owner of the Nebraska Tuning Company, LLC
Pianos are beautiful instruments, but there is often a lot of confusion about the care and maintenance they require. Below are some of the frequently asked questions asked of me. I hope you find this information useful! If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me at 402-875-6271, or tuner@nebraskatuningco.com.
How often should my piano be tuned?
Piano manufacturers recommend a piano be tuned at least twice a year. In geographic regions, like the state of Nebraska, that experience four seasons it becomes very important to tune your piano every six months. With the change of temperature and humidity from winter to summer and back again, the wood in your piano experiences a tremendous amount of contraction and expansion. This, along with the general quality of your piano, explains why a piano goes out of tune so quickly. Can some pianos get by with only tuning once a year? Yes, but you risk having to perform a pitch raise. The rule of thumb is to have your piano tuned every six months.
When a piano is regularly tuned it becomes more stable so it will fall out of tune less quickly, and each new tuning takes less time. Furthermore, your piano technician will be able to identify any problems before they become a major issue.
What is a pitch raise?
When a piano is grossly out of tune a pitch raise is required to bring the strings back up to the pitch standard of A440. When a piano has not been tuned regularly (I often encounter pianos that have not been tuned for years!) the strings will generally be extremely flat. Simply bringing the strings up to pitch risks applying uneven tension across the piano and string breakage. When conducting a pitch raise, the piano technician will have to do a preliminary tuning to increase string tension before fine tuning, which is why a pitch raise can add an additional 45 minutes to an hour to the regular tuning. Furthermore, if a piano is extremely out of tune or very old, it may be necessary to tune the piano to itself but not bring the strings all the way up to pitch.
I like to use the analogy of visiting the chiropractor for spine care when discussing pitch raises on the piano. If you are in chronic pain a single adjustment might relieve some acute pain, but the underlying problem will still be present. In order to get your body working optimally it will require additional adjustments until you can get on a regular maintenance schedule. So it is for pianos. If the piano has not been cared for it will take several tunings (including one or more pitch raises) before the tuning of the piano is stable. This is, of course, assuming that the piano is of good quality and doesn’t have any other major issues preventing it from being raised up to pitch or becoming stable.
My child is taking piano lessons. How necessary is it to tune my piano?
It is critical that a student hear and experience the music they are playing with an in-tune piano—the way it was meant to be heard. When a child is studying an instrument they are not only learning technique (the how of playing an instrument), but they are also training their ears on how to hear music. Musicianship is a combination of technique, theory (the study of how music works), and ear training (learning to identify scales, intervals, chords, etc. aurally). A piano that is out of tune hampers the student’s development of ear training. This, in turn, can have a negative effect on the overall musical development of the student. You should consider having your piano tuned both as an investment in maintaining the instrument as well as an investment in the musical education of your child.
How much does it cost to have my piano tuned?
The Nebraska Tuning Company, LLC charges $95 plus tax for a standard tuning. If your piano requires a pitch raise it will be an additional $30. If you are tuning your piano regularly (every six months) the cost averages out to only $0.52 a day!
I have a key that seems to stick, can you help with that?
This is a common problem, especially in older pianos. The piano is a large, finely engineered mechanical device with lots of moving pieces. Typically, these pieces are made of wood and move on flanges and pins that can become dirty and sticky, or break, over time. When you call a piano technician to set up a tuning you should let them know if you’re having any problems with the keys and he or she can evaluate the problem while tuning.
Many families with children studying music desire to have a real piano for their children to learn on. And rightly so! It is possible to learn a lot of the technique of playing piano at an electronic keyboard, but keyboards generally lack the touch, weight, and sensitivity of a real piano. There are electronic keyboards that offer these features, but their cost is nearly equivalent to purchasing a good used piano. Furthermore, they never sound as good as a real piano.
If you are in the market for a used piano you need to be wary of free or very low cost pianos on Craigslist. Many of these pianos are older and may not be worth the cost of getting back into playing order. Sometimes even family heirloom pianos, such as Grandma’s old upright that she wants to pass on to you, will only be worth the effort and expense of moving it and tuning it if it has high sentimental value.
Many piano technicians offer the service of evaluating used pianos for a nominal fee so consider asking a technician to perform an evaluation before purchasing a used piano. I don’t mean to be so negative though! You might find a real peach out there. A safer bet, and the option I recommend, is to visit Dietz Pianos (48th and R) because they have a great rent-to-own program for used pianos at a very low monthly rate.
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