Thanks for your support! My wife was doing her PhD in piano performance in the States and she stopped it as we got married and moved here. As they do not offer PhD in piano performance, she just finished another masters in piano performance at the conservatoire de fribourg. She did 2 years of practicing on the silencer and the professor at the conservatoire was surprised at how her technique and sound had changed so much vs what she used to play (via recordings) previously.
So she had to manage with practicing in the con for a max of 2 hrs a day and also at some good-willed folks who allow students to practice at their place when they are available. So now she has graduated, practicing at the con is not possible as the con is already short on practice rooms.
Yes we did indicate clearly that we have a piano in our application and we thought a building full of offices and next to a busy road would be better than a building of retirees with nowhere to run!
She doesn't practice more than 6 hrs a day unless it is near to concerts. We are both still students so if we can afford to rent another place just to practice we would! We just moved 2 months ago and to move again would be a nightmare!
I really feel for her and you. Especially getting the feedback about technique!!
I personally will speak to the other musician tenants in the building first and see how they've coped - before trying to reach a compromise with the tenants downstairs. Surely its not unreasonable to play 3 hours without the silencer and the rest of the time on it? God I need a drink.
I lived in a beneath an opera singer in London for a few years & it was never an annoyance - she had such a wonderful voice & there was nothing nicer that a summer's evening after a hot & hectic London day, sitting in the small back garden with a glass of wine & her voice drifting through the evening air.
I understand a tenant's request for peace and quiet, but I also sympathise with musicians.
Growing up playing the violin and piano I know that I had to practise every day. Professional musicians have to put in hours and hours. Hiring a room to practise would be inconvenient and also expensive. I know people here use this solution, but it does seem rather restrictive and difficult.
It is inconvenient, but what can you do about it, in a country with such strict rules when it comes to noise?
I rather pay and go through the hassle of finding somewhere, to have 2-3 blissful hours of uninterrupted practice and intense concentration than worrying at the back of my head if I am going to piss someone off trying to perfect the same 20 odd bars over and over and over.
To be fair to this country the strict noise rules are more to do with how people live here. I know apartment living is also the norm in Singapore too but for me it's not and with everyone living on top of each other there has to be some rules about noise otherwise everyone would go insane! At least apartments here are generally built better. I had a flat in an old converted victorian house in the UK and my noisy neighbours almost sent me to the loony bin - I wish there had been more control there.
I sympathise with musicians but i also sympathise with the neighbours, they may have been living peacefully for many years and then all of a sudden a new tenant moves in and is playing music for up to 6 hours a day. It's tough on both sides, I think more up front understanding is needed and it seems the OP should be taking this up with the landlord if he stipulated about the piano etc... I am sure something could be agreed here, it's unfair that they have moved expecting it to be Ok as they were given the OK and now find out that it's not and will need to move again
That would have me reaching for a shotgun. Singing opera-style is like chalk on a blackboard to me.
What few people appreciate is that opera was never high culture. It has become so in modern times. The reason they sang like that was to be heard above the people talking and doing business.
This is not fair. I don't/can't play any musical instruments so I should be allowed to blast my stereo for 2-3 hours a day. I tried it once, but after 3 minutes (I know, cos I only wanted to play one 4 minute song and I didn't get to the end!), at 7pm, my upstairs Swissie neighbour came down to complain.
My only revenge now is to bang on the ceiling each time I hear her have sex, but they do it so quietly I have to really strain to hear them
...anyway. What is beautiful music to one person is noise to another and I think it's only respect for your fellow human to understand that. It has nothing to do with laws.
The answer is a rehearsal room. My band doesn't practice in my apartment. The idea wouldn't even occur to me.
I think, there is a difference in perception by the neighbours between someone practising his instrument as a hobby or a child learning an instrument and practising an hour a day or so, and professionals, who (intend to) earn money with that instrument, practising hours on end plus possibly giving lessons etc.
If you are in the league of a pro playing several hours a day, you really have three options short of buying a house out in the sticks:
- have a silent version of your instrument handy and use the real thing only reasonably.
- rent a rehearsal place (you can still have the silent version at home for when the bug hits you at 3am)
- invest in sound-proofing the music room in your apartment, which would cost you a fortune and is only really an option, when you intend to stay there for many many years.
In the mean time you could talk to your complaining neighbour trying to reach a friendly agreement, that she can call you any time, when she really needs to concentrate and can't stand it; and the piano will stop, no questions asked, no hard feelings, no problem. It is often enough for the neighbours to know, that they could stop it, if they only wanted to and then they don't do it anyway
I think, laws don't help much here, as you will be seen as the "offender"; trying to build good neighbourly relations might be a better way to proceed.
Well, fair enough, but to me it was part & parcel of the intricate sonic fabric of a vibrant city - millions of people doing different things. Places like London, NYC, etc always feel more alive due to these diverse sounds of the city.
Switzerland's lack of it is a reason why it can seem rather sterile here at times, tbh.
After all, Bobby Chen plays one in some of his solo gigs and I know Barakovsky composed a couple of pieces specifically for the Clavinova (from the sales pitch).
Since you feel I need to explain, no-one has the right to cause annoyance to others, nor is it your place to determine that. Someone playing music for up to 6 hour may be soothing to some, a racket to others....
The groan was for someone looking for a legaleese way to cause annoyance to others I.E. 2 apartment 2 lots of complaints, but let me guess that's alright by you.... but this:
We realy aren't taking an odd time here, but someone accomplished playing for long periods, which may just pip the squeek of some as the complaints the OP has recieved would indicate..... OK now mother?
The law is the law - and if the parties involved cannot reach an amicable agreement, then the law should decide the way forward.
Technically speaking, outside the "Ruhezeit" you could drill away with the Black and Decker on masonry setting if you so wish - but I do understand your point too.
The OP tells is that it was made clear to the building management before signing the contract that they would be using the apartment to practice the piano - if the agency had a problem with that they should not have accepted the application.
That said, even if the OP manages to negotiate a compromise with the office woman his wife will no doubt feel like walking on eggshells whenever she practices. Probably the better solution in the end is to look for a new place where she really can practice piano all day - and get it in writing - or look for a practice room somewhere e.g. in the local community centre or so.
I work as a teacher and my classroom is directly across from the music rehearsal rooms.
Do professional musicians understand just how tedious and annoying it is to listen to the same few bars being repeated anon for an hour or so? It may sound good the first few times - not the first few hundred times though.
The neighbor below us (who use to complain about our noise ) is a pianist and teaches lessons.
I only hear him playing for an hour or maybe two a couple times a week, not daily and certainly not for as many as 6hrs. I (used to) play flute myself and, wow, 6hrs... while I understand the necessity for practice, I also know how tiring that gets for others to hear particularly as while I was practicing flute, my sis was practicing clarinet and my brother sax).
I also can understand and sympathize with a lack of funds for separate practice space but... as someone looking toward a professional career in music, certainly you can see that it is necessary to give yourselves and your neighbors a "break" from worry about the noise in order to have solid practices?
Did your apartment come with storage space in the cellar? It may be easier to fit out that space for some soundproofing rather than a room of the apartment. Also, by having the practice down there, you only have to worry about ground floor inhabitants (of whatever sort - business or otherwise) with regard to the noise of practice.
However ya'll decide to handle it, hopefully it gets sorted to an amicable end. Good luck to your wife in her studies!