I need to vent.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

I have this guy who moved in upstairs in our apartment building. he plays the saxophone without a mute, for hours and BADLY. We have asked him nicely, even bought him a mute but he lies to us (will say he'll practice for shorter periods or will use the mute, but never does).

I cannot be in my apartment for 3 hours a day. For those of you who think I am a wuss you are mistaken. I have only lived in large noisy cities, so I am used to a certain amount of neighborly noise. I can't handle it. Neither can Lisa. It's maddening.

if i am sick, as i have been this week, I cant come home to take a nap.

Anyways, so long as he does it before 10 PM there is nothing i can legally do. Though had he been a business the amount of noise he is making would be illegal.

Its really making me crazy. I have so much work (they dont give you doctoral degree for fun) and I am really at the end of my tether.

[PassingFair]

1. Try earplugs or headphones.

As you say, there really isn't anything you can do about it,
so either hang out at someone else's place or adapt.

Sucks, but there it is.

:hug:

[La Lioness Priyanka]

2. much much louder than headphones and earplug together accomodates

it does suck

[PassingFair]

3. Have you tried the broom handle to the ceiling parry?

Maybe you can guilt him by out annoying him.

:shrug:

[La Lioness Priyanka]

4. lol. doesn't guilt require a conscience?

anyway, the funny part of this, is that the neighbors next to him have gotten insanely annoyed and now they blast their music at him. which he tried to complain about to us. insane.

[PassingFair]

5. The guy must be a total jerk.

You've explained the problem, you've even
purchased him a mute...and he still carries
on as though he lives in a detached household.

The only ray of sunshine is that total jerks
usually outlive their welcome. He will probably
be forced to move out in time, because his
inconsiderate personality will cost him his
job.

Unless he is living off of an inheritance,
in which case....maybe you guys should start
perusing the "for rent" section in your local
paper.

I really am sorry for you.

:hug:

[MiddleFingerMom]

6. You hit the nail on the head -- when it's not breaking noise restrictions...

.
.
.
... neighbors pretty much have to hope-hope-hope that the offender is a decent human being.
.
.
It's ALWAYS tempting to blast music at them, but that can escalate and usually the offenders
are much more immune to the tactic than the "audience".
.
.
Are there universities or libraries nearby that have soundproofed practice rooms for free? You
an sweeten that pot in two ways. Number one, he could WAIL away to his heart's content.
Number two, if he's as clueless as your description makes him sound, you could remind him
that he MIGHT find others in those venues with whom he could jam/form a band.
.
.
Back when I had my band, our drummer lived in a 4-story rowhome with 5 other housemates.
He bought a steel drum (FUN FUN FUN) and the very first thing he learned was "3 Blind Mice".
That's it... but he would BLISSfully play that song over and over and over again for hours.
.
His housemates finally held a house meeting and asked him (and he complied -- they were all
pretty nice people) not to ever... EVER play the steel drum again if he had the slightest
suspicion that there was anyone still alive anywhere in the house.
.
.
I bet NONE of those people can watch "The Three Stooges" to this day.
.
.
.

[closeupready]

7. Wow. This has happened to me SO many times. This neighborhood is so fashionable,

LOL, you know. :rofl:

Ugh. What can I say. Had the same problem, and this is what I did:

I wrote a letter to the landlord, copied the city council, department of buildings, the local precinct, explaining who I am, what a normal life I have, how this neighbor is destroying it and my quality of life, and demanding that, due to the fact that the neighbors do not intend grow up, it's now his problem to fix this problem.

Let me tell you- worked like a charm.

[cwydro]

8. I cannot imagine that Pri.

Probably why I could never live in a big city lol!

I lived in Key West for years; partying, drunk couples arguing and roosters were bad enough.

Now I'm in the country of NC and it's so quiet the crickets sound loud. I prefer the quiet (and the crickets). I HATE the sound of trucks backing up and I HATE the sound of leaf blowers.
No saxophones out here, though we do hear gunfire sporadically.

All that being said, I think big city neighbors should take better care of each other in regards to neighborliness. I probably would kill that saxophone guy lol. Not Bill, is it? :)

[La Lioness Priyanka]

11. honestly, he seems like a really new transplant from the burbs

and didnt grow up adjusting to neighbors etc like the rest of us did

[Withywindle]

30. Truth be told, I have a lot of sympathy for your neighbor.

Is your gendering of this person based on personal meeting?


Even if he's not good at it yet, isn't it worth some tolerance? Earplugs are so cheap, and so effective. Please get some.


Experimentation in the arts should not be reserved to ONLY those people who can afford to rent a practice space.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

40. yes, my gendering of him has to do with meeting.

i have stated that his playing is much higher than the combine effects of earplugs and headphones with white noise.

have sympathy with whom you want to, but subjecting your neighbors to the volumes he does is beyond stressful and really is quite unethical. its the volume of a rock concert for three hours a day.

[Bucky]

48. If gendering didn't work, try de-gendering him.

[Kali]

9. god, there are lot of assholes in the world, aren't there?

have you considered voodoo?:evilgrin:

[closeupready]

12. LOL, that's a good suggestion.

:evilgrin:

[Deep13]

10. I wish I could give you some useful advice.

I suppose the landlord won't do anything. My suggestion would be to contact a tenant's association to see what rights you have against either the asshole or the landlord. Also, you could get some of your friends or relatives to rough him up so he leaves.

[Coyote_Bandit]

13. I had an upstairs neighbor once

that was a music student. He did his voice lessons - loudly and badly. He'd open up the windows and doors to the outdoors and play the one song he knew well over and over and over and over. Always between 8am and 10pm.

The absolute worst thing he did was to wire a damn drum machine through his stereo system - and then left his speakers sitting on the floor. Even with the volume turned down (which was the exception) I could hear the THUMP, THUMP, THUMP of those drums. My ceiling and walls vibrated all the time. Drove me frickin nuts (I too was in school at the time). I beat on the ceiling with a broom until I nearly beat a hole into the plaster. I complained to the leasing office until they would no longer listen or make a pretense of intervening. I called after hours security. Even made an inquiry with someone I knew at the police department. Finally the SOB moved. And while he was moving he dropped a box of stuff he was carrying down the stairs. That damn drum machine was in that box and was shattered. All these years later I still view it as poetic justice.

I've been in your position and I can give you lots of empathy. Unfortunately, I can't offer you much useful advice.

Good luck.

[Swede]

14. Play some louder music.

What a jerk you have as a neighbour.

[mzteris]

15. had an inconsiderate neighbor once

He played his stereo LOUD all the time.

All of the neighbors on every side of him got together. We put our speakers against his wall, (or floor/ceiling), turned them to different stations - opera, country, classical, "oldies" - stuff we KNEW he didn't like.... cranked it really loud - and we all left for the day/evening...

Never had a problem with him again. :evilgrin:



edit to add: yes, we had all spoken with him about it several time

[GoCubsGo]

21. I did the same when I had apartment neighbors like that

They had a home theater that they would watch with volume turned up high. The were in an end unit, which was a flat, so I was the only one who had to listen to the "whum whum whum whum whum" every fucking Friday night through Sunday night. Finally, just turned the speakers toward the common wall. It took a couple of weekends, but the noise finally stopped--a few weeks before they moved out. The guy who moved in after them had a sheltie with separation anxiety. But, that was nothing compared to that goddamn home theater.

Now, I live behind some assholes that throw loud parties. They crank their stereo so loud, it shakes my windows--even when they have their doors and windows all closed. I can't believe I'm the only one that winds up calling the popo. They had the thing blasting last night, but fortunately, they quieted down after only an hour or so. Unlike the last time, when they quieted down around midnight, and then started back up at 3 fucking AM. I wound up putting in a noise complaint after 4. Good thing they don't have those parties all that often. And, lucky for them that I don't own a bazooka.

[raccoon]

38. Next time you move, move to an apartment that's for seniors.

If you're not old enough to qualify, disguise yourself to look old.

Seriously, I feel your pain, having dealt with neighbors who are a PITA one way or other.

[elleng]

16. I suggest looking into this, as a first step:

document the frequency and extent of the noise and then provide the landlord with notice of the problem and a demand that it be eliminated.

If the landlord fails to do so, he said, the tenant might consider filing a complaint with the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, the agency that enforces the city's noise code. The department's Noise Hotline is [phone].

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/11/realestate/q-a-meaning-of-quiet-enjoyment.html

[Bucky]

47. This is the best advice in the thread. You have to play hardball with inconsiderate people.

That's so much classier than a brick through the window.

[snagglepuss]

17. Have you and your nieghbors talked to your landlord? Landlords do have

an obligation to insure tenants have some peace and quiet regardless of time of day. If that doesn't work then try to get a speaker as close to the ceiling as possible and blare either bag pipe music or polkas. I have found that unruly neighbors have suddenly grasped empathy when assualted with non stop bag pipe recording of military tattoos i.e. whole marching bands comprised solely of pipers. But talk to your nieghbors first to let them in of a truly diabolical plan.

[raccoon]

37. I like the way you think! "and blare either bag pipe music or polkas" nt

[undeterred]

18. I had an upstairs neighbor who was an amateur musician once.

He warned me as I was moving in. I was also a graduate student and needed to study. I had no idea what to expect. He told me he would stop at 9pm and they did.

He played the piano and he did it well. No practicing scales or anything, he played one song after another. Some evenings he had friends over to accompany him with a violin and another instrument. It turns out they played at events and they were practicing for them.

I guess it all depends on perception.

I enjoyed them 100% because it was only for a couple of hours in the evening and they were good. I didn't even have a stereo and it was good background for my studying. I think there were other other people in the building who did not enjoy it. They complained to the landlord. Eventually they found other places to practice.

Its really not fair to subject someone else to practice music if you're not good at it. Even if its legal.

Living below this guy- it worked out well that I actually liked his music.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

19. this guy does scales non-stop. he really is terrible

[undeterred]

22. He should be in a practice room somewhere

or have a way to mute the sound. NOBODY should have to listen to that for hours.

[guitar man]

20. Damn

If I didn't live so far away I'd show up with my ax and a couple 100 watt Marshall stacks. He'd get a ride on the Crazy Train followed by my 30 minute rendition of Voodoo Chile. I bet that would shut him up. :evilgrin:

[krispos42]

23. Fasten a medium-sized subwoofer to your ceiling below him.

Whenever he begins playing, hook up a metronome to the amp (there's probably some sort of free program you can download for your computer or an app for a smartphone) and play it through the subwoofer at about 20% faster or slower than the music he's trying to play.

That'll fuck up his rhythm, I would think. When he's trying to practice "Yakkity Sax", the beat is "Flight of the Bumblebee" or the opening of "In the Hall of the Mountain King".

:evilgrin:

[Lasher]

26. Get some fart-in-a-can and spray it under his door.

But only between 8AM & 10PM. Make a recording of fingernails on a chalkboard and turn it on real loud when you're leaving to go somewhere. Turn it off when you get back home.

[merh]

24. If he is in the apartment above you, will the landlord let you

put in a drop ceiling or "lower the ceiling" a tad?

Go Green

Home theater aficionados and soundproofing geeks are all atwitter over the latest in soundproofing technology: a gooey compound called Green Glue that converts sound energy into heat.

Green Glue compares favorably with conventional methods of soundproofing walls and ceilings, like factory-damped drywall. But it's much cheaper: A case of 12 tubes costs only $175, and is enough to cover a decent sized wall.

Just remember:

Green Glue must be sandwiched between two rigid surfaces, which means laminating your existing walls with a layer of sheetrock that's been slathered with the goop. (Use the thickest sheetrock you can; mass helps block sound, too.)

Green Glue takes time to cure. It may be 10 days before you notice a real difference, and 30 days before the stuff reaches its maximum sound dampening potential.

Green Glue works better at lower frequencies than many soundproofing options, but it isn't perfect. Expect some leakage from that 800-watt subwoofer.


False Ceiling, Real Results

Laminating your walls with Green Glue is a no-brainer. You can do the same to your ceiling, but for extra soundproofing, go a step further and drop the damn thing.

To create a drop or false ceiling, just attach furring channels to your existing ceiling and hang a bunch of sheetrock panels from them. The dead air space between the original ceiling and the new one creates a sound-trapping chamber.

We took a different route -– and our upstairs neighbors haven't complained yet.

Attach some plain wooden strips to the ceiling, spaced two feet apart.
Screw a layer of sheetrock onto the strips.
Slather some Green Glue onto another layer of sheetrock, and screw that onto the first layer.

The result: a soundproof ceiling sandwich. Just make sure your ceiling can support all that weight before trying this at home.

http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2007/06/soundproofing

Of course, ideally the landlord should get the fellow making the noise to soundproof his apartment and pay all costs associated with doing so. But your sanity may be best served by you providing you and Lisa with a quiet sanctuary to inhabit while he practices. Less hassle to take care of yourself than to try to get the landlord or mr. noise to fix things.

(Normally leases provide that tenants cannot make noise that disrupts the other tenants. If your landlord knows of the noise and has done nothing maybe his lease doesn't have such a provision. If it has that provision and the landlord hasn't held him to it, the landlord isn't going to get him to pay for soundproofing either.)

[Iggo]

25. I used to play sax and I don't think you're a wuss.

Sweet tones to one person are honks to another.

In fact, it's no fun listening to anyone practice any instrument.

I feel for ya, kiddo.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

41. you know he doesnt practice songs or music, just scales

scales for three hours.

[Iggo]

43. I do the same on my electric guitar.

But I can and do use headphones.

I remember back in high school, though, when I had to explain to my band director that I couldn't practice at home or we'd be kicked out of our apartment.

[Withywindle]

27. delete cause I double posted, please!

[Withywindle]

28. Do you know what a "mute" really is?

It does nothing to quiet down the volume of a horn instrument. That's not its purpose. It's used to warp and bend the tone, selectively, in the hands of a skilled player. Been around for about 100 years--Louis Armstrong was one of the best early users of the mute on his trumpet!

If he told you a "mute" would do anything to reduce the volume, he lied to you. Ain't no such thing as a device that reduces the natural volume of a horn instrument--they're not amplified to begin with, so you can't turn them down; they are naturally as loud as fuck.

[MiddleFingerMom]

29. I thought I had seen something like this years ago. You're right about mutes, but...

.
.
.
... there is "e-sax". a portable sound-deafening "practice room". This website appears
to be from 1977 and the price was about $650 at that time -- certainly an expense you
don't want -- and almost certainly one he will not assume.
.
.
http://www.bestbrass.jp/en/sound-t/e-sax.html
.
.
.

[Withywindle]

32. ....

Expensive soundproofing exists for anyone who OWNS a space and has lots of $$$$$$.



I think, in my 15 years as a Chicago music writer, I've met about eight people who could afford that kind of setup.

[aikoaiko]

46. Some mutes are significant sound reducers, no?

http://www.bill-lewington.com/saxmute.htm

[Name removed]

31. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[SwissTony]

33. My cure-all for such situations

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swG6Rry9Tss>

More seriously, do as others have suggested by putting pressure on the landlord with "threats" to appeal to higher authorities.

[REP]

34. Wanna trade? I've got SCREAMING children here

Not normal kid-noise - SCREAMING and SHRIEKING at the top of their lungs for hours. And there is a nice, clean, safe playground here; they don't need to do that outside my fucking apartment.

[valerief]

35. Tell the white shirts he's an Occupier most days. They'll beat the shit out of him and arrest him.

Cuz that's what they do.

[LynneSin]

36. I think even during non-quiet hour times a reasonable amount of quietness is expected

I mean I've played a saxophone and if you have a proper mute on it, the sound should stay muffled and not annoy people who are on the other side of walls.

He clearly is not using the mute. I would register your complaint to your landlord requesting that he play saxophone only with a mute. Maybe it might help if the Landlord is involved

I feel your pain. I remember in college having a roommate that played Whitney Houston's debut album like 24 hours a day for a couple of weeks. What's worse is she played it top volume and had heavy bass on it. I really learned to hate Whitney Houston pretty quickly.

[AngryAmish]

39. If you don't like saxophone just put on a Morphine record and drown it out.

wait...

[aikoaiko]

42. If you live in Brooklyn, you can hire a firm but fair "mediator" to resolve the problem

You can't play the saxophone with broken fingers.

I keed. I keed. Sort of.

[Iggo]

44. It would be a shame if, uh, something were to happen...

...to your fingers and, uh, you couldn't play dat fancy horn of yours no more. Know'm say'n?

:rofl:

[edbermac]

45. Are you near a subway?

Tell him to pack his case and head for one, he can play all he wants and might make a few bucks as well.

[Withywindle]

49. I just want to apologize for being argumentative.

I was not in a good state of mind, and I'm sorry.

[Tyrs WolfDaemon]

50. Get some dirty socks, roll them into balls and leave them at his door with a note like

"Either these go in the end of your sax or they will go in your end!"

[RebelOne]

51. I understand what you are feeling.

I live in Georgia in a mobile home park and the majority of my neighbors are Hispanic and they love their loud booming music. I have had to bang on mhy next-door neighbor's door and ask him to place lower the music because it was drowning out my TV. And today, a guy across the street was working on his car and booming that music. It was at the point where I was going to go over there and tell him to lower the goddamn fucking music (and those would have been my words to him). Fortunately for him, it stopped. Because if he did not lower it, I would have called the sheriff's department.

[RedCloud]

52. Have you tried gills?

Sorry. I am just going by thread titles tonight!

[Odin2005]

53. Ugh, sounds like a jerk below me.

The base on his stereo system is WAY TOO LOUD, pisses me off.