One thing I have found useful in trying to be an apartment dwelling drummer is communicating with my neighbors. Most people, even myself, might have a tendency to keep to themselves when living in apartments. How often do you even run into your apartment neighbors?
However, I have found that a little communication can help. Why not tell your neighbors that you are a drummer and that you don’t want to bother them, but you will be practicing your craft? If they are serious a-holes you might want to avoid the conversation completely. But if they are reasonable people this can work to your advantage.
Your neighbors might appreciate that you are trying to find ways to work around people’s desired quiet times. For example, let’s say you chat up your downstairs neighbors. Mention you record music upstairs in your apartment. And then segue into asking them when are the better times for you to be at it, in terms of making noise. For example, I’ve found that my neighbors aren’t home at all during certain parts of the day due to work schedules, and those happen to be good times for me to let loose in the apartment studio.
Of course, if you have your sound control in order this might not even matter, but if you are trying to do noisy stuff when you have neighbors it can help a lot to simply communicate and find out when the best times to make noise actually are.
