Legal Practicing Hours

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Legal Practicing Hours

(London)

Question: What is the law about practicing hours?

Albert's reply: Noise laws vary by city. In London, there's a 1996 Noise Act that specifies 11 PM to 7 AM as quiet hours. Violations are penalized with a £ 100 fine.

In Vienna, I need to stop practicing by 10 PM to comply with noise laws, and 9 PM to comply with the house rules. (In college I was used to practicing until well after midnight!)

Some cities, such as Rome, mandate an afternoon noise break!

(Note that these answers are to the best of my knowledge.)

Digital pianos have become good enough to be of use to classical pianists during off-hours -- they can solve your practice problems during quiet time!

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Legal Practicing Hours

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Jan 22, 2010
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No laws
by: Anonymous

To all those serious pianists,

If you lived in Colombia like I do, you could practice all night and no one would mind or complain.

The people here love their music and dancing, parties start at about 9 PM and carry on through the night and only finish at about 9 AM the following morning. Their amplifiers are turned to full volume, they don't care if their neighbors are disturbed or not. I can hear music from the valley below which is, "as the crow flies," 6 - 10 km away. There are no laws here.

Brian