How To Play Puncture Repair On Piano

You may take heard the proverb: "Life is like a piano. What you get out of it depends on how you lot play it." Well, what y'all get out of a piano may also depend on how often yous tune information technology.

Why Do Information technology? How Often?

A piano creates sounds when its padded hammers, connected to its keys, strike metallic wires of different gauges and lengths. The sound produced by a vibrating piano wire alone is pretty weak. Similar to virtually stringed instruments, sound produced by a pianoforte's strings is amplified every bit a result of the vibrations being carried beyond a wooden "bridge" to a soundboard, which is a long, thin, wooden piece set into the piano. Soundboards are very delicate, and attract and lose moisture easily. As changing humidity levels make a soundboard expand or contract, the bridge is raised or lowered. That, in turn, tightens or loosens the cord tension, causing the piano to become out of melody.

Since humidity levels modify almost constantly, technically speaking, information technology is virtually impossible to go along a piano perfectly in tune. That's why pianos used in concert halls and recording studios are tuned earlier each session.

Unfortunately, at that place's not a nifty bargain of consensus among piano manufacturers and tuners about how frequently pianos used in homes should exist tuned. Most experts recommend tuning one time or twice per year. But some pianos will become out of melody faster than others because of their construction and the differences in humidity levels from region to region, home to home, and even room to room.

Ultimately, your own tolerance and usage will determine how often you'll want to have your piano tuned.

It may be hard for you lot to judge on your own whether or non your piano needs to be tuned. Since a pianoforte becomes out of melody very slowly over time, y'all tin can actually become accepted to the sound it creates—even if that sound is out of melody.

Ane way to gauge is to listen carefully for inaccurate notes while playing elementary scales and chords: notes that are out of tune will more easily reveal themselves when played before or after other, in-tune notes, or as part of common chords. Some other way to tell by ear is to use a pitch fork (bones models price between $xx and $threescore).

If you lot're not confident that you lot tin tell by ear whether your pianoforte needs to be tuned, you tin use an electronic tuner or software. Bones electronic tuners cost less than $50 and tuning software packages (used in conjunction with a reckoner equipped with a microphone) price between $75 and $300. Tuning equipment and software used past professionals cost much more (and many tuners we spoke with warned that cheaper, bones equipment isn't accurate).

Nearly musicians who play regularly take their pianos tuned twice a year: once in the spring and over again in the fall.

If you play irregularly—or if you just don't mind if your piano is slightly out of tune—you may have it tuned less oftentimes. Merely keep in mind that letting your piano go grossly out of tune volition result in a higher neb when you finally have it corrected, since the piano tuner will take to adjust information technology at least 2 times: once to raise the overall pitch of the instrument, then some other time to retune it. Several piano tuners nosotros spoke with warned that if a client waits until a piano is noticeably out of tune, it may accept at least twice as long—with at least double the price—to correct it. But if you lot have the tuning washed rarely enough, the college fees for the occasional tuning will be less than the cumulative costs of frequent tunings.

What Tuners Practise

Almost all piano tuners adjust pianos co-ordinate to the "A=440 Hz" standard, which ways that when A-above-middle-C is played, the tone produced equals 440 Hertz (a standard, universal benchmark for tuning pianos, violins, and other instruments).

But tuning a piano isn't as straightforward as just making sure that all notes match fixed pitches on the musical scale. Every piano is acoustically unique, and every pianoforte is placed in dissimilar acoustical settings, so every pianoforte produces a slightly dissimilar audio, fifty-fifty if every central is tuned to lucifer perfectly its assigned pitch. If keys are tuned but to lucifer their respective pitch levels, the piano may notwithstanding sound out of tune. For this reason, tuners commonly make adjustments by ear every bit they work to ensure that the interaction between notes within each octave really sounds correct, even if the notes are not perfectly in tune co-ordinate to an electronic device.

Virtually tuners volition use electronic devices when tuning pianos, but some eschew them. In any instance, we don't run across any compelling reason to choose a tuner based on whether or not he or she uses electronic tuning equipment. Several pianoforte tuners we spoke with said they would have no problem tuning any piano without electronic tuning equipment, just since the engineering exists and is usually accurate, why not use information technology? For a skilled piano tuner, using electronic tuning equipment is akin to an experienced copy editor's keeping spell cheque activated when writing.

Tuners will as well check a piano'south "regulation" to make sure it properly responds when its keys are pressed. Ideally, the keys should exist set to produce notes with proper audio levels at equal pressure; y'all don't want to have to hitting one key harder than another key to produce the same level of sound.

Most pianoforte tuners likewise offering "voicing," which is an adjustment of a piano's tone and quality of audio. The tone and quality of sound can be adapted without affecting the piano'southward pitch just every bit the bass or treble settings on a stereo can exist changed without altering the pitch of the notes. Voicing is a procedure in which extreme sounds are reshaped, excessively shrill trebles are mellowed, and offensively depression tones are calmed. The thought is to make your pianoforte "sing," "croon," or "blare" in an intentional manner.

While tuning work generally involves adjusting the tension of wires so that each central produces the right pitch, voicing unremarkably involves manipulating the shape and density of the hammer felts, string alignment, and pedal operation. Since voicing is tiresome work, almost all tuners charge an boosted fee for it. Just dissimilar tuning, voicing work is long lasting, and unremarkably but needs to be performed every three to five years.

Finding a Quality Tuner

Information technology's somewhat surprising that—even though piano tuning is a difficult, boring task—just nigh all of the comments we've received for piano tuners have been positive. Examples of the accolades include—

• "[He] is a truthful artist. He is an exceptional piano tuner, and has besides washed some splendid repairs. He is knowledgeable in all aspects of the needs of a pianoforte. I can't recommend him highly plenty."
• "Always prompt, very accommodating virtually scheduling, and usually fixes one or ii additional things on our 100-year-quondam piano without additional charges."
• "He reconditioned my piano, came when it had a few kinks without extra charge, and tunes it as needed upon request. It'southward most fourth dimension for a tuning and I'll be calling him soon."
• "[He] is the just person I would trust around my fourscore-year-one-time Steinway grand pianoforte. He is meticulous and extremely knowledgeable, and his prices are very fair."
• "A good pianist himself with music background, easy to talk to, ready with information. I await forward to his biannual pianoforte tuning—he reinspires my desire to play."

To choose a tuner, talk with friends about experiences they've had. Y'all can also check our ratings of piano tuners.

Everything else being equal, you lot may likewise rent a piano tuner who is certified equally a "Registered Piano Technician" (RPT) by the Piano Technicians Society. Piano tuners who are certified equally RPTs take passed a series of iii exams that test general cognition of pianoforte technology besides as applied skill in piano repairs, action regulation, and timing. These tests are non piece of cake; more than one-half of the tests taken are failed. Although there are competent piano tuners who are not certified, there are enough who are, so you lot may as well have advantage of this quality check.

Keep in mind that piano tuners may exist members of the Piano Technicians Guild without holding the RPT certification (these members are referred to as "Associates"). You tin bank check the Piano Technicians Guild's website to get a list of RPTs in your area.

No thing whom y'all hire, talk with your tuner well-nigh your likes and dislikes before he or she begins piece of work—since every piano produces unlike audio, and individuals have different tastes and preferences. One time the chore is complete, take your piano for a exam drive; if it doesn't sound correct to you, ask the tuner for advice on whether or not farther correction is needed.

Shopping for Price

Since customers seem to exist overwhelmingly satisfied with their tuners, you lot may as well shop for price.

Our mystery shoppers called a sample of local pianoforte tuners and asked them to quote prices to tune a 10-year-old, Steinway grand pianoforte, which is played regularly, and was last tuned virtually one year previously. Nosotros constitute dramatic firm-to-firm cost variation: the lowest toll nosotros were quoted was $65; the highest price was $150. The table below shows the prices nosotros were quoted and the firms that we contacted for quotes.

We besides asked tuners if the person who would exist performing the tuning piece of work was certified as an RPT. Nosotros found that on average certified tuners' prices were somewhat higher than those of non-certified tuners, only at that place were some certified tuners who were among the everyman priced of all tuners.

Keep in listen that when nosotros shopped for prices, we told tuners that our sample piano had been tuned about one year previously, and that we asked tuners to quote a price bold that the piano's pitch would merely have to be raised slightly and that no voicing piece of work would demand to be done. Tuners for the most part accuse a flat rate for tuning work, and and then charge by the hour for other, non-routine tasks, such as voicing or raising the piano'south pitch. Then you can expect a college fee if your piano hasn't been tuned for a long time or needs additional work.

Piano Tuning Prices1 All-time prices are in bold italics
Barton Player Piano, Minneapolis, 612-378-1102	$85
Dale'southward Pianoforte Service, St Cloud, 320-253-7499	$95
Mark Fischer Pianoforte Service, Northfield, 507-645-5358	$65
Richard Folden, Maplewood, 651-772-3181	$85
Tom Gunderson Piano Service, White Bear Lake, 651-770-5725	$120
Bruce Hagen Piano Service, Lakeville, 952-898-9690	$105
Kenneth Hannah, Stillwater, 651-430-1218	$105
Russ Harden Piano Service, St Paul, 651-644-5154	$90
Tomas Hardy Piano Tuning & Repair, St Paul, 651-227-1784	$85
Paul Klitzke, St Paul, 651-778-8841	$120
Dennis Kurk, Roseville, 651-484-3688	$80
Laursen Piano Service, Minnetonka, 952-988-9363	$82
Thomas Moore Piano Tuning Service, St Paul, 651-771-7139	$130
Efraimson Ochs Piano Tuning, Shoreview, 651-484-1593	$115
Jerome Scanlon, Woods Lake, 651-464-5649	$80-$85
Stephenson Piano Service, St Paul, 651-774-1633	$120
Three Cedars Pianoforte Service, Northfield, 507-663-0776	$100
Tollefsrund Piano Service, Minneapolis, 612-377-1008	$95-$105
Ye Olde Piano Shoppe, Minneapolis, 612-729-0711	$85
1 We asked firms to quote their prices to tune a Steinway grand piano (which had last been tuned i year previously) by stabilizing its cord tension and maintaining its pitch at A=440. We asked firms to quote prices assuming no voicing work would be needed.

Source: https://www.checkbook.org/twin-cities-area/piano-tuners/

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