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| Piano Construction: Symmetry, Lines, Patterns, and altogether a thing of beauty, even to the eye |
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How often should a piano be tuned?
Most pianos require tuning twice a year. This keeps up with the major humidity level changes from summer to winter.
Many church pianos are tuned quarterly.
Master piano teaching studios are tuned from six to twelve times a year.
Performance and recording pianos are tuned before every event. I tune my own piano six to eight times a year.
Why does a piano go out of tune?
First, because it is largely wood and wood responds to humidity changes.
The soundboard is thin, and glued in at its edges. It is made with a slight rise or belly in the center, bridges are glued on the 'belly' and the strings are stretched so that they go 'over' the bridge. During Spring and Summer humidity continually swells the soundboard, string tension increases which sends the pitch sharp. Then fall and winter dryness make the board shrink, which drops the pitch. Since the stress does not move enenly across the whole board, whole sections of the piano will not match each other. By tuning twice a year we 'begin' to keep up with the major weather changes.
Some cheaper upright pianos twist slightly on their four wheels if the floor is not level, changing the stresses on the strings, and sending the octaves out of tune. Sometimes you can regain the tuning if you restress the wheels to where they began.
Also, the tension of each string is maintained by the tightness of the tuning pin. Pins can loosen in their wooden holes from age, dryness or poor construction methods, dropping the tension.
Also, new strings, after being brought up to tension on a new piano, will stretch continually for two or three years before they stabalize. NEW PIANOS NEED MORE FREQUENT SERVICE FOR AT LEAST TWO YEARS IN ORDER TO GAIN THEIR BEST STABILITY.
Very hard playing can also disturb a string and send it out of tune, but it really has to be pounded. Why keep a Piano Tuned? To practice on an out of tune piano means that your ear is getting used to musical imperfections. It would be like training for the high jump, but using a wobbly cane. You will never know what the music should really sound like.
Another serious consideration is that with a piano playing out of tune, there is less pleasure, or joy, in its sound. Thus, you may have a diminished desire to play the piano, and think that you are the problem, when in truth it's the piano that is unpleasant.
WHY TUNE THE PIANO WHEN YOUR KIDS ARE ONLY LEARNING. AFTER ALL, THEY DON'T KNOW THE DIFFERENCE, AND I WANT TO BE SURE THAT THEY WILL STICK WITH IT BEFORE I INVEST ANY MORE.
Why would you go for a bike ride if the tires were flat? You can ride it, sort of, but there's little pleasure in it. So why do you ask your kids to 'get excited' about learning the piano if it is downright unpleasant to play. (I could tell you horror stories about 'musical child abuse'! How many children have given up because of a lousy piano? Or simply a poorly maintained piano? Only God knows. And how many more should get awards for hanging in there when the pianos were horrible, and sometimes even with keys or hammers were broken!!)
What we're really up to is for kids to succeed. Not just 'try'. It's a rare child that cannot learn the piano, so our job as parents is to do all to gain that success. A good teacher, a pleasant, tuned piano, you beside them often, encouraging and guiding, and faithfulness to lessons and practicing. They will succeed. Do not expect kids to automatically achieve even if they have the natural ability. There are very few accomplished musicians that did not have mature leadership to get them there. Why maintain my piano if no one is playing it? Pianos go out of tune MOSTLY FROM HUMIDITY changes. The soundboard swells all summer and shrinks all winter changing string tensions. Maintaining the pitch by regular tuning means that the piano will always be a champ when it comes to tuning stability. (In our piano showroom we work hard to hold the humidity between 40 % (winter) and 55 % (summer). A piano also goes out of tune simply because it is under GREAT TENSION, from twenty thousand to forty or fifty thousand pounds total. And that tension is not perfectly even across the piano. All those strings are being stretched. Negligence lets them stretch unevenly, the piano drops below pitch, and out of relative tune with itself. Regular maintenance holds the tension to the A-440 standard. Also, a sharp technician will keep other things in order, tightness of nearly 300 screws, pedals adjusted, watching bridges and soundboard for deterioration, light voicing, regulation, cabinet and backframe changes, etc. The piano will be KEPT AT A 'READY STATE' and easily set to its best perfection when needed. Most pianists who stop playing in their youth COME BACK to their 'love' of playing. Maintaining the piano at key times, when the kids are going to be home from college or for a holiday visit, means it will be ready to inspire and renew that love. Also, when the piano moves on to its next home, whether to your grown kid's or for the grandkids, or if it is simply sold, your faithful maintenance makes it much more valuable, for it will 'present' well to whomever demonstrates it, and will need less remedial work to bring it back. I generally recommend that any piano, even an absolutely idle instrument, that it be seen and maintained every TWO YEARS. This is hard to do since there are not enough piano tuners in the world to even keep up with that demand. What makes it easier for us is the fact that many pianos (even regularly played ones) are not seen even annually. Some are BOUGHT, DELIVERED AND NEVER TUNED. New pianos are stretching flat for years and need much more tuning in the beginning, but buyers think that because they're new they need less. WRONG!! ALL pianos not maintained regularly slowly drift out of tune and often 'train' (De-program) the ear as they go. The player doesn't even know WHAT GOOD IS because the piano he spends most of his time at sounds awful. Then the parents wonder why the kids don't want to play anymore !! Try riding a bike with flat tires and see if there's any pleasure in it !?!
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