Where do you practice music? At home or in a studio? Are those the only choices?
These are some questions that the more creative amongst us need to ponder.
In cities like Tokyo and Osaka, apartments blocks and houses are located very close to each other. This, coupled with thin walls doesn’t make for a conducive place to practice music.
Thin walls
When I first moved to Japan, I lived in a tiny little one-room apartment. I was constantly surprised and tickled by the fact that I always knew exactly what my next door neighbour was watching on tv. Comedy, Suspense, Variety show? I could hear all that!
With walls this thin, how does one actually practice music then?
Hold on, first things first. Let’s talk about size.
How big is the instrument? Is it heavy?
If it’s one of the portable variety, there are a number of easy options.
Karaoke Booths
These are actually really popular. Many karaoke chains allow patrons to use the rooms for instrument practice, but I’d definitely call and ask them beforehand just to make sure.
If you play the flute or erhu, it should be quite easy to just carry it with you.
Parks
If you go to a big park on the weekend, chances are, you’ll probably see different people practicing their music there. I’ve personally seen people play the flute, guitar, shakuhachi and even drums. Yeah, like an actual drum set.
Thing is, the park must not be in a residential area.
There are small little pockets of green in many neighbourhoods, but Japanese tend to be very sensitive to noise, umm…sound, so even though it’s in a public place, if people can hear you from their houses, they might call the cops on you.
How about if you can’t actually carry your instrument out the door?
Say you have a piano, drum set or maybe you just simply don’t want to deal with the hassle of leaving the house just to practice your instrument.
Rental music studios
Ok for this one, you will have to leave your house.
There are many rental music studios around and they are pretty easy to find. They can even be found in residential neighbourhoods.
Many of them have quite reasonable rates, and they can also have a variety of instruments available.
Some Rental Music Studio websites
At first I thought of putting a list together, but it’s probably best to do a search yourself as you can check what equipment they have available and make the necessary arrangements. Oh, and if you are searching in Japanese, try “音楽スタジオ+The Area name”
At home
Renting an apartment
There are actually some music instrument friendly apartments available. They have soundproof rooms so you can practice music and have screaming kids and not have to worry about annoying the neighbours.
You can try searching using keywords like Music instrument friendly apartments (マンション 可楽器) and Soundproof apartments (防音マンション).
A heads up though…you’re going to need to have slightly deeper pockets than the average joe.
A DIY solution
There are soundproof booths that can be purchased or rented.
Soundproof booth websites
Happy practicing!
Star
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