Any Drummers Currently or Previously Living in Europe? Drumming Question

Chunkaway

Silver Member
I currently live in Singapore, and my family and I really enjoy living here. However, it is just about impossible (without an electronic kit) to drum at home. There are a few - and I mean very few- studios that have drum kits set up that you can rent, and ALL of these are by the hour. (You cannot bring your kit into these studios, which absolutely sucks, in my opinion.)

There is a possibility that we may be able to move to Europe for the 2017-2018 school year. (Switzerland, France, Belgium, and Czech Republic are the most likely possibilities.) My family really enjoys living in Singapore, but we would welcome the chance to move to Europe IF - big IF - there was a greater ability to drum at home, to rent a place where I could keep/play my own drum kit, etc..

Is there anybody on this forum currently living or who has recently lived in Europe that could talk about the options for drummers? Can you drum at home? Or can you rent a studio where you can keep and play your drums?
 
I live in England and as far as I know it's fairly easy to drum at home over here (it's not so much for me but that's for different reasons that won't affect you so don't worry about them). Can't say anything about the countries you mentioned though so sorry about that.
 
Much much easier in Europe than in Singapore! People are nowhere near as crammed in, though where they are - London, for example, and most capital cities, I expect - you'd most likely have to rent a studio in a similar way to SG.

Worst-case scenario that I can envisage would be renting a village hall or somebody's garage, or something. As a matter of fact, I had a rehearsal in a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints last night, which turned out to be a fantastic place AND they didn't even charge us for it (and AFAIK none of us is a congregation member or even knows anybody who is).

Of course, if you live in the countryside in Europe, you can bash away to your heart's content with nobody to hear. Most people who don't live right in the middle of major cities seem to manage ok :)
 
I lived in Switzerland for 2 years, and my impression is that for living in any decent sized city, this is basically impossible. You would have to live outside the city, and rent a house. Every drummer I knew had an e-kit at home.
 
I've always played some kind of noisy instrument or the other and have always found somewhere to practice. Both personal and band practice. You have to make that a priority when looking for your next livings space. Sometimes that means there are other compromises. Most of the time it just meant talking to my neighbors and working out appropriate times that wont disturb them and "Here's my phone number. If my practicing is bothering you, call it first and not the police or the landlord, and I will stop."

For band rehearsals, there's always some space that isn't being used and isn't really viable for any other purpose that you can rent. Usually for cheap and the owner is happy to have a little extra income that they wouldn't otherwise have. Had some great ones and some that were pretty damn funky.
 
I've always played some kind of noisy instrument or the other and have always found somewhere to practice. Both personal and band practice. You have to make that a priority when looking for your next livings space. Sometimes that means there are other compromises. Most of the time it just meant talking to my neighbors and working out appropriate times that wont disturb them and "Here's my phone number. If my practicing is bothering you, call it first and not the police or the landlord, and I will stop."

For band rehearsals, there's always some space that isn't being used and isn't really viable for any other purpose that you can rent. Usually for cheap and the owner is happy to have a little extra income that they wouldn't otherwise have. Had some great ones and some that were pretty damn funky.

Thank you for the insights, really appreciate it. Where are you located?
 
I lived in Switzerland for 2 years, and my impression is that for living in any decent sized city, this is basically impossible. You would have to live outside the city, and rent a house. Every drummer I knew had an e-kit at home.

Thank you for the info. Are there studios or any kind of funky place you can rent for band/personal practice? I'd like a place where I could leave a kit set up, ideally.
 
Much much easier in Europe than in Singapore! People are nowhere near as crammed in, though where they are - London, for example, and most capital cities, I expect - you'd most likely have to rent a studio in a similar way to SG.

Worst-case scenario that I can envisage would be renting a village hall or somebody's garage, or something. As a matter of fact, I had a rehearsal in a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints last night, which turned out to be a fantastic place AND they didn't even charge us for it (and AFAIK none of us is a congregation member or even knows anybody who is).

Of course, if you live in the countryside in Europe, you can bash away to your heart's content with nobody to hear. Most people who don't live right in the middle of major cities seem to manage ok :)

Where you live, do they have practice facilities that you can rent and leave your kit set up?
 
I live in England- about 6 months ago I moved from London, where I had no room to set up my kit, to rural Oxfordshire, where I have 2 kits set up in different rooms and absolutely no issue with noise.

In London, even if I had the room I wouldn't have done it because neighbours would have complained and it would have made things unpleasant.
Here in Oxfordshire it is much easier to practice.
 
Thank you for the info. Are there studios or any kind of funky place you can rent for band/personal practice? I'd like a place where I could leave a kit set up, ideally.

Yes, there are, but, at least in Switzerland, they are pricey (everything there is). That wasn't an option for the people I knew. I worked at a Uni and there was a practice space there that had a drumkit and you had to subscribe to get a key, and then sign up for at most 3 hours per week. That wasn't accessible for anyone outside the Uni, though.
 
It is possible to rent some rooms e.g. in industrial areas for practicing music. I have rented (in Germany) one room in an ex-studio (three drumsets there) and I share a practice-room with my band in a huge old bunker from WorldWar II that is used exclusively by music-bands nowadays (one drumset located there). Not too expensive, either.

There are also music-studios with practicing options where you can rent a room with a drumset, hourly, daily, weekly. Whatever you want. But it's a bit more expensive.
 
Where you live, do they have practice facilities that you can rent and leave your kit set up?

I live in Wales, in the middle of nowhere. If nobody else is home I have been known to practise at 3 in the morning. Even the dogs aren't bothered.

I don't know of anywhere such as you describe and in truth I think it would be difficult to find somewhere suitable to leave a kit set up unless you have a kind neighbour, but there are certainly studios available locally and, round here, affordably. The first thing I'd do, though, is contact the nearest schools/village halls. They might conceivably have storage space or in the case of a school, they might let you use one of their kits (I appreciate you want to use your own, but if your options are limited it could be better than nothing).

As Nate'sKit says, if you are considerate towards your neighbours it may well be possible to play at home.
 
Thank you for the insights, really appreciate it. Where are you located?

I'm in Cincinnati, Ohio. USA of course, but I can't see it really being different in the rest of the world. Population is about 300,000 in the city limits but 2.2 million in the Greater Cincinnati area. I would think that city and population size would be more comparable than location.

My old bands' (and others) rehearsal spaces have usually been in places that were too run down to be attractive to be residences or used for businesses, and yes some have been legendarily funky, while one was super cool. It was and old building downtown that was full of artists, bands, and a (locally major) recording studio, all of which gave it an awesome creative atmosphere. These guys were down the hall for a while :)

Had one really nice and clean place in the basement of a store downtown. We could use it outside of regular business hours which worked out just fine. That was ridiculously cheap too.

You might want to check with some bands and see if you could work something out that would let you practice when they weren't using their space. That could work out great for networking too.
 
living near Berlin.....playing along the records breaking all the rules..stepping over vocals...trying the moonie unpredictable or the charlies predictable robotic time keepings or everything in between ...having fun .........but when I play stones..i make sure the whole neighborhood listens to the stones....all the best bro..welcome to Europe...
 
Here, if you love be out in the country and have whole house you can drum at home, usually.

If you live in the city there are rehearsal spaces like "practice hotels" where you rent by the hour or rehearsal studios you pay for monthly and usually share with 1 or 2 other bands.

Out in the countryside you'll always find a solution and also the town itself usually has a few containers made into rehearsal spaces that are more or less free except for a a deposit on the key.

If you do some teaching you'll most likely be able to use the facilities any time they're not in use regardless of the hours and days you actually work there
 
In Singapore you probably get whipped for playing drums in your appartment :)

It all depends where you live. I'm lucky to be in a situation like Odd Arne and Magenta, but the less noise you make at home, the more options you have to rent a space, especially in university towns. However places where the square meter price has gone through the roof, like Singapore, Paris, Geneva etc, are certainly not the best places for drummers.
 
I'm really appreciating all of the responses, thank you.

Just for clarification, I am from the U.S. and lived there for my entire life up till four years ago. I gigged, toured, and played my drums nearly every day when I lived in the U.S. I realize that is impossible in Asia or Europe but I would like to find something between every day and almost never.
 
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