7 Apartment Drumming Tips that Will Save You From Your Neighbors
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- Опубліковано 5 тра 2024
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YOU CAN practice the drums in an apartment without bothering your neighbors…when you know how to approach this the SMART way. I’ll share with you what I learned being a gigging drummer in an apartment for over 2 years. YOU CAN DO THIS. I’m proud and thankful to say that I never received one noise complaint while living in an apartment. Was it luck? Maybe. But I think that was mostly a result of implementing these 7 tips I’m sharing with you today. If you’re a drummer in an apartment who’s forced to stay quiet and limit your practice time, I don’t envy you. I certainly don’t miss my 2.5 years there! I totally get the challenge and frustration, so let’s get through this together. You CAN grow on the drums and still reach your goals even while forced to quiet practice.
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Cheapest solution is to get yourself some earplugs so you won't hear the neighbours or the police knocking on your door.
😂 🤜 🤛
This had me dead lol
😂
This happened to me lmfaoooooooooooo
You must not have your drum. It's not the sound it's the vibration of you hiting that annoys
Talk to your neighbors. Give them the opportunity to say "Yeah, it's important that I can sleep from X to Y," and at the very least let them know who you are and what you're doing. It can make a big difference if they can think "Oh, that's Stephen, the drummer; he's practicing" rather than "That's that nameless, noisy asshole upstairs again doing who knows what."
I've been trying to talk to my neighbours below me, although I know I'm not generating enough noise to breach any regulations in the UK but I still want to do what I can to be as little of a nuisance as possible, but every time i try to discuss resolutions including the idea of talking about more suitable hours for himself. but I keep getting the door shut in my face, I know at this point I should just be like "screw him, if he won't give me anything to work with, how can I work with it? but I just don't want the aggro.
He even tried to set building security on me AFTER I have tried to discuss resolutions and I will say with a smile on my face that it did not work out very well for him.
turned out he was hiding around a corner listening while I laid out mu rights to them and as soon as I told them I'd gladly play at a more appropriate time for him if he'd just talk to me and this was the point where he walked off and security understood, that I no longer owe him anything.
why am I still trying to help again? 🤔
i wish it was that easy, my neighbor refuses to show themself to us or compromise and instead will only go through mgmt aka reporting a noise complaint against me every day even when I don't know I'm being loud - the worst
this is very true if you know the reason why for the noise and dont think its just a random series of banging then it might be a little more tolerable
I used to live in a mobile home and my neighbors would turn their stereo up loud when I started practicing. They were jerks. Then I finally got an e kit and I thought everything was fine until my next door neighbor leaves a note on my front door saying he can hear the pounding in the floor of my trailer inside his trailer. I was like what else do I have to do? So I put some egg shell foam underneath my kick pedal and the weight of the kick pedal wasn't enough to hold the foam down. Glad those days are over as I now have a house and a very good e kit. I can practice at 3 in the morning and it bothers nobody.
I've actually had many many gigs in smaller rooms where the restaurant or club owner want the band to be at a quiet volume level. So practicing quiet can actually be a very useful skill to carry over to the gig.
very true, i've actually found it harder for me to play at a louder level than at a quieter level
@@julianc.6589same! Recently, I've been asked to play loud and I've kinda just said "no". I'm behind a divider, everything is mic'd, there's a dedicated sound guy to control the levels; just turn me up lol.
But maybe that wasn't the right attitude 🤷♂️
This is exactly the info I needed. I’m not in an apartment but I still want be quiet. I have the L80’s. but was mulling over the rest.
Thanks!
Maaaster class man !! You rock ! I didn't follow your advice and bought a kit before mastering the pad....but I'm moving forward with learning drums at my sweet tender 54YO !! Looove your tips man !! Keep 'em coming !!!
Your videos have been some of the most helpful and useful, Stephen. Thank you!
love this dude! You rock Stephen Clark! so much bs stuff out there these days, his stuff is straight forward, practical, etc.
Thank you for this informative video. I like these ideas.
The tennis ball sandwich! Such a good tip! Even for practice bass pads!
I have enormous admiration for anyone that is so dedicated to their drumming that they will go through all this trouble to keep playing.
A surprisingly effective way to mute a cowbell whilst still retaining the overall tone is to use socks and electricians tape. A tip brought to you by a home working drummer who got a cowbell and some novelty socks for Christmas...
Thanks man!
Definately, drum might be the hardest instrument to chose ; expensive, big to carry, noisy and all and that's why there are less 'steady' drummers in one single band, but at least we get more opportunities. I hope these challenges won't make my motivation go away, specially as I am not starting at a young age.
The opposite of “large/big to carry”: all drummers I’ve played with only ever carried a pair of drum-sticks 😀 While i as a guitarist need to carry that on my back + a small pedal-board case in my hand… 🤭
Pianoist here. I can plug in headphones in my keyboard piano.
Thanks man that's really helpful.
Great video. This is really helpful! :)
Thank you Stephen, great video, yet again. I've been a subscriber for since you almost began I think, anyway I moved to my condo and now have an ekit there set up in my room...wanted to know best low cost way to not have my neighbours especially upstairs from me not complain when I want to play through my monitor instead of headphones, which I mainly do with of course no complaints? I am in a ground floor suite...this video was very informative, thank you!
Loved it thanks !!!
I am 51 yo guitarist/bassist. This year i start learning drums. I practise at home during the lockdown. I use Roland rythm coach practice pad ( to learn rudiments), Boss Dr.Beat 88 metronome, Yamaha DD65 table drums - i use them in front of my PC, incl to learn some songs. With guitar power tabs, theres drum tabs too./of course i try to learn "easy" songs - Status Quo, AC/DC etc, not Iron Maiden, Slayer etc/. At the attic i have electronic kit, so i practice on it from time to time.I sit behind the drums in my band's rehearsal room too. Playing drums is fun. The reward is - when ill get better on drum ill be able to play my favourite songs on guitars, bass and drums.Hope learning drums makes me better when i compose my own music too. I use drum machines from long ago, i can program drums too, but paying real drums is WOW.
After a year of trying to drum at home, I’m looking for a separate practise space. Drum isolation platform, mesh heads, e kits, blah blah blah, I have super thin walls and sensitive neighbours. The isolation platform does work, but especially for legs my loud kicking (rock and metal) is just too loud, and by playing softly, I program myself to play wrong. If you can practise daytime, that’s probably your win, or if you have decent walls. For me, it’s a practise pad and the floor for practise, and then real drums as I get opportunity again. It’s hard living in an apartment!
Nice Tips for Beginners!!! Practice in the Apartment can be complicated!
I had a 1 bedroom apt. I was working at Village Inn and started collecting egg crates. After a year of collecting them and getting my other materials I was able to sound proof my bedroom!!! After 6 months I had an entire band practicing in the same room!!!
You didn't soundproof your room, trust me. You just got 'lucky' with exceptionally tolerant/absent neighbours. Egg crates are not sound proofing.
@@OliverEdwardV anything is soundproof with enoufh of them
hey, nice video, quick question though, does adding a few strips of gaffer tape help with the feel of mesh heads on an electric kit?/
(I have an Alesis DM10 Mkii pro) I only have a problem with the neighbour below me not liking the impact of the kick drum, but anything that will help with the rebound on the snare and toms would be amazing (and yes I'm aware I need to practice technique more than focus on gaffer tape but if it feels a lot more realistic with the tape that can only be good right?
Also I would really recommend Remo SilentStroke heads
Tip#6 I put the stand inside my shoes and it muffles really well i also use a quiet practice pad
I've had my drums at family's house for about 10 years now only playing occasionally because I couldn't have them in the last two places I've lived. I recently moved into a town house that has my own basement.
My fiance and I are covering the floor and parts of the walls with the puzzle mats to make it a workout area anyway so I was thinking that with all of that padding deadening the over tones I could get some silent stroke heads and L80 cymbals to finally have my drums at home again.
With your experience with apartment playing do you think using that equipment combo with the workout padding up in a basement would be sufficient. Worth mentioning it's a separate small room in the basement.
Number 4 is very nice!
Can a sound booth like a Studiobricks, Whisper Room etc. replace the tennis-ball riser? Most of these have raised floors, to decouple the booth from the floor. But the “feet” these booths are standing on of course aren’t as bouncy as the tennis balls.
Very good tips all together; I never really practiced much when I was living in apartments, years passed I was able to buy a house, now the distance from neighbors increased compared with apartment and I was able to record cover videos at home and practice at times without having to use any of that stuff; play all i want as loud or as low hitting all the drums i want and all the cymbals; no problems! I asked my neighbors about the noise and they say they could hear them faintly, heck I remember even playing some time close to 12 midnight and i never got a visit from the police or a neighbor's complain which means the sounds somehow do not reach them. So solution? Buy a house and not just one of those new track homes which are one on top of the next; that would do you no good. Ours is an old home and although it belongs to a track home community the distances to the houses around are more conservatives. Lots of decibeles can be produced at home without disturbing neighbors; we have watched movies late with volume way up without an issue as well. Practicing should always be as natural as you can. Can you imagine Thomas Lang practicing at home like that? he would go crazy!! LOL...good video and advises! Cheers from Las Vegas!
I built the riser you designed with some power tools and I have to say it was the best investment to my drumming in an apartment.
I'm gonna have to try it
What's that interlocking rubbery black floor tiles you're puzzling together there? Can you give a link for those?
This should be motivation to get a house where you don't share walls or anything else with anybody. I got a place where I can play at full volume and no neighbor would be able to hear it. And no I'm not rich I just worked towards my goals.
That’s the ideal solution. And a great motivation to become a property owner.
To reduce nasty tones in the practice room (doesn't necessarily reduce noise for neighbors) i took a pile of bed sheets and glued egg cartons all over em. Then i could simply pin them to the walls and into corners of the room as theyre very light in weight. Looks cool too.
I live on a cornerhouse, drumroom not direct next to the neighbors. I play electricdrums at home. Carpets underneath, the freefloating Thomann drumstage on top, carpets on top of that. Sound insulation plates on the wall. Playing in the afternoons. And STILL the neighbors are complaining. 🤬
Wow! That's unlucky!!
@@KittyKandy I just go on playing! If I played tuba it would be louder than this.
I just move in to an apartment with my daughter I got a electronic drum set and people are already complaining on my drums, now I gotta try to do something to be able to play !
The hero I needed no WE needed
Do you have any videos on sound proofing a room in an apartment?
@Stephen Clark I usually practice in my flat on my e-kit and actually being able to play as quietly as you can is a great advantage.
My first teacher told that playing fast and quiet is hard.
I can agree with him, when you want to practice with speed and have to be quiet at the same time is really hard, but it will be beneficial to your dynamics later.
Anyways, if you don't have noise muffling, you can still practice your doubles on a pillow for greater impact on your drumming and doubles. ;)
Sticking foam pads to your wall does absolutely nothing. I did not understand why not until I researched it.
Years back I used get so annoyed with my neighbor who played drums like a maniac and yes I did called cops couple of time and finally my neighbor moved out. But now I'm the maniac 🤣🤣🤣
#Team8020Drummer reporting ^^
How durable is that Aquarian kick head?
Great tips. I have a 14 year old who wants to learn drums but we are trying to rent a house. Cannot really build a room within a room so maybe these pads and things will make it so our neighbors don't hate us. Thank you.
You should make video of u playing the piano
do you need the tennis ball platform if you're in a townhouse and only neighbors left and right not below you?
I use Zildjian L80 and Remo Silent Stroke heads and despite what they say on Sweetwater - next door CAN still hear me.
Active listening. Listen to each instrument and part in a song individually, and focus on how they interact with one another and what role they play in the song. Why did the drummer choose that beat (or no beat) for that part etc. This will train your sense of time and musicality
This is what a drummer (and every musician) should know. Playing with intelligence and for the music. Not overplay or some like that. You can be a very good timming, chops and fills repertory, but if you don't play with and FOR the song, you're not a good drummer. That's what make the difference between the pros and the rookies. Just my opinion
Anyone playing an acoustic set in a storage unit? Looking to see if its viable before I give it a shot and for tips to get the best sound. If not it looks like I'm sticking with e-drums
Played in storage unit for 10 years, left the kit out there the whole time. While sometimes bringing it to church or my parents to clean it...what I found is it warps the wood on it over time and constantly gets cold where I live so the drums are always going loose and out of tune. My conclusion, if your gonna be committed to this follow something like this and make it quiet so you can play inside. Field experience is king
I practiced in a storage shead for about 2 years. We rented it at a storage facility. Finally the owner was getting complaints from the residents around him he kicked us out! We basically just put carpet on the walls. We didn't want the aluminum to mess with the sound!!!
I have the same low volume hi hat and I have no idea how to put it on
The 7th tip is really a pain for metal drummers XD
In my experience, living in a tiny apartment its really sucks, all intsruments can make a decent practice in a small room, but drums its hard. I had to pick an eletronic kit, but still i had to built a "floor" like this one, but a way cheaper version. I used foam drom those toys used in swimmimng pool, those "spaguetti" that floats on water, i bouth a bunch and then i cuted tons of circles. i used them intead of those tennis balls, i dont have a drill, and also i needed to have something cheap and easy to set and deset. Changing the beater on the pedal made a big difference also, but... i hate to play with light felt beaters hahaha. Im still trying to get use to this, but unfortunatly i have a very difererence feeling from playing on a bass drum e-kit and a acoutic bass drum. My eletronic kit is a very shitty one, i bought a used one, well... drums its expensive, so i bought a kit just to get warmed on tho movemnet around the kit, but one day i will buy a better one to have a good feeling on the bass drum and more pieces on the kit to work with.
What about an electronic drum set
seems like alot of work just to quiet an acoustic kit IMO, I rather take my $ and put it towards a decent Ekit, back in the day, the Ekits had a bad rep for feeling/sounding like crap, nowadays with the age of technology IE 3 ply real feel mesh heads, multi trigger zones, editing software, percussion and drum software, you have practically endless options, and you won't have an eviction notice stapled to your apt. door! but hey that's just me...
"I DO NOT ENVY YOU" hahahahah holy shit!
I can’t even play an acoustic set in my house in the basement….. still too loud for the neighbors somehow
You can practice too
All I can say is thank God I have a house😂
Good luck. I know it sucks when you're trying to play while worrying about your neighbors.
yo you can get the rubber rings to put on your rims so you can do rimshots.
Laughs in electric set kit and very very thick rug
Can't you just use foam pads instead of tennis balls? Like a big 3" thick foam pad glued to the wood? Tennis balls seems unnecesarily complicated...
Amazing. I live in an apartment and I play an electric kit. I wish it were an acoustic. My neighbors can hear my kick pedal and hi hat whacking the floor. I took my girlfriends yoga mat and cut off a bit of it and folded it to place under my pedals. She was pissed. But it did work a fair bit but it feels kinda bad having a thin foamy strip under these pedals that effect my feel and a small amount of accuracy. If I asked my lady to cut that mat, she would have denied me. Maybe I’ll buy her a new one.
Yeah, definitely buy her a new one
@@ernst-filipmichel9744
I would have bought a new one if I’ve ever seen her use the damn thing. Lol. I gave it its first bit of use. But she’s great. Clearly I’m kinda not. Lol
@@ignasty3591 man how much is a fricken yoga mat, buy her a goddamn new one. It ain't about her not using it, you destroyed something of hers.
@@razmataz13drums hope she sees this bro
I had an electric kit until 2 months ago when I needed the money, but my downstairs neighbor is a male karen, and a major see you next tuesday, wish I knew about the tennis ball riser thing tho, when I get another e kit ill definitely make one. The previous neighbor was a gamer and didnt care and I didnt care about his games at all hours of the night, but this new guy sucks. I told him my acoustic kit is setup in my bands practice spot ill go bring them home and he really wont like the noise then lol. Funny thing is he hasnt said shit about my guitar playing except when my 5150 showed up, I was breaking it in at the same volume as my other amps but he filed a complaint. Soft ass bitch lol.
1... if you need to practice rudiments - Use a pad....
If you're not bothering your neighbors while drumming... what's the point.
Wrong title, they save/protect my neighbors from me, not the other way around XD
Yeah... ok.
**Translation**
BUY!
A!!
HOUSE!!!
i disagree hard with #7 you NEED to practise all dynamic ranges, to get good at all ranges. The tennisball riser is sick though. I dont like the mesh heads, the just dont feel realistic. Also asking your neighboors when your practise fits their schedule goes a long way.
e kit
droms
you shouldnt be allowed to complain about a musician making noise, it is literally their carrer they dont go to your work and tell you to stop, if they dont like it they can move
In all fairness... while playing at home, you’re not at work
@@brandoncrimmins6296 well I was always expected to know the tunes before I got to the gig so all of the real work happens in the shed at home
get out of here people have a right to have peace and quiet in their homes . Who cares if they are a musician its all NOISE....are you for real
you can move also
@@kevinpatrickcarey3741 you can make noise in your own home as late as 10pm and up to 160db in most states, but you know what maybe what i said isnt fair but im just saying the working musician should be kept in mind with this stuff, from my experience musicians have the worst pay to effort ratio, but the gig is the easy part, the work happens at home in the practice room, and its an enormous amount of work which i think people dont realize
Pfffffffffffff. No. No point if you can't drum all day.
If you're serious, get an internal studio room built. You can buy pre-fab kits for $10k-$20k (I know - the pre-fab ones are EXPENSIVE) or you CAN ACTUALLY BUILD ONE YOURSELF. If you're SERIOUS, if you're professional, if you NEED it - do it. You can always hire someone to build it for you for a bit extra but the materials themselves actually are quite cheap while the construction doesn't require a lot of skill. You do need space. I wasn't able to do it in my apartment on the second floor because the wood pieces were too big (even just 8` lengths were too long) but if you're in a ground-floor unit, you can do it.
You frame it, the floor and the walls and you insulate them properly (learn what it means to "de-couple" something). You fully insulate the ceiling as you did the floor. You build the door. You put in a baffled ventilation system and ensure every gap is sufficiently sealed. A month - tops, if you're working on it consistently - and you'll end up with a professional-quality studio room you can put your damn drums in to practise on without all these shitty-sounding and dinky products. You can even go crazy and put in a multi-input passive microphone splitter in case you want to set up a recording session at home. VENTILATION IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING.
BUILD AN INTERIOR STUDIO ROOM. The cool thing about it is you can actually de-construct it and re-construct it if you need to move. It's a bit of a hassle - about as much work as it took to make it - but come on, YOU CAN DRUM ALL DAY.
Material costs is less than $2k. With labour, maybe throw on an extra $1k (not sure what rates are like where you are). Maybe a friend is willing to do it for FREE or at a low cost (I try to offer at LEAST $20/hr when I hire my friends).
If you are confronted with the problem of needing to practise but everyone hates you for it... there is only one way: build an interior studio. (I've avoided saying this because it doesn't make sense to newbs, but: a "room within a room" is what you're going for).
Don't be that guy. Get a proper rehearsal space. I've have used every single one of these tricks and countless others and have always come close to eviction multiple time because someone can always hear you and will complain.
Just don't be that guy.
I've always been honest to my neighbours and told them when and for how long and ask them if there are any hours I can't play. Usually there are some golden hours during the day where you bother no one
@@diegovillarreal9991 i play electric drums but there was a time when i played with an amp. The neighbors could hear me from the third and eight floor and i live on the sixth. From 10 to 14 and from 16 to 22 h i can play however much i want and they dont care. I bought headphones tho.
Really depends on how soundproof your building is
do you have make up?
Drummers don't go to college hahaha
so, basicly, gets lotsa money to buy expensive gear to play at home
tip 8: move to house
Total and absolute bullshit if your agreement isn't built at least in the 80/90s
These tips sounds so disappointing. They are literally killing the fun part.😢
All the money and effort going into making low noise drums could have just went towards a house
Without intending to cause offence, it has to be said that that is just a silly statement/thowaway one liner.
1. Presumably an adult you'd realise that the spend on noise reduction short of complete professional rebuild sound proofing and isolation of the space is a pittance compared to cost involved in the of buying a free standing home, maintaining it, and servicing a mortgage, rates, services etc. 2. Even when you can afford to, on a typical urban freestanding house residential block, most will have neighbours with adjoining walls a few yards/metres away. The bigger problem is that irritation aspect of noise is relative to the type, audio frequency, penetration, volume, duration, time of operation, place it's ocurring, and perception of the listener. Bass noise in particular travels great distance and penetrates solid objects like brick walls with ease. Unless you like the idea of being "that jerk' all the neighbours shun, or enjoy revenge retaliation, pissing off the neiighbours is neither a solution nor smart idea, because once you own, selling up and moving even in the right market is nowhere near as easily or cheaply schieved as quitting a lease when it expires and moving.
Noise is a problem. That's just a fact. Completely uninterested in electronic kits, I'd like to buy a set of acoustic drums. Having researched and decided which, I'm hovering over the buy button currently contemplating yes if solution/no if not because my ordinarily 100% supportive wife is not on board on this one (against the idea) because of just that anti-social aspect of the instrument. Like it or not, that's a reality which has to be acknowledged. Denial isn't a workable or reasonable compromise solution. I'm still thinking on it searching for workable ones which are.
I play acoustic and electric guitar and electronic keyboard, but there are easier to action, affordable, pragmatic workarounds to all of those just as there is with my HT AV sound system to minimise incessant aggravation interfering with my neighbours right to reasonable peace and quiet enjoyment of their HOME. Like like it not, noise needs to be acknowledged and addressed, preferably before it escalates to a source of outright conflict and overtly demonstrated hostility. In that regard, acoustic drums as provocateur are in different class of anti-social noise altogether, which is why I'm here seeking solutions to that problem.