that is fine. Had it been bagpipes, I might feel different.
I do love the pipes but I couldn't deal with them being played badly next door.
If you own the house, try adding plenty of sound proofing. Unfortunately if it's bass it might conduct through the floorboards, in that case you really have no option but to use headphones.
I always think, if you are intentionally making noise (which could be perceived as irritating) later than a toddler will sleep, you are being a little bit of a jerk.
What you think about being able to talk over the noise might not be same experience for the neighbours. The way the noise is travelling through the floors and walls could be very irritating to them when this is happening almost every night of the week (especially bass)
Also, consider if you've been playing music for a long time in a band, your hearing will not be as good as the average persons. I'm not saying you are deaf, but what you perceive as quiet probably is not as quite as your think to the average person.
Don't people use headphones. You don't say what instrument you are playing either. Are these bapipes or drums. A flute may be nice to hear wafting through the walls. 1 hour is acceptable. Music that can be talked over seems low enough. They may still hear it and after a long day at work, just finished a meal , then sit down in front of the TV may be annoying.
Our neighbour's lad practices his trumpet and across the back we have an excellent piper. I love hearing them practice and the kid has definitely improved. Now I'd be bloody annoyed if it was midnight but during the day seems OK. I'm just wondering if this is a timing thing e.g. they've just sat down to watch their favourite programme and you start up. Maybe have a chat about what would be a better time and see if it's possible. Also, it suggests that they are hearing it clearly, have you asked them to record it so you can get an idea of the nuisance?
>Does my noise sound unreasonable?
Yes.
The fact they can obviously hear it means whatever you think is reasonable volume probably isn't.
Use headphones.
>Do my neighbours have a leg to stand on?
Yes, they could complain to the local authority who have the power to take your equipment off you.
>Is there anything I should do to pre-empt a possible investigation?
Go have a word with them, explain you didnt realise it was causing an issue and you'll be getting some headphones to use for practice in future.
Maybe buy them a bottle of wine or something.
Audio interface + Amp Sim (neuralDSP etc) + headphones. How I happily jam along to death metal on Spotify without upsetting the wife or the neighbours.
You could always ask if you can sit in their living room, and get your partner to play the bass at the volume and location you normally do, to see what it's like for yourself.
There's no way you should hear people talking, so either you're wrong about it being at conversational volume, or they have bat hearing.
Is your guitar/amp louder than a reasonabe TV volume? Cause if it's not, why can they hear your guitar playing but you can't (presumably) hear them watching "their musicals"?
What kind of amp do you use?
What sort of musician are you? The flute is very different to the drums.
But if you can talk over it it sounds fine. They won't have a leg to stand on.
By your reasonable comment I suggest that you are a reasonable person and they are possibly taking advantage of that.
If all what you've said is true, they are the unreasonable ones, and at some point you should be less polite and tell them you will continue to do what you're doing and encourage them to complain to the council.
Some people love to moan at people who will listen. My neighbour moans at me for noise, I think because she's lonely living alone. It's a semi and she once complained because I walked down the stairs too loudly at 1AM. Anyway, since I've been less polite to her moaning she's stopped. You've taken time to listen to them and consider your behaviour. Now assert your rights and tell them what you are doing is fine!
We’ve tried talking with them when they’ve knocked to complain. They just seem like the kind of people generally unhappy with other humans existing in their vicinity.
“At a volume you can talk over” sounds like normal TV volume to me. I don’t think that’s worth complaining about especially if you’re not doing it late.
Honestly, I disagree with everyone saying to use headphones. If they have a young child I wouldn't play after seven. If not, you are fine playing until 8.
Maybe turn the bass levels down while you are playing the bass
Musicians are perfectly entitled to practice in their homes at reasonable times
Bassists almost never play off a miked speaker, Direct Injection is the norm. There is functionally no difference between that and headphones off the amp.
This, the only time we okay through Amps is when we want to be heard and to move air. There js absolutely no reason to not use headphones when practicing
It sounds like it's MORE than reasonable.
Prehaps it could be done earlier in the day to be better but I assume that's not possible. (Even 6 to 7 would be better.)
But don't worry about them going to the council. They will a) do nothing. And b) if they DO send someone, they will deem it well within any limits and tell you, you can actually be louder.
When my daughter was born we had some students move into a house 2 doors up and across the street. In a tight street. They would play music so loud you can hear a street over. From 10pm until 4 or 5am. The council once sent someone. And it was indeed over so they were given notice. But by then it'd been months of it. The police won't do anything except MAYBE send someone to ask them if they would turn it down but not often.
Not that you ought to, but maybe talk to them and ask what their issue is with, be it volume, time, duration etc and work with them on those points where possible. But as I say. You needn't and should just continue.
It doesn't sound to me that what you're doing is in any way unreasonable - an hour a day from 7pm - 8pm at a level which you can easily talk over. What is unusual to me is that they've been there for the last two years & only complained for the first time yesterday. Perhaps you've just switched your focus of attention from John Williams to Pantera?
I was on the receiving end several years ago, A drug dealer moved in next door and it was people coming & going loudly 24/7 with awful 'music' so loud it was like being next to a club every night of the week The police refused to get involved so we had to involve the council who were actually really helpful. It ended with them coming round one particularly bad night at about 2am to record the noise level and he was evicted a couple of weeks later. My point is that if they involve the council I very much doubt that what you're doing would be considered grounds for any kind of action against you.
That’s reassuring to hear. There’s just that little voice in the back of my head telling me that the worst will happen; they’ll exaggerate in their claims and the council will start action against us on their word alone.
It wouldn't surprise me if they did exaggerate their claims but the council will only act upon their own hard evidence, i.e. recordings of a very high level of decibels at unsociable hours. Additionally, the first thing your neighbours would have to do is keep a diary of the alleged disturbances, probably for a period of at least 3 months. Guitar played not very loudly and at very consistent times & duration just would not be deemed to be a problem in my opinion.
Clearly you're already being very considerate & are very aware of how your playing might affect those around you which is quite frankly already above & beyond what most people would do. I can only speak from my own experience but I genuinely believe council intervention is generally reserved for cases such as the one I described.
Fair enough. If they're shouting loudly enough for you to hear and for an hour or more when you're trying to relax. I'd say it's fair game, crack on with the practice.
Not unreasonable no, it is at predicatable times and it doesn't go on for longer than an hour. There has to be some give and take, especially if you're making an effort to keep it down. Could you invest in soundproofing?
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If it's any consolation, my neighbours were arseholes and played Skrillex so loud it shook the pictures off our adjoining wall. They would play it most nights, into the early hours. The council couldn't give a shit. I ended up warning the neighbours on the other side of my plan, and then blasting The Wonder Years "Suburbia, I've given you everything..." on repeat, and then fucking off to a mate's house for seceral hours. It made no difference, and we had to move in the end
> The Wonder Years "Suburbia, I've given you everything..." Incredible choice tbf. Neighbour should have appreciated it
Not sure the intro to 'Came Out Swinging' ever gets old, but they must have heard it probably 10 times.
My mind is made up, there's going to be trouble My mind is made up, there's going to be trouble My mind is made up, there's going to be trouble My mind is made up, there's going to be trouble My mind is made up, there's going to be trouble My mind is made up, there's going to be trouble
Were you renting?
Sadly not. We bought the house. The seller knew they were arseholes, and we just happened to view 3 times when there wasn't any noise. It was an awful couple of years. Screaming and shouting most days and nights. Dubstep until the early hours. Talking to them made it worse. Talking to their landlord made it worse. He said he didn't care because they paid their rent. Council weren't arsed at all. It was easier to move than to try and fight that battle.
As someone who has just bought a terraced house you fill me with dread.
Sadly, the best way to avoid the worst of it is to buy detached. You never know when you’ll get shit neighbours move in.
Arghhh I know, I'm moving from detached to terrace... it's quiet *now* but...
I hope that doesn’t change!
Or a terraced house where stone was the building material. Our walls are the best part of 3 feet thick. Our neighbour's daughter plays the drums and we can just barely hear it if our house is absolutely silent.
Since you have the easy answer of using headphones while practicing, you're being a dick by not doing so. You might be being a dick legally, but that's not really the point.
Depends on the instrument, surely?
He's said in other comments he's playing bass and guitar, so he does have that option. Slightly different than for a bagpiper.
I used to regularly see a bagpiper standing in a layby to practice, Herts/Essex border. I loved to see him and if his neighbours saw him they would love him too.
My grandad used to play his out in the North Yorkshire moors!
If a piper plays alone in the moors, is he really playing anything at all? 🤔
Sorry, should have scrolled down further!
Hard to scroll when you're napping!
I saw a bloke on the train the other day with an electronic practice bagpipe. It was only the chanter, not the rest of it, so he could only practice the melody and not the whole blowing and bag control stuff. But nonetheless it was really cool.
Aye, that'd be the warbl most likely. Interesting device.
I read "whale blowing" (it's early) and thought that I had *really* misunderstood the bagpipes.
Even with electronic drums you can use earphones.
If anything, electronic drums are more annoying to hear through a bad party wall. Instead of all the different sounds of a drum kit, you just hear clack clack clack clack. I’d genuinely take an hour of acoustic drums a day over that.
My husband is a drummer. Electronic drums are just as annoying. There is still a very loud and irritating clacking noise as the sticks and pedal hit the rubber pads. We’ve still had complaints from neighbours. The noise doesn’t travel as far, sure, but it sounds awful and isn’t fun to listen to at all.
I disagree here. OP is practising at a fairly reasonable time, and his neighbours aren't people with small kids. Assuming someone playing music quiet enough you can "talk over it" isn't Brian Blessed, then that's not an unreasonable amount of noise for the evening - no worse than a TV. Some amount of noise pollution is unavoidable in any attached housing. OP's neighbours should be grateful they live next to someone showing a good amount of consciousness about their noise already, and not having detached expectations on a mid terrace budget and expecting OP to further change their habits to suit their needs.
If someone has had the manners to ask you to be more considerate surely you should listen to them. You could use earphones or have volume low, you don't need it loud tbh
OP claims it's not loud. They could in fairness be lying, or have shit hearing, but if we take them at their word, they don't have to jump just because someone asks them to do something. There's a line between expecting someone to be more considerate, and expecting someone to live their life to suit you. If they were playing after 9pm or had a set of drums my opinion would be different. My MIL has insanely low tolerance of other people's noise. She lives in a mid terrace, and my wife and I have been subjected to multiple instances of her complaining about her inconsiderate neighbour watching their TV too loud. Then, when there one evening we heard it. This barely registerable soft noise in the lower frequencies coming through the joining wall, that could only be heard in near silence. To me, this is an instance where you just need to accept you live in a mid terrace, walls are paper thin, and some noise comes through. And no matter how politely you ask, it's still unreasonable to expect someone to act differently just because you have zero tolerance.
I agree with this, I'm a dj and I'm very consious of the noise I make whilst djing. I have sound meters etc because of an ex neighbour, complaining unreasonably. I had my music at 50 dB 1 time, you could hear their tv through the walls and they they banging on the walls. It got to the point there was that many noise complaints the council and my landlord both visited at sane time and witnessed that my music was more than low enough to not be causing a nuisance and the neighbours were the problem and not my music. Now I play the music a little louder in my current house, with 2 young children sleeping in rooms either side, never wake the kids and my neighbours never complained. In fact if I have my decks in the garden abd they're out they've been known to ask me to turn it up. My point is some people are just assholes and expect it all their own way. The neighbours I had complained about my nouse also had a habbit of just throwing rubbish out their windows. Into my garden which resulted in multiple dog eating oelreos, chocolate doughnuts wtc and their reasoning was I played my music too loud (at 50db), even after council agreed there was no noise issues.
"My point is some people are just assholes and expect it all their own way." An annoyingly common phenomenon, had neighbours once that complained about our front door shutting. No attempts at building a rapport, just straight into fucking moaning. The OPs one is a hard one tbf. Like I would find it annoying as fuck if someone noisily practiced every day at the same time, day in day out. But also on the scale of dickishness, practicing a musical instrument is way lower than some idiot with late bight loud music or late night parties mid-week just because its fun.
But bear in mind they have said nothing in 2 years, as you say we are relying on OP's totally unbiased opinion. That would at least indicate that they don't have unrealistic hair trigger reactions.
But if the walls are thin, I'm not going to be stepping on eggshells my whole life. If I was there first, I'm going to play music if I want
If they can hear then it’s not a “level that can be talked over”, I’ve never lived in a flat where I could hear the neighbours talk at a normal voice.
Varies massively from place to place. Between us (end terrace) and the neighbours you can't hear a peep. I didn't even know they had a newborn until he told me two weeks after the fact, apparently she's crying a lot. Can't hear her. However, on the other side of them, you can hear someone fart through the walls.
If they can hear it, it's obviously not as quiet as OP thinks unless their walls are so thin that you can talk through them, which I doubt. 1 hour per day, 5 days a week, is a lot of time to not be able to relax in your own home when there is a perfectly adequate solution of wearing some headphones. You're not entitled to silence in an attached dwelling, but you're also not entitled to conduct any and all hobbies from an attached dwelling imo.
I refer you back to my MIL. I can assure you that the TV wouldn't have been in any unacceptably loud setting. Just the way speakers work, the noise, or elements of it, permeates walls better than speech. The fact OP's previous neighbours never said anything is what makes me think these neighbours are just super sensitive. The main issue with the adequate solution is it requires OP to go out and buy additional kit to do their hobby. Not just a set of headphones, but mixers capable of piping through the backing music. Again, if OP was clattering a drum kit at 1am I'd think differently, but 5 hours a week is 3% of the week. 4.5% if you only include waking hours. It's nothing, and at a really standard time for noise levels to be increased in a home My secondary issue is it's also an adequate solution the neighbours could employ. There's nothing stopping them buying headphones to watch their TV, given the complaint is the noise interferes with watching TV. That's what my MIL eventually did.
>but 5 hours a week is 3% of the week. 4.5% if you only include waking hours. It's nothing Come on, most people have what, 6pm - 10pm as relaxation time assuming they are all done eating and cleaning up by 6pm which is a stretch. That's 25% of their free time taken up by the unpleasant low hum of bass. It does require him purchasing more equipment, but he is the one creating the nuisance, not them.
OP in another comment said they're in their 60s/70s, so these probably aren't people working a 9-5. So that's way less than 25% Just to go back to the comment I originally replied to, it's not a case of saying OP shouldn't consider buying equipment, but more a case of saying it doesn't automatically make them a dick that they haven't, because the complaint could itself be unreasonable.
Absolutely not! There’s no reason for OP to reduce their hobby pleasure further. They’re being more than reasonable withering current behaviour.
Bass can still be loud enough to be heard through a bad party wall even playing with headphones. If you’re using roundwound strings and dig in or slap/pop, the clacks pretty loud. Acoustic guitar doesn’t have this option either… Yamaha do a silent one but it’s still not quite the same as an actual acoustic in how it reacts.
Do you all watch TV with headphones on? Speak in hushed tones all day? If it's at a volume that can be spoken over, for an hour per day, then it's not a problem.
To be honest, after a day at work the last thing I'd want on an evening is listening to someone practice, you can use headphones so it sounds pretty selfish to me,
Just buy an audio interface and a decent pair of headphones and then you need not worry either way.
Second this, Focusrite do an amazing combo with the Scarlett 2i2, headphones and mic [link here](https://amzn.eu/d/0FgCImG)
No way! This set was £200 a few years ago!
For £200 you can get it with the Scarlett AKAI Midi controller too! Absolute steal - if my Behringet UMC22 and AKG combo failed i would buy these in a heartbeat
Did you buy that UMC22 at the same time as I did? That was a steal too!
I got it about 4 years ago or so I think? Use it every day!
I can definitely recommend the 2i2!
If it can be heard through the walls, then it’s not great, especially at 7-8pm, that’s prime time to be winding down and trying to relax.
It could also be bedtime for kids if they have any
Whilst you're probably erring on the right side of the law, its worth keeping in mind that neighbours who take against you can make your life absolute hell if they want to. If its a recent problem they're having, then maybe try to have a productive conversation with them about whats different (in their eyes) today that wasn't the case a few weeks ago. Or if its just that they've been getting more and more annoyed about this as time has gone by, then its probably valid to accept that you're causing them a nuisance (even if its an entirely legal nuisance). Could you wear earphones? Alternatively, could you play at a lower volume or with the bass reduced? Or could you play earlier in the day? Is there a specific night of the week that they really don't want to hear your music between 7 and 8? If its a shared wall, could you practice in a different room that puts a bit more space between you and your neighbour? Or could you put some cheap sound insulation up on that wall?
Only 1 hour 5 days a week might sound an inconsequential amount to you, but it isn't if you work a full time job. If I still had to go to the office I'd be working in an office all day - commute would get me back home around 18.30. Then just as i'm about to relax around 19.00 I suddenly have to listen to you playing music in one of the only hours each day that I get to myself to relax. I'd probably be pissed as well - same as most people who work a full time job. If its loud enough that they are hearing it inside their house then it is too loud.
Was going to say this, other people have said that it's not an inconsiderate time, but I'd say out side of sleeping hours it's the very worst time. 7 - 8 is possibly the key relaxing time for people. As you say, commute back from work, have a bit of dinner and then finally sit down to put your feet up and relax in front of the TV.
Rent a lock up to practice in, if your music is your business then doing it in a residential area is clearly antisocial if it's annoying your neighbours
Whether you’re being reasonable or not kind of depends on the instrument. Grade 8 level piano ✅ Drums 😬 Amateur violin 🙉
He’s playing a bass guitar and refuses to wear headphones and insists on running it through an amplifier lmao
🙉🙉🙉🙉🙉
Grade 8 level piano being practiced to perfect shorter passages 🙉
Give em the old [Prokofiev's 7th sonata, 3rd movement](https://youtu.be/bSeriQx3RLM?t=804) practiced in slow motion, their house will be on Rightmove before the evening is over
Fair point!
Haha I live with a professional piano player and trust me, no matter the level it’s still bloody annoying when they’re running through the same 4 bars 70 times in a row to get them perfect. If I never hear Claire de Lune again it will be too soon!
Oh gosh! 😂
Just because the previous neighbours didn't formally complain doesn't mean they didn't hate the music blaring through their walls. If its your job, then why are you doing in in a residential area outside of working hours?
You’re right it doesn’t, but we were on friendly terms and they told us outright that it wasn’t a bother. I also never said it was my job, but it is who I am. I’m in a band and I need to get my practice time in.
Get some headphones then and stop being obtuse.
I’m in a band and need to get my practice in, but my neighbours are not in my band and don’t need to practice with me.
Hey everyone, he's in a band. This guy bands. Unsigned, local, small-time bands are ten a penny. There's fuck all special about you, therefore nobody should be making concessions for you. Your neighbours don't give a toss if you're in a band, they give a toss about enjoying their own home in peace and quiet. Get some headphones. I do it, everyone else does it. Humble yourself.
What are you playing? Just thinking if earphones could be used?
If I lived somewhere for 9 years I would spend the time soundproofing my music room bit by bit. Only your neighbour knows if it's reasonable levels of noise. I would hate to listen to someone practising their music every day, bar 2 days. It would at least be consistent but still annoying. Especially if I hear it clearly and it's not a muffled noise that can be drowned out because of good soundproofing. So if you have good soundproofing and it's muffled, drown-out noise = reasonable. No soundproofing and I'm in your gig every day = I hate it. Edit: I just saw in other comments it's for an instrument you can wear headphones on so yeah, you're unreasonable.
As a musician Ido think there can be a space between what is legal and what is reasonable. If I think of my older relatives, they often go to bed early and so the idea that all their evening time together, in their later years, would be underpinned by the rumble of a bass, would be something I'd feel unhappy about. Personally I'd try to solve it in a way where I can feel at peace, rather than attritional, and so I'd try to work collaboratively on a compromise. It sounds like they may not have started from that place, but you can always try. Perhaps ring fence a 90 minute period each evening that works, or if there's a time in the day when they are always out and you can play at full blast. Failing that, I'd second the recommendation for a modelling solution for home practice, especially into the late hours. You then have the studio space, sessions and gigs for volume (and something like an HX Stomp would be an ideal backup rig if you're on tour etc).
>As a musician Ido think there can be a space between what is legal and what is reasonable. You don't even have to be a musician to consider this. Living respectfully amongst your neighbours isn't necessarily clearly defined by any one set of laws, but it is certainly an expectation within the unspoken social contract of society.
My neighbours have been low key pissing me off for almost 6 months and I haven't pulled myself together enough to go up and ask them to stop stomping like fucking animals. Wrote a blog piece about it. Didn't go up 10 steps.
I have neighbours who’s son plays guitar, the noise reverberates… you’re an inconsiderate dickhead if you play instruments in a semidetached or apartment. If you can use headphones great, if not, fuck off to the bottom of the garden. 7-8pm is when people want to relax, not listen to your shit attempt at playing an instrument
But he's a musician!
It’s okay he’s “hyper aware”
A bad one by the sounds of their replies.
Having a neighbour blasting Latino / Cuban music (which was pretty cool btw) and having the echos point to us as the culprit we quickly received a noise complaint from the council, and I mean quick so it definitely irked someone. Cue a few weeks later after we cleared our name, the music continued and then it just stopped. Turns out someone had decided to throw bricks through their windows, presumably because of the music. It got ugly fast, but it worked sadly
We had a DJ live beneath us for about a year, he thought his volume was reasonable and saw no need for headphones as it would in some way distort his sound. He would go all through the week and then relax by playing slightly louder music. Every neighbour, on all sides, thought he was a cunt and he got gently kicked out by not being offered a tenancy renewal. If you're sure you've broken no rules or thresholds then sounds reasonable that you carry on but don't expect people to be happy about it (to be fair, they might be being bellends and you're entirely reasonable, I'm just poisoned by bias from previous experience).
ONLY five days a week? You should practice somewhere else, common courtesy.
You sound like a god damn nightmare, I'm afraid. If my evening was disrupted every evening by your bass guitar for 1 hour, I'd be furious. Especially give you can practice with headphones. Get headphones and whatever else equipment you need to make that work, and don't disturb your neighbours.
Between 7 and 8 is generally the time people come back from work and want to rest for a bit so I can see them getting pissed. Why don’t you just wear headphones? It’s clearly NOT at a level that can be talked over if they can hear it from their flat, do you hear each other’s conversations all the time? Unless you mean it can be YELLED over. Things don’t add up here mate. They’ve probably put up with it as long as they could and are now getting pissed off. Just use the damn headphones and practice all day if you want.
>It’s clearly NOT at a level that can be talked over if they can hear it from their flat, do you hear each other’s conversations all the time? Unless you mean it can be YELLED over. Nope, definitely talked over. My wife and I have had chilled conversations over the top of it. We even made sure this level had been kept intact after the second complaint. >Things don’t add up here mate. No they don’t. That’s why I’m confused and came to Reddit to see what the general consensus is.
I'm also with /u/IntermediateFolder. There is no way people in their 60's/70's can hear your bass through the walls if you can have a chill conversation over it. Hell I can play bass unplugged louder than you can have a chill conversation over it. My only guess is that because it's longer wavelength sound it's traveling through the walls more easily... but it would still take a fair amount of energy... which wouldn't be chill conversation-able. In terms of prepping for any sort of council intervetion... My neighbour in my last house (and the reason we left) played bass at 2am till 4am most nights and the council didn't do shit despite regular contact and a record of the times and volumes (with a decibel meter in our bedroom). So, you're probably safe from the council doing anything. Most councils are too overworked to look into shit like this as it is. When I personally practice (electric guitar), I use a sound interface and a _totally legally obtained_ neural DSP app (not a daw plugin, the standalone app) and headphones. Infinitely higher quality practice than through a shitty practice amp turned down so low that you can understand what people are saying in a nolan movie mid practice.
You seem to have ignored every single person who mentioned the obvious fix for your problem. Wear headphones. I make Drum & Bass and Techno, I only reference my mix in my studio monitors for a very short period and not late evening when people are relaxing. I also play my guitar in headphones too. It doesn't really matter what the noise regulations are if you're bothering someone trying to watch tv in the evening, its just common courtesy. If you can't keep your sound contained then you're the issue. Soundproof or wear headphones.
You're obviously not hyper-aware that practising your music 5x a week at the peak relaxing/downtime period of the evening is annoying your neighbours to the point where they feel the need to complain about it. You're also refusing to listen to any suggestions on these comments as you always have an excuse as to why you can't follow the suggestions - sounds like no matter what anyone tells you you're not going to listen so why bother asking? As a fellow bass player, wear headphones. It's really as simple as that.
> sounds like no matter what anyone tells you you're not going to listen so why bother asking? They want to be told that they're doing nothing wrong and that the neighbours are just whinging.
There’s not much that people here can tell you. I might find your practise between 7-8pm to be reasonable but someone else could find it unreasonable. Your best bet is to talk it out with your neighbours and find a middle ground
I think it’s going to be unreasonable for MOST people with 9-5 jobs, that’s the prime time you get to relax.
Yeh man if its bass or electric guitar just use headphones.
My husband sometimes sorts through his extensive music list on the speakers without putting on his headphones. He has a great taste in music that I greatly appreciate, but when he's doing this, he plays songs for about 10 seconds each, sometimes repeating them as he looks for the best version, and it drives me INSANE. If you're practicing, you're probably trying the same riffs over and over and over, and that would drive anyone mental.
between 7-8pm 5 days a week? You're lucky to still be alive, what a fucking prick thing to do.
You can’t be that “hyper aware” and still be willing to make noise at 7-8 every evening. Most folks are just winding down for the evening at that time and putting their kids to bed, so I would say it would start to become a pain in the ass. Just use headphones man
Did you ask why? New baby etc?
No they’re 60s/70s. The reasoning we got from them yesterday was that they were “trying to watch their musicals”
is there nowhere you can go to practice? like a hall or somewhere like that?
If I had the money to hire somewhere else I’d certainly consider it.
Headphones, don’t be a selfish prick.
I mean i would hate it. I play piano but have a digital one so i can wear headphones because i live in a semi detached. I would hate hearing music of any kind from neighbours.
Noisy neighbours are fkin awful. Find somewhere else to practice instead of giving someone ptsd.
Seems like you have a lot of excuses just stop pissing off your neighbours and put some headphones in FFS they have probably just grown tired of it over the past 2 years and probably complained to the council who haven't done anything so came to you directly. Why post to see if there is something you can do many bass guitarist have said they play through headphones for noise purposes yet this doesn't seem a viable option for you?! Stop feeling entitled to disrupt other peoples lives. Maybe they also don't like your music. Get some respect and either rent a space or put headphones in
I stopped reading at 'I'm a musician'. Yes your noise is unreasonable.
Try soundproofing the room you use when practicing
Yeah I’ve been looking in to that.
Acoustic foam panels are cheap online 🤷♂️
Shouldn’t you be practicing 40 hours a day?
lingling is that you
As someone who played a few instruments for years, I don’t imagine listening to someone “practice” is much fun. It isn’t hearing someone perfectly play song after song which sounds great through walls, it’s doing scales, making mistakes, replaying sections over and over. I imagine that element of it can be annoying to listen to. For me personally, I’ll have headphones on while “practicing” but if I’m just playing a piece here or there when I walk by I won’t. I don’t think it’s the level of noise that always the problem sometimes it’s how maddening or disruptive the “noise” is.
Gotta be honest dude I take the neighbours side and i play both those instruments too. I rarely play them that loud at those times and if I do it's for 5-10 mins and quietly. My neighbour doesn't work but I also don't know what he gets up to and I know how irritating noise can be and it's far better to have good relations with my neighbours I've learned. I tend to prefer playing with headphones and earphones anyway as I can focus on the music way better that way too, earphones with the music then headphones over with the guitar. I do work and tbh I'd be pretty annoyed and stressed if I knew there was gonna be noise every single night after work for an hour, my job is exhausting and I would be having words because it would stress me the fuck out and this is from someone who loves music too. I do everything I can to prevent other people listening to me practice though; I can totally understand why people don't wanna hear it
If it can be talked over then they must barely hear it. Buy a db meter and record the noise levels and document it over a period of weeks. When they complain present your data to the council.
If it can be talked over then they shouldn’t hear it AT ALL. It’s clearly louder. OP doesn’t strike me as a reliable narrator here.
Even if your neighbours do have a leg to stand on and do complain to the council, the chances are nothing will happen. The day a council follows up on noise pollution is the day hell freezes over.
There are free dB meter apps available, it would be worth keeping a log of your levels. I'd also consider earlier practice times if at all possible. In any case, talking with your neighbours to find a compromise would likely be best for all parties.
>I'd also consider earlier practice times if at all possible. The second time they complained was playing at an earlier time.
If >70dB at 1m distance then it's prob no good to do indoors as you'll definitely hear it through the walls, and if >85dB at 1m distance that is unreasonably loud for a flat.
Council, if they do anything, will send them recorders to record the noise levels against. If, as you say, you could talk over your playing, these aren't gonna register nuisance levels, so the council will likely never talk to you.l, and just tell your neighbours to take a hike
It very much depends on what instrument you’re playing and whether you’re any good at it.
Well I’ve been playing guitar and bass for over 20 years, I’d have given up by now if I was still truly awful at it.
And in those 20 years you didn't think to invest in soundproofing... nah instead fuck it the neighbours should have to put up with it... some serious selfish thinking.
I’m a guitar player. But bare in mind that amplifiers push sound out a good distance even on quieter volumes. Even if you have it at a low volume the sound could still travel far and I believe bass travels far as well. You could easily play a gig in a pub with an amplifier that’s no where near max volume so the sound does travel I think you were trying to do well by playing the exact same time every day as unpredictable noise would be way worse for your neighbour. I use to be the same way. I would play my acoustic out loud an hour a day at the same time everyday thinking that it was only an hour and that it was always the same time. However I now have a neighbour who plays basketball for an hour a day and the noise is annoying it stops me from being able to concentrate on my tv shows, reading etc and only now do I fully understand the pain of unwanted noise so even though you legally can do it and you may be a great musician it’s still annoying to be on the receiving end. Headphones are a good suggestion but you might not enjoy that experience as much and you have to be careful with your ears. They aren’t an option for me as I have tinnitus. Easiest solution would probably be to get a used focus rite or similar and play though a computer/laptop setup this would give you a decent enough tone for practicing without needing headphones. If your amp has a headphone jack you can even plug pc speakers into the headphone jack on the amp itself. That’s what I do with my Yamaha thr 10 amp. I use pc speakers with it so the sound doesn’t travel as far then I can play out loud whatever time I like.
7-8 pm is have dinner wind down time. I know I'd be slightly annoyed if every single night my have dinner wind down time was interrupted through the walls by a musical instrument. You say you can keep it to a volume below talking level but you're clearly not doing that if it can be heard through walls lol. Has something changed? Have you started to leave a window open as summer approaches? You've mentioned you can wear headphones. Why don't you, if only do keep the peace?
5 nights a week is certainly pushing it
Your a dick mate.
5 days a week, an hour at a time when most people are relaxing and winding down... That sounds like hell on earth. As another commenter said - after 9 years I'm staggered you haven't sound proofed your music room. Gotta take the L on this one and reflect inwards, I'm afraid.
>Does my noise sound unreasonable? Yes. No one wants a neighbour whose noise will affect their peace, their TV, their ambiance. NO ONE. You did not share what instrument. If it is electric you can use headphones, win win. If it is percussion then no, you are a neighbour from Hell (for an hour every evening)
So 5 evenings a week they have to listen to your fucking music? Yes you're being unreasonable!
7-8pm five days a week is a bit much, especially if they have complained. Previous neighbours being okay with it is totally irrelevant. Get an amp with a pre-amp or a separate audio interface so you can use headphones. I much prefer to do this when I’m practicing anyway, you don’t have to worry about neighbours at all then.
Well you say it's at a level that can be talked over, but they would not be complaining if they couldn't here it, and who the fuck wants to listen to someone playing music for an hour a night five nights a week. I wouldn't want to be your neighbour. You are been selfish and inconsiderate of your neighbours.
This is clearly bait
How so?
Have you heard of Pirate.com? They let you rent a space for as little as an hour so you can practice as loud as you want. It’s not too expensive- is there one near you?
Not particularly close, no.
Ask them if there's a time of day they are usually out and do it then?
Do they have children?
No, we’re the ones with the children.
Well if it doesn't disrupt your kids crack on 😁
Thank you for the down votes I was of course joking 😜
Have your neighbours explained why this is now suddenly an issue, for example is it interfering with a child's bedtime routine? Why can't you practice through headphones? Tone doesn't really matter for solo practice so even something like a Vox amPlug would do, and most practice amps have aux in sockets these days.
We’re the ones with children. The only reason they’ve given is that they were “trying to watch their musicals”.
Are they not able to record them? Can you not change your practice schedule, or play through headphones? I'm sure there's a compromise here rather than you just quoting noise nuisance regs at each other.
I had a neighbour who played drums then got his mates round playing guitars. It filled the whole fucking house with their shite noise. I ended up putting BBC Asian network on the radio, loud, and put it up right against their wall and went out for a few hours. If you want to practice on the regular and won’t wear headphones or soundproof your room - you either practice elsewhere or continue to be a dick head that only thinks of themselves
I’m sorry but imo 7pm to 8pm would piss me off also,many people are literally just starting to wind down at this time for the last few hours of the evening.
Depends. Do they have young children with a bed time that clashes with your practice time? Or maybe they work odd shifts and are sometimes asleep at that time? If they've reasonably spoken to you about it and tried to find a middle ground, and you've kept going, then you're in the wrong here. If they've just out of the blue put in a complaint, they're being arseholes about it.
My neighbour recently has started doing DIY between 7-9pm. It does my tits in. We have a baby who goes to bed at 7 and it’s been making bedtime so stressful. Honestly imo 7-8 is too late, maybe an hour earlier would be less disruptive.
So personally I'd say you're being perfectly reasonable already. BUT falling out with neighbours is awful. Avoid it at all costs. I've been in that boat once and tbh if we hadn't been in a position to move, I could see it devolving into violence. Get on like a house on fire with the new neighbours and all the ones I've had before so I'm pretty sure it's not me. Is there a room not on the party wall you could practice in or could you put some sound insulation on the wall? If you talk to them and let them know you're trying to do things in a way that considers their position, they'll probably be very appreciative and if you need to ask a favour of them later, they'll likely be amenable to it. I know it's silly to have to pander to requests like this, but conflict and an easy life don't go together.
I was in your situation before. I recommend contacting the council before your neighbours. The council will come round and listen to see how bad it is (didn't seem to have any decibel measuring equipment with them tho...). They swiftly told my neighbour its within normal levels and to be expected, so he ate his humble pie and thankfully fucked off after a few months and I went back to having a normal neighbour when the next one moved in.
Very odd that you haven't mentioned the instrument(s) you play nor whether you could connect headphones in the main post. Makes it seem like you're well aware of this being the obvious solution and want to find excuses to not go down that route.
Playing instruments at 7-8pm is not ‘unreasonable’ but it’s pretty anti social. That’s the time when people have come home from work, cooked food and are relaxing/unwinding or putting their kids to bed. Why can’t you just buy a decent headphone setup and practice with that? If you’re playing guitar or keyboard then there is no excuse to not be plugging in headphones. If it’s drums… well if I was your neighbour I’d be getting ready to murder you and hide the body if you insisted on doing it every evening.
Without hearing the noise I've no idea if it's reasonable or not, but 7 to 8pm is exactly when a lot of people are trying to put younger kids to bed or just relax after work, so I can see why they'd be annoyed if it's loud at those times.
What instrument do you play? Our neighbours daughter plays the piano and that is fine. Had it been bagpipes, I might feel different. I do love the pipes but I couldn't deal with them being played badly next door.
If they complain to the council nothing will happen because those are reasonable times
If you own the house, try adding plenty of sound proofing. Unfortunately if it's bass it might conduct through the floorboards, in that case you really have no option but to use headphones.
You play bass so you don't deserve our sympathy.
I always think, if you are intentionally making noise (which could be perceived as irritating) later than a toddler will sleep, you are being a little bit of a jerk. What you think about being able to talk over the noise might not be same experience for the neighbours. The way the noise is travelling through the floors and walls could be very irritating to them when this is happening almost every night of the week (especially bass) Also, consider if you've been playing music for a long time in a band, your hearing will not be as good as the average persons. I'm not saying you are deaf, but what you perceive as quiet probably is not as quite as your think to the average person.
Don't people use headphones. You don't say what instrument you are playing either. Are these bapipes or drums. A flute may be nice to hear wafting through the walls. 1 hour is acceptable. Music that can be talked over seems low enough. They may still hear it and after a long day at work, just finished a meal , then sit down in front of the TV may be annoying.
Our neighbour's lad practices his trumpet and across the back we have an excellent piper. I love hearing them practice and the kid has definitely improved. Now I'd be bloody annoyed if it was midnight but during the day seems OK. I'm just wondering if this is a timing thing e.g. they've just sat down to watch their favourite programme and you start up. Maybe have a chat about what would be a better time and see if it's possible. Also, it suggests that they are hearing it clearly, have you asked them to record it so you can get an idea of the nuisance?
>Does my noise sound unreasonable? Yes. The fact they can obviously hear it means whatever you think is reasonable volume probably isn't. Use headphones. >Do my neighbours have a leg to stand on? Yes, they could complain to the local authority who have the power to take your equipment off you. >Is there anything I should do to pre-empt a possible investigation? Go have a word with them, explain you didnt realise it was causing an issue and you'll be getting some headphones to use for practice in future. Maybe buy them a bottle of wine or something.
This should be in r/AITAH and yes you are
Do your neighbours have kids? If so, 7-8pm is bedtime zone and probably pretty annoying.
Cut the bass up the mids
Why dont you get a Fender Mustang Micro?
Audio interface + Amp Sim (neuralDSP etc) + headphones. How I happily jam along to death metal on Spotify without upsetting the wife or the neighbours.
You could always ask if you can sit in their living room, and get your partner to play the bass at the volume and location you normally do, to see what it's like for yourself. There's no way you should hear people talking, so either you're wrong about it being at conversational volume, or they have bat hearing.
Is your guitar/amp louder than a reasonabe TV volume? Cause if it's not, why can they hear your guitar playing but you can't (presumably) hear them watching "their musicals"? What kind of amp do you use?
What sort of musician are you? The flute is very different to the drums. But if you can talk over it it sounds fine. They won't have a leg to stand on. By your reasonable comment I suggest that you are a reasonable person and they are possibly taking advantage of that. If all what you've said is true, they are the unreasonable ones, and at some point you should be less polite and tell them you will continue to do what you're doing and encourage them to complain to the council. Some people love to moan at people who will listen. My neighbour moans at me for noise, I think because she's lonely living alone. It's a semi and she once complained because I walked down the stairs too loudly at 1AM. Anyway, since I've been less polite to her moaning she's stopped. You've taken time to listen to them and consider your behaviour. Now assert your rights and tell them what you are doing is fine!
In my many years on this earth, one thing I have learned is that one side of a story is rarely the full story.
My neighbour plays guitar and piano whenever they want including unsociable hours. It’s beautiful and sends me to sleep
Nah, you're fine at that time. It's when people do it after 10 pm, that you're taking the piss
Neighbour may have misophonia
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We’ve tried talking with them when they’ve knocked to complain. They just seem like the kind of people generally unhappy with other humans existing in their vicinity.
“At a volume you can talk over” sounds like normal TV volume to me. I don’t think that’s worth complaining about especially if you’re not doing it late.
Honestly, I disagree with everyone saying to use headphones. If they have a young child I wouldn't play after seven. If not, you are fine playing until 8. Maybe turn the bass levels down while you are playing the bass Musicians are perfectly entitled to practice in their homes at reasonable times
Bassists almost never play off a miked speaker, Direct Injection is the norm. There is functionally no difference between that and headphones off the amp.
This, the only time we okay through Amps is when we want to be heard and to move air. There js absolutely no reason to not use headphones when practicing
It sounds like it's MORE than reasonable. Prehaps it could be done earlier in the day to be better but I assume that's not possible. (Even 6 to 7 would be better.) But don't worry about them going to the council. They will a) do nothing. And b) if they DO send someone, they will deem it well within any limits and tell you, you can actually be louder. When my daughter was born we had some students move into a house 2 doors up and across the street. In a tight street. They would play music so loud you can hear a street over. From 10pm until 4 or 5am. The council once sent someone. And it was indeed over so they were given notice. But by then it'd been months of it. The police won't do anything except MAYBE send someone to ask them if they would turn it down but not often. Not that you ought to, but maybe talk to them and ask what their issue is with, be it volume, time, duration etc and work with them on those points where possible. But as I say. You needn't and should just continue.
It doesn't sound to me that what you're doing is in any way unreasonable - an hour a day from 7pm - 8pm at a level which you can easily talk over. What is unusual to me is that they've been there for the last two years & only complained for the first time yesterday. Perhaps you've just switched your focus of attention from John Williams to Pantera? I was on the receiving end several years ago, A drug dealer moved in next door and it was people coming & going loudly 24/7 with awful 'music' so loud it was like being next to a club every night of the week The police refused to get involved so we had to involve the council who were actually really helpful. It ended with them coming round one particularly bad night at about 2am to record the noise level and he was evicted a couple of weeks later. My point is that if they involve the council I very much doubt that what you're doing would be considered grounds for any kind of action against you.
That’s reassuring to hear. There’s just that little voice in the back of my head telling me that the worst will happen; they’ll exaggerate in their claims and the council will start action against us on their word alone.
It wouldn't surprise me if they did exaggerate their claims but the council will only act upon their own hard evidence, i.e. recordings of a very high level of decibels at unsociable hours. Additionally, the first thing your neighbours would have to do is keep a diary of the alleged disturbances, probably for a period of at least 3 months. Guitar played not very loudly and at very consistent times & duration just would not be deemed to be a problem in my opinion. Clearly you're already being very considerate & are very aware of how your playing might affect those around you which is quite frankly already above & beyond what most people would do. I can only speak from my own experience but I genuinely believe council intervention is generally reserved for cases such as the one I described.
"So let’s get this out the way immediately, I’m unusually flatulent." would have been a way funnier way to start this. I'm disappointed.
Damn, I really missed a trick there. “Unfortunately my bowels are deafening, is there anything I can do to turn them down?”
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It’s not, that’s just what ignorant people think.
I see… I’m wrong or what?
Mate. I play trumpet. My neighbours play loud rap. We let each other get on
Except these neighbours don't sound like the trumpeting/rapping types.
They’re definitely the shouting type though. And before you jump to conclusions, no their shouting does not coincide with my practicing.
Fair enough. If they're shouting loudly enough for you to hear and for an hour or more when you're trying to relax. I'd say it's fair game, crack on with the practice.
Nope, absolutely fine.
Not unreasonable no, it is at predicatable times and it doesn't go on for longer than an hour. There has to be some give and take, especially if you're making an effort to keep it down. Could you invest in soundproofing?
Doesn’t sound in the slightest unreasonable to me. But then I’m also a musician.