Putting an upright piano on top floor flat

[Khtchkn]

Preparing for a diploma hopefully end of this year. Grew up with a Yamaha grand piano, stopped for 10 years now back again but using a digital piano as no space for a grand in our flat. It’s really not working I think (piano teacher agrees). I’m wanting to hire an upright piano until my exam at the end of this year. I knocked on my neighbours door below me to ask but no answer, will pop a note through tomorrow. I told the neighbour I’d play for 1hr/2hr daily anytime between 9am-7pm as I have my 2 year old asleep. Also I won’t be playing twinkle twinkle little star or fur Elise constantly. I have done my grade 8 and preparing for a diploma recital! I will pop a letter to my neighbour downstairs but wanted to hear other ppls opinions . Hopefully they won’t care and will agree to it, as you’re allowed do whatever is your normal routine during the hours that aren’t too early or late. Just thought I’d be a decent neighbour and ask before

Much as I’m sure you’re a lovely pianist, and I love the sound of classical music, 2 hours of practising every single day....

No.

Really sorry, but no. If you’re in a flat, are you leasehold?, what does your management company say about things like this?

Get one you can plug headphones into.

Depends on the quality of your walls / patience of your neighbours. We used to live beneath a classical musician in an old, solidly built mansion house. Never heard anything to be honest.

How will they get the piano to the top floor?

you’re allowed do whatever is your normal routine during the hours that aren’t too early or late

Not quite true. Noise has to be reasonable and - depending on how well soundproofed the flats are or aren’t - piano playing in what is effectively a shared buildingmight be classed as an unreasonable disturbance. Think about how sound travels, particularly as a piano sits on the floor rather than, say, a woodwind or string instrument. Even putting down the pedals could be an endless clunk-clunk-clunk for whoever is downstairs so for the sake of not being That Neighbour I’d stick to a digital one (with headphones).

Buy one with earphones!

How good is your digital piano? A decent one can’t be that far off an upright? 2 hours of practice a day in a flat will be awful for your neighbours

No I'm sorry but that would be unfair in a flat.
Depends what the neighbour says though and how the.music carries.your neighbour might be out a lot and not mind.
I hope you find a solution though,good luck.

You just can't. It will vibrate through the walls, let alone the noise.

Hope you’ve got thick carpeting, stuff padding into the piano to muffle the noise, set a specific time for practice, don't let the toddler play on it, and good luck with getting it into a top floor flat!!!

Check your lease. Lots of them prohibit playing instruments at certain times.

Bear in mind that although blocks would usually be empty during the day, at the moment there are LOTS of people trying to WFH and your practice won't help.

Don't take it up in the lift.

What is your digital piano lacking that an upright will give you? There is very little difference if you get a decent digital piano.

But you’d be massively unreasonable to put a piano in a top floor flat, especially while so many are working from home.

I live in a flat and would much rather hear your piano over the music my downstairs neighbour plays which sounds like I'm sleeping above a night club.

Ohh your neighbours are going to love you!

@user1493494961

How will they get the piano to the top floor?

Misters Laurel and Hardy come highly recommended...

Oh god no you can’t do that. My dad lives in a downstairs flat and you can hear every sound the neighbour makes as if he’s in the same room. Imagine working from home in the middle of a pandemic and having to put up with 2 hours of piano music.

Sorry I think YWBU. A good electric is the only option. You’ll have to make do!

Frankly I would loathe you.

I don't want to hear someone playing piano - at a time convenient to them - in the flat above me. I don't care how good you think you are.

I play and also use an electric keyboard. It’s very much not the same and that will be a problem for someone at your level op
So I get it.
What are you planning of your neighbour say ‘that’s going to be impossible for me’? Do they eg wfh online and this be badly inconvenienced on that way ? Have you sorted out the best place for it eg even if it means it’s in your bedroom that might be best for downstairs neighbour.
Your time window is huge and includes early evening !
Are you able to commit to a much shorter period so at least they know what part of the day they can have peace?
Will you in fact be in breach of your tenancy or similar ?
It’s tough ! My diploma was cello - although a bugger to cart abkut sometimes at least it was easier to avoid noise nuisance.
Good luck.

Yabvu. You could easily play a piano with headphones but you’re choosing instead to inflict noise on your neighbours for 1-2 hrs evey day. Selfish and not ok in a flat where noise travels so easily.

Not ok and you’re wrong to assume it’s allowed, it’s very likely “nuisance” and disruptive of their right to peaceful enjoyment of their property and they would be entitled to complain to council if its an ongoing thing (as opposed to just a few months like building work).

I hope none of your neighbours have young children, or work shifts!

YABU but I am biased. We love our Victorian terraced house (lovely solid 3 storey on a leafy road). Unfortunately new neighbours have an upright piano they like to play. We don't hear a thing from neighbours the other side who have young kids and a dog. But the fucking piano sounds like it's in our bastard house.

They've got the message that after midnight and before 7am is unacceptable (politely knocked once, DH shouted "shut the fuck up!" after some further instances ).

But it's so intrusive even if we have the TV on or our own music playing. They seem like a nice enough couple but it's really made us dislike them. I've always lived in older terraced houses and completely accept that some neighbour noise comes with the territory but this feels selfish and tbh cunty. Don't be a twat OP

Check your lease - my block of flats specifically bans pianos! I love listening to piano music but I do think that two hours a day would be a bit much, especially if I didn't know when to expect it.

Well, I leave in a flat and practise 5-6h a day. I’m a professional musician and whereas before March 2020 I wouldn’t regularly be at home, I now sometimes go weeks between projects that allow me to go into work, so what choice do I have? It’s practice or I might be out of a job soon.

It really depends on your neighbours. At my old flat where I was up until Christmas, I shared with another lady who was WFH. I organised my practice schedule around her calls and meetings. At my new flat I am free to play 9am-1pm and 3-9pm and I do so. The neighbour below me loves hearing the music. The other neighbour with whom I share a wall is also WFH and has said he would like some quiet time at the weekends so I don’t do more than 3h then. Everyone is understanding of the current situation.

Most musicians have also had to WFH this year, we can’t just stop practising indefinitely in case it annoys the neighbours. Talk to them, explain and ask if they would be bothered/are there any times they’d prefer you not to play. I have never had an issue with my neighbours, but I’ve been lucky as well as open to communication and working around each other’s needs. I also have plenty of colleagues who, in contrast, have been through nightmares trying to practise at home so much, they’ve had to get the police involved who always sided with them as long as the hours were reasonable and the noise was below the legal maximum. It’s their job and they’re allowed to do it. Some have had to move as the relationship with the neighbours was really damaged. All of us mention the need for practice when we move somewhere new, though. I understand your situation is different.

I know this is not your job OP, but good luck with this. Talk to your neighbours and gauge the situation carefully. They might really enjoy it, or you might need to reach a compromise somehow.