Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Piano too darn loud!

Ok, I've turned the piano every which way and even added mounds of blankets and pillows below, but its still just too loud. I get a headache after a few minutes of playing! Only if I close the top completely including folding the lip flat is when it seems to reach a quiet volume.

As you can see the room isnt small. So my question is, is this volume coming from the walls, the ceiling, the non padded parts of the floor, or just the piano itself? It is possible with a lot of effort to play quietly, but at a normal playing pressure its almost painfully loud, even when closed.

Any tips?

The hardwood floors are not helping your situation!
The piano isn't the smallest so the volume is hard.
How about a big thick rug under the piano and the lid on the small stick?
Is the whole piano or only the treble hurting your ears?

Is that a BB or an AA?

First, don't play with the lid up... I never do. Have your technician voice the piano down, which will help a lot. If it's still too loud, consider wearing ear plugs. No, I'm not kidding; I use ear plugs myself because I often have to play for hours in small rooms. This year, we took sound pressure levels of grand pianos in the practice rooms and the suckers peaked at a little over 100 dB which is enough to damage your hearing.

If all else fails, try this company: http://edwardsstringcovers.com/

They make sound damping material that can be placed over the cast-iron frame and/ or under the piano between the beams.

Start with musicians ear plugs. Perhaps something like Hearos.

Pianos can be voiced, rooms can be voiced. You might want to start with casters, which would partially decouple the piano from the floor. Here.

For the room, think soft and irregular. Sofas, chairs, bookcases, decorative cloth on the walls. No need to completely cover any surface. Just breaking up the sound waves - diffusing, if you like - should help a lot.

For the piano, please be cautious about voicing down your piano. Voicing is its own skill. You don't want a tech learning on your piano. Voicing is best done a little at a time.

IMO the way that grands cause sound to envelop the player is one of the most important reasons for owning one. If you don't play with the lid raised, you're missing out on one of the primary reasons for owning a grand. Someone - CC2andChopinLover, I think - had a CC in his piano room. Along with lots of other stuff.

Patience and persistence.

A carpet or rug makes a big difference. The bigger the better, the fluffier and more padding underneath the better. Of course under the piano is important, but every square foot of hard floor it covers makes a difference. I moved from a room with a large floor rug to a carpeted room with thick carpet wall to wall, same size room and there was a huge difference. FogVilleLad must mean caster CUPS, of which there are lots of varieties.

The most spectacular are made of very thick neoprene -- wet suit material -- and are expensive, a few hundred dollars. Some others are just wood or plastic which will make little difference, even with felt, since the weight compresses it so it will still transfer vibrations. If your hard wood floor is directly on concrete, cups won't make as much of a difference as they will if the wood floor is in some way free of the concrete.

Beethoven's suggestion of putting something under the piano between the beams would still allow you to open the lid and get the full spectrum of frequencies.


Added: I always thought an inexpensive way to get some of the insulation like the neoprene cups would be to use wood or plastic cups and just get some neoprene from an old wet suit or just a small sheet from ebay and cut circles out of it to put between the caster cup and the floor. I haven't tried it but I'm sure it would work, especially if the neoprene layer is thick enough (maybe several circles of 1/4 inch neoprene).

charleslang, yes, he is;-)

The dirty little secret of the piano industry is that most grand pianos today are designed and built to make a huge volume -- easy enough to fill a concert venue. Your piano is doing what it was built to do.

When you play forte you are easily producing 89 dB(A) which is very close to the limits causing pain and hearing loss. This means that your piano will often be hearable by your neighbors or even as far as four appartments away in an appartment or condominium. Keeping the lid closed, hanging a heavy quilt over the piano, fitting proprietary foam insulation under the soundboard between the joints, using contact sound insulating casters under the feet, placing your piano on a thick Morroccan Berber rug, etc. are all actions you can take to reduce the sound production of your grand piano.

Perhaps the most lasting investment you can make in your enjoyment of your piano is to take lessons from a gifted teacher and learn how to play piannissimo so you can also reduce the volume on demand yourself. It will do wonders for your technique in general too.

Your piano looks like it's at a sleepover!

Where did you get this idea? Why would makers design pianos that would sound too loud in home environments?

If it's true, why do relatively few people have trouble with their piano being too loud?

I have a BB in a much smaller room. I play with the lid down and hinge folded back. Loudness is not a problem.

Will my piano technician needle the walls?

Do away with these pillows. Rather, a nice big plushy rug will be better. You could also fill the room with approx. 1000 books on various shelves. Do you have a library that you could move into the piano room? Potentially, you could hang some nice wall rugs on the walls if that is an option. They swallow the sound. Other than that, there are special acoustic devices that swallow sound and that can be placed in corners, but I assume they're expensive.
By the by, I love the quality casters on the M & H.

Why have it all closed up? Are you saying your BB was designed and built to be played this way? Does it best show off its tone closed up like that?

It would depend on where you live and who you know to say that relatively few people have trouble with their piano being too loud. In the compact cities of Europe it is a huge problem and a big reason behind the success of uprights with silent systems built in. "Trouble" in this case means that you can't play a piano ever or maybe only one hour per day at a time approved by your neighbors.

Unfortunately, many people don't realize they "have trouble with" the volume of their music making until it is too late...

http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=312659
https://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubb...1/topic/020093/Number/0/site_id/1#import

You may need the help of a professional or at least some professional sound absorbing products. Read the Piano Buyer article How to make a Piano Room Sound Grand.

Also, let's not title threads "Piano to Darn Loud", when it is the room, the tech and/or the player at fault.

His piano is welcome to sleep over at my house anytime.

Zooplibob I agree, modern pianos really are too loud though you seem to have designed your room to accentuate that property.

Vocing by a skilled technician/tuner/voicer can make a tremendous difference. I have witnessed the transformation of one particular Steinway and the difference was nothing short of magical! The piano went from deafening loud and piercing to heavenly without sounding muffled or lack-of-power, all in a span of 40 minutes of the voicer's time! Have to see it to believe it!

I especially pity the musicians in an orchestra that sit in front of the trombones and trumpets.

Thanks for the tips. I never really got a clear answer from my question though about the cause. Is it the walls, the floor, the ceiling, or the piano itself? The floor is all padded up under the piano as you can see, so I don't thing adding a rug under it would do much.

Seems like the best recourse is a revoicing. It is very bright sounding anyway, so it could kill 2 birds with 1 stone perhaps. The loudness is uniform across the entire keyboard but especially painful in the mid/upper registers.

Also it is most definitely the piano thats too loud. The room, tech, and player hardly make a peep when the piano isnt being played -- I checked myself.

The floor is all padded up under the piano as you can see, so I don't thing adding a rug under it would do much.

Under the piano will have an effect. You need a large thick area rug. It will have a huge effect.