Why Piano Tuners Preserve The Sound Of Music

Why Piano Tuners Preserve The Sound Of Music

What makes your piano work?

Some might say it’s the piano player who presses the right keys in the right order.

Others might get into the mechanics, describing the way the hammers meet the strings.

In reality, both are right to some degree.Why Piano Tuners Preserve The Sound Of Music

A piano is a sophisticated instrument built with thousands of parts. And if one of those parts isn’t working correctly or is substandard at best, the final product – the music – isn’t going to be its best.

That’s where piano tuning comes into play. Piano tuning is the science of ensuring all working parts are operating together. But more importantly, it’s also an art form to ensure each tone sounds good with the other.

That’s something you can’t get when you sit down at the piano for the first time. It’s something a good piano tuner develops over years of practice.

Imagine sitting down at a computer and making a change to one note. That one change didn’t just impact the tone of that one note, it impacted the way the piano creates music altogether. Because if that note is now not congruent with the others, it will sound “off”.

Which means that every time one change is performed, the same thing needs to be done 88 separate times to ensure every key on the piano is impacted the same way. Every key on the piano is an independent machine, coming together to create a beautiful sound.

Ant that’s the challenge. That’s where art form comes into play.

It takes gluing fabric into place, fitting tiny cork stoppers into tiny wooden holes, using tweezers to slip tiny pieces of paper into place, sanding just enough, turning tiny screws you can barely see, working in tight places with intricate tools and very large fingers – it’s the fine details that matter most.

And all of this doesn’t come naturally. It takes time to learn the best approach. It takes practice to get it all right.

But if you do, the sound of music it produces, in the end, is simply superb.

Are All Piano Tuners The Same?

Are All Piano Tuners The Same?

The piano is a complex series of wood and metal, a refined piece of machinery that is crafted to perfection. With a peak underneath the lid, you’ll find hundreds of parts all lined up ready to do their job. But it’s a work of art to make sure each piece comes together in such a way as to produce a quality sound you can’t wait to hear over and over again.Are All Piano Tuners The Same?

Yes, there may be 88 keys laid out in front of you ready to pressed and put into action. But every time one is pressed down, many parts go into play. This means several hundred strings are pulled and pushed through a complex series of twists and turns to create the perfect sound you are looking for. And because they move with every push of the key, occasionally they don’t return to their original position.

It takes time. It’s a gradual process. You’ll never notice it after one touch of the key. But it’s there just the same. It’s like having to tune a guitar before you play a song. Or having to tune your car before you run it in a race.

Working parts have to be tuned over and over again to maintain precision.

And while many people can work on a piano, anyone can claim to know how to turn a wire and add weight to the hammers, there is a difference in the approach that they take.

Pianos have to be tuned on a regular basis, whether they are played daily or not. It’s not just playing that impacts a piano; it’s also its location, the climate, maintenance routines, and more.

It’s also the experience of the piano tuner. A great tuner understands all the nuances that go into play; they know the right questions to ask, and more importantly, understand what to look for in the piano before they begin.

Before you hire a piano tuner, ask a few questions to anyone vying for the job.

Where did you study and for how long? What are your qualifications?

How long have you been tuning pianos?

Where have you worked? What venues and what types of pianos?

Do you have recommendations?

You can always start by giving us a call. We have a list of select tuners we use regularly, ones we know will get the job done correctly every time.