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Website designed, written and built by
Wes Flinn RPT - Registered Piano Technician
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♫♫♫♫ ♫♫♫ ♫♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ Website designed, written and built by Wes Flinn RPT - Registered Piano Technician |
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Piano Talk Index: Intro | Guide | Definitions | Tuning Your Piano | Tuning Your New Piano | Six Month Tuning Cycle| Piano Book |
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| ► | Piano Maintenance Programs — ? -- What's That ? |
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| The first Piano–B. Christofori c.1709 | ||||||
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Definition of a Piano Maintenance Program.
It is a set of Piano Care Procedures that is based on: • Calendar dates, • on the type and quality of Piano involved, • on the expectations the users have for it, • on the kind of use it is expected to receive, as well as • on the place where is it located. The Procedures involved could include: |
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A unique |
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• Tuning • Regulating and Lubricating • Voicing • Maintenance of a Climate Control System • Repairs that are necessary prior to being able to tune • Recurring repairs when old parts fail |
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| Steinway Square Grand Piano - 1876 | ||||||
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All such procedures are physical
actions, and not related to turning knobs or switches like on electronic
devices. The tune, the tone quality, pitch clarity, even volume
and softness of piano tones are one and all dependent on the highly
complex and purely physical adjustments of the procedures
listed above that are appropriate for a particular piano "machine".
A Piano Maintenance Program is the only route to finding out what a piano really sounds like, and also how well you as a pianist can play.
Explanation of need for a Maintenance Program: |
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Collard Art Grand - c. 1850 |
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The first miracle here is that with so many parts in its design,
a piano requires such an extremely low amount of maintenance to work
well compared to any other machine of such complexity. The tragedy here is that the piano as a class usually gets almost no maintenance during its working life, because very, very few people understand that it does need a minimum amount of regular maintenance in order to hold up well. The second miracle here is that even though a piano as a class never gets much maintenance, the piano as a machine just keeps trudging on through life and still survives for decades, often more than a century with nothing more than neglect for a reward. The big surprise here for new piano owners is when they discover that a piano is actually a machine, in fact, a physical machine — and not related at all to a plug-in stereo or an electronic keyboard, and that their new machine has to be maintained throughout its life! In our high-tech culture of today, we are not educated to understand physical machines. We understand a little about automobiles, that we have to make oil changes, etc., and that's because the majority of all people today are involved with an automobile in some way and have learned something along the way about auto maintenance. And, if we have a bicycle or boat or airplane, etc., we sometimes learn a little about the maintenance involved with physical machines. |
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| Boesendorfer Court Piano - 1897 | |||||
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Next, a big
mystery to most of the world that has to be taught: A piano by design is always going flat ! ! Yes ! — from the time it is manufactured until the time it reaches the
end of its service life. The strings are under a tremendous amount of tension, from about
25,000 lbs to 65,000 lbs on a huge concert grand piano. The
strings are always
stretching, especially noticeable when new. It takes about 7 to
10 tunings for a new piano to
become "broken in" and to settle down to stable tuning behavior — with a lightly used
home piano this might take several years or more. Once this happens the tuning might go
gradually flat, but the piano stays relatively in tune to itself, and we find mature pianos
that sound quite well up to a year or more between tunings. |
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William & Son - c. 1905 |
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Finally, then, How often should a piano be tuned, or maintained?
This is a very complex subject, and needs to be considered carefully with the
The correct answer has to be based on you and your piano, and what are your expectations for it. The answer goes from A to Z — if you want to just keep your piano out of trouble and not break apart due to lack of tuning, perhaps 1 tuning a year is good enough. If you are a recording studio, your Maintenance Program could be really often — Like DAILY ! |
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Bechstein Upright - 1906 |
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The complete answer has to be tailored to you, and includes consideration of: the condition of the piano, its age, type, location, type of use and the wishes of its owner and users. A "pat" standard or universal answer is not possible. It's easier to answer: "How often should you buy new shoes?" "Do you change oil in your car as often as a taxi cab?" "When should you wash your car?" The correct answer is: "It depends. Let's discuss all your needs and see. A recording studio may tune its piano every day; a music school like ASU every 30-60 days; a new piano needs more tuning than an older piano," and so on. It is completely correct to say that how much a piano is used does not exactly determine how often it should be tuned. Playing a piano does not necessarily knock it out of tune, but Mother Nature can knock out a tuning in 15 minutes with a weather change if the piano does not "live" in some kind of a climate controlled environment. | ||||
| Julius Hilse - c. 1885 |
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The final answer to just tuning a Piano
is: 'Tune it when it needs it, or when you want it done, but once a year
even when you don't use it.' Tuning about 2 times a year
satisfies the needs of many people. Other issues listed above, such as Regulation and Lubrication, Voicing, maintenance of Climate Control Systems, and Repairs have to be discussed specifically about a particular piano. Click here for Definitions of these terms. |
| Clementi Square - c. 1825 | ||||||
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An example of a good Maintenance Program for a Home Piano is:
• Tune the piano 4 times the first year of a
program - especially a new piano Note: Sometimes a piano will never respond to good tuning frequency until a full service is done to set it up properly, which can include Regulation, some Voicing and / or Repair. Note: Maintenance Programs are less expensive in the long run than only sporadic care. Finally: The true Piano Maintenance Program has to be worked out individually for you and your piano, and cannot be predicted in advance. However, if you want to find out what your Piano really sounds like, and if you play the piano yourself and want to know what YOU really sound like, you will set up a Piano Maintenance Program and just keep on smiling from that time forward ! |
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Piano Talk Index: Intro | Guide | Definitions | Tuning Your Piano | Tuning Your New Piano | Six Month Tuning Cycle| Piano Book |
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