Dear Shelley,

The choir should be practicing in the church, especially since that is where they will be performing their ministry.  Hopefully though will keep the chatter to a minimum even if the church is empty since Christ is present in the tabernacle.  However though there will be noise and the director and members will be talking to each other, there will be questions and bad music and books dropping and confusion.  This is a good thing, since they are working on their ministry to get it perfect for Sunday.

They should be posting their practice times in the bulletin, so that the members know when to be there and that so that other people know that they are there.  I myself could even purposely schedule a holy hour during that time so that I can use the music for prayer, and tune out the "downtime" for my own personal prayer so that I wouldn't be alone in the church.  Just my preference, though, the important thing is that you are making the holy hour in the first place.

Hopefully any stranger that happens to show up to have a conversion experience during those two hours would understand what is happening.

I really can't see any reason why there would be piano lessons in church.  Surely there must be a better place, perhaps in the instructor's home, or in the school (if the parish has one) or in the parish hall if they have a piano there.  Private pipe organ lessons however must be held in the church since each pipe organ is played differently.

Mr. Slavek