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Spanish pianist faces prison sentence.

A good reason to get a Digital Piano.

bluebilly, I have read your post, here:

Subject: Re: Pianist faces prison for playing her piano.

Spanish pianist faces prison sentence.

A good reason to get a Digital Piano.

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The situation of playing an acoustic piano is difficult.

If you think of the cost of an acoustic piano, the cost of lessons and the cost of a place to play the acoustic piano - here in Canada or in most of Canada condos cost a half a million and small shacks on a tiny lot cost about a million in the good side of town (the west side - if you will) - parts of big Canadian cities. So what does that mean for any piano player who wants to study classical music? Not good.

3N15NG

oh dear how awful the neighbor case seems rather flimsy if she could not have the matter solved during the years of practice.

District attorney has asked for 20 months of prision finally (so she won't go to jail, less than two years means no jail here, when there's no precedents), plus a 22000€ fine. Besides, attorneys' proposal includes a ban of six months on piano playing.
Accusation still begs for five years in the fridge. There's no sentence, yet.
Welcome to Spain.

man those poor neighbors...

That's just sad.

The neighbors should have made complaints to the relevant people way sooner. Regardless, seems completely over the top to me. Since when can you receive jail time simply because of sound pollution.

The problem should have been handled a long time ago. Should never have come to this. There's fault on both ends.

I live in an apartment. I have a digital piano. I usually do not use headphones because the sound sounds tinny through headphones.. I have someone living underneath me who has on occasions complained about noise. He said I can play up to a certain time in the evening and that is 10pm and no more which is reasonable. Sometimes if he is out or away I will play later. I do not play 8 hours a day and am not a professional pianist. Professional pianists hit the keys with such force for some pieces which require very heavy forte. I would never dream of playing such pieces in an apartment. I had a letter from the person who I lease my apartment from saying he had complained about my piano playing. When I challenged him about it, he denied it and said he was only complaining about the lack of insulation between the floor NOT my playing. I have used headphones but he said it vibrates through the floor and he said its when i push the pedal, but I dont play with the pedal at home as most of my pieces do not require pedalling.

What he did say was that since I do not have anyone living above me I have no idea what it sounds like for someone below. He said if he moves again, he will get a top floor place

Maybe the landlord is the problem. Should of been up to them to solve the problem.

Either tell them to properly sound proof the room, stop playing or kick them out. Should of been solved well before 4 years had past.

Also, why is the neighbor only just pressing charges after 6 years. (says it was from 2003-2007). No doubt she's broke and desperate.

There are plenty of places to practice. You can find a church or a friend with a house. If you are a professional pianist you will know plenty of people in the business who will let you use their instrument in a more suitable environment.

I think the neighbours have been very patient putting up with it for so long! However, had they addressed the problem sooner, some compromise may have been found.

Here in the US, if you like your piano, you get to keep your piano.

Unless some nameless, faceless, mindless, but nevertheless arrogantly authoritarian, bureaucrat determines that it's a "sub-standard" piano, and then you must play the piano that he specifies - even if it's ugly and harder to play and sounds really terrible...and, oh yes, your neighbors who hate your lousy playing still have to pay for it...

Heh, heh, heh ... thanks for sharing my thoughts better than I ever could.

It's a pity the neighbors couldn't work out a mutually agreeable compromise. I'm sympathetic with the downstairs neighbor though. Years ago I had a downstairs apartment and despite the fact the upstairs tenants were pretty quiet I heard every record played, every dropped fork, etc. A pianist practicing the same few bars over and over would have driven me mad.

Noisy neighbors?

click:

http://www.ranchflip.com/ranches-for-sale/texas/

Happens in the US too - though without the prison aspect. I wondered what happened with this lawsuit in New York this summer.


http://nypost.com/2013/07/11/the-worst-kind-of-piano-man/

Someone here was just ordered by a court to sell her condo & move - this after numerous notices & fines (unpaid) from her strata corporation. Wasn't a piano though - I think it was behaviour by the owner & her son that was a lot more disruptive than playing music. Re: the case in Spain - I just hope an opera singer takes over her apartment (giggle).

What a pain to live in an apartment - for both the piano player and the neighbors.

Perhaps some set hours would be acceptable for all parties involved - like a fixed 2 hour window when the player could play as desired. Outside of that window and the player would have to use a digital on low or with headphones or not play at all. Exceptions could be given now and then for special circumstances such as when entertaining guests.

OT most DP's sound better through headphones. I don't know what DP you have but usually the headphones are the weak point. You don't want popular headphones used for listening to music.

I live in an apartment, & have both digital & acoustic. For the first almost-4 years I just had the accoustic; I got the digital so I can play early in the morning, although on weekdays anything after about 8 am is OK to play the accoustic. My downstairs neighbour plays too, has been there for years, & as far as I know, the guy below her has no complaints. The people next door to me say they rarely ever notice me playing (& I do play every day.)