Frequently
Asked Questions about pianos & tuning 1)
What's the going rate of piano tuners?
2)
I know my piano sounds better after a piano tuning, but what exactly is a 'piano
tuning', and why does my piano need to be tuned to A440?
3)
How often should I have my piano tuned?
4)
My piano hasn't been tuned for about 10 years and is pretty flat, is that bad?
5)
Why, if a piano hasn't been tuned in years, does it sometimes take multiple tunings
to reach and hold its pitch?
6) My piano isn't being used.
Do I still need to have it tuned?
7)
What are the important differences between an upright and a grand piano?
8)
Can I change the weight of my action to make it heavier or lighter?
9)
Are there different tunings? or Can a piano be tuned different ways and
still be in tune?
10)
I have a very accurate guitar tuner, couldn't I use it to tune my own piano?
or Can electronic machines be used to tune pianos?
11)
What should I use to clean my piano?
12)
Does it hurt my piano when my children pound on the keys?
13) What can I expect when you come over to tune my piano?
1)
What's the going rate of piano tuners?
Many people ask me this question in hopes of getting a rough estimate
of what kind of payment to render. I've found that tuners charge
between $90 & $180, my average is about $150.00. Pay what you
can afford. I've received everything from a hug and some brownies to well over $200
for tuning pianos.
2) I know my
piano sounds better after a piano tuning, but what exactly is a 'piano tuning',
and why does my piano need to be tuned to A440?
The short answer:
"A tuning is an incremental adjustment to the tension of the wires
by manipulating the tuning pins in a piano. Achievement results in the middle
'A' note achieving a frequency of 440 hertz, and then all other notes are tuned
relative in frequency to the middle 'A' to attain an overall sweet or melodious
sound. Every piano must be tuned relative to its particular acoustic environment."
A
piano tuning is technically a stretching of the wires in a piano to achieve a
certain frequency of sound once the piano tuning is completed. A440 is a technical
term denoting the middle 'A' note on the piano being adjusted to 440 hertz and
that all other 87 notes are adjusted to the optimum pleasing or melodious sound
in relation to the middle 'A' note. A440 is and has been for decades the standard
pitch of all musical instruments in the world. Furthermore, when you hear a piano
tuner make a reference to tuning a piano to concert pitch they are referring to
A440.
The wires in a piano (there are about 230) when properly tuned will
have approximately 200 lbs. of tension per wire! This, multiplied by the number
of wires in your piano, coupled with the size of the instrument, will equal roughly
the weight of a 2 car garage (about 20 tons of tension) !!
3) 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."
4) 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 of time, 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 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!
5) 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.
6) 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. 7)
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.
8)
Can I change the weight of my action to make it heavier or lighter?
Yes you can, but I would suggest that you don't. There are some cases where increasing
the 'weight' of the action is a good idea, but they are rare. We often think we
need a heavier action when something else is affecting our control of the instrument.
The actual weight of a piano action and how it affects playing is very complicated
and needs some explaining. There are two ways to think about action weight and
they are static and inertial. The static weight refers to how much pressure it
takes to begin to depress the key, but the inertial weight can vary greatly depending
on the speed of depression. A piano could have a light static touch, but very
heavy inertial resistance, for example. On most well built pianos, the action
is set up to be able to play as soft and as loud as possible, while still allowing
the quickest repetition of single notes. Changing action settings or adding lead
weights will usually compromise one or more of these tasks. Adding weights to
the backs of the keys could increase both types of resistance and create a 'heavier'
action, but I feel that too often technicians do this to remedy a problem which
should be fixed other ways. One of the most common 'other' problems is hammer
voicing. When the felt becomes compressed at the head of the hammer from repeated
playing, the hammer tone becomes very bright. But, also the hammer becomes loud,
and soft playing is impossible. A very soft touch still results in a loud note.
This makes the action feel too light! If the hammer is softened properly, a soft
touch will produce a soft note, and a much harder touch will be required to produce
a loud note. The result is that the action will feel MUCH heavier, even though
it actually is not. A piano should be properly voiced before any action adjustments
made, or weights added. 9)
Are there different tunings?
or
Can a piano be tuned different ways and
still be in tune?
There are different opinions about this question.
Mine is that a good tuner will tune a given piano very similarly to another good
tuner, but not-so-good tuners will tune it differently. Each individual piano
is tuned somewhat differently though, primarily because of a thing called inharmonicity,
which I'll explain later.
From a hearing point of view, there are three main aspects to tuning
Temperament, Octaves and Unisons. Setting the Temperament involves
spacing 12 notes equally within an octave. If, for example, the octave
between middle C and the next one up were an exact doubling of Hz.,
or frequency, one could simply use 12 tuning forks and tune each note
exactly to the forks. But its not that way in real life. Because of
a little thing called inharmonicity, the actual distance of an octave
on a piano is a bit more than an exact doubling of Hz., and to make
things more complicated, it is different on each piano. That is why
a technician will set the temperament by ear. Octaves are simply tuned
'beatless', or the fundamental frequency of the upper octave is tuned
exactly to the first partial (octave harmonic) of the lower octave.
Octave partials are fairly easy to hear until they reach the very
high end of the piano. The notes in the very top octave can be tuned
a very small amount sharp because our ears hear beatless octaves as
being flat in this range. (Confusing, isn't it?) Sometimes classical
pianists will prefer a slightly sharper top octave tuning than jazz
or rock players. Unisons are the easiest to hear, and any technician
usually sets good unisons, except at the high end where some people's
hearing isn't too great. The skill of tuning lies in the manipulation
of the tuning lever and this can take years to develop. A tuner with
good lever control can not only bring the string into tune more accurately,
but more importantly to the player, he/she can make it STAY in tune
longer.
10) I have a
very accurate guitar tuner, couldn't I use it to tune my own piano?
or
Can electronic machines be used to tune pianos?
There is a problem with using an electronic tuner, or even a set of
12 extremely accurate tuning forks and I'll attempt to explain that
here. In terms of the sound made, there are four basic properties
of a vibrating string: Length, Mass, Tension,
and Frequency of vibration. Knowing any three of these properties
will allow you to calculate the fourth. Unfortunately, this nice arrangement
is complicated by a fifth string quality which exerts a tiny but important
influence on the sound, and that is stiffness. An ideal string might
be a strong but flexible chain, but hard piano strings are anything
but flexible. In fact, the hard steel is so stiff that they break
if bent more than once. What stiffness does is limit string excursion
(from center) which makes a string return sooner in its vibration
cycle. The result is a higher note than would be calculated from the
L.M.T.F. The stiffness has little effect on the fundamental frequency
of the string, but higher harmonics are produced by progressively
shorter sections of the string. These shorter sections are greatly
affected by the stiffness and vibrate at a much higher frequency than
'mathematically correct' partials (harmonics) would.
Whew! Still with me?
I'm gonna wrap it up soon, I promise. An octave on the piano is tuned 'beatless'
or, the higher string is tuned to the same frequency of the octave partial of
the lower string. The theoretical distance of an octave is an exact doubling of
frequency, so if A4=440hz then A5 should be 880hz, but because of the stiffness
of steel strings the first partial is already a tad higher than mathematically
correct. This makes the actual distance of the octave a bit wider than an exact
doubling of frequency, and because of the different stringing scales of pianos,
each piano is different. The modern system of tuning (Equal Temperament) spaces
all twelve chromatic notes equally within the space of the octave. A piano tuner,
working by ear, first tunes a beatless octave. Then the tuner spaces the notes
at exactly equal distances from each other by comparing intervals and counting
beats. A tuner doesn't even need to know that the octave is wider than usual,
they just tune it until there's no beats. A guitar tuner, or a set of tuning forks
for that matter, are tuned to the equal temperament system, but can't be re-calibrated
to accommodate various different octave distances found on pianos, that the twelve
notes must be spaced equally within. Interestingly enough, and here's a useful
piece of information for those of you who made it this far, a harpsichord can
be nicely tuned with a guitar tuner (or 12 tuning forks). It would seem that the
harpsichord string is so light that the stiffness doesn't effect the first partial.
There are electronic machines made for tuning pianos, that can be re-calibrated
to accommodate degrees of octave stretch. 11)
What should I use to clean my piano?
Any good quality furniture
polish will work well on wood finishes. Avoid products that leave a waxy or oily
residue.
On the keys, it's best to use a very mild soap & water solution on
a rag. Be sure to wring the rag out well before cleaning the keys. If water drips
down between the keys they can swell up and stick, or even warp.
Cleaning dust
from grand piano soundboard under the strings is particularly tricky. Under no
circumstances should you get any kind of chemical or moisture on the piano strings.
The best way to get at the dust is with a set of "soundboard sweepers". There
are three different-sized cleaners, and they are designed to be inserted
between the strings to sweep the soundboard.
12)
Does it hurt my piano when my children pound on the keys?
The noise produced by this action may hurt our ears at times, but
it won't damage the piano. Most pianos are built to withstand some
very heavy use. Think of a concert pianist performing an energetic
piece by Rachmaninoff, or a rock star pounding on the piano loud enough
to be heard over the screaming guitars, and beating drums. It is doubtful
a small child can duplicate the force that these people exert on the
keys. Try not to let them drive their toy cars up and down the piano
keys though. That can chip or break older plastic and ivory key tops.
13) What can I expect when you come over to tune my piano?
• First of all, I'm nearly always on time. I may be a little early but I really don't like being late so you'll get a text message from me if I am going to be more than ten minutes late. You can track me driving to your house via GPS here.
• When I come into your house feel free to ask me to remove my shoes or to let me know of any other rules you might have.
• I'm not allergic to anything or afraid of any of your animals and I have never been sick.
• It helps if everything is cleared off of the top of the piano. If you don't have it done before I get there, I don't mind at all doing it myself but I need to open the top of your piano to tune it.
• I will be sitting in front of the piano most of the time so there is no need to move it away from the wall before I arrive. If I need to get behind an upright piano for some reason, I'll move it myself. PLEASE don't move your piano.
• I'm going to make noise so take that into consideration before scheduling the appointment. Consider the neighbors and your own sleeping family members (napping babies) when scheduling an appointment.
• Please feel free to ask me questions while I'm tuning your piano. I'm there for you and I don't mind at all talking to you.
• I'm nearly finished when you hear me playing a lot of random songs and chords. I am listening to various intervals and unisons at this point (fine tuning).
• I'll probably ask you to play for me when I'm finished. Mostly I'm just kidding but sometimes I'll be lucky enough that someone will say, "sure" and then sit down to give me a mini concert, I love that.
• When you see me cleaning and putting your piano back together, I'm pretty much finished. Traditionally this is the time when the payment is rendered. You can see my payment options on this page.
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