AIBU - to let my children practice the piano

[Beanmummy]

We live in a 1930's semi detached house. We have a piano and the DC have piano lessons and are grade 4 and 2. They practice for about 40 minutes tops a day and may be a bit more at the weekends.

The piano used to be out in the back room of the house, well away from our neighbour, but due to being next to 3 outside walls the piano was going out of tune and falling to bits and we were told it should be in a room with a more constant temperature.

So we have moved the piano into the front room.

I have just seen the neighbour and explained to him that we had moved the piano. He is not a happy bunny at the best of times, and started to compliant that he could hear the piano from his bedroom, when we had it in our back room (his bedroom was the furthest point away that it could be). Now he says it's like having the piano in the same room! Which I do understand, but we are never playing at unreasonable times. My DC's don't wake early - so at weekends it does tend to be mid-day or afternoon and after school.

AIBU to him, or does this seem reasonable, it's not as if they are just bashing the piano!

In my case it is the flute. Hours of scales badly done.

I want to kill someone at the end of it.

Request a trumpet catalogue, in your name but his door number.
When he drops it around tell him you are looking to replace the joanna....

Bet he shuts up.

I wish my kids would practice that much!!
I don't think you are being unreasonable. He can put music on or sit elsewhere? If late at night or 6am I might think otherwise.
Madness to switch to electronic - we have that and it's a poor relation, and the kids need to get used to proper instrument again for the exams.

Fanny

I do agree with Wolfie though that the piano should not be pushed up against a joint wall. That would be inconsiderate. Try to put it as far away as possible, and also in a room that doesn’t have frequent temperature changes.

I don't think either of you are being unreasonable and I just thank God I don't live next door to piano players

It would drive me nuts, especially knowing that you chose the put the piano in a room where it's a nuisance for the neighbours.

If I read your OP correctly, you are the one who talked about the piano to him, and he then replied that the noise was a pain. Did you really expect him to reply "go for it, it's fine"?

Then you don't play the piano. Grade 2 is diar as far as listening to it goes.

Haha fanny yep, if he thinks the piano sounds bad, bring in the brass!

(Or the strings—excluding the harp, it sounds good no matter what)

I remember reading about someone who lived next to a famous pianist and had to listen to his exquisite music for 8-10 hours a day. Even though it was beautiful music, it was maddening to hear it day in and day out which is understandable actually....haha.

There was a recent court case about piano noise which ruled in favour of the right to pratice:
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/12/family-of-piano-prodigy-win-court-noise-complaint-battle-for-him/

Drums are the absolute worst in my opinion.

If they're not practicing at night then I don't see a problem. It's part of everyday life and you have to accept that when you live in a terraced house.

Playing a piano for 40 minutes during the day is not antisocial behaviour. Sometimes you hear your neighbours living their life – if you don't like it, move to somewhere more isolated!

I think 40 mins of piano practice a day is fine. Hearing the neighbour's piano practice is part and parcel of life in a semi, provoking it's not late at night, just like being able to hear your neighbours vacuuming or their washing machine. He knows it's only for a short period of time each day - much worse is when you can hear people's radio or TV, it's on for hours and you don't know when it will be switched off.

As long as you don't complain if he does something that's noisy that you don't like, for 40 minutes a day and more at weekends.....

YABU to write practice (noun) when you mean practise (verb)

*providing!

Your neighbour is mad and doesn’t have a leg to stand on!

I would say the hours of practice being 8am-8pm.

Good luck and happy playing!

getaway, here in the US at least, can’t speak to other places, but here we use the spelling of practice as both noun and verb. It would be a bit pretentious for those of us in the US to use British spellings and s instead of c, and ou instead of o (colour and color) for instance. In fact, our keyboards here automatically change to the American spelling.

It’s 40 minutes within social hours YANBU at all. If anything, you were being too kind letting him know! We play loud obnoxious string instruments. Luckily we moved next door to other musicians.....

@ShastaTrinity
I didn't expect him to say "go for it". I wanted to let him know that we were doing this and that I want to kept in reasonable times but he just started complaining and I got flustered after that – and that is why I have asked – AIBU? I don't think so, but I wanted another pov.

I have put a carpet behind the piano – so we will try that out later!

Lasha

Yes, that's true. I assumed OP was from UK.

Oh I see, Getaway

Beanmummy
If a neighbour came to tell us they were suddenly moving their piano or any other noisy activity in a place where we can hear it, I would then complain too.
I might keep quiet on my own, but if the neighbour is the one mentioning it, they would be mad to pretend it doesn't bother them.

To the couple of PP who commented on digital pianos. Generally I agree they are not ideal. But I played one the other week, still not perfect but had been designed together with Bechstein and actually had hammers so proper action, cost £6k though !!!

You need to bear in mind that, as they make progress, practice should become considerably longer - there will be more scales and arpeggios to practise, and the pieces they learn will take longer to play. In the interests of good relations it's worth doing everything you can to minimise the impact on neighbours.