PIANO TUNING - Page 2

Why does a piano go out of tune...Contd?

Moving a piano, contrary to popular belief does not usually make a piano go out of tune. Again it comes down to environment and atmospheric conditions. If a piano is moved from one room to another within a uniformally heated house, then it is unlikely to go out of tune (even if it is being moved up or down stairs). If the piano however is being moved to a different location which has dissimilar conditions then it will almost certainly need tuning a couple of weeks after it has been moved.

Continuous and heavy playing will also make a piano go out of tune quickly since the strings are being continually vibrated and will therefore slacken off over a period of time. If a pianist is playing that continually however, it is likely that they will be having their piano tuned 4 - 6 times per year. In commercial environments pianos can often need tuning on a weekly or monthly basis depending on useage and (again) environmental fluctuations.

Age of you Piano has great influence on the tuning stability. We have mentioned that very old pianos may well go out of tune quite quickly due to the condition of the tuning pins and the pinblock. Young pianos (less than 5 years old) can also suffer from tuning instability due to the strings stretching and needing to 'bed' in. Once it has however stabilised, and provided the general principles of environment are adhered to, the piano should hold it's pitch extremely well.

Small upright pianos which do not have particularly good supporting (ie bracings) at the back of the piano will often not hold their pitch particularly well. This is a limitation of 'budget' made instruments where cost of manufacture plays an important part.

How Often Should my Piano be Tuned ?

From the above statements you wil notice that it is impossible to give a difinitive answer to this question because there are so many factors that can affect the tuning stability. In a domestic environment where the temperature and humidity are relatively constant throughout the seasons a guide is TWICE per annum ; 2 - 3 weeks after the heating goes on in the winter, and 2 - 3 weeks after it has been turned off in the summer. This delay gives the piano an opportunity to acclimatise to the new conditions and settle prior to the strings being bought back up to pitch.

What does tuning a piano mean ?

To explain fully what tuning a piano actually involves is the subject of many good volumes, and too large a topic to cover in full here. Some of the following may appear quite technical but it goes to show that piano tuning is not something tha can be learnt in five minutes, it takes many years of study and experience to achieve this status, and is generally recognised as something you should endeavour not to do yourself !!

Underpinning knowledge : Musical instruments usually generate tones composed of several sinusoidal waves with harmonic frequencies. The lowest of these frequencies (the fundamental frequency) determines the pitch of the tone, which is perceived by the human hearing. In music, notes are assigned to tones with different fundamental frequencies, in order to describe the pitch of played tones. A pure tone is a single frequency tone with no harmonic content (no overtones). This corresponds to a sine wave and is characterised by the frequency - the number of cycles per second, the wavelength - the distance the waveform travels through its medium within a period, and the amplitude - the size of the cycles. The note A above middle C played on any instrument is perceived to be of the same pitch as a pure tone of 440 Hz and is often referred to as concert pitch. A note therefore can be described as a unit of fixed pitch and it is the interaction between these notes that constitutes piano tuning.........more