PLANNING
How loud should background music be at a party?
The level people can talk over, what it sounds like in plain terms and in decibels, how the size of the act and the space change it, and whether a singer works over dinner.
- Background music at a party sits under the talk, so everyone talks in their normal voice. For a planner, that's 65 to 72 dBA at the table nearest the musicians.
- A live act follows the crowd's own volume through the evening, one song at a time.
- Instrumental music is the easier kind to talk over, and a singer with a guitar plays at the same conversation level.
Think of the best dinner party you’ve been to. You and the person across the table talked all evening without leaning in, and every so often one of you stopped mid-sentence because a song you both knew had come on. That’s the level background music should sit at, and it’s where our musicians keep cocktails and dinner.
How many decibels should background music be? #
About as loud as the conversation around it. Two people standing next to each other talk in their normal voices, and a guest at the far end of the party can still pick out the tune. If the venue or the run of show needs a figure, write down 65 to 72 dBA, measured at the table closest to the musicians.
An evening with a program or a dance floor in it has more than one level, and a planner can put all of them in writing:
| What guests hear | Measured | |
|---|---|---|
| Cocktails and dinner | Music under the talk; the nearest table talks in normal voices | 65 to 72 dBA at the nearest table |
| Speeches, awards, anyone else on a microphone | The music stops | Silent |
| Dancing | Loud enough to dance to, too loud to hold a conversation on the floor | 88 to 95 dBA on the floor |
| The last hour of dancing | The loudest point of the night | Peaks of 100 dBA |
Can guests talk over live music? #
Yes. Musicians hear the party they’re playing for. A crowd gets louder as more people arrive and softer when half of them step out onto a terrace, and a duo follows that change with the next song, so the music stays under the talk from the first guest to the last.
The other half of it is matching the size of the act to the headcount. A duo of guitar and upright bass is the size for a dinner of twenty to sixty. Past sixty guests, a trio adds a drummer playing with brushes, which gives a bigger crowd a steady pulse at the same dinner level.
Instrumental or vocals when people are talking? #
Instrumental is the easier one to talk over, because the only words in the air are the guests’ own. Instrumental acts on the roster include the jazz duo, the Spanish guitarist and classical strings, each of them at home under an evening that’s mostly conversation.
A singer works too. A singer and guitarist sets the voice at conversation level, so the words are there for anyone who wants to follow them and the next table talks at its own volume.
How the space changes the level #
In a small space, a guitarist, a duo or a string quartet plays with nothing plugged in at all, and a pianist plays the stage piano barely amplified. A ballroom is the opposite case. The musicians bring sound support so the back tables hear the tune, and the tables nearest the musicians get no louder for it.
Outdoors, a guitar is close and warm for about thirty feet and fades after that, because there are no walls to send the sound back toward the guests. An outdoor party gets a small sound system for that reason, turned up only as far as it takes to reach the edge of the lawn at conversation level.
What if the venue has a volume limit? #
Give us the venue’s limit when you book. With the figure in hand before the night, the musicians choose the instrumentation and the arrangements that fit under it, and the evening still sounds the way it was planned.
In a residential zone, Colorado caps noise at 50 dB(A) after 7pm, measured 25 feet or more beyond the property line.
Music for a company holiday party people can talk over #
A company holiday party puts people from different departments at the same tables, so most of the evening is conversation. The Christmas jazz trio plays that kind of party: the Vince Guaraldi record and the season’s standards on guitar, upright bass and brushed drums, at conversation level. A company that wants a dance floor as well books a band, and a band plays dinner at the same level the trio does.
Our artists have played for Amazon, NBCUniversal, Charles Schwab, Kroger, the Denver Art Museum, Sheraton, Hyatt, the Washington Nationals, Casa Bonita and Monarch Casino.
