I Seem To Be Getting Away With Playing Drums In My Apartment

EarthRocker

EarthRocker

Senior Member
There are a lot posts in regard to people who are playing drums in apartment buildings. First of all I'll start by saying that we live in apartments that are actually clusters.We live in one joined rectangular building. There are three households, and each building has it's own front and rear doors. We live in an outside apartment without 20 feet between our building the next. The other buildings are MUCH further away. The apartments are brick on the outside, and standard block on the inside with tile floors.

This is a very basic graph of how part of my apartment is layed out. Sorry for the size. I'm no computer whiz.
apartmengraph_zps711f5a08.jpg


The room where my drums are set up only has one outside wall. To the right side, the wall divides it from the bedroom. To the left, the wall divides it from my wife and my own room. Then to the front you have the hallway, bathroom, my daughter's room. So as I said, only one wall the borders outside. So in this single window I've clipped old couch coushins and placed them up. There are also rugs down in the room, and a blanket hanging over the closet. I done all this for the sound quality, not in effort to sound-proof the room.

The ultimate point is, the noise curphew is 10 P.M, and I've never had a complaint from a neighbor. Often while playing my drums, people pull up, leave, and I've even looked outside and seen people walking by. They act as though they don't even hear it, or at least don't notice it. I've even had the entire band over practicing before, and the cops weren't called.

Is it possible that I just have really cool neighbors (we don't really socialize with them), or does the small block room with one outside wall really keep the sound down that much?
 
I think you have really cool neighbors. It might be a good thing to say 'hi' every once in a while and be friendly, then they'll continue to be friendly to your drumming ;)
 
People are often scared to say anything so you probably won't know until you get a complaint.

You could ask them but the danger is that you are giving them some sort of power to decide. I would enjoy it but definitely do things to soundproof and be respectful because you never know whether one of them is feeling dissatisfied and looking for a scapegoat.

I had a row with a neighbor and council, ended up building a soundproof room. Now I play as late as 11pm so it was a blessing after all.
 
I'm sure they hear it, but many folks just roll with it because if you are doing it during the day and end before sleep time, it's just not a big deal.

I have a horrible homeowner association here and some neighbors have complained, I've gotten a letter or two....ive had the cops out here twice and some neighbors have asked me about it....

So, in response, I've assured them that I will never be playing past 5pm, and I never do. I play during the broad daylight and then only go for 90 minutes max. I had one neighbor make repeated complaints and I tried to work with them on timing during the day...and finally, I said, hey, you know what, this is during the day...for a max of 90 minutes and you don't work at night....so, call the cops. And that was the last I heard about it.

I agree with not giving neighbors the power of decision.....stay within the city noise ordinance hours, take the complaints if they come, but keep forging ahead.
 
I agree with the "you have cool neighbors" sentiment. They most definitely hear it, so as mentioned, try and soundproof the room, or have a chat with said neighbors. But definitely don't let it go. For all you know, there's a neighbor logging every time you play past a certain point or whatnot. Then bam, you have the cops showing up with this information. |Best to disarm a potential situation ahead of time, no?
 
I would definitely look at sound proofing the room a little as the other guys have said.
I only had one neighbour who was 150 meters down the road from my house (very rural area of South Wales) it took him 5 years to grow a pair and confront me. I smiled and said I'd stop playing at 8pm week nights and 9pm weekends, he geared himself up for an argument, so if you do get confronted by a neighbour don't be surprised if they seem a little hostile, as that's how they deem the situation is going to go. Even when my neighbour was happy I agreed to his terms he still walked away in a massive huff, just backed my idea that he genuinely thought our discussion would turn into a slang match and who knows fists flying!?
 
I think the best thing you can do is knock on the door and politely talk to them about it. If you wait and wait until one of the neighbours can't stand it anymore, the situation will be unrecoverable.
If however you discuss it with them, they are more likely to respond and perhaps help you come up with a schedule where you can practice and nobody minds.
If you're nervous about it, maybe drop a note through their letterboxes.
They are probably nervous about confronting you about it, hence why you haven't heard anything..
 
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