4 Tips To Maintaining Quality Piano Care

With the right treatment, a fine piano is an investment that can stay in your family for generations. Pianos are built to last, and to be passed down when the time comes.

However, they don’t take care of themselves, and a poorly-maintained piano can easily become too expensive to be worth restoration. A little maintenance and everyday care truly does make a world of difference when it comes to ensuring your piano remains a part of your family’s lives.

While we certainly do restorations, no one likes to see a beat-up piano. So let’s talk a bit about piano care, and how you can keep your instrument in top condition!

Four Tips For Proper Piano Care Over The Years

1 – Get In Tune With The Seasons

No area of piano maintenance tends to get overlooked more than tuning, since it usually requires bringing in a specialist. Plus, pianos tend to hold their sound well enough that it takes awhile to notice off notes.

However, your piano is still steadily falling out of tune all the time, and major climate shifts – especially the changing of the seasons – only speed up the process. By the time you hear the first couple sour notes, most of the keyboard is probably at least a few microtones off. This means much longer tuning sessions when you do call in a piano tuner.

Ultimately, you’ll save money in the long run with seasonal tunings, plus you’ll have a piano that’s always on-key no matter the season!

2 – Control Your Piano’s Climate

Ideally, the perfect climate for a piano is a temperature in the low 70s, with a humidity level around 40%. Now, we can’t all keep perfect climate control, but the closer you can get to that, the better. Along with affecting the tuning, high heat or high humidity can warp a piano, and a cold or dry environment encourages cracks.

Try not to allow the room that holds your piano to become too warm or cold, don’t keep it in direct sunlight or near air vents, and considering investing in a (de)humidifier depending on the moisture levels in your area.

It’s especially important to never leave windows open in a room with a piano, especially overnight. Condensation on a piano will get absorbed by the wood, leading to warping.

3 – Clean It Like Any Fine Furniture

Luckily, there’s nothing very special about exterior piano care. In virtually all cases, it can be cleaned in the same way as any other good piece of wooden furniture. Use gentle cleaning solutions with soft materials, and regular feather-dustings will help keep the keyboard clear of dust buildup between the keys.

Also, to keep the keyboard cleaner, leave the cover up once or twice a week. The extra airflow overnight will clear out excess dust and, especially discourage mold growth between the keys. If mold starts to grow, it can quickly make its way into the framework.

4 – Nothing Sits On The Piano Besides Music

No matter what it is, resist the urge to put it on top of your piano. It’s easy to start using a piano as a shelf, but that will only damage it. Pianos are vulnerable to scrapes, scratches, spills, and virtually any kind of accident. Further, they simply weren’t designed to support extra weight. Even something like a felt-bottom piano lamp can ultimately cause damage, either to the case or the finish.

This goes double for drinks. It’s never a good idea to keep any sort of liquid, even water, anywhere on a piano. The potential for spills is too high, and there’s too much that could get damaged if liquid seeps in.

Now, if you are in need of any sort of piano maintenance, just let us know and we’ll be right there to help. In the meantime, what are your favorite piano care tips?