Piano Tuning Guidelines

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BLUEBOOK OF PIANOS

   
 

  
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PIANO TUNING GUIDELINES

THE TRUTH ABOUT STAYING IN TUNE:

You know, a fine piano is a work of art. Therefore, to treat it rough, carelessly or
negligent it is to commit a crime against a beautiful piece of expensive craftsmanship.
To pay a lot of money for a fine piano and then allow it to go to ruin for lack of expert
care is not merely aesthetically wrong it is bad business. If a piano is neglected, if it be
allowed to go through from one season to another, say, from Spring to Winter, without
tuning, it will probably, at the end of that time, be considerably lower in pitch than it
was originally. It will have gone through a rise, followed by a fall, and the fall will be
greater than the first rise.
No matter what any salesman may say, no matter how well the piano may be made, no
matter, in fact, what the physical circumstances or the price or the domestic conditions
may be, there is no such thing as a piano standing month after month in tune. The better
the piano, the more frequent and careful tuning it should have.
In order to understand why a piano goes out of tune, it is first necessary to remember
that the whole instrument is always under a varying stress. The strings are stretched at
an average tension of from one hundred and fifty to two hundred pounds apiece; so that
the iron plate, together with the heavy wooden framing, carries a strain totaling from
eighteen to twenty tons.
The soundboard is merely a thin sheet of spruce a three eighths of an inch in thickness.
If it is properly constructed, the whole board becomes something like a highly elastic
spring. The more elastic it is, the freer and more agree able will he the tone emanating
from the piano.
From the layman's standpoint, two tunings a year should be sufficient. The tuner knows,
however, that if he had time to tune his own piano as often as his ears tell him, he would
tune it once a month at least. From a strictly scientific point of view, it is probably true
to say that no piano ever made has stood in tune, without a drop or a rise, for more than
twenty four hours, unless it were maintained at constant temperature and at constant
barometric and hygroscopic conditions.

SENSITIVITY TO ATMOSPHERIC CHANGES

The very construction is extremely sensitive to all changes of temperature and

barometric pressure. In summer time, throughout the greater part of the country, there is
much moisture in the air most of the time, and rain is frequent. Wood, under these
conditions, swells up; nor will any kind of coating protect a wooden soundboard from
these influences. On the contrary, when the heat is on during the colder months, the air
in rooms becomes much drier, owing to the evaporation of moisture and failure to keep
on hand open vessels of water, flowering plants or other moisture retainers or
evaporators. Consequently, the moisture in the soundboard rapidly passes off, the hoard

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shrinks, the strings slacken down, and the pitch drops.

Now, it is perfectly evident that even where conditions are not extreme, and even in
climates which have only a comparatively short range, this process is continually going
on. "Every change of a degree in temperature, or of one tenth of an inch in a barometer,
has its effect. The soundboard of the piano, then, is always slowly rising and falling
through short distances, and constantly, therefore, suffering variations in its ability to
hold the strings up to proper pitch. On the other hand, if the piano be neglected and
unless it be tuned at least once every change in season, say four times a year, during
Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, it will not stay in tune
The most common cause of a piano going out of tune is fluctuations in temperature and
of humidity changes. The best temperature for a piano is the same as the comfort of a
person. Inside each case is an enormously complex piece of machinery, you have up to
12,000 parts that are incorporated into an elaborate assembly of a precision engineered
musical instrument. In addition to the usual factors of friction, wear, and tear, add more
than 40,000 pounds of string pressure and the adverse cumulative effects of climatic flux
of temperature and humidity.
When a piano is tuned, it begins to go out of tune, and each time it is played the strings
stretch a little more. Pianos of lower cost are more likely to be made out of lower cost
materials and will be more difficult to service or keep in tune, because is the quality and
construction of the piano itself.
Pianos made of cured hardwoods with sturdy construction and quality parts and
stringing design will resist the adversities of humidity, in fact buying the next grade up
of any particular piano line would more than pay for itself in a very short period of time
in a piano's life, and you would enjoy playing on an instrument that is acclimatized, with
superior tone qualities. Direct sunlight is the biggest problem today, both for the finish
of the instrument and the tuning stability.

TONE QUALITY

The three essentials to a good piano are tone, touch and durability. The average ear may
distinguish tone and know when the instrument pleases. Tone is the medium of the
pianist's art. It is to the musician what color is to the painter, language to the poet. Hence
it is all important that the tone you produce should be beautiful in quality, and as far as
possible overcome the one great inherent defect of the piano by cultivating a good
singing tone. Yet the majority of people are curiously vague on this subject; if asked
how they set about getting tone, few can give a clear or rational explanation.
To begin with, each key, or note on a piano can be played or expressed in twenty-five
degrees of touch or volume if you wish. Otherwise the sound of the piano would be
expressionless, with no degree of loud or soft, an absolute contradiction to the purpose
of the instrument. In the following remarks, therefore, I intend to examine the theoretical
as well as the practical aspects of tone reproduction. It will not matter if anyone fails to
accept my views; I shall be fully satisfied if only they inspire reflections of their own on
the subject.
I cannot emphasize enough the impossibility of learning to play piano unless you have a
piano to practice on. My reasons for this are based on the fact that strong muscles in the
finger can only be developed through exercise on the piano. When playing the twelve
major scales and twenty-four minor scales through five octaves ten times, which can be

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accomplished by a good pianist in about forty minutes, the thumb is used 7,200 times,
the second finger is used 7,440 times, the third finger 7,200 times, the forth finger 3,460
times, and the little finger only 180 times. The purpose of playing the scales in this
manner is to strengthen the fingers through exercise, in no case can the amount of
weight it takes to depress each key be duplicated on any electronic keyboard.
While the electronic keyboards and digital pianos have made great strides into tone and
touch duplication with sampling and weighted actions, but the "luster" is still missing.

TUNING STABILITY AND MOVING YOUR PIANO

Unlike the old saying, you have to tune a piano if you move it just isn't true. Moving a
piano in the same room, house, city, and state will not effect the tuning very much.
Pianos go out of tune due to the weather much more than from being moved. Sure if you
bounce it around on a pick-up truck long enough or often enough it will go out of tune.
By not so much as to effect the pitch like the changes in humidity.
If a new piano has received a good tuning at the store, it will still sound harmonious
after being moved to the home for about 3 months. Even if a piano is moved long
distance in a truck, it would depend on how much temperature and climate change such
as from Miami, Houston or Seattle to Phoenix, Denver or Las Vegas for example. In
which case, some tuning and regulation would be needed.

In high humidity climates such as Miami, Houston, Seattle or near a large body of water,
a piano can be helped by the use of a climate-controlled system. In very dry areas, a
number of large green plants in a room will be of help. Pianos from dry climates may
have a history of problems such as loose tuning pins and split or broken wood parts such
as the soundboard. Pianos imported from wet climates may have sluggish keys and
action joints. There are many controls and fixes available for this and it should not cause
concern.
Because of the many different climatic conditions in the United States it is impossible to
really "Season a Piano" for a particular destination, any such claims are advertising
"hype". It stands to reason if the customer buys a used piano then they won't buy
somebody else's new piano. Much of this hype is born of "competitors defeat" and really
is not worthy of comment. Pianos cannot be "Seasoned for Destination" - end of story.

PIANO ACTION REGULATION

Regulating a piano takes place when a tuner/technician must raise the pitch of an
instrument. This means the piano may have to be tuned more than once. The reason can

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be the fact that the instrument has not been tuned in a long time, or in some cases it is
because the instrument is new. The "true" tone of a new piano is only developed some
nine months to a year after the date of manufacture. During this period the strings and
wooden parts have continued to stretch, the varnish on the soundboard crystallizes, and
the pressure on the soundboard through the bridge settles down to its natural and final
state. There is also a subtle quality of freshness about the tone of a good piano in new
condition which can only be described as "luster." The same quality may be found in
pianos fifty to sixty years old, which have been carefully used and expertly renovated.
This quality is entirely lacking in instruments which have had heavy wear, or suffer
from a "tired" soundboard. Once completely dissipated, the freshness cannot be recreated even by the most expert manipulation. It costs more to regulate a piano than to
simply tune it.
The word "touch" applies to the performance of the piano as well as to the performance
of the musician. When we say a piano has a good touch, we mean that the action has
been so well made and so perfectly regulated that it responds instantly and accurately to
any demands the most expert performer can make. When, in his later years, Beethoven
played the piano, he could not hear the music at all. Pianos have been used and have
been played well by people with almost every other type of physical handicap, but all
who play must possess one thing in common: the ability to press down the keys. They
have to have a sense of touch which tells them how hard to strike each note. The
selection of notes and the tempo are determined by the composer. These are fixed and
can be readily grasped by the performer, but the composer can only indicate in a general
way what force is to be applied through using such symbols as "pianissimo" or "forte".
These, however, are broad terms; the many shadings of volume in between the marked
signs on the music are left to the intuition and skill of the pianist, subject to the capacity
of the piano to respond.
A player-piano can produce every note exactly as written by the composer and do it in
perfect tempo, but it still sounds mechanical because it lacks the third dimension of.
interpretive touch. A capable performer can strike a piano key with about twenty-seven
different degrees of force. Since there is no way for the teacher or composer to
communicate to the pianist just what force is to be applied to each note, it is clear that
"touch" must be sensed, must be regarded as an art rather than as an exact science.

WHAT IS THE RIGHT TOUCH FOR A PIANO?

There is a tendency to place too much emphasis on piano actions being made extra light
so that small children can play without risk of tiring. Children do not remain children
very long and if they learn on a piano with an abnormal light touch, they will have to
readjust themselves later to a standard touch which is not easy to do. Though there is not
too much that can be done to change the touch after a piano has been manufactured, it is
not difficult or expensive to design a piano with a very light touch. It is impossible,
however, to make one that way and have it responsive enough for really good
performance.
There is a common belief that a performer can produce tones of different quality by
some special skill or technique in the way a piano key is struck or in the way it is
manipulated after it has been depressed. This is not true, as no skill in required to play a
single note. if the force of the blow on the key is the same, the tonal result will be the
same whether the force is applied by a concert artist or a child. Once a key has been
depressed, the performer loses all further control over the volume and quality of the tone
of that note.

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While the manner of striking or holding down a key makes no difference in the tonal
effect, the force with which a key is struck can make a difference. Tests have shown that
the character of tone, as well as the volume, is often affected by the force of the blow on
the key. In other words, the harmonic mixture of the tone may vary with the volume;
therefore, the overall tonal pattern of an entire chord can be affected by varying the
force used on just one note in the chord. This explains why one artist might produce a
more appealing effect than another artist playing the same composition on the same
piano. The word "touch" applies to the performance of the piano as well as to the
performance of the musician. when we say a piano has a good touch, we mean that the
action has been so well made and so perfectly regulated that it responds instantly and
accurately to any demands the most expert performer can make.

"Learn to play this one, then we'll get you a better one"

There is a tendency to place too much emphasis on piano actions being made extra light
so that small children can play without risk of tiring. Children do not remain children
very long and if they learn on a piano with an abnormal light touch, they will have to
readjust themselves later to a standard touch which is not easy to do. Though there is not
too much that can be done to change the touch after a piano has been manufactured, it is
not difficult or expensive to design a piano with a very light touch. It is impossible,
however, to make one that way and have it responsive enough for really good
performance.
If the touch is too light, the action will feel shallow and unresponsive because the keys,
after being depressed and released, will tend to flutter and not return to playing position
fast enough for good repetition. That is why professional musicians almost always want
a definitely heavier touch than would be used if we were making pianos just for children
to play, and why most piano makers compromise by having a medium touch so that the
usefulness of the instrument will not be limited to just one type of performer.
The ideal touch is one that is capable of handling the fast repetition demanded by all
good performers, yet light and elastic enough so that a child will not find it too difficult
to play during his first year or two at the piano. It is better to have the action a little too
heavy for perfect comfort the first year or two, in order to be right for the next fifty
years.

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