A number of people enjoy having a very clean car, a spotless house, or a dirt free garage, but I 
live for newly tuned pianos. A fresh piano tuning can completely transform any piano and knowing how brilliant my piano sounds after being tuned by a professional, I always advise my friends and clients to have their pianos frequently tuned. This is essential, especially if they play their piano regularly.
When I play my piano, I tend to lose myself in my own music. I believe this is a feeling that many pianists and musicians can relate to. When a piano is newly tuned, it is so much easier to lose yourself while playing. However, as soon as I play a few chords and I find that they are out of tune, the desire to play evaporates immediately.
If you start to avoid caring for your piano, because it just does not sound fine anymore, it is usually time to get it tuned. It is not difficult to know when a piano is out of tune. Even those who are tone-deaf are able to pick up when a piano does not sound correct. Once you obtain a professional piano tuning, you would not believe how much of a difference it makes to the amount of pleasure you receive from playing it.
My friends tell me that every time they get their pianos tuned (especially after the pianos have not been tuned for a while), they tend to play more often, just to make sure that they truly hear the soothing, strong sound similar to the sound that new pianos create. Even their children practice their lessons more!
Why Tuning the Piano is Extremely Crucial
There is much more to piano tuning than just trying to make the piano sound better. Customary maintenance prevents the following:
– The soundboard loses its crown – the amalgamation of shape and tension that augments and enhances the piano sound
– The strings develop kinks that make the piano sound “off” or funny
– Too much wear on pin-block caused by bringing up the piano to pitch
– Broken strings
– Instability that causes the piano to be in tune again can be a lot more expensive
When to Tune the Piano
It is not at all difficult to know when to take your grand piano for a tuning. I always play each key at a different level to determine if any of them sound out of tune. A number of people have called me with descriptions of how their pianos sound and asked if it was time to tune their precious musical instrument.
If you find that your piano sounds as if it is “underwater” or is playing more than one note simultaneously, it usually means that all the piano strings are uncoordinated with one another. This is certainly an indication that it is time to get a professional piano tuning.
Having your piano tuned also helps to maintain its physical appearance and interior. Pianos that are not tuned for many months or years tend to go flat. As the piano goes flat, the strings loosen up, and eventually they slide. When this happens, the strings move into a new arrangement, causing the piano to obtain new kinks around the bridge pins and bridges. If this keeps on happening without it being repaired or looked at, you will end up paying much more than you would like to for the repair work.
As soon as you hear little kinks from the sound that your piano produces, you should call a highly experienced RPT to look at your piano. Do not delay or put it off because at times, the problems can be more severe than just an out of tune piano.
How often do you get a piano tuning?