Jimi Michiel

I live in a pretty nice two bedroom apartment in St. Paul with a roommate (bassoonist) and dog (beagle). There are a couple of units in my building and I'm on the bottom floor on the corner. The first thing I did when looking at the place was ask my landlord if it would be ok to practice. She said yes, during reasonable hours. When I moved in, the first thing I did was introduce myself to the two people who share a wall/ceiling with me (one above, one to the side). I gave each a business card and told them to contact me if it were ever too loud, or if something came up and they needed silence (visitors with a little baby, somebody is sick and trying to rest, etc...) That was in September.

In November, the neighbor upstairs came down and said that the dog was doing a lot of barking and it was disturbing them during the day when I wasn't home. I took a number of steps to solve the problem, the problem has largely gone away (out of curiosity, I left my computer microphone on at lo-fi and recorded about five hours of the little guy at home by himself).

I don't practice a whole lot, maybe 2 hours a day, during the day time. Sometimes I have friends over for duets. Very occasionally I have a few people over to play through Mancini quartets. Never a word from the neighbors. Again, I've been living here for five months.

Today I had a friend over to run through a Bach cantata that we're playing in a few weeks. About a half hour into our practice session, I get an angry knock at the door. I open it to find my upstairs neighbor, looking frazzled and pissed off. She launches into a rant about how she's been "suffering" through my practicing since September. Apparently there life has been a living hell, all because of me. Mind you, this is the first I've heard. She demands I stop practicing. Period. She never wants to hear the sound of the trumpet again. Apparently her husband is sick and couldn't sleep, and that was the last straw. I offer to stop practicing until her husband feels better. Not good enough. "You have to stop. This can't go on." Suppressing my gut instinct, I bit my lip and didn't strangle her.

I called my landlord and this is the first she had heard of this, no complaints to her either. My landlord has also heard me practicing, from outside and inside (while doing repairs) and has never said anything about it being too loud.

I have my recording equipment set up, and there's really nowhere else I can go to practice. I could have scheduled time at the schools I teach at, but that's a lot more difficult to do in February than it is to do in September. Argh. They have an irregular work schedule, as do I, so it's more than an issue of practicing during the day when they're not home. Hopefully we can work out a compromise. Otherwise they're going to find out very quickly that the trumpet is an instrument of war....

Jimi Michiel

Fortunately, I've got rehearsal tonight. No better way to let out some angst than to play some Heldenleben...

brem

cyanide in her tea.

MJ

rowuk

I had a similar situation with the daughter of my landlady.
She yelled at my second oldest for practicing. I explained to her that NOBODY yells at my kid except me and if she has a problem, then she comes to me. I also had secured permission to practice from my landlady. At the end of the day, my landlady came by and I got a room to practice in in the cellar that was being used as an archive. We split the soundproofing costs and I don't pay any extra rent. The daughter has in the mean time moved out.

Eeviac

Apartment building are full of psychos. Of course where I live is full of psychos too, but they're off at a distance.

Pedal C

You might want to check the local or state laws about sound levels in apartments. Some places say you can legally do pretty much anything you want between certain hours as long as it's under a certain decible level (as measured by the neighbors) and they have to prove that you exceed that level for a certain amount of time. It may not be like that in your city, but it's worth checking. Especially since you contacted them when you moved in AND have permission from the landlord, your neighbors may not have a legimate complaint. Of course, it's always best if you can work it out so everyone's (sort of) happy, but if the law is on you side, so much the better.

Good luck!

Jason.

VINTAGEBRASS

As a former apartment dweller my response would be to locate a near by church or school who would allow you to use a room. From my perspective it is rather inconvenient to have to get out of bed to contact a neighbor to ask them to quiet down so that one can get their rest.

Jimi Michiel

Yes, but it's also really inconvenient for me to lug all my stuff to a seperate location (including recording equipment). I would have been a heck of a lot more accomidating if they had brought this up right after I moved in. Five months is a bit long. I've worked my schedule around the fact that I can practice in my apartment.

I checked the noise ordinances and it looks like theres not a whole lot they can do. It has to be a certain decible level 50 feet away from the building for me to be in violation and you can barely here anything standing right outside the door. Sucks for them... (I'm still going to offer to work around their schedule, but if I'm not breaking any law, I'm going to practice)

-Jimi

rowuk

The best thing is to approach them (maybe with the landlord) and sell them on the idea. You are interested in good neighbor relations and are willing to take sickness or shift work into consideration, but covered your bases BEFORE renting and will heed the law but maintain your rights. They need to see that you are considerate, but have a job to do that was not a surprise. If they decide to enter conflict mode, it needs to be clear that that is THEIR choice and that you took every opportunity to prevent stress.

What you do not need is sabotage behind your back...........

We have a case here in Germany where some retired people bought a house next to a kindergarden for a very low price and then sued the kindergarden because the kids made noise during the day. The verdict was that the kindergarden has to move...................... Go figure..............