The school year has started again and for many with elementary and high school students, that means band practice has started up as well. While we often focus on the noise that drummers are able to make – good or bad – we often forget that children of all ages need a great place to practice their musical talents. If you’d like to save your eardrums and nerves as your child navigates the learning curves associated with his instrument of choice, you may want to consider creating a soundproof play or practice room in your home.
Choosing the Right Room
If you’re having a new home built, you can easily ask for soundproofing to be completed as part of the construction process. This isn’t the case for most families, though, so you’ll need to choose a room that is relatively easy to soundproof. If your home has a basement, you may want to consider using part of that space as the concrete floors will save you some work. If you don’t have a basement, choose a room that will give you the most benefit – a spare room furthest from the ones the family sleep in, for example. If you have a play/TV room for the kids, you’ll be saving yourself headaches not just from musical instruments but from games and petty kid-arguments as well. If worse comes to worse, just soundproof the bedroom of the child with the musical talents (or lack thereof)!
Talk about Soundproofing
While a lot of people recommend filling the walls with insulation, this can be a bit costly. You’ll need to use materials that are able to absorb sound. Take a careful look at the room you’re soundproofing. Are you on the first or second floor of your home? If you’re on the first floor, you’ll definitely have to soundproof the ceiling to protect those above, but whether or not you soundproof the floor will depend on whether or not you have a basement below and, if so, if that basement is ever used. Take a look at the walls. The ones that are shared with other rooms should be soundproofed, but the ones that go out to the yard can be ignored. This should save you some material cost.
Choosing Materials
Keep it simple, but make sure you aren’t wasting money on materials that won’t work. Tacking foam egg crates to the walls, for example, is a terrible idea. Visiting a professional soundproofing company, like Trademark Soundproofing, for some green glue may prove to be more effective. You can visit your home supply store for some drywall, put the new drywall over what you already have, and repaint the entire room.
Don’t panic over your child’s interest in music. Embrace his interest in culture and make sure he has a safe, quiet place to practice – a place where you can be sure everyone is happy!
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons