Thursday 12 October 2017

The Tuning Snob

If a piano is not in tune, surely it is out of tune! Simply put, it is one or the other!

Imagine if we piano tuners would turn up to work, flick some kind of switch, tinker about for an hour or so, play the 'Tuner's Waltz', have a cup of tea, get paid, smile and... on to the next job!

But alas, a tuner's life is not so black and white, not so easy. Whatever the piano may be: Steinway, Schimmel, Schiedmayer - just a few of those beginning with S - but Bluthner, Bechstein etc. and all the rest. All these good pianos, need regular tuning and maintenance to keep them sounding good.

Videos posted online, recordings heard on the radio, programs on the TV, all demonstrate the vast spectrum of ideas about in-tune-ness. The concept of 'in tune' can range from the boringly bland to the ridiculous clang of a poorly tuned street piano. Some people seem able to tolerate the most terrible twangs and jarring noises, oblivious to the blatant affront to musicality, while being quite serious in their playing.  

Perhaps being a piano tuner, one is unable to appreciate the honest effort of sincere musicians wanting to express their musical abilities. I find it surprising however that there is not a more widespread appreciation of the concept of being 'in tune'. 

Unhappily, 
we tuners are not among the most accommodating of people, often disagreeing about ways of doing things. For some, their own ideas and practices are the right ones - anything different, is simply wrong!

There is no point in being snooty about other ways of getting the job done - it is good that the profession is still alive and well! The truth is we can all improve. I'd be embarrassed to be met with some of my earliest tuning efforts. Thankfully, after so many years, nobody is going to complain now. We can only deal with the pianos we tune today with our very best efforts. Building experience one piano at a time. 

Tuner's Journal
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Monday 22 February 2016

Fine Tuning

Tuning is not as easy as we'd like it to be. If the piano is to be brought up to pitch, then we can expect the piano to fight back. Pianos do not seem to like change! The construction of the piano, especially the soundboard and the strings, presents the tuner with a challenge. Raising the pitch creates pressures and counter pressures within the piano so there is little hope it will stand in tune for very long until the new stresses have had time to stabilise. 

If only piano strings stayed at the pitch we leave them! In theory, keeping a piano in perfect tune is a never ending job. Practically speaking we are left to do the best we can with any given piano. A tuner's work involves making compromises which are unique for every piano we tune. The more we know a specific piano, the more straightforward the task but we still have to make judgements on what the piano can give us. Some pianos, without serious rebuilding work will never sound good, but thankfully, most pianos allow a significant improvement in the tuning.

Because piano strings stretch, there is no point fussing too much when we first get to work raising the pitch of a piano. The middle section of the piano seems to fight the pitch raising more than the high treble and low bass, so it is worth, first time through, just tuning this section. Whatever method you use to fix the pitch, be sure to tune it well sharp at this stage.

Second time through, tune the middle section again taking more care with accuracy and maybe tuning a further octave up and down. Third time through is where we can fuss all we like to achieve our goal of the finely tuned piano! 


When I was learning to tune, the old tuners used to talk about 'setting the pin'. Never quite got a clear explanation of what this actually meant but it sounded rather mysterious and seemed to be understood only by the enlightened few. 


Of course, there is no mystery. Experience teaches keen learners how to manage a stubborn and unyielding piano. Pianos with very tight tuning pins are not easy to tune.
 Our aim is to get both the pin and the string to embrace the changes we make and to be happy about it! 

Happy pianos make happy pianists!

Tuner's Journal

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Pianology