Guide
How to practice electric guitar quietly at night
Three sounds reach your neighbors when you play electric guitar at night in an apartment or shared house: the amp's speaker, the strings themselves, and thumps through the floor. Headphones remove only the first. This guide covers the other two, three ways to hear your amp sound on headphones, and what to practice when you can't be loud.
The three sounds your neighbors can hear
If your neighbors can still hear you while you wear headphones, the speaker isn't the cause. It's the second or third sound below, or sound leaking out of the headphones.
The amp's speaker
This is the part headphones take away. With no speaker involved, the amp sound exists only in your ears.
Strings and pick
An unplugged electric guitar still makes a thin metallic sound, and the pick clicks against the strings. On a solid-body guitar that is barely audible by day, but in a still room at night it can carry through a thin wall. Hollow and semi-hollow bodies ring and are louder, and strumming hard makes any guitar louder.
Thumps and vibration
Tapping your foot to the beat, dragging a chair, or letting the guitar body knock against a desk sends vibration through the floor and the wall. An impact like that tends to travel through a building better than the sound of a note, so the people below hear a thud, not a chord.
Three ways to hear your amp sound on headphones
What matters is that the sound never goes through a speaker. Pick the route that fits what you already own and what you want to practice.
An amp or multi-effects pedal with a headphone jack
On many of them the speaker switches off when you plug in headphones, so check yours in the daytime before you rely on it at night. It's the easiest route if you already own one. Some sound odd on headphones, and a tone set on headphones can change when you hear it through a speaker.
A small plug-in headphone amp
A palm-sized unit that plugs into the guitar's jack and has a headphone output. Many run on batteries, so it works anywhere in the house. The choice of sounds is usually simple.
An audio interface and amp software on a computer
The widest range of sounds, and it leads straight into recording. Follow the connection guide to set it up, and plug your headphones into the interface, not the computer.
What you need
Wired closed-back headphones
Closed-back headphones leak much less sound into the room. Open-back ones let it out, which defeats the purpose at night. For a computer setup, choose wired, because wireless adds a delay.
A way to send the amp sound to headphones
One of the three routes above. All that matters is that no speaker is involved.
A soft or thin pick, or your fingertips
A soft, thin pick or your fingertips click against the strings less than a stiff pick does.
A rug or mat for your chair and feet
Soft flooring under the chair and your feet cuts the thumps and the chair scrape.
A metronome (optional)
Hear the beat in your headphones instead of tapping your foot. The metronome on this site runs in a browser with no signup.
A quiet practice session, step by step
- 1
Find out what your wall lets through
Once, in the daytime, play unplugged the way you normally would while someone listens from the next room or the stairwell. Then you know how quiet "quiet" is, instead of guessing late at night. If they can hear the strings, play lighter as in step 4 and save the hard strumming for daytime.
- 2
Choose your spot and shut the window
Sit away from any wall you share with a neighbor, and keep the window closed. On a still night an open window lets sound out easily. A rug in a corner of the room beats the middle of a bare floor.
- 3
Quiet the floor and drop the foot tap
Put the rug or mat under your chair and feet, and count the beat with a metronome in your headphones instead of your foot. Don't rest the guitar's body against a thin desk edge or a wardrobe door, because thin panels buzz along with it.
- 4
Play lighter
On headphones you don't need to dig in. Set the loudness with the amp volume and keep your hands light. Use a soft pick or your fingertips, and rest your palm or a finger lightly on the strings you aren't playing so they don't ring.
- 5
Start the headphone volume low and raise it slowly
High-gain sounds often come out louder than clean ones at the same volume setting, so recheck the volume whenever you change the tone. Don't turn it up to cover string noise. If your ears feel stuffy or ring after practice, go lower next time.
What to practice when you can't be loud
Leave the hard strumming for the daytime. At night, pick practice that works at low volume.
Fretting-hand drills: hammer-ons, pull-offs, slides
They make sound without the pick hitting the string, so they're quiet, and they build finger strength and accuracy.
Slow chord changes
One chord per bar, one light strum each. For beginners the hard part is the change, not the chord shape.
Scales and riffs to a slow click
Set the metronome slow, pick softly, and listen for even timing. The metronome guide has starting tempos.
Learning songs by ear and memorizing the neck
No volume needed. Work out notes from a song, and memorize chord shapes and where the notes sit. The chord library and scale tools on this site are free to use, with no signup.
Quiet practice with EG Tone
If you practice through a computer, EG Tone is one option: an electric guitar amp and effects plugin made for beginners.
- Open the standalone app and plug headphones into your interface, and the amp sound stays in your ears.
- A metronome and a tuner are built into the same program, so you can keep the beat in your headphones instead of with your foot.
- Every knob has help text, and a guided tour walks you through the real screen, one part at a time.
- Easy mode shows one to three knobs per effect, and Pro mode shows every control. You can switch between them on screen.
- It runs as a VST3 plugin and a standalone app on macOS and Windows, and as an AU plugin on macOS.
EG Tone is a one-time purchase, not a subscription.
Explore EG ToneSetup and delay are covered in the connection and latency guides, and the metronome guide helps with practicing to a click. The tuner and metronome on this site are free to use, with no signup.
Frequently asked questions
- Can I play electric guitar at night in an apartment?
- With headphones the amp's speaker is out of the picture, so it gets much quieter, but it isn't silent. The strings and your foot taps are still there, and a thin wall or hard strumming can let them through. Check once in the daytime (step 1 above), and respect any quiet hours your building sets.
- How loud is an unplugged electric guitar?
- A solid-body is quiet; you mostly hear it only when you're close. Hollow and semi-hollow bodies ring and are louder. Hard strumming and a quiet night make any of them easier to hear. It depends on your building, so having someone listen from the next room is the surest test.
- Will my neighbors hear nothing if I wear headphones?
- They won't hear the amp sound. String and pick noise, a tapping foot, or a scraping chair can still reach them. Playing lighter and softening the floor, as in this guide, deals with the ones you control.
- Can I practice with wireless earbuds?
- Not when you play through a computer. Wireless adds a delay, so the sound trails your pick. Use wired headphones plugged into the interface. The latency guide explains why.
- Will a tone I set on headphones sound the same through a speaker?
- Not exactly. Headphones put the sound right at your ears with no room around it, so the same tone can sound different through a speaker. Treat your headphone tone as a starting point and adjust again when you get to play loud.