Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum HELP!!!!! I need to make my piano quieter!

I just bought a HUGE Farrand upright grand (it's 58 inches tall), and I need to make it quieter because I live in an apartment and my neighbours downstairs have already complained. My floors are concrete, so thus far, I plan on putting an area rug underneath it, as well as covering the back with felt. Any other suggestions on how I can quiet this thing down would be much appreciated!

Although some might say that this will kill the sound (it won't if done properly) you can stuff pillows between the back braces of the piano making sure you don't have the pillows touching (or at least not crammed against) the soundboard. I've done that for years with a few huge old uprights and it actually can improve the sound of the piano a bit too. What it does is actually makes the piano sound a bit more modern or 'tighter' sounding with less ringing. Also, they do sell certain castors that can separate your piano from the floor a bit more so the vibrations don't travel through the wheels into the floor.

Other than that, bake some cookies for the neighbours, bring them down on a plate with your telephone number and tell them you are sorry for the sound, etc, and that is almost guaranteed to make the piano less loud to them. I think most people will feel more empowered if they know they can do something about the situation, and may not get so bothered by the sound. Hope this helps!

A grand piano or large upright piano can produce as much as 100 db(A) of sound which is equivalent to a concrete jackhammer being driven a few feet from your head. Vibrations can be set up throughout your building which will drive just about anyone crazy.

It is next to impossible in an existing appartment setting to substantially reduce the air sound transmission from you to your downstairs neighbors from a large piano without spending many, many thousands of dollars on creating a soundproof room within a room surrounding your piano playing space. Remember: sound insulation is only as good as the weakest link or crack. Google " piano room soundproofing" or " home music studio " or " room within a room " .

Reducing the contact sound transmission can be done marginally with your idea of a carpet but would be more effectively done with a raised platform that is decoupled from both the floor and wall. This may or may not be noticeable or enough for your neighbors.

The experience of suffering from sound pollution is a subjective experience that has to do with personal expectations. Different people have different thresholds for experiencing noise pollution: personal and personality characteristics, time of day, duration of sound, nature of sound (music and music practicing tends to be more irritating than other sounds), and the predictability of the sound (i.e. agreed to times vs. out of the blue noise).

Sceptical's advice is very good. You might also do a listening test with them having someone else play your piano while you enjoy one of the cookies together -- you might be quite shocked at what you hear...

The best solution will likely be found in modifying your behavior by moving or by only playing at agreed times when the neighbors are not at home or not bothered. You might want to consider buying a digital piano with headphones for practice during other times of the day and night.

Something that is rarely mentioned (along with the good advice about sound de-coupling) is that YOU can make a very big difference simply by learning to play softly. This can be very beneficial for your technique, as at first you will inevitably have to slow down in order to gain the necessary control over your fingers. Practice everything at PPP for a few weeks. Soon, having excellent control will become second nature.

I had the same problem a few months ago. You'll learn that sound travels through air as well as through the floor in the form of vibrations.

See this thread for quite a bit of background and links (and a few more aggressive views ):

Piano Bothering my Neighbors

As you mention it is your downstairs neighbors that have the problem, I suspect vibrations are being transmitted.

Here is the solution I found for that problem:

Piattino Thread

Cheers

How are the hammers? When was the last time the piano was voiced?

some rubber disks to detach the sound/vibration transfer into the floor. There are special disks/cups for grands. Maybe you can find some for uprights or come up with your own design. The material should be stable yet flexible so that it swallows vibrations.

Years ago, when my piano was played at my parents house on the second floor, quite a considerable part of the noise heard downstairs was the vibrational noise transferred directly through the ceiling (wood), especially the thudding noise of the keys striking the keybed when played.

You could always tell your downstairs neighbor that you are glad they don't like the piano because you were thinking of selling it anyway to buy a drumset and a tuba.

I know...this is such a touchy subject. I have tried to work out a schedule with the downstairs neighbours and they were happy about that, but I am slightly worried that I will have other neighbours come out of the wood work and start to complain as well. Looking back at other threads, a lot of people seem to have extreme opinions, like either "[censored] the neighbours" or "time to move". I am sort of thinking that I will do everything that I can to quiet the piano, and try to work around schedules as much as possible, but aside from that I feel like I have a right to live my life as well and I don't think one hour a day, at a reasonable time is too much to ask...

I am seriously thinking of getting those piattino things, paired with a rug underneath. I think I will also try to put pillows between the back braces with a layer of sound absorbing foam covering the whole back of the piano. Hopefully that will help.

Thanks and keep the suggestions coming!

My Piattinos look really classy, but my downstairs neighbor still complains about the piano. I also recently put a thick wool rug down, and that hasn't stopped the complaints either.

I had to laugh at the suggestion to "F___ the neighbors." It's an approach not everyone would care to try, but who knows. I favor cookies and considerate treatment, myself (there's a limit, of course). I actually did talk to all my close neighbors when I got my piano, and did a listening test; luckily, not a problem here. The double-paned windows help quite a bit, as well as saving energy.

The Piatinno caster cups are said to be helpful at decoupling the piano sonically from the floor. Your piano tech can order them for you. I would think a thick room-sized carpet, with a better-quality foam underlayment, would also help cut it down, including the "key thump". And yes, foam behind the piano (four inches thick, the more stiff and high-density kind is more effective). Nothing is going to give you 100%.

There are laws governing permissible levels of "noise" and the hours during which quiet must be observed. But if your neighbors understand that you are prepared to be reasonable and considerate of them, they may be inclined to behave likewise... or at least be tolerant, knowing the hour at which their "suffering" will be over.

Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies. Nice and warm and googy. Maybe some cup cakes too.

This was a problem for me in the last apartment that I lived in. To fix the problem, we moved.

Play heavy metal rock music at full volume whenever you are not playing the piano.

Someone should design a maglev caster cup so your piano would never touch the floor.

I think you need to find out if it's the pianos sound or the thumping from the action or both coming through the floor. If it's the thumping from the action then decoupling should work great, if it's the sound then installing sound absorbing panels or pillows will work better. If it's both do both. Sound proofing can be tricky. Read this article as it gives an excellent overview of several techniques. http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2007/06/soundproofing

If it is an unreasonable neighbor, then a lawyer might work.

pillows REALLY work.

i had a K 52 - man it was loud in a loud apartment. Pillows affect the sound but not the action.

Duct tape would stop the complaints. Of course, it depends where you use it.