"How often should I tune my piano?"
Your piano is an instrument of extraordinary promise, and can bring you and your family a lifetime of enjoyment. To ensure its performance over that lifetime, it is important to have your piano serviced regularly by a qualified professional. Complete piano service should include periodic regulation and voicing in addition to tuning. Your technician can consult with you to recommend a maintenance schedule customized for your instrument.
The three components of musical performance that need to be adjusted periodically are pitch, tone, and touch. Tone is maintained by voicing, and touch by servicing the piano action, called regulation. Piano tuning is the adjustment of the tuning pins so that all the strings are of the proper tension (pitch), to have the correct sounding, musical intervals.
An out-of-tune piano or an unresponsive touch can discourage even novice musicians.
Regular maintenance can also prevent expensive repairs in the future.
Most manufacturers recommend servicing at least two to four times a year to keep the piano sounding good and working properly each time you sit down to play. This is especially important the first year of your piano's life. Some tuning instability should be anticipated during the first year because of the elasticity of the piano wire, combined with the piano's normal adjustment to the humidity changes in your home. A piano which has gone a long time without tuning may require extra work in pitch raising, or lowering. But most importantly, be sure the regular servicing of your piano is performed by a qualified piano technician.
Equally important: the piano's stability is greatly enhanced by the installation of a Humidity Control System by a qualified piano technician.
For more information, see this page.
"Why should I tune my piano if no one's playing it?"
Your piano contains materials such as wood and felt, and as such it is subject to change with climatic conditions. Extreme swings from hot to cold or dry to wet (natural seasonal changes) cause its materials to swell and contract, affecting tone, pitch and action response of touch. This will occur whether or not the piano is being played.
You can reduce the severity of these effects by placing your piano near a wall away from windows or doors which are opened frequently. Avoid heating and air conditioning vents, fireplaces and areas which receive direct sunlight. Your piano will perform best under consistent conditions neither too wet or dry, optimally at a temperature of 68 degrees F and 42 percent relative humidity.
"Should I tune my piano after it's been moved?"
It depends. The piano is a complex instrument, with over 200 individual strings and thousands of moving parts. Each string must be painstakingly adjusted to put the piano in tune. Even the tiniest change in a string's tension can be heard by a practiced ear.
You might think, then, that trucking a piano down the highway or even rolling it down a hall could "knock it out of tune". However, pianos are actually quite tough. They're built to withstand up to 20 tons of string tension and decades of heavy usage, so the physical movement of a piano usually has very little effect on its tuning or other adjustments.
It's the climate change associated with the move, rather than the actual move itself, that makes pianos go out of tune. A substantial difference in humidity between its previous location and its new home will change the shape of the piano's soundboard, changing tension on the strings.
For instance, a well-tuned piano moved fifty miles from a heated, dry apartment to a cool, humid home will sound fine immediately after the move. But a week later, after adjusting to the higher humidity, the piano will sound out of tune. Even moving a piano from one room to another in the same building can affect it if heating or air-conditioning patterns are different.
An exception is the vertical piano. Because they have four legs (grands have three), they occasionally flex enough to distort their tuning pattern immediately if moved to an uneven floor. Moving the piano back to a flat surface will return the tuning to normal. This is most noticeable with lightly built spinets and consoles, and can occur simply by moving the piano a few inches if one caster rolls off the carpeting or into a low spot on the floor.
So, do you have to tune your piano after moving it? Pianos need periodic tuning anyway, whether they are moved or not, so it's likely that a piano that has just been moved was already due for tuning before the move. If so, it's best to let the piano adjust to its new environment for a week or two, then have it tuned. On the other hand, if the piano had been recently tuned before the move, you might just hold off and see how the piano sounds after a few weeks. If the climate of the new location is similar to the old, your piano will probably sound fine until its next regular service date.
"How does humidity affect my piano?"
Extreme swings from hot to cold or dry to wet are harmful to your piano. Dryness causes the piano's pitch to go flat; moisture makes it go sharp. Repeated swings in relative humidity can cause soundboards to crack or distort. Extreme dryness also can weaken the glue joints that hold the soundboard and other wood portions of the piano together. Moisture may lead to string rust. A piano functions best under fairly consistent conditions which are neither too wet or dry, optimally at a temperature of 68°F and 42% relative humidity.
Devices such as the Dampp-Chaser Climate Control System are designed to be installed inside of pianos, effectively controlling humidity-related disorders to a large degree, as well as helping to stabilize tuning procedures.
Visit Dampp-Chaser's web site for an illustrated explanation of climate control systems, and read the recommendations of various manufacturers regarding their use. Your technician will be able to install one for you and instruct you on its use.
"I would like to purchase a piano, but where do I begin?"
Your piano, probably one of your largest purchases, is a complex and wonderful item. Purchasing should not be taken lightly, or undertaken without someone expert in the field.
Here are some questions and issues to consider:
INTENDED USE: Will it be for a youngster just starting out, an experienced musician with limited time for playing, or a professionally-minded performer?
OCCUPIED SPACE: Where will it be kept? Where will it fit without hampering one's lifestyle?
EXPENSE: What is your budget? Is money no object, or like most of us, is your choice based on obtaining the most piano you can get for a predetermined amount?
Will it be a used instrument? Must it be factory fresh, or are you looking for a restored, vintage instrument? (This ties in to the expense AND space categories.)
All of the above should be discussed with a registered piano technician to ensure your complete satisfaction with your purchase. You can also ask your RPT to come with you when viewing an instrument. They can give you an estimate of repairs that the piano might need in the future, among other educated observations.
"I'm trying to sell my piano. How can I tell how old it is?"
Each piano is given a serial number at "birth". It is usually located somewhere in the tuning pin area. If the manufacturer is still in business, it may be able to provide the year of manufacture from the serial number. Sometimes the information is on the manufacturer's web site. For those not still in business, a book called the "Pierce Piano Atlas" provides dates of manufacture from serial numbers for thousands of old piano brands. Where dates are not available, or the serial number cannot be found, it may be possible for an experienced technician or rebuilder to estimate the age of the piano from technical features or furniture design.
[Source: Larry Fine, The Piano Book]
"What are the correct names for the different sizes of grand pianos?"
5' 8" or smaller is a 'Baby Grand'.
5' 9" - 5' 11" is a 'Living Room Grand'.
6' - 6' 3" is called a 'Professional Grand'.
6' 4" - 6' 7" is a 'Drawing Room Grand'.
6' 8" - 6' 10" is called 'Parlour', 'Artist', 'Salon' or 'Music Room Grand'.
7' 4" to 8' 6" is a 'Half' or 'Semi-Concert Grand'.
8' 11" and larger is a 'Concert' or 'Orchestral Concert Grand'.
However, it should be noted that not everyone ascribes to these names.
[Source: Arthur A. Reblitz, Piano Servicing, Tuning & Rebuilding]
"What is A=440?"
This means that the A above middle C is vibrating at 440 cycles per second. This is sometimes also known as "concert pitch," although some orchestras prefer to tune to a slightly higher pitch.
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