The New York City area is full of art and culture, and a fantastic location for taking music lessons. However, apartments are small, and finding practice space can be tricky.
When learning the piano, practice is essential. However, sometimes, students don’t have a piano or access to one within their home, making practicing challenging. In most cases, students will invest in a keyboard as a substitute, but it can be more beneficial to practice in a piano studio where you can properly invest your time.
What are the Benefits of a Piano Practice Room?
Beginner piano students may not see the advantages of practicing in a room at first.
However, there are multiple reasons that having a space for practice is beneficial to your learning, including:
- uninterrupted practice time, so that you can really focus and identify your problem areas;
- peace and quiet in an otherwise busy home with kids or a lot of people around;
- practicing on a real piano (rather than a substitute) – you might even be able to rehearse with a grand piano in some cases, if they are available in the rooms!
- meeting other music students that you can solicit help from or help assist.
If cost is a concern for you, you might also look into sharing rooms with other students to cut down, or even practice in a small room if it is less costly, as long as you are still provided a practice space. All of these are great reasons to look for a music studio near you.
If you live in the New York City area, we have compiled a list of some of the best piano studios that you can utilize to practice your music. However you may learn best or whatever your ideal practice room may be, there are plenty of options for you to choose from.
Piano Practice Rooms in the New York area
Some questions you might want to ask yourself and the staff of these studio spaces before you choose where to learn and practice are:
- How often do I plan to practice? (daily, weekly monthly)
- Are there discounts if you book more often?
- Are the rooms soundproofed?
You can also ask fellow musicians where they like to practice to provide you with sincere recommendations of where they have found the best practice rooms within the city.
Here are places within the New York area that you may want to explore:
Michiko Rehearsal Studios
Located on West 46th Street in NYC, there are bigger rooms for teachers to conduct lessons in person, and they also have adequate soundproof practice rooms.
The best part is if you’re looking to save on costs, they have studio rooms that start at only $18.00 per hour. That’s not much to pay for an excellent practice space, and with that price, you could even practice more days per week. The studio also offers a tiny room, called Studio L, that is only $16.00 per hour to book.
Michiko music studios also offer a card that you can collect and load with their front desk if you plan to book frequently (more than ten hours per week). The card provides you with discounts and promotions for the use of individual practice rooms. With those prices, though, you should be sure to book your individual practice room well in advance to secure your place.
Their hours are weekdays from 10am-10pm, and weekends 10am-8pm. At this time, they require proof of vaccination from COVID-19 of anyone 12 years of age and older and are also required to ask for the identification of anyone who is 18 years of age or older. Masks are also required during your practice time.
Opera America
The National Opera Center offers these adequate studio rooms for meetings, rehearsals, classes and workshops, conferences, and performances, located on Seventh Avenue in NYC, with nine private piano studios for rent for you to practice.
The rooms offer grand or upright pianos that are regularly tuned, stands for music, chairs, and wall mirrors. The starting rate is $17.00 per hour of practice time, but if you become a member, you can save some money, and it is only $14.00 hourly.
One extraordinary service is their own events team that will help you customize your visit with flexible audio and video recording setups. So, if you were interested in recording some of your music to playback for learning or as an aspiring musician and composing your own works, you can utilize this perk.
They also have options for live stream and editing in their Marc A. Scorca Hall, featuring a grand piano, raised stage, and theatrical lighting.
Opera America is open every day from 10:00am to 10:00pm. They also require proof of COVID-19 vaccination at this time from anyone 12 years old and up.
Rivington Music Rehearsal Studios – Open from 12:00pm (noon) to 12:00am (midnight), these studios on Stanton Street in the Lower East Side of New York offer spaces starting at $15.00 per hour.
Though they don’t specifically have pianos for practice, they have keyboards in many of their studios. The studio pianos are Yamaha brand with weighted keys, meaning they act like a real piano.
However, one downside to rehearsing in these studios is that they are not soundproofed, so if other people are rehearsing during the same time as you, you will very likely hear them, and it could interrupt your focus.
Euphoria Studios
Unfortunately, this studio only boasts one practice room with an upright piano. You can add a grand piano to their first studio for rehearsal, but it will cost you extra. It is $90.00 per hour for Studio Three, which has the piano within it.
It doesn’t hurt to check if they provide a piano in any of the other music studios. You may choose to practice here due to location since it is located right in Midtown Manhattan on West 27th Street.
These studio rooms are mainly utilized for recording, so this may be something to look into down the road if you join a band or work with other musicians.
You also have the option if you choose to record to work with their in-house sound engineers for optimal master recordings. Euphoria Studios are open seven days a week from 10:00am to 12:00am (midnight), so they have more flexibility with booking times.
PianoPiano
PianoPiano Studios not only offers rehearsal rooms, but they are also an excellent option for renting a piano, which they can bring right to you.
So if you have a perfect practice space to put a piano at home for your learning, this is most definitely the way to go. PIanoPiano delivers and picks up the piano of your choice, and they also provide the tuning and maintenance for the piano as needed. You can pay monthly to rent, starting at around $63.00 per month.
The studio rentals start at $20.00 per hour and offer steinway grand pianos and wonderful acoustics for practicing. Their hours are from Monday to Thursday 10:00am to 8:00pm, Friday from 10:00am to 6:00pm, and weekends from 12:00pm to 6:00pm. Their office is located on West 54th Street.
Booking Your Piano Practice Room
Many of these locations allow you the ease of booking online, but you can also call over the phone or email any of these studios to lock in your rehearsal space. Don’t hesitate to converse with the staff if you have any questions or know about anything specific.
Since Music To Your Home teaches piano in the city and our students learn at home or online, if they need a place to hone their craft outside of the home, we encourage them to explore practice facilities until they find what fits their needs.
While there is plenty of information available online, it does not hurt to go and check out a rental space before making your final decision on where you’d like to play.
