Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today, we’re going to talk about how to care for your piano. If you have a nice instrument, you want it to last a long time. Not only that, you want it to play well for you on a regular basis. I’m going to give you some simple tips today that will help you extend the life of your piano and make it play better for the time you own it.
The first thing is the environment your piano is in.
It’s vital to provide a stable environment for your piano in regards to temperature and humidity. It’s really pretty simple. If it’s a place you would be comfortable sitting day in and day out, your piano is going to do great! Excessive humidity takes its toll on a piano. The strings can rust, and the action can become sluggish because wherever there’s friction, there are felt bushings. And those felt bushings can absorb moisture. As a result, it gums up, and everything becomes sluggish. On the flip side, you don’t want to keep your piano in a really dry environment. Let’s say you have a home with forced hot air, or worse yet, if the hot air vent is under your piano, it could actually dry out the soundboard and crack it. You could destroy your piano, and it could take tens of thousands of dollars of work to either replace or repair the soundboard. So you really want a median humidity in the 45-50% range. If you get down to single digits or up to 85-90% humidity, you’ll have problems over time. Also, if you have big swings in temperature, it can affect the tuning stability.
Equally important is the maintenance of your piano.
I can’t tell you how many times people contact us and say, “I got a piano. It’s perfect. It just needs tuned.” And by that, they mean they have a piano that they haven’t tuned in ten years. It’s like if you had a car and hadn’t changed the oil in ten years. Your piano is not going to be the same. It’s going to take major work to get it in tune. And it’s possible that the piano might start breaking strings. It can be really tough. So you want to maintain your piano on a regular basis. What does that really mean?
The Piano Technicians Guild recommends four tunings a year, and that’s a good number.
Now, believe it or not, some people should tune their pianos even more than that. My father had two grand pianos in his studio, and because he taught on the pianos and practiced on them, he had them tuned every month! You might think that’s excessive, but the more you play a piano, the more it goes out of tune. In a perfect world, your piano would be tuned every day! But of course, that’s not practical. Four times a year is a good amount for most people. And the real minimum is twice a year. Why twice a year? Well, when you go from heat to air conditioning, and then back again later in the season, the piano can shift. Interestingly, it might sound okay, but the whole piano might lose pitch. Sometimes, a piano can even go higher than pitch! The secret to keeping your piano in tune is keeping it as stable as possible.
The more you tune a piano, the longer it will hold its tuning.
If a piano hasn’t been tuned for a long time, the next tuning won’t hold very long. So keep up with your tuning. Put it in your calendar. You have two or three strings on most notes of the piano. If they’re not right in tune with each other, you hear waves or beats. It doesn’t have a pure sound. If you hear that, it’s time to tune your piano. If you’re wondering if your piano has lost pitch, there are tuner apps you can get on your phone, and you can check to make sure the pitch is stable. If you start seeing that A has deviated from 440 more than 1 or 2 cycles, it may be time to tune your piano.
Lastly, but also important, is the furniture.
After all, a piano is one of the most significant pieces of furniture you have in your home. You want to keep it looking nice. What do you need to do? Well, simply dust your piano with either a cotton cloth or a microfiber cloth. That’s all you should need to do most of the time. If you get smudges on your piano, you can dampen the cloth slightly. If it’s a piano with a hand-rubbed finish where you can see the lines, or if there’s woodgrain in your piano, rub in the direction of the lines. And that’s really all you want to do. Because if you use any product on your piano, it builds up over time and has to be professionally removed.
What about the inside of the piano?
If you keep your piano open all the time, dust will collect in there. You can try blowing it out with a vacuum cleaner, but that can get pretty messy. Even then, the soundboard can get really gummed up with dust. Your piano technician will have a tool to get under there. They actually take out the action and then get under there with the tool and clean it for you. You don’t have to do that that often, but you want to keep up on it so it doesn’t get really dirty because then it can actually inhibit the sound, and it gets harder to clean if you go a really long time. That’s one reason why it’s best to keep your piano closed, particularly at night if you keep your windows open.
So those are the main things to think about.
Provide a nice, stable environment for your piano. If it’s comfortable for you, it should be good for your piano. Keep up with tuning and servicing. Get your piano tuned every 3-6 months. You can periodically do other maintenance with voicing and regulation to keep it playing at a high level. Clean the furniture and the interior, but don’t use products. These simple steps can keep your piano looking great, sounding great, and preserve it for decades to come. I hope this is helpful for you! Thanks again for joining me, Robert Estrin, here at Living Pianos: Your Online Piano Resource. Join the discussion at LivingPianos.com where you can leave your comments on countless articles with accompanying videos.
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8 thoughts on “How to Care For Your Piano”
Having worked my way through 3 RPTs (Register Piano Technicians) I determined there are many who are ‘tooners’ and far from technicians. I have defaulted to technicians who have trained for at least 2 years at a trade school (e.g. North Bennet Street, Boston, MA) and then been factory trained by Kawai, Bosendorfer, Steinway, and / or Yamaha.
Merely taking a correspondence course in ‘tuning’ and then passing the RPT test does not make a fully versed technician. If you’ve invested $40K and more into a conservatory grade instrument, it (and you) deserve the best service.
Having the RPT designation can sometimes just mean that they pay their dues. There are piano technicians of varying abilities both who are Registered Piano Technicians, and those who don’t have the RPT label. Having gone to one of the schools is also not an indication of quality of technicians. Most of the great technicians have had some sort of mentorship along the way with another great technician. If a technician does concert prep at a major venue or with a top-notch performing organization, that is usually an indication of a high standard of work.
Thank you for the very informative article. How do you recommend cleaning ivory keys?
Here is how to clean ivory keys: https://livingpianos.com/how-to-clean-piano-keys/
My piano has a very high gloss black paint and it seems to attrack dust. The tuner recommended I use Cory spray and it works well. Should I spray the Cory on a soft cloth or directly on the piano and then wipe it with a soft cloth? Is it Ok to use denatured alcohol to wipe the keys? I made a strip of felt to cover the keys before closing the keyboard, I think it should help with the changes in humidity, that I try to keep around 50%, but in summer it can be higher. The floor vent for the AC and heater is 5′ from the piano.
Cory makes good products. It’s probably preferable to spray it on the cloth unless there is really messy smudges on the piano. Unless the keys are ivory, alcohol should be fine. Simply using a slightly damp paper towel or cotton swab, or white vinegar also works.
Mr. Estrin what did folks do hundreds of years ago before central air and stuff, or in large auditoriums?
It was a big challenge keeping pianos in good shape before the advent of climate control. Closing the piano when not in use, and covering it could help. But they had to have far more upkeep.