Piano Maintenance and Tuning

June 11, 2020

TLDR: Tune your pianos twice a year if you’ve moved it, then have them tuned at least once a year!

Acoustic pianos generate sound by means of piano key connected to an action hammer which hits a steel wire pulled tightly at two ends. Over time, the tension relaxes and the piano starts to go flat. As a result, pianos need to be tuned periodically to maintain the correct sound or “pitch”. A piano technician turns the tuning pins inside the piano with a specialized wrench called a tuning hammer to correct the pitch.

Tuning schedule: If you just bought a piano and have had it moved to your home, the wooden components of the piano will start to expand or shrink according to the humidity and temperature in your home. In the first year, expect to have your piano tuned at least once every 6 months as there will be large fluctuations in the tuning. As your piano acclimatizes, it should only need a tuning about once a year. The best time to have it tuned is around December/January when outdoor temperatures stabilize below 0C or May/June with the opposite scenario.

Older pianos may get out of tune quite quickly and require frequent tunings because the tuning pins lose their grip on the wooden pinblock over time. If your piano has not been tuned in years, it may need a few tunings to get it back up to the international pitch standard, called A440. Tuners will accomplish this with a pitch raise – which can result in broken strings in some particular cases. Since a pitch raise is a special procedure, it generally comes with an additional fee.

Finding a tuner: You can contact your teacher for references or find qualified technicians on the Piano Technicians Guild. An average piano tuning ranges from $80 to $120 and takes approximately one to two hours.

Maintenance: If it’s convenient to do so, position your piano against an inside wall (not a wall which meets the outside of the house). Keep the humidity and temperature as steady as possible, ideally 20C/68F and 42% humidity. You can buy a wall hygrometer to monitor the humidity as well. Use your home thermostat to regulate the temperature and a room humidifier/dehumidifier to regulate the humidity. Another option is to install a Dampp-Chaser climate control system for your piano. Ask your local piano store or piano technician for details and pricing.

Long-term maintenance: With frequent practice, the piano hammers that generate the sound for the piano will start to wear down, resulting in an increasingly unpleasant metallic tone. If you start to notice that the sound is deteriorating, you may wish to have your piano voiced – a procedure where the hammers are sanded down, reshaped with an iron, and carefully needled to restore the piano’s warm tone.

Voicing and regulation: Pianos that have been voiced multiple times may eventually need to have the hammers replaced. At that point, certain other piano action parts may need to be replaced or regulated as well. Some signs that a piano needs to be regulated include: wobbly, stick or uneven keys; keys that are not level; keys that seem to “double-tap” or make two sounds at once; keys that sometimes make no sound; keys that are stuck; keys that keep ringing after you’ve let go of the key. There are a myriad of other problems that can arise over the lifetime of a piano. If your piano is not serving you well, talk to your piano technician!

Digital piano issues: Digital pianos have a delicate mechanism underneath each key. Over time, keys may not respond evenly and require regulation. Unfortunately, this generally requires a specialized piano technician as most technicians are only trained to regulate acoustic pianos. It’s generally advised that if your digital piano starts to develop problems, you should consider replacing it with a more durable or reliable piano as the current piano will not be sufficiently durable in the long run.