Piano and Music Videos

It seems like an obvious thing. If your piano sounds bad, get it tuned by all means. You might not know how bad or how to know what to even listen for. Maybe you’re new at piano, and you’re afraid maybe you’re going too long, or perhaps you’re throwing away hundreds of dollars unnecessarily. So I’m going to give you some pointers today.

Perhaps you’ve probably heard the term “A440”. A440 is the reference that orchestras tune to often and pianos are tuned to. It’s the A above middle C on the piano, and when you hear A, you’re actually hearing 440 vibration cycles per second. That’s right; your mind is a calculator of frequencies when you recognize pitches! If your piano goes low or possibly even high from the weather, you might not know it since it could be in tune with itself. In this instance, you want to utilize some kind of reference pitch. The easiest thing in this day and age is to find an app you can put right on your phone to check your tuning periodically to make sure “A” is at 440. If it’s at A441 or something like that you’re okay. But if you see it slipping down several points, you want to get your piano tuned because otherwise, the tuning won’t hold very long if you let it get too far gone.

What about if the piano is basically on pitch? You’ve tried different notes that are all about center, some are a little high, and some are a little low. You wonder what are you listening for when notes are out of tune. When you play notes that are in tune on a piano, there’s a purity to the sound. I’m going to let you hear as I detune one of the strings on a G on a piano just a slight amount on the accompanying video. You’re going to hear waves. Why do you hear waves? Well, pitches are simply waves going through the air. “A” is 440 cycles per second and if you have three strings and one of them is going at a slightly slower frequency than the other ones, you get the interference wave of where they start over again. Like if two people are clapping at different speeds, eventually they match up again. It’s the same thing with this, so I’m going to detune this one string very slightly so you can hear the detuned chorus effect which makes the tone thicker like two pianos playing the same note slightly out of tune with one another.

When you go through your piano, and you hear any notes that aren’t pure, those are the notes that are out of tune. So you might go through your piano, and some of the notes will be pure and others might have waves. You want the notes to sound pure, and you don’t want to hear the strings distinct from one another. You want to hear just that one pure pitch. So in a nutshell, you want to make sure your piano’s basic pitch is up to pitch either with a tuning fork or better yet, get an app on your phone. I recommend “PanoTuner”.

This might sound crazy and even a little depressing but it’s true and a topic worth discussing. You would think having a tuner come in and tune your piano would be enough, it should be in tune right? But is it really?

The short answer is no, your piano will never be perfectly in tune. If you look back in history and at other instruments this concept is easier to understand. When it comes to singing, pitches come completely from your head, just like when a violinist plays there are no frets for them to make the exact notes and the pitches are constantly changing; this is even true of guitars where a string can bend to affect the pitch of note.

There was a period in time in when keyboards were tuned to specific keys. So, if the keyboard was tuned to D major, it was perfectly in tune in D major. It would sound O.K. in A major and possibly G major, but would sound atrocious in A-flat major or D-flat major. Eventually tuners created a system in which all the half steps are equal so that all keys are equally out of tune!

When a piano tuner tunes your piano the first thing they do is set the temperament. The temperament is taking an octave and making all the half steps equal. This means that when you play any interval other than an octave on the piano, they are all equally out of tune. So if you play a perfect 4th, 3rd, or any other pair of notes, they will all be perfectly out of tune with each other. We have gotten so used to tempered tuning that we don’t even notice it’s out of tune. However, if a string player tries to match pitch with a piano they will have to make adjustments to play in tune.

Believe it or not this gets even more complex. Stretch octaves are something that goes beyond the idea of tempered tuning. Our ears actually hear flat in the high register so to compensate for this a tuner will stretch the tuning a bit higher in the high register so it sounds right to our ears even though it is not mathematically perfect.

To keep it simple, always remember that when your piano is tuned, the tuner is striving for the perfect compromise. It’s a crazy concept but it’s true. Thanks again for joining me Robert Estrin Robert@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-3729

This is a very common question from piano owners. After all, the idea of calling someone in to tune your piano can be costly. Wouldn’t it be easier if you could learn to tune your piano yourself?

Every now and then I get comments from someone saying they are going to try to tune their own piano. They take out a pair of plyers or a locking wrench and think, “It can’t be that hard!”. Tuning a piano takes much more skill than you may think. Attempting to tune a piano in this manner can cause serious damage to your piano.

I personally learned how difficult it is to tune a piano when I was a young boy. I used to see my father touch up his piano in his studio and one day when I was alone there I thought it would be fun to try to tune one string on the piano just to see what it was like. I got out his tuning wrench and tried to tune one note. But once I struck the key I heard two notes coming out and I thought I had destroyed the piano! I sheepishly called him into the room and he very easily got the piano back in tune. If you have an interest in tuning your piano, I recommend that you acquire the right tools and try to tune just one string. You will gain a deep respect for your piano technician.

So can you tune your own piano? If you get the proper tools (tuning wrench, felt strip, rubber wedges) and appropriate software, you can attempt to tune your piano. However, only a good tuner is able to provide a tuning that will hold for a reasonable amount of time.

The Right Type of Tuning Wrench

1. The head should be removable since the best wrenches are built that way.

2. 2. Make sure the tuning wrench has a star head. A square head will go over the pin, but you will not be able to place the wrench in an ergonomic position in order to finesse the string. You absolutely need a star hex head to properly tune your piano

3. You can buy a cheap tuning hammer that will fit your basic requirements, but you are much better off getting high quality tools if you plan on tuning your piano or even doing touch-up.

Software Can Help

Luckily we live in an age where there is software available to assist in tuning your piano. I have seen professional piano tuners utilizing software on their phones! Technology has come a long way. Years ago when seeing a piano tuner come in with a strobe tuner, you knew that they were hacks. But today, the best software models the specific piano you are tuning and can offer good results in the right hands.

It’s Not Just Getting a Note in Tune

There are many aspects that go into a proper tuning that only an experienced tuner or technician can learn through the process of tuning hundreds of pianos. Getting a note in tune is just the first step. If you watch a great tuner you will notice how they strike the same note over and over again at a very loud volume to make sure the notes will hold. There are many techniques utilized by fine tuners in order to be assured that the notes will hold beyond the first hard blow.

Every string has a tremendous amount of tension on it and setting the strings properly is a very difficult task. Strings have what is called speaking length and non-speaking length areas to them. In between these sections you have points of tension. Setting a string requires you to deal with the tension points and how they will even out once you strike the string.

Once you strike the note the tension will even out and the string will immediately go out of tune. There is always a section in the back of the string where the tension is divided between another point of tension or point of termination.

As you can imagine, getting a string to set properly and hold tuning is a very complex task and is something that takes a true professional to finesse and get just right. There are also over 220 strings on most pianos, and every one will have to be set properly for the piano to stay in tune – it’s a very time consuming task!

Another thing to remember is that when you go up into the higher treble notes the sound will not last very long. So, it’s very difficult to hear or for a tuning application to register. Even an experienced tuner can have issues hearing the correct pitch in the extreme high and low registers on a piano.

Can You Do It?

If you plan on tuning your own piano you should be prepared for a lot of hard work and practice before you can reliably get your piano in tune. You will need to perform dozens of tunings before you start to become competent at it.

This article isn’t meant to scare anyway away from trying to tune a piano. But you should be aware that a piano tuner’s job is not as easy as it might seem. There is a lot of work and experience that goes into learning this craft properly and that’s why it’s both a time consuming and expensive process when done properly.

The good news is that you can learn to touch-up the tuning on your piano. This can prolong the integrity of the tuning on your piano. It is also a lifesaver if you ever have a broken string replaced since they need to be tuned 5-6 times before they hold.

Can you tune your piano with your phone? The simple answer to this question is yes, you can! What do I mean by “tuning your piano with your phone”? We’ve come to such an age where we carry super computers in our pockets, and there is remarkable software that can aid you in tuning your piano.

When I was a child, if a tuner would come to tune my father’s piano with a strobe tuner (which was the technology of the time) it was an indication of an incompetent tuner since virtually no tuner could get a piano in tune utilizing just a strobe tuner. Was it because the strobe tuner wasn’t accurate enough? It’s true that the digital technology of today is far more accurate. The technology that is offered today is even more accurate than human hearing!

But there is more to it. To get a piano to sound right, it is not a simple matter of having the piano perfectly in tune. There is a certain amount of artistry that goes into tuning a piano. There are two reasons for this. The first has to do with the deficiencies inherent with pianos. The smaller a piano is, the less fundamental tone you have and the more overtones are present. Those are higher pitches contained within each note of the piano. The overtones must blend with the fundamental tones of higher notes on the piano. There are different formulas for getting a sweet tone out of a piano This is dependent on a piano’s size and its scale design. A trained technician with experience can achieve a sweet sound throughout all registers. The other limitation is that human hearing is not perfect. When you get higher up in pitch, you actually start to hear pitches flat. So, a piano’s tuning must be stretched so that octaves are not exactly 2 to 1 mathematical relationships which is what octaves are. They are ever so slightly bigger!

Strobe tuners and technologies from year’s past did not account for any of these things. The technology today is designed to compensate for these factors. There are several free programs you can use that can assist you in tuning your piano or checking the tuning on your piano. A popular one I like to use is an app called Panotuner.

If you’ve played the piano you may be familiar with the term “A-440”. You might wonder what this actually refers to and if it’s something you need to be concerned with. Today we are going to go into detail on this subject and share everything you need to know about what A-440.

All sound is simply a series of vibrations that go through the air. The strings on a piano go through a certain number of vibration cycles per second – this is what actually produces the sound we hear. If you were to put a piano string under a microscope and slowed it way down, you would see the string moving back and forth for each vibration cycle. The air around the string also vibrates at the same frequency and when it hits your eardrums you will eventually hear the sound from the vibration the string has produced since your eardrums will sympathetically vibrate at the same speed.

So what does this all have to do with A-440? Everything! The A note above middle C should produce 440 vibration cycles per second when it is properly tuned. This is where the term A-440 comes from. You can actually test this on your own piano using a tuner or a tuner app on your smartphone.

Is it a bad thing if your piano is not tuned to A-440? It could be. Modern pianos are meant to be tuned and played at A-440 so they sound their best when they are tuned at that pitch. Some people actually like to tune their pianos a bit higher than A-440 because it produces a brighter sound they prefer. Some European orchestras tune to A-442 or even A-444 since they prefer that sound.

A-440 is the standard pitch for modern instruments.

This is especially important when you are playing with other instruments. Some instruments are able to tune up or down a certain degree and others don’t have this ability. If you were playing with someone who plays vibes or other mallet based instruments there is no way to tune these instruments. So, playing a piano tuned off of the standard A-440 pitch would sound quite ugly when played with an instrument tuned at concert pitch of A-440.

One more thing to note is that when you double the frequency of a note you simply get the same note an octave higher. So for example, if you play the A above A-440 you will produce A-880. Likewise, if you were to play an A an octave lower it would be A-220, or 220 cycles per second.

I recommend checking your piano periodically to ensure that it’s around the proper pitch. If the piano ever drops or even goes up in pitch it could take several tunings to make it stable again and achieve the correct pitch.

This really is not as easy as it sounds. Just like finding a good dentist or mechanic, finding a good piano tuner can be a great challenge. Luckily, there are resources available in finding the right piano tuner for you.

It might seem that the best decision would be to simply pick up the phone book or Google the cheapest piano tuner you can find. However, tuning a piano – and especially working on them for more advanced jobs like voicing and regulation – is a very important part of keeping your piano playing its best. You shouldn’t just trust anyone to do this job. If you find a great piano tuner your piano will actually stay in tune longer than if you use someone who is less experienced or gifted. So finding a highly skilled piano technician could actually save you money! The perspective that an experienced tuner offers can also help guide you through important decisions required in the upkeep of your piano.

As with most service professionals, one of the best resources is to contact close friends or relatives who you know have fine pianos. They will most likely have a tuner they trust and would be willing to share information with you. Another great resource is to inquire at a local University that has a performance space. They will most certainly have a piano technician they use on a regular basis. Performance venues (local symphonies) will very likely use a great piano tuner because the piano must perform on a high level for visiting artists.

Another great resource is the Piano Technicians Guild. http://www.ptg.org They are an organization that has been around for years. They have tuners and technicians listed in nearly every part of the country; they can be a great resource in finding a tuner right near you. Keep in mind that there is still a wide range of skills that registered piano technicians possess. I’ve met and worked with many tuners who are part of the guild and they are fantastic people with a passion for the piano.

Something you should be aware of is that a piano tuner is different from a piano technician. All piano technicians are piano tuners, but not all piano tuners are technicians. A technician will specialize in more advanced work like regulation, voicing, fine tuning, and other things while a tuner usually specializes in tuning and may have limited additional skill sets.