How Do You Know When It's Time To Tune A Piano?

Having your piano tuned is definitely the single most important part of the instrument's maintenance, but unfortunately, very few piano owners follow a reasonable schedule when it comes to having their pianos tuned. Piano owners often think that they can go years between tunings and everything will be fine, or that they can try to replace a professional tuning by subscribing to some myth or old wives tale (like keeping jars of water in their piano), but this simply isn't the case. To truly get the most out of your piano, it needs to be taken care of by a professional, and with regularity.

When does my piano need tuning?

It's an often heard question among tuning technicians and piano manufacturers, most of whom suggest a minimum of two times a year. Depending on what type of climate you live in, however, once about every three months (or whenever the seasons change) would be an optimal schedule for tuning.

What do the seasons have to do with piano tuning?

With every seasonal change there are also usually drastic changes in both temperatures and levels of humidity. Your piano has been meticulously crafted out of wood, and wood is a material that is particularly susceptible to changes in humidity and moisture.

The changes in the level of moisture cause the wooden sound board to expand and shrink causing a big change in the tension of the strings, and causing the piano to go out of tune.

If it's impossible for you to afford the once every three month tunings, there are a few things that you can do on your own to help keep your piano in the best shape possible between a less frequent maintenance schedule.

Preventative maintenance

Try to keep the temperature of your home at a relatively consistent level; despite what the temperature outside happens to be. Somewhere in the neighborhood of seventy degrees would be ideal.

Keep your piano away from direct sources of heat and cold. Avoid getting too close to radiators or central air and central heat registers.

Try to keep your piano away from direct sunlight. You may be surprised to find that, even if your home's thermostat is set to seventy and its cooler outside, direct sunlight can make the piano very hot and cause an internal increase in humidity, wreaking havoc with the tuning.

There are also internal humidity control mechanisms that can be installed inside of your piano to monitor and regulate levels of humidity to make sure that all of the internal wooden components stay at the optimal level of humidity and keep your piano in as good a shape as possible. Though this can be a bit of an initial investment, it will prevent you from needing to have your piano tuned every three or so months, so it would likely save you some money in the long run.

Your piano can also become out of tune from an over abundance of play, this however is a best case scenario. The more often you sit down to play your piano, the more enjoyment it is probably bringing to you and those around you, so if you are playing so much that you need frequent tunings, the investment in your piano was a very wise one. If you are one of the few with this problem, you should consider yourself lucky.

If you follow along with the preventative maintenance suggestions, then the suggested twice annual tunings will probably be enough to keep your beloved piano in shape. If you can afford the internal humidity control, that's even better for your piano's health. The bottom line is - have your piano professionally tuned and maintained as often as you can to keep it's environment as ideal as possible - if you can do that, your piano will give you years and years , if not a lifetime of beautiful music.