Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Let me just vent some true gratitude

I live in one of the most beautiful cities of the world that has continuously been voted for No. 1 in terms of life quality. I have three opera houses, two internationally renowned concert halls in the city, all within 20 minutes of going there by streetcar or subway.

But most important: I have managed to accidentally find an apartment that is as piano friendly as you'll ever get in a big city. I live in a rooftop apartment and right to me is the wall to a different building, i.e. with two brick walls of isolation. Left to me is a different apartment and my wall (bricks) goes to their parlor and bathroom. Rooftop means no one above me. What I thought was a big culprit is the apartment right below mine, but it turns out that my apartment has floor heating both in the kitchen and the bathroom, which made it necessary to raise the level of wooden flooring by a couple of centimeters in the rest of the apartment and filling it with isolating wool material.

I have lived in this place for more than 5 years now and I haven't had a single complaint about my piano playing. My neighbors told me that they need to stand right at my entrance door to hear anything and I don't even know those neighbors one storey below. I've had parties here and I remember a friend of mine playing Funérailles after midnight on a Saturday after midnight on my beloved Steinway B. No one came to my door to complain about it.

I love great food, great wines, wonderful pianos, but being this privileged in a great city is true luxury.

What a delightful read. I don't need to tell you to consider yourself lucky among apartment-dwelling pianists, world-wide!

Regards,

You are indeed blessed.

Both the musical gestalt of the city and your unique apartment sound wonderful, indeed.

Your username must be your amateur radio call sign: OE1 for Vienna. That's cool, too.

That is correct. It's actually a vanity call which I use for a.) oe1f.eu is a domain that I use for private communications only and b.) it's nice in morse code, which is the only mode I do on ham radio. The apartment also came with the perk of being allowed to set up a shortwave antenna for ham radio, but right now the piano is much more of a priority in in every regard. I used to be DF5JT, but gave up my German license when I moved to Vienna, knowing that I am not likely to go back to Germany.

Congratulations on your piano friendly apartment, OE1FEU!

Sounds like you are indeed blessed.

My oldest son is into Ham radio, and says he has talked to people in Europe, and pretty much all over the world. I wasn't sure how serious he was about the Ham radio thing until I saw his radio antenna at his house for the first time. I think it is like 30 or 40 feet in the air, with the steel frame fastened to a big concrete base. He said he hired a crane company to come out and help him erect the antenna with a crane.

He really enjoys the Ham radio, plus he has started learning electronics repair and working on his radios and other electronics, like his electric guitars and tube guitar amplifiers.

I don't think anyone has ever explained to me the difference between AM (Amplitude modulation) and FM (Frequency modulation) was well as he did.

Not sure what his call sign numbers are, but I know he has the official license.

Glad you like where you live! That is indeed a blessing...

Rick

Yes you certainly are blessed OE1FEU !
We should all be thankful when we can !
I wonder what it must be like strolling down to Mozarts apartment?
Or going to hear a great artist perform in a renowned concert hall ?
It must be amazing ! Glad to hear you have piano friendly eviroment
to practice as well !

Nice!

Pwg

This is certainly nice to hear. Good for you!

I’m happy that my downstairs neighbors are musicians, and the nicest people you’d ever want to meet.

Most old apartment buildings in New York that are six stories are have wooden floor joists. More modern buildings have concrete slabs which are effective at stopping noise, you’re lucky that the floor was raised, it must be a huge job, and one that would not be worth it for me.

As soon as I can figure out how to levitate the 500lb U1 off of the floor, I’m going to put some caster cups under the wheels, and I do have a thick wool rug on order. Still, my neighbors are cool about piano practice but I don’t play at midnight.

I am not active any more, but when I was, it was entirely in code. I always thought code, well executed, was very musical!

I would LOVE to live in Vienna, it's actually my favourite city. To be honest I could probably make quite a decent living as a piano teacher there just teaching privately, but I can't speak German so that would be a problem.

You can always learn it. My wife learned and became fluent in Dutch in her mid- to late-30's, and that's a language of comparable difficulty. It just all depends on if it is important to you and you want to learn it.

It sounds like you have a wonderful setup. That is unusual for apartment living. I assume your Steinway B is a Hamburg model. What year?

1887

Sounds perfect for you. I was there during the holidays.

Ausgezeichnet!

Sounds really great indeed OE1FEU!

That does sound really great!

This week my neighbour from 2 (town)houses next to mine came to complain about my piano..


It was annoying, but I couldn't take him too seriously. He's the classic grumpy type that is "bothered" by anything he hears, and the sound can't be loud as he isn't even my direct neigbour. There is a whole house inbetween! Also, as usual with the "classic grumpy" type person, no reasonable, friendly discussion was possible. He came to my door complaining and demanding I wouldn't play at a specific time (in the middle of the day), and when I said I am open to think about solutions, but don't immediately have one, and that I don't just accept his demand, he walked away angry, complaining some more.

You might want to test out the validity of his complaint by having a friend stand by his townhouse and listen while you play. I lived in a similar configuration and was surprised about how sound travels louder than I assumed.

Do you mean on the outside of his house?

I do agree, and would want to listen inside his house, but it does all start with beeing able to discuss things in a friendly manner, which i am all for. If that isn't possible at all, i have no option besides ignoring him. I have already gone to great lengths to reduce the sound of my piano, as maybe you have read in the thread about that.

Trust me on this one, this is the type of person that is not in a good state of mind, and therefore is bothered by, and complains about, everything. I'm glad he is not my direct neigbour.

Ill see if he's capable of normal conversation at a different moment.