How often should I have my piano tuned?
The two main factors that drive a piano out of tune are weather change and how much the piano is played between tunings, but the age of the piano has an effect also. Pianos newer than 4-5 years go out of tune much faster than older pianos and may need to be tuned as much as 4 times a year for the first few years. Pianos older than 30 years may not have such great action or tone, but often hold their tune very well. If you practice more than an hour a day, you’ll probably need to have it tuned at least twice a year to keep it sounding good.
I would say that unless your piano is just another piece of furniture, you should have it tuned at least once a year. If it’s used every day, twice a year will keep your piano sounding good anytime you sit down to play it. If you are a vocalist, string player, or that rare pianist with a very sensitive ear, 3-4 times a year will keep it in ‘concert tune’.
What the manufacturers have to say:
Steinway & Sons
“…no matter how expertly a piano is tuned, atmospheric variations and the nature of the piano’s construction constantly conspire to bring it off pitch”
Yamaha Pianos
“…a piano should be tuned at least twice a year.”
Baldwin Piano Company
” After the first year a piano should be tuned at least twice each year.”
My piano hasn’t been tuned for about 10 years and is pretty flat, is that bad?
A piano that sits un-tuned gradually goes flatter and flatter. After a long period, you may have to play a C sharp to get a concert-pitch C. That piano is said to be a half-step flat or 100 cents flat. Often, a piano that is brought out of storage when a child in the family is about to begin piano lessons is quite a bit below pitch. It is very important to bring that piano ‘up to pitch’ if it can be done without breaking strings, rather than tune it to sound good at the pitch it is at. Young children seem to be very pitch oriented, and are quite aware if their own piano plays at a different pitch than their teacher’s piano. Some children will even attempt to transpose their pieces up to make them sound right!
Why, if a piano hasn’t been tuned in years, does it sometimes take multiple tunings to reach and hold its pitch?
The wires in your piano literally have to be re-trained. In the industry we call this pitch raising. Your piano, with the amount of tension that it has at A440, most likely can’t be tuned in one sitting and have the wires stabilize. Taking into account the tremendous amount of tension at A440, a standard pitch raise may have changed the overall tension by as much as 4 or 5 tons (8,000 – 10,000 lbs., no joke) of force or tension. The piano has to stabilize or re-acclimate itself to the new tension of A440. Some instruments will need more consecutive tunings than others, and factors such as age, overall stability of the piano and its environment will affect this fact.
My piano isn’t being used. Do I still need to have it tuned?
Although it might seem unnecessary, it’s important to keep a piano at least close to standard pitch, even if it’s not being used. When your piano is in tune, a combined string tension of about 20 tons is exerted on the piano’s structure. As the piano goes out of tune, the tension of the strings changes to varying degrees in different parts of the piano. If the tension becomes too uneven from one section to another, undue stress is exerted on the piano’s frame. Also, a piano is much more difficult, and sometimes impossible to tune well after a period of neglect. For these reasons every piano should be tuned at least annually.
What are the important differences between an upright and a grand piano?
An upright piano is sometimes thought of as an inferior instrument to a grand, but this is not always true. The quality of tone is often a function of string length, this is the main reason why a nine foot grand sounds nicer than a small spinet. A large upright has longer strings than a ‘baby grand’ and will have a nicer tone, especially in the bass where string length is most critical. While ‘quality of tone’ is a result of the instruments physical properties, control of that tone is the musicians job, and this control is achieved through the action. It is in the action that we find the principal differences between the upright and the grand. In a grand the hammers are horizontal, and gravity resets virtually all the action parts after a note is played. In an upright, the action is standing up, with the hammers swinging on an almost vertical plane, so it needs assistance in the form of springs to reset the action for the next time the key is played. The two springs that can be felt in the upright action are the one pushing the hammer back and the spring pushing the dampers onto the springs. An advanced pianist will often depress a key very slowly in order to get a very soft pianissimo. This technique is extremely difficult on an upright because the springs don’t provide as constant a resistance throughout the travel of the action as gravity does. When you try to play a very soft note on an upright, you might get silence instead!
Another noticeable difference between uprights and grand’s is the key length, which can be much shorter on uprights than on grand’s. Our eyes can see the amount that a short key tips as it is depressed, a long grand key will stay almost horizontal as it goes down. More importantly, our fingers will feel the difference of resistance from the front of a ‘short’ key to the back. A spinet piano has the action placed below and behind the keys, which are extra short to make room for it. This weight difference between key front and back is obvious on spinets. So, can anything be done to compensate for these differences in action feel? On better quality uprights, a parameter known as the ‘key let-off’ can be tweaked a bit closer, allowing a more controlled quiet touch.
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