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Why Should I Tune My Piano?

September 22nd, 2009

Tune Your Piano 2 to 4 Times Per Year

In one of my last posts, I talked about how to save up for a piano, and mentioned that you should always, always, always be prepared to pay a few hundred dollars to tune your piano at least a couple times a year.

Now, I’m going to talk about how often you should do this, and most importantly, WHY it should be done.

Generally, how often you should tune your piano depends primarily on its condition, the environment its placed in (including weather conditions) and the musical stress and demand it undertakes. If you have a piano that isn’t played often at all and mostly just sits there as a piece of furniture, you should still have it tuned, but you can limit this to once per year. A piano in great condition with regular usage by its owner or students would likely need to be tuned twice a year as the extreme changes in humidity take place over the course of each year. And finally, a piano that is given a serious workout on a regular basis by a professional or several different students would need four tuning sessions per year or more.

The following factors will affect your piano’s tuning over the course of its lifetime:

Changes in humidity
Changes in temperature
Stretching of the strings
Slipping of tuning pins
Regular and hard usage

As you get ready for the changes in season, turning your heat on in the winter or air conditioning in the summer means that you are relatively two weeks away from needing your piano tuned. The humidity change causes the wooden structure of your piano to swell or shrink, resulting in its sound going out of tune. You should wait until your house is used to the change in temperature and humidity so that you can get ready to tune your piano.

Here are some other great tips and answers to questions as related to piano care:

How Should I Take Care Of My Piano’s Wood Finish?

Keep drinks off your piano to avoid ring stains. Newer pianos can be wiped with a dry or damp cloth on occasion, while older pianos may need an occasional polish. Be careful not to polish it too frequently and be sure to use a good quality polishing product.

What Does “Piano Action” Mean And How Do I Maintain It?

Take a look inside your piano. You’ll see a harp-like structure that is strung with strings over a huge wooden structure, called the soundboard. You can also see levers, springs, and hammers in the piano, which are connected to the keyboard. When the hammer strikes a string (as you press down on a key), this is called the “piano action.” A lot of technical engineering goes into this complex system, as it needs to respond to every touch of the piano, from loudness, to softness. As the seasons change, the humidity changes cause the felt tips and the wood to change. That’s why you need regular tuning sessions to keep our piano’s action working well.

How EXACTLY Does Humidity Affect My Piano?

We’ve touched on the fact that large changes in temperature (winter and summer) cause the most stress on your piano. Dryness in the air will make the pitch of your piano to fall flat, while moisture in the air will make it go sharp. Additionally, the more repeated changes in humidity that your piano experiences could cause your piano’s soundboard or other wood structures to crack.

Very dry weather can cause the glue that joins the soundboard with other wood parts to weaken, and excess moisture may even lead to rusting. Ideally, a piano can avoid these dangers when it is placed in an environment with fairly consistent humidity conditions (not too wet or too dry), usually between a temperature of 68 degree Fahrenheit and 42% relative humidity.

What Is “Piano Voicing” And How Do I Maintain It?

Your piano’s voice is its tone. As the felt hammers wear down, the tone will change, so frequent services to your piano can help keep the piano voice up to par. This will ensure that your piano will have an even, full tone when you play and produces the widest possible dynamic range in sound.

How Often Should I Have My Piano Fully Serviced?

Maintaining your piano involves three components: pitch, tone, and touch. Most manufacturers and qualified technicians recommend a full service of two to four times per year. The first year of your piano’s life is also its most important year, which will probably require four services sessions. If you have a piano that has not been tuned in a very long time, it will likely need a lot of extra work in raising its pitch with repeated service sessions.

Where Can I Find A Qualified Piano Technician?

You can visit the Piano Technicians Guild, where they have a Registered Piano Technician (RPT) online member directory. Click here to go there now.

Elise’s Musical Tip For The Day:

Please take care of your piano and get it tuned two to four times a year. My piano has not been tuned in years and when we brought a technician in, he still could not bring up our piano to full tuning because it had not been serviced in so long. Also, I live in Canada where the winters can be very dry and the summers very humid. This does not help at all with our piano. So, take my advice and schedule your piano tuning session right now! Do not put it off because you will regret it (it is more costly when you let it go way out of tune), and you may even cause some of your piano parts to be weakened, damaged, or broken.