For musicians living in older apartment buildings: how and where do you practice without annoying people?

I practiced in my apartment back when I was playing an instrument regularly. I just made sure to practice at times when people would be awake anyway and tried not to play any louder than the TV would be during a loud movie or the radio. And tried not to be overly shy about it. If people have a problem, they’ll come next door or upstairs and let you know. Then you can figure out where to go from there.

a musician myself, i feel ya! practicing in an apartment can be real dicey. best bet, live somewhere artists and creative geniuses like yourself live. or find a garage somewhere if possible. practice during regular business hours when people are at work and ask landlord is it ok to circulate a bulletin or notice of practice times so people at home will understand in advance. extending that small courtesy may get mileage out of your art.

I chose practice hours that coincided with times when most people in my building were at work. Then, I put up a sign down by the mailboxes, explaining that I would be practicing during those hours, excusing an inconvenience, and requesting that they contact me if they would prefer that I change my hours.

My son goes to the Musicians Institute in Hollywood. www.mi.edu. He makes a little noise in the daytime, but the school has practice rooms open 24 hours a day. Pretty cool.

try the roof of the building or if you cannot get to the roof, i suggest practicing during the middle of the day as that is the time when most people are out.

Try being a drummer! Even using electric kits I was always told that the vibration went through all the floors walls and ceilings to annoy people! I’ve always just had to try to get an agreement with neighbours, that I’ll only play at certain times in the day, or between two specific times, say 8am-8pm.

There are cheap ways to take the edge off of noise transfer in old buildings, for example a small platform that effectively isolates the vibration from the floor it stands on (@Point5r yes that’s the biggest problem with noise transfer – not walls or ceilings as you might expect), and deadeners that look like cool wall hangings but are actually sound barriers. I used to design proper soundproofing systems for clubs etc, if you email me the dimensions of your room and where the doors/windows are etc I’d be more than happy to write a list of some cheap and easy (and non permanent!) ways to soundproof that are more specific to your building.

Advice to play during the day is good advice and should be strictly adhered to, but sundays are often a family day so I personally would try to avoid them.

Failing that, in the uk you can hire out rehearsal rooms in a purpose built space for about £10 an hour. These usually include microphones and guitar amps too, so it’s handy if you don’t want to lug heavy gear around. Try googling local rehearsal rooms and get some quotes. They are also good for when you need more space for the band rehearsals.

I play unamplified (baroque and earlier) wind instruments. In my apartment days, the sound of several preclassical wind or gut-strung instruments was not loud enough to bother other residents, particularly during the day.

When I rehearsed with larger groups, we hired a communal art studio in an old mill building during early mornings at very little expense. The artists rarely arrived before 10:00 am, and we were quite happy to rehearse from 7–10.