apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

My downstairs neighbors are musicians -- violin and cello. [I've had many musician neghbors over the years, but they were all rock or punk or hardcore, and much more annoying.] I hear them practice sometimes, and it's amazing! Hearing Bach's cello suites through the walls [played very well, no less] is one of my favorite things about my apartment.

There is a piano player in my building. I get to hear him or her every saturday afternoon. Once the music starts I turn off my own music or TV and enjoy

There's a fellow in my neighbourhood who practices his bagpipes out on his porch during the summer. He's very talented. If I hear him while I'm outside, I have a seat and soak up the sound.

I have lived above a series of bongo enthusiasts. Oddly, the lease changes over every year and a new bongo player moves in! I'm beginning to wonder if there is a built-in set down there.

My downstairs neighbor started a bluegrass-y band and had no practice space, so I heard them practice at least once a week. It was fun and the perfect music to box to, so I started making a habit of it. Once they moved to another space (due to complaints from other neighbors), I missed it. I also missed knowing all of their songs at the shows!

in my old place one of my neighbors was an opera singer and would practice mid-day while i was at home working. when the weather was nice and my windows open, it would just make my day.

Just a bunny trail ... but Dr. James Dobson once talked about being in a hotel suite next door to YoYo Ma, who practiced practiced practiced the entire day prior to his concert that evening. Dobson said it was amazing to hear that lovely sound filtering through the hotel walls, and enjoyed every minute of the unexpected concert.

My neighbour is a very shy young man, single, mid 30's. The only noise(no TV) you ever hear from him is guitar playing, very soft, very lovely. I have been nailed before just standing outside his door listening, quite embarassing but worth it.

I am a pianist, and when I lived in a brownstone on the upper west side I used to practice with the window open (no air con!). I always expected a knock on the door to tell me to stop, but was very pleasantly surprised.
On quite a few occasions I would finish a piece and would hear applause from the street (sometimes I had a real crowd out there :) ).
One day the doorbell rang, and one of the neighbors was at the door with her daughter. I braced myself for the lawsuit, but the mother wanted to know when my next concert is, and the daughter wanted to know if I was single....
Who knew New yorkers could be so nice?

I think everyone in my building is a musician, but down the hall there's a cellist who gives lessons and somewhere there's a saxophone player that I hear occasionally. It's lovely to be reminded that I'm surrounded by people creating something.

Aside from my on-again off-again next door neighbors who scream at each other from dawn to dusk, I have a pleasant neighbor up the street who plays saxophone on his stoop when the weather is nice, it makes the neighborhood feel like an idyllic urban movie set, like Rear Window or something. Although I'd give anything to live next door to a pianist.

Hmmm, I decided not to retrieve the piano from my mother's house for my new place, but these posts are making me think it might be okay. The neighbors I've had in the past have only made annoying, awful noises.

It wasn't in an apartment, but during summers, years back, my neighbors had a tuba band that practiced in their backyard in the evenings. When they were practicing, a few friends and I would climb up on the roof with a glass of wine and enjoy the music in the warm Indian Summer eveings of Oregon. Some of my best memories.

One more neighbor story -- another apartment is full of "kids" [well, young men in their early twenties]. I often hear them on the phone [in fact, I can sometimes hear the person on the other end of the line, which is nuts]. Recently, I heard one of them say, "Yeah, I'll do that when I get home," and it was kind of funny to know that, whatever "that" was, he was lying because he was at home.

I'm a pianist, and was brought up to obsess that I was bothering the neighbors. Statements like "I'd give anything to live next door to a pianist" amaze me.
I keep the house closed up when I'm practicing most of the time. I want to "keep 'em wanting more".

I had a little bitty apt. in Austin ,and I often had a friend sleep on the sofa after a night of partying. (really, we were just friends) One day I went to work and he stayed and slept in, and I got a call from him asking if I knew my neighbors had sex- loud, head banging on the wall, sex -in the morning. I did not. I think they waited until the complex went to work before they...mmmm... went to work.

I once lived above a really awful folk singer. He sang all the time and he so could not sing. I've also lived next to violent neighbors at two different places ... you don't know fun until you've cowered in your room in fear OR had the NYPD bust into your place by accident looking for them.

Now I live above the WORST CHILD EVER. This kid is an absolute nightmare - she's 4 and she throws at least 2 dozen tantrums a day (and night!) I once saw her on the stairs and she had this look like "yeah, I run this home." Two tenants in my building have moved out because of her. Can you nominate someone else's family for Supernanny?? ;-)

I've never had any fun neighbor noise experiences. bummer.

Oh, and the second batch of violent neighbors also had a mariachi band that practiced on Sundays (with full mike and amp set-up)

I'm not sure which situation distressed me more.

My bedroom window was right by my neighbor's front door. More than once (many time more) I heard her at the door drunkenly saying to the latest gentleman next to her , "Ohmygod - I never do this..." It was hard to yell "yes she does!"

When I was a child, our upstairs neighbor was an aspiring opera singer. In true child fashion, I found it a bit annoying, but can now recognize how lovely his voice was, and I wish sometimes for a musical neighbor again. Recently, there was someone who would be practicing violin with the window open in an apartment that I passed on my way home from the el, but the violinist seems to have moved.

lorijo...at least your neighbor waits for the building to be ampty.. my lovely crazy downstair neighbor doesnt. she has loud sex at night (any time) mornings and afternoons on weekends.
all i can do is to turn the music on loudER, but if i happen to wake up in the middle of the nite.. well...

how do you actually complain to your neighbor that they have too loud sex? can you? you leave a note? argh!

I really like quiet and I don't want to hear anything from my neighbors. I know it's not always going to be that way, but I really don't care how "entertaining" someone is.

At my old apartment, there was an old man who would play his steel guitar outside on weekends. He had a kind of tropical/Hawaiian sound. It was great music to clean the house to. So interesting and relaxing, and something I would never seek out on my own.

At my old apartment we discovered our new upstairs neighbor was an avid Calgary Flames fan. During the playoffs we always knew when they were playing by the screams, cries, pleading and praying to the TV, and delighted or depressed phone calls to his dad in Calgary afterwards from the balcony. I don't know why we found this so charming but it was totally hilarious to listen in on his emotional highs and lows during the games. And they only lasted about 8 games into the finals. It makes me smile just thinking about it. I weirdly find sports fans noise kind of fun, it's so silly and kind of irrational. But, I'd normally like to live a soundproof booth.

Here in DC I used to have an english basement apartment in a brownstone underneath a VERY noisy neighbor. We actually referred to her as "Princess thunder hooves". It never failed...as soon as closing time came round she'd clomp home ...alone...turn up the stereo and dance till she passed out. It was all very sad....and noisy.

One night while she was out… her mother called...I know this because her answering machine was turned all the way up and it was positioned over my bedroom. I kid you not, Her mother said, "Dear...I know we didn't discuss this but I placed an ad for you in the JCC (Jewish Community Center) personals and this really nice boy has answered.... and I'd like for you to meet him. So don't be mad at me but well...you need someone to look out for you and I am your mother...Call me."

Four hours later she came home…. after the bar closed...all alone...turned the stereo up and started to dance. At this point I'd had enough. I called directory assistance...got her number then called her up and said, "Dear, this is your downstairs neighbor...would you be so kind as to go dance in your bedroom at the opposite end of the house...I’m trying to sleep right below you…..and do me one more favor...after you’ve turned down your answering machine….call your mother back and tell her not to place any more personal ads for you in the JCC paper...it's none of her business if you like to come home alone and dance by yourself when the bars close."

She moved out the next month.

troz,

I have been dealing with this exact kind of "situation" for 3 years now. I think the key is to let them know at the exact moment it becomes a problem, rather than sending an email the next day (for example).

Banging on the wall when it gets to be too much sometimes works (sometimes they ignore me). My BF has suggested wild applause at the end - but I am too chicken to do that!

We used to share a duplex in downtown Denver with a couple, a teacher and ER doctor. He was also a drummer in a band and practiced in the basement. You'd think that would be awful, but since he worked nights the drumming was usually during the day so it wasn't obnoxious. One afternoon I came home, heard drumming, and thought, "That doesn't sound like Joe." A half-hour later, his wife came home. She was soon knocking on my door in a panic..."Some stanger is in my house playing Joe's drums!" Turned out Joe was supposed to be home to practice with this new guy, but got stuck at work due to an emergency. I was just really proud of myself that I had become so used to his style that I could tell when it wasn't him, sight unseen!

Kathryn... actualyl i did bang the wall, but he is downstairs and i have to jump up and down on my bedroom floor (the apartments are specular and her BR is right below mine!).
once i left an (anomymous.. chicken here too...) post it on her door...
thing is i believe she doesnt care beacuse for HOW LOUD she is she must realize that everybody can hear her.
cant wait to have my own little house in the middle of NOWHERE!

I am an amateur pianist. I am certainly no Martha Argerich, but I have never gotten any complaints about my playing either. But I often wonder why no one has ever knocked on my door to get me to stop playing.

My neighbor has a clock that chimes the hours--it's soft and pleasant, and I only hear it when I'm sitting right next to the wall.

In my old apt, someone across the courtyard used to do operatic scales each morning (lalalaLAlalala), I mentioned how charming it was to a friend once and he rolled his eyes and said, "everyone in NY has an opera singer neighbor."

my old neighbors were all "art students" (see: coke-heads) who first had a punk band.. and then they had a noise band.
(constant feedback and non-rythmic drumming/guitar string stretching/non-sensical murmuring through a PA)

to which i would reply by playing "peaches & cream" by 112 with a speaker out the window.

Wow... you all have me longing for a piano playing neighbor.

Instead I have one crazy directly below me who argues with herself and plays music too loud. It's mildly tolerable if she's playing CDs but if it's the radio, you know she's blotto. I know this because when she's loaded, cranking the radio she typically passes out and I'm stuck listening to it for hours.

I usually go down to the front entry and buzz her unit to wake her up. The next time she starts with the radio, I'm going to call the station and ask the DJ to tell Crazy Margaret to turn it down!

Quoting ridge van winkle: Can you nominate someone else's family for Supernanny?? ;-)

THat would be a great season theme! Love it.

I used to have a neighbor in NYC that would practice her saxophone in the evenings with the window open. I always loved the way it sounded mixed in with the city sounds. -Especially when she would get bored with scales and break into the theme song frome The Pink Panther.

troz - if you actually went and started knocking at her door while it was happening i bet she'd be wicked embarrassed to whoever it is she is 'searches for printable verb'

my downstairs neighbour occasionally does the same (but only when her roomie is away). We call her the choir. Sadly for her the singing doesnt seem to last very long tee hee (though thats good for me!).

I used to hear funny noises from my upstairs neighbours until I discovered they have 2 dogs AND 2 cats. Now when I hear a couple of knocking noises and a whir of activity I just giggle and wonder which of them won the chase!

I about drowned on my tea reading some of these; hellish to live with, but hilarious as second hand information.

In college I had an upstairs neighbor who was a crack addict; the first time she had a freak-out in the place I thought there were four people up there all trying to kill each other, but she was up there all alone. It took six police officers to drag her out of the building. One Christmas she was having her freak out and singing Jingle Bells over and over at top volume out the kitchen window; there were about 40 people on the street staring at her while she did this.

I also had a neighbor who I think was either mentally ill or had some other kind of drug problem; he would bark like a dog (and very loudly) for hours on end, or yell nonsensical things over and over. One night he screamed "She's a cabbage head!" for about two straight hours. He played guitar rather well and had a very nice singling voice, but I didn't enjoy his very loud and long concerts that would generally begin sometime around 1:00 a.m. and would end around dawn. He also smoked about three packs a day and my apartment always reeked of smoke. Couldn't wait to move out of that building.

For a while, we had the double luck of having a professional pianist on one side of us, and a cellist on the other. It was wonderful. We were sad when each moved.

My last building's tenants were pretty awesome. A sax player, a guitarist, and a banjo player down the street. I had a lovely large studio, with plenty of sunlight and gorgeous hardwood floors....

Then my upstairs neighbor had her boyfriend move in. He was a tap dancer. He would often come home from work and break into dance to 'relieve pressure'... And, i mean... who *doesn't* want to tap dance at 1 am?!?!? I went up there a few times when I was sick/time was inappropriate/walls were shaking, but he still continued with the assinine disregard.

I endured that for about 10 months and now live in a verrrry quiet apartment on the same street. I can still hear the banjo player during the summer and my new neighbors hire nice jazz bands for their backyard soirees during the summer. I am also now oddly bitter about tapdancers.... ;)

Ooh I've got a doozy of a neighbour infestation. I'm on the main floor. Downstairs is a poor immigrant family that started out as a mom, dad, 2 toddlers & a white babymomma & white baby. Dad seemed nice enough, the rest is pure hell. Fighting, slapping, babies screeching at the tops of their lungs for nearly an hour without stop. After 1 momma got taken away by the cops it settled a little. We can hear everything that goes on through the vent in the bedroom which makes waking up ridiculously unpleasant. I wish them bodily harm. They're screaming right now.

On top of that, next door, seperated by a few bricks, are a couple of dirty white kids who have late night parties & jam sessions (worst tunes & singalongs ever - drums too) that only begin at 11pm. Sometimes 4am. According to their upstairs resident, they don't care what anyone else thinks because it's their 'lifestyle'.

Sigh.. ok, I'm done.

I live in a building where the landlord is crazy about noise, we had to sign an agreement saying we would whisper in the halls and they interviewed my daughter to make sure she wasn't loud! Generally due to this our building is so quiet it feels like a graveyard but my neighbor turned out to be a kids/clown/dance guy and during the day he goes out on the patio and strums out new songs, its very cool to hear them progress while we have coffee on weekends.

I used to live below a great accordion player. It was so fantastic, we one time crept up to see if it was a person or a recording.
Needless to say, I was kinda bummed when I moved out.

Wow, all these people have such great luck! I live between a major airport and a smaller "executive" airport. I hear airplanes take off and land untill about mid-night-ish. And the smaller airport runs a helicopter piloting school during the day; all they do is make a big circle around the neighborhood then land. Big Circle and land! It almost makes you think they're watching you....

Some of these comments have made me thankful for my building full of old people who cook smelly food. At least they're quiet. We had a few noise incidents after moving in but they actually responded to complaints.

I play the piano and sing but always worry about it bothering people. I guess there are people who like piano noise!

My gf and I live above a motorcycle gang's headquarters. Constant rev-ing, its wonderful

Wow! My apt. building is very quiet compared to other posters here!

There's a church across the street that plays lovely chimes, though at very random times.
And a cello player lives in the apartment near the mailboxes. Sometimes I linger over my mail enjoying her/him practice. =)

A 'Big Band' band practices at the corner church on Sundays. It's fun to sit outside on summer evenings and listen. One time, they even invited the neighbors to a rehearsal.

I walk in the neighborhood every day, and I enjoy the different wind chimes I pass...

I live across the street from a dog park so barking is what I'm used to. It doesn't bother me, but I do get a laugh out of the shrieking owner who can't seem control their dog when two dogs decide to go at each other reduced to yelling "Stop Max, Stop Max, STOP MAX..."