Practicing cello in an Airbnb?

1

There’s one week I’ll be in an Airbnb when my younger son will be there. I’d hate for him to go a whole week without practicing cello, if he doesn’t need to. He’s been playing for a few years, so the sound is pleasant, not squeaky.

Would you:
Ask the host if it’s OK in advance, and risk her saying no?
Just do it and hope for the best?

It would be about 45 minutes a day, and obviously during reasonable hours. Not early AM and not late at night.

FWIW, the Airbnb is at the Lower East Side/Chinatown border in New York, and the listing mentions it’s a noisy neighborhood (they provide ear plugs.)

It’s an entire apartment rental, BTW.

2

I would ask phrasing just as you did here. There’s always room for cello!

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3

Ask. “Just doing it” would be presumptuous and rude.

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4

It’s NYC, go to a park (there’s one in Chinatown) sit on a bench and play. If he’s good he might get a tip! Put down a jar next to him! And I’m not kidding.

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5

Does not have to be in the park, maybe right out in front of the apartment, or any busy area with tourists. Just throw a couple of $'s and some coins as “seed money” into a jar or a box or better yet into the cello case, if it’s a hard case. I have seen this all over Manhattan.

6

I would ask it this way:

“what time would be good for my son to practice his cello?”

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7

I would never say no to a request from a musician wanting to practice. I don’t even think that I’d have to specify “not at night”. My husband is an opera singer so I’m pretty used to having musicians around. I have a piano in three of my listings and am happy to accommodate visiting musicians. We once hosted a heavy metal band and let the rehearse in our basement although I regretted it when the vibrations knocked all of our pictures off our wall.

I’m sure that I’m more amenable to this then a lot of hosts, but I really can’t see any problem with 45 minutes of cello practice in the middle of the day.

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8

I would still be upfront with the host, in case there are difficult neighbors in the building. Funny enough, I host a private room in Brooklyn and a young man who was coming to the city to audition for Juilliard asked me if I’d be ok with him practicing about 2 hours a day (also the cello!) I said ok and it was really no problem. Actually really lovely to hear what I was able to catch!

9

I wouldn’t even expect a guest to ask, as long as they practiced during the day. I have parrots so live music would be an upgrade in the quality of loud noise!