Hi all,

I'm moving to NYC, and I doubt I would easily find a place that's suitable to play without making enemies with my neighbours.
I suppose I could find a park to play, but only in summer as winters there are lethal.
Do you have any tips?
Do you recommend houseshare (which i'd rather avoid) with musicians?

thanks for the reply

I should have mentioned that I'm going to be working long hours (12 per day) and I'm planning to practise in the morning before going to work (like 7 or 8 am) and if I'm fit enough, in the evenings so I might replace the neighbours' alarm clock...
I've also had complaints once.

Any other suggestions?

If you are going to work 12 hour day, practice in your sleep.

<Added>

with all jokes aside, if you worry about people complaining, why don you find a music school and blend in and see if you can get into a practice room? MSM, Juilliard, are right there in NYC, or Purchase in white plains, all have practice rooms..if you have the key, but sometimes rooms are left open. If this is not an option, then I would suggest put up thick curtain do deaden the sound.

Hope this would help a bit.

<Added>

Oh yeah, the summer here is lethal, and winter is actually pretty nice now. Thanks to global warming.

When i use to live in an apartment i just practiced in the bathroom.

I live in new york city and have had this problem several times, ironically, because there are so many musicians here, you may not have a problem...here are some tips:

1. try to practice when you know your neighbors are gone
2. vary your practice routine so as to not bore them, try to start with something they like
3. if all else fails, find a local church and see if you can practice there in exchange for playing on some sundays for free, I did this and made a great relationship with a church where I wound up doing concerts and getting students.

(PM me if you want some ideas of places in your area of NY CIty, I may be able to help)

12 hours a day could be too much for anybody...not deaf or dead, even pets could get too nervous (JJK)

There was a similar thread a year ago and there were several ideas posted then.

To those posted here, I add a few I rememeber for the older post. Some have I used myself, but none is good enough for 12 hours practise, unless you are rich enough to rent a practise room almost permanently:

-Churchs. You can agree with them to play during some services in return, if you are advanced enough. Yous could get different agreements with several places to split so many hours at different places.

- Undergroung parking sites (preferably in your own building, if suitable). They have superb acoustics and normally you will not bother anybody there. Previously ask permission from the administrator...

- Inside your own car. This is not confortable, to the say the least, but it can be used in emergencies...

- Parks. But you will be distracted and I suppose that in NYC it can be dangerous at certain places and hours, if allowed at all.

If you plan to go at this practise rate for a long time, you could consider building a kind of isolated small room inside one of your apartment rooms. This is no joke; of course you will not be using masonry or permanent materials, just sound isolating panels to build a kind of closed box. Be carefull with ventilation issues, you will need plenty of O2 during so much practise

An intemediate solution could be isolating the walls and floor of one of the rooms with suitable materials or at least hevy carpets and curtains. Not much effective but better than nothing. Ceiling is more difficuld to isolate effectively.

Bathrooms are one of the worst places to play, in reference to the disturbance to neighbours; they normally have almost no isolation and have venting ducts that can carry sound very far. They have very good acoustics, yes, but this is not the point.

I notice I probably got confused between your working hours and your practise time. Sorry about it.

Most of my suggestions apply eanyway and are easier to implement with shorter practise time.

If your apartment has a closet you can make a little soundproof room. Look into acoustic plaster board and/or soundproofing mat. If you go this way be sure that you are purchasing soundproofing products and not sound absorbtion materials. Do not use egg cartons. Egg cartons are a myth. When I was in New York the apartment I stayed in did not have any closets and everyone used Armoires. You could easily soundproof an armoire for little cost and you would not have to worry about damaging the apartment itself - so no apartment manager issues. Of course you will have to sit crosslegged while you practice.

You also might look into renting practice space. I don't know specifics in New York, but in Los Angeles there are lots of practice rooms of different sizes. You can rent speficific times based on your work schedule. And knowing you're paying for it will encourage you to use the space.

If you are near Manhattan here is a link. If they don't have what you need, they may have some good sugggestions.

http://www.salsanewyork.com/magazine/resources/studio.htm

If you choose to practice at home put a note out to your neighbors with your phone number for contact. Let them know you do play flute and they should call you when they find it bothering. As stated earlier by someone most neighbors will really enjoy listen to you play.

Q:does anyone make a proper mute for a flute? Like the ones you'd use on a trumpet, just designed for a flute?

Flute mute is a good idea but since your sound production is right there at the lip plate it doesn't work. There are mutes bags and mute cases for your reed instruments though.

<Added>

Vert, since you also posted in the saxophone forum try this

http://www.morizono.co.jp/BEST%20BRASS%20e-Sax.htm

You can practice anywhere with this.

Thanks for the advice guys.
i guess i'll just have to be creative about this. I've been playing in my car on the way to and from work. I quite like it. It has to be the only time I'm not self conscious. I'll see what I can do in NY without a car.

some of my friends have played in the subway and made some pretty good cash! just don't take a good flute down into those depths...there are hundreds of churches in NYC, I live in queens, let me know if you need any advice on where to practice...

Some apartments have what they term "quiet hours". Usually the leasing agent can tell you. City apts are less like complexes in that you have neighbors on more sides. I've lived in both. I'm in a complex right now. Despite what we pay, the walls are pretty thin. I try to practice after 9am and before 9pm when I can. If it's after, I do silent practice where I just finger the notes or blow with just enough sound that I can hear it. The closet idea is great. Another thing I do is try to position myself as centrally as I can in the apartment so I'm not up against someone else's living space. We have pretty noisy neighbors, but I still try to be as considerate as possible. Flute is not as offensive an instrument to practice as some others, and you can control your volume to a degree. I always felt guilty when I was more of a newbie at strings. Those poor people.....