<p>I recently graduated with my B.M. and am taking a year off to prepare for graduate school auditions in the Boston area, so I moved up here and got settled in. I'm wondering if anyone can tell me about the availability of practice rooms for non-students (or prospective students, in my case) at any of the area's schools (NEC, BU, Boston Conservatory, Longy, MIT, Harvard, Emerson, etc)? I am able to travel as far as the MBTA transit lines will take me, so basically anywhere in Boston or Cambridge. I'm willing to pay to "rent" a practice space for a year, or if there are any schools that just have open practice rooms that don't require ID, I'm up for that too, of course. Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>My daughter is a student in Boston and she practices voice and piano (w/ her keyboard in her studio apartment room to her heart’s content. The practice rooms on campus seem to be limited to students, and that’s also where she goes when she wants a real piano, or wants to meet someone to practice on campus. Perhaps you need to take a class, even part time, at one of those institutions in order to be able to use their practice facilities? I do not know, however, you can call the school and just ask.</p>
<p>Join a church? DD was able to arrange practice time there when she was at home.</p>
<p>I suspect the colleges that have practice rooms won’t easily rent them out, one thing students complain about a lot is the lack of practice rooms, struggle to have time, etc.
Here are some alternatives people have come up with…I don’t know what instrument or if you are a voice student, it obviously is different if you play organ or piano then if you are a player of an instrument that moves around…</p>
<p>-Churches are often friendly, and if you are willing to pay a fee to use it they might even be more happy to allow you to use space in the church. Besides the main church, most churches have parish houses where they hold events, choir rooms, etc, that are probably unused (practicing in the knave can be awesome, but it probably isn’t a great place to regularly practice).</p>
<p>-Sometimes libraries and such have meeting rooms that they may be willing to rent out. </p>
<p>-A school that rents space to outsiders (like a public school I meant) may allow you to use a room or if they have it, a practice room, perhaps in exchange for performing at the school occassionally (I know of some people who did this, worked out great, plus gave them a chance to do some outreach, too)</p>
<p>-Community centers, which I suspect more then a few exist in the Boston area, might be willing to let you use a space for practicing, again potentially in return for doing some performances at the center for local people (local community center has programs like)</p>
<p>-Likewise, groups like the YMCA/YWHA, Boys and Girls club, etc might be interested in working something out</p>
<p>Funny story, church I used to belong to got its children’s choir director/head of sunday school program when she wandered into the church, asking if she could come to the church to practice on the piano:)</p>
<p>Thanks, everyone! These are great ideas. There are actually 3 churches on my block so I will check them out.</p>
<p>Dance studios rent space out for $10 or $15/hour and you can do some work to make it free too. PM me if you want specifics for Boston area spaces.</p>
<p>There are number of options around Boston area, just in case you’re still looking for a practice space, try parallel studios [url=<a href=“http://parallelsoundgroup.com%5Dparallelsoundgroup.com%5B/url”>http://parallelsoundgroup.com]parallelsoundgroup.com[/url</a>]. You can rent the rooms by the hour at their facility. I went there to practice until we found a more permanent place, they are very resonable. There are also monthly spaces like Sound Museum, but they are way too expensive.</p>