How To Care For Your Piano
You may have wondered,
"Why do pianos go out of tune anyway?
The thing sits there while the kids pound on it and then somebody says,
'It needs to be tuned.'
How come? It sounded alright yesterday."
The whole trouble is the soundboard-the large flat sheet of wood which you can see from the back of the piano. It's quite thin and flexible because, like a stereo loudspeaker, it has to vibrate and amplify the sound of the piano's strings. In good pianos, it's made of a single layer of close-grained spruce.
Because wood swells with extra moisture in the air and shrinks when the air gets drier, the soundboard is changing all the time. Unfortunately, the piano strings are hooked to it, so the tuning of the strings is also changing slightly all the time.
A rainy day will cause your piano to sound slightly off. So will: taking a shower, running the dishwasher or boiling the kettle. A cold snap in the winter makes a lot of difference. If the power humidifier on your furnace quits, your piano will start to scream. A flooded basement will make you scream for the piano tuner right away.
The two biggest changes during the year are: 1. When the furnace starts to dry out the air in the fall and 2. When the spring rains start. Lots of people have their pianos tuned right after these two variations in humidity.
Most of the changes in your piano are so subtle that you don't notice what's happening. But, gradually, it shifts far enough out of tune that somebody says, "
Hey, this piano sounds terrible!"Time to call for your favorite piano tuner.
Perhaps you're thinking: "We have a beautiful piano with a gorgeous tone and we want to take care of it properly. How often should we have it tuned?"
The quick answer is, "It depends how fussy you are." It's like having your hair permed (how perfect do you want your hair to look?) or like having your car serviced (how perfectly smooth do you want the motor to run?)
The same with your piano: How perfectly smooth and clear and harmonious do you want your piano to sound?
But, there's a catch. You may have been brought up in a home where the piano was seldom tuned and it's difficult for you to tell when the clarity and purity slips out of your piano.
Here's a quick test: Go to the piano and strike a single note or an octave. Listen hard. If you hear the sound moving or turning or changing in volume (a slow wah, wah, wah), the note or octave is out of tune and so, probably, is the whole piano. An in-tune note or octave sounds straight and still, no moving of fluctuating at all.
Warning: Don't try this test with other combinations of notes because they're supposed to have moving sounds when they're in tune. When testing chords, listen for sweetness or sourness to determine the condition of the tuning.
Rule of Thumb: Your piano should be tuned every year in order to keep it sounding pleasant. If you want it to sound more perfect, ask your favorite tuner to do it twice a year (April and October) or more often than that. (Actually, it's a good plan to have the piano tuned most often during the portion of the year when you use it the most.)
By keeping your piano well tuned, you're helping your children to learn to recognize and to produce beauty in musical sounds.
Maybe you'd have to admit that it's been quite a while since your piano was tuned and you know it's sounding pretty bad. But you're wondering why your tuner told you that he has to raise the pitch of your piano?
Pianos usually creep downwards in pitch. This is caused by stretching of the strings, flattening of the soundboard and minute compression of the general structure.
Almost every time your piano is tuned, the tuner has to bring up the pitch slightly-anywhere from 2% to 12% of a half tone. He makes this a part of his tuning procedure and doesn't charge you extra for it.
However, if the piano's been moved from a damp climate to a dry one or if it's been neglected, that is, allowed to go 2 years or more without tuning (1 year for a new piano), the pitch will have dropped so much that extra pitch-raising work has to be done. It may be 15% to 50% low or more.
If the tuner tries to raise the pitch and fine-tune the piano in one operation, the piano will shift out of tune immediately. He first has to go over the entire piano, tightening all the strings to bring them up to standard pitch and he may charge $15 to $30 for this operation. Only then can he bring the piano to reasonable in-tuneness and he'll add the usual tuning fee to the previous amount. (Because of the instability caused by praising the pitch, a concert level of tuning is impossible until later.)
Another thing: It's possible that a string may break during this tightening process. Your tuner can repair it easily but it adds to the expense. There's also a very remote possibility that the plate may crack as a result of the restored tension-another hazard of the process.
But, we're not finished yet! The added pressure of the restored tightness may be as high as 2000 or 3000 pounds and the structure of the piano must shift and adjust to this change in stress. The process takes a few weeks before the piano stabilizes again. During this time the piano will shift somewhat out of tune.
Discouraging, isn't? Here, you paid the man $80 or $100 and two weeks later the piano sounds raunchy again. As I told you, it's not his fault, it's the piano's-or yours. He'll tell you it needs to be tuned again in six weeks and he's right. Make an appointment, have it tuned and pay him again.
Agonizing and expensive. So, don't let it happen. Keep the piano in good shape. Have it tuned regularly, OK?
