Tuner or Magician?

Tuners are often asked to work some kind of magic on an unpromising piano for a concert. It is surprising pianists don't complain about the condition of the piano they have to play! Perhaps they do - but after the event it's too late for anything to be done about it.

This kind of thing should not happen: 

A celebrity singer and her accompanist felt the piano they were given to use was not up to scratch. So, at very short notice, the tuner was given 30 minutes to work some kind of miracle with a woefully out-of-tune piano.  

Or, for a New Year's Eve event - a Piano Concerto, complete with orchestra... The piano was to arrive 28 December but could not be unpacked until New Year's Eve itself, and the tuner given one hour to tune it for the concert!

A major American comes to town with his band and entourage but need a local tuner to prepare the piano. The day before the gig, organisers ring for a tuner and reckon the job could be done in 45 minutes.

I remember as a very young tuner being sent to tune an elderly piano for a concert by an established pianist. After my initial tuning I was to tune it again after his rehearsal. Alas, he announced the piano was not good enough to play his program. Fortunately my tuning was acceptable but the piano was found wanting.

Why does this kind of thing happen? Surely, anyone who puts on events like these should have some appreciation of what is involved in preparing a piano for a fully professional concert and ensure the piano is up to the task. 

We live in an age when an instant response is expected for any request. In this respect, the piano does not belong in our modern 'instant-fix' world. Every piano is unique, it does not like rapid changes of environment, and even worse, every piano takes its own time to settle down. A pianist taking their own piano on tour has to accept a less than perfectly tuned piano - unless proper arrangements are made well in advance.

Hiring in a piano is not easy when there is little choice and/or limited funds, but who really wants to pay good money to hear good artists doing battle with an inadequate instrument? 

Tuner's Journal

© Steve Burden

Piano Tuning - A Brief Explanation.

You cannot enjoy playing an out of tune piano. Sometimes pianos can be so badly out of tune, their owners just stop playing them. When children complain the piano does not sound like the one used for their lessons, you know a tuning is long overdue! It is time to contact your local tuner.

There is a defined pitch for every note on the piano keyboard. The frequencies are calculated according to the principles of equal temperament. This piano tuning system uses mathematics to divide an octave into 12 'equal' steps. Once the ratio for a semitone is established, harmonics are used to help the tuner fix the intervals in the scale.

These harmonics are used by the tuner to set the notes in the middle octave. The tuner uses these first 12 notes in the middle octave like a template, thus being able to tune the rest of the piano - hopefully achieving equal temperament across the whole piano keyboard. How close we tuners actually get to perfect equal temperament would interest perfectionists for a very long time.

It takes many years to gain confidence in tuning pianos. A customer once said, "It takes 5 years to learn a job, another 5 to be any good at it, and a further 5 years before you can call yourself an expert!" At the time, it sounded rather harsh, but the truth is that it probably takes even longer than 15 years! Piano tuning is one of those jobs in which you never stop learning. Worse still, a tuner has to keep striving to improve if he is not to slip into complacency.  

The truth is that a tuning may not be perfect - the tuning will be as good as the particular piano will allow. To achieve a perfect tuning, one would need a perfect piano. Even an expensive new piano may not be quite as perfect as one might expect! After 50 or 60 years of wear, whatever perfection there might have been when it was a new piano, has been 'worn' away.  

However, a well-tuned piano will always be a treat to play, a pleasure to listen to and the cause of great job-satisfaction for the piano tuner. The piano tuners who continually seek to excel in the job will everyday, be fine-tuning their skill.

© Steve Burden