Why does a piano go out of tune?
Aside from initial settling, temperature and humidity are the main causes of pitch change. That’s because the piano’s main acoustical structure, the soundboard, is made of wood. While wooden soundboards produce a wonderful sound, they also react constantly to climate changes.
As the relative humidity goes up, the soundboard swells, increasing its crowned shape and stretching the piano’s strings to a higher pitch. Then during dry times the soundboard flattens out, lowering tension on the strings and causing the pitch to drop.
The drop in the summer or when the heating is high in the winter tends to exceed the rise during cold humid times, so the net result is a drop in pitch each year that the piano isn’t serviced.
This is why it’s important to have a piano serviced regularly, ideally each season.
How is a piano tuned?
Although there are only 88 keys, a piano has over 200 strings – one per note in the low bass, two per note in the upper bass, and three per note in the treble.
The average tension per string is approximately 160 lb. The combined tension of the strings is 18 to 20 tons, or almost 30 tons in a concert grand. The strings gradually increase in thickness and length from treble to bass, and bass strings are also wrapped with copper.
The Piano Tuner places a wedge between 2 of the 3 strings and tunes them one string at a time. The other 2 strings are then tuned to exactly the same pitch. These are called ‘Unisons’. The higher end of the bass has 2 copper wound strings tuned together in ‘ Unison’ and the low bass has 1 thick copper wound string, a ‘Solo’ string.
All of the strings are held at high tension by a 2 inch long tuning pin which has been hammered into a large laminated block of wood until the pins are very tight. The Piano Tuner turns these pins with a tuning crank, just like a guitarist turns the pin that the guitar strings are wound around, until it is in tune.
It takes a professional about an hour to tune all the strings on a piano.
How do I look after my piano?
Keep your piano in tune. It was specifically designed to be tuned to the international pitch standard of A-440 cycles per second. Your piano will sound its best and give you the most pleasure when it is tuned regularly and kept in proper playing condition.
Keep your piano clean. Keep the keyboard covered when not in use to prevent dust from accumulating (although ivory keys need some exposure to light to prevent yellowing).
Clean keys by occasionally wiping them with a damp cloth and drying them immediately. If accumulated debris can’t be removed with a damp cloth, try wiping the cloth on a bar of mild soap or moisten with dishwashing detergent before wiping.
Do not use chemicals or solvents to clean piano keys. Call a professional to remove anything from the keys that you can’t wipe away. Using chemicals and solvents can irreparably damage your piano. To maintain the piano’s finish, you may wipe the case with a damp cotton cloth to remove fingerprints, or polish with a reliable emulsion-type, water-based solution following the manufacturer’s instructions. Avoid aerosol spray polishes that contain silicone.
The maintenance of the inner workings of the piano and regulation should be left to a professional Piano Tuner. Resist dusting the inside of your piano, oiling the moving parts, or using moth or insect repellents.
Try to maintain a fairly consistent temperature and humidity control in the room where your piano is placed. It’s important to keep your piano away from heating – central heating dries out wood as well as people and some humidity is a good idea in the home.
Aside from initial settling, temperature and humidity are the main causes of pitch change. That’s because the piano’s main acoustical structure, the soundboard, is made of wood. While wooden soundboards produce a wonderful sound, they also react constantly to climate changes.
As the relative humidity goes up, the soundboard swells, increasing its crowned shape and stretching the piano’s strings to a higher pitch. Then during dry times the soundboard flattens out, lowering tension on the strings and causing the pitch to drop.
The drop in the summer or when the heating is high in the winter tends to exceed the rise during cold humid times, so the net result is a drop in pitch each year that the piano isn’t serviced.
This is why it’s important to have a piano serviced regularly, ideally each season.
How is a piano tuned?
Although there are only 88 keys, a piano has over 200 strings – one per note in the low bass, two per note in the upper bass, and three per note in the treble.
The average tension per string is approximately 160 lb. The combined tension of the strings is 18 to 20 tons, or almost 30 tons in a concert grand. The strings gradually increase in thickness and length from treble to bass, and bass strings are also wrapped with copper.
The Piano Tuner places a wedge between 2 of the 3 strings and tunes them one string at a time. The other 2 strings are then tuned to exactly the same pitch. These are called ‘Unisons’. The higher end of the bass has 2 copper wound strings tuned together in ‘ Unison’ and the low bass has 1 thick copper wound string, a ‘Solo’ string.
All of the strings are held at high tension by a 2 inch long tuning pin which has been hammered into a large laminated block of wood until the pins are very tight. The Piano Tuner turns these pins with a tuning crank, just like a guitarist turns the pin that the guitar strings are wound around, until it is in tune.
It takes a professional about an hour to tune all the strings on a piano.
How do I look after my piano?
Keep your piano in tune. It was specifically designed to be tuned to the international pitch standard of A-440 cycles per second. Your piano will sound its best and give you the most pleasure when it is tuned regularly and kept in proper playing condition.
Keep your piano clean. Keep the keyboard covered when not in use to prevent dust from accumulating (although ivory keys need some exposure to light to prevent yellowing).
Clean keys by occasionally wiping them with a damp cloth and drying them immediately. If accumulated debris can’t be removed with a damp cloth, try wiping the cloth on a bar of mild soap or moisten with dishwashing detergent before wiping.
Do not use chemicals or solvents to clean piano keys. Call a professional to remove anything from the keys that you can’t wipe away. Using chemicals and solvents can irreparably damage your piano. To maintain the piano’s finish, you may wipe the case with a damp cotton cloth to remove fingerprints, or polish with a reliable emulsion-type, water-based solution following the manufacturer’s instructions. Avoid aerosol spray polishes that contain silicone.
The maintenance of the inner workings of the piano and regulation should be left to a professional Piano Tuner. Resist dusting the inside of your piano, oiling the moving parts, or using moth or insect repellents.
Try to maintain a fairly consistent temperature and humidity control in the room where your piano is placed. It’s important to keep your piano away from heating – central heating dries out wood as well as people and some humidity is a good idea in the home.