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!

I want to keep it in reasonable times

How very good of you OP

My kids play the cornet - I'm constantly apologising to the neighbours.

Can't you move the piano so it's up against an internal wall rather than the party wall - and yes, shove a duvet down the back.

And lastly - congratulations on getting your DC to do daily practice of 20 minutes each. I can only dream.....

I'm impressed that your children practise for that long each day!

Well, if I was your neighbour then I probably wouldn't be particularly pleased but I wouldn't complain about 1 hr/day at reasonable times.

When I was a kid the next door neighbours used to say that liked hearing me practise (which was very kind and encouraging of them but I wouldn't think the norm as I was definitely not some prodigy)!

I live in a detached but we still have an electrical piano with headphones, in addition to the regular piano. The sound of my own kids practising irritates me and when I am practising something new over and over again I like the fact that I'm not making someone else listen. Likewise, DH has a full regular drum kit and an electric one for practicing.

If you can afford it/justify it/have the room then I would get a weighted key electric piano too with headphones.

Having suffered for years from a neighbour's piano practice, YABU. Invest in an electric piano with headphones.

It's less than an hour each at non unsociable times. It's just tough on the neighbour , they shouldn't even have mentioned it.

Of course you don't have to get rid of your piano and buy a silent one, OP! People make noise, if you live iin a terrace you have to accept that. It;s children playing the piano, not nightly raves.

This reminds of when I use to live next door but one to a couple of piano playing children. It didn’t really bother me except when the windows were open in the summer. However the neighbour in between hated it. So he got a full drum kit (apparently he has always wanted one) and every time the children starting playing, he would join in. I use to go out at these times, top of the garden or supermarket shopping.

Neither of you are unreasonable but for the sake of good relations I would move it back. There are plenty of reasonable things they could do which would annoy you so it takes a little give and take.
I could quite happily cut my grass with my big noisy petrol mower every Sunday at 8.30 but I don’t as I know my neighbors will still be in bed. So I use the less noisy hover mower at 10.30.
If I had to listen to piano practise everyday even if it was only 40 minutes I am not sure I would be considerate myself.

I will say it's not fun even when the person is good. I had a housemate at university who was a good singer and played guitar and keyboard. But listening to him over and over was a little bit like torture when you're trying to do other things and felt like forever when it was probably an hour a day or so. (And no, I never said anything as he wasn't in the wrong).

I know people make noise, but if there are any other alternatives like headphones it would probably be very appreciated, even if you aren't doing anything wrong. I do find 'sound' quite irritating in general though.

YABU. We lived in a semi with a piano next door, and the sound of practising drove us all mad. We were able to move out, but I've never forgotten the stress that piano playing caused. We've lived next door to some very different groups of people over the years, and never had a problem with them, but that piano made us so paranoid, we now try to avoid party walls wherever we go.

He’s being unreasonable

The children are in bed I guess by 9 and it’s not late they are practicing

If it’s the same time each day roughly and earlier he could wear headphones or go out if it disturbed him that much

He shouldn't have to wear ear phones or go out. They should never have moved that piano. All depends how well you want to get on with neighbours I guess.

I think the onus should be on people who get annoyed by trivial things to deal with it/change, rather than the people doing the trivial things.

Piano playing is not trivial. Wait till you live next door to a piano....

You are quite at liberty to place a piano anywhere you like in your own home and play it to your hearts content during daytime hours.

Lol at Clawdy

LordWalter I really hope you live next door to a pianist one day.

Nobody is entitled to not hear any normal noise from their neighbours. Piano is normal noise
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Do not give in to him. He is BU. If he wants silence, he needs to go and live on an island, in a monastery or at least in a detached house.

If you start curtailing your childrens' activities for a whinging neighbour, they will keep on demanding things of you.

Our neighbours are utter twats in this way and I regret ever trying to accommodate them at all. We live in a detached house as well. The people who lived there before for years were our friends and I miss them.

Piano is normal noise...hmm....

Piano playing is not trivial. Wait till you live next door to a piano

I've lived next door to families with pianos (and worse!). t's not a big deal.

YANBU!

I really can't see the problem as long as in normal hours. Plus, if he's complained about a crying baby he'll obviously be upset about anything you do!

This sort of thing is probably a contributing factor to professional musicianship becoming a strictly upper-class field.

Do people genuinely believe that only people in well-insulated detached houses should play acoustic instruments at all?

We lived in a couple of semi's and my DH is almost concert pianist grade, so when he practises often plays for more than 40 minutes a day. And then I had children learning and practising, and then the trumpet and the flute and the violin...
No one ever complained. We even got compliments for DH's playing. Yes to keeping it at normal "times". But its no worse than someone watching TV loudly etc.