Playing music during the daytime

16 comments

1. I do not think it is illegal to do so, however in my opinion it is inappropriate. Even with anything that cancels the sound, the low frequency goes through all the building. There are a lot of people who get nervous from sounds that they do not want to hear and it seriously affects health problems. If you must do it to stay sane, talk with your neighbour and agree on certain time when to play it, I would say this is the most humane way. While you stay sane playing it, your neighbour gets insane banging to your ceiling 🙂 I always compare loud music to farting in public, no one wants to smell your farts.

2. Playing the drums in an apartment is quite the asshole move

3. Is that video yours? Do you have electric drums or “normal” drums? The latter is not exactly illegal, but they make such a loud noise that people might still complain. Even though it’s allowed to make noise during the day, playing normal drums is usually frowned upon.

   Electric drums make less noise and you can use headphones with them. Consider switching to those if you don’t already have them.

4. >but I’m quite sure that drum noising platform is working fine based on my Decibel observer tool.

   Do note, you haven’t tried how it sounds at their place. Certain types of sounds carry quite differently. Timing wise, if they have e.g. young kids, that might clash pretty badly.

   So yeah, playing instruments is technically not an issue. But drums and guitar are quite different beasts in this case. There was cases about doing it “professionally” though, where it was too much.

5. My neighbor downstairs plays loud music during the day, and from a neighbor perspective it’s a quite disturbing. You have the right to make noise before quite hours but it shouldn’t be excessive. On the otherhand, your neighbor has the right to formally compain to landlord or so. Perhaps, you can agree with your neighbor a specific time to play everyday.

6. I think your neighbour is probably the asshole in this scenario(seeing as he complained about you showering at night, I mean, come *on* who does that. If you need a shower you need a shower.).

   An electronic drumkit is pretty quiet, although the pedals will make some noise that should easily be included in the “normal sounds of living” category and be fine in the daytime, especially with that platform mentioned.

7. What’s on your floor? I see this a lot in Finland people having issues with apartments and noise.

8. I used to have a neighbour with a similar setup, with the platform & electrical drums & headphones.

   Unfortunately it did not work out, because of the noise of the drumming act (you know, the physicality of it) emanates to the whole block of flats through the structures.

   I have to say was very stressful for everyone involved, and this person got very offended when everyone asked him to get a rehearsing space for his drums. Eventually he decided to move out.

   My hot tip: Save yourself the trouble of pissing off neighbours – get a rehearsing space asap.

9. You can play music outside of silence because it is counted as a normal sound of living. Unfortunately, there are people living in apartment buildings in Finland who want peace and quiet and that’s why they complain if you go to the bathroom at seven in the morning or vacuum in the afternoon. And it’s a mystery why they want to live in apartment buildings if they can’t stand a normal sound of living during daytime hours. But playing music during the day is allowed and your neighbor can’t do anything about you playing music in your apartment. But when it’s really about drums, it’s a good idea to think about improving the sound insulation of the room and get, for example, rugs on the walls to absorb the sound.

10. Considering everything you have told here, I would just double my playing sessions lenght. F this guys neighbour.

11. Complain about neighbour to House manager (isännöitsijä).

12. A little bit off topic but can’t resist to share. We have a neighbor living upstairs who complained multiple times he hear a drumming sound coming from our apartment and asked if we have drums. We didn’t and we had a newborn at that time so we tried to keep a silent environment most of the times. He continued complaining and then the only wild guess we took that it MIGHT be a mechanical keyboard my husband use. He bought a new one and just in case the mat on the desk under to be sure. They actually stop to complain for a while and we thought problem solved. Then 2 months later they said we close the door in one particular bedroom very loud and this time they complained once to us and then to the landlord. Landlord and housing company made a full investigation meeting inside our apartment. The neighbor even provided for them the full board journal like sound of the door Monday 12:45, 15:15, 16:30, 17:55, 18:25, Tuesday… etc. One person went upstairs to the neighbor apartment and another one was smashing the doors with the maximum power in that room, barely any sound was heard upstairs. They moved on the next room, tried the same with every single door in the apartment, then tried the same with every drawer they found in the house. Nothing. The neighbor stop saying “hei” when he sees us, turning his head other direction and stopped complaining as well. I understand the wish to live in peaceful and quiet environment but some people are really weeeeird.

13. I think you should have mentioned in the post that it’s an electronic drum because the noise difference is quite large

14. Old soviet style building are not good containing sound, there was a murder case in estonia when an old man shot a russian lady in the head, the noise went to the apartment under , the man probably didn’t have any to listen to him and his complaints and decided to murder this lady.

15. I don’t think the banging of ceiling was a protest. He just wanted to join your jam session.

16. I bet he just has short temper for disturbances. I too live in an old apt complex 1954 or so and i can hear my downstairs neighbours footsteps. Sometimes his music is so loud that i have to go complain (floor vibrates loud). He usually understands tho.

    But i think best for your case would be to talk with the neighbour and say that all you do is give out sounds of living. He cannot complain about your walking, he cannot complain about the electric drums unless it is really excessive and constant, also the vibrations from the drumsticks will carry on downstairs as tapping. If he is old know that old people go to sleep early usually BUT the times youve given should be ok to use edrums. If he is not relenting contact the landlord and discuss about it with them.