March 29, 2024

Aural piano tuning versus electronic piano tuning

Why learning how to tune a piano aurally when you can use an electronic piano tuner device or a piano tuning software? Aural piano tuner versus electronic piano tuner, what is best? 

In the world of piano tuning, this current topic has been around for quite a while. Tuning a piano with an electronic device never has been completely accepted by the community of piano tuners, specially the senior ones, as it was consider poor quality and unprofessional sort of piano tuning. However, during the last decade or so, have appeared a new generation of much more accurate electronic tuners and computer programs.

Although I always been in favor of aural tuning, (still I am) have to admit that thes days  is possible to tune a piano to areasonable good standard with an electronic tuner. The only drawback is its high price and therefore the difficulty to make them worth unless you tune many pianos.

There are two basic types of electronic tuners, the chromatic ones (fairly inexpensive) and the specially dedicated for tuning the pianos used by professionals in general, as we said before, quite dear.

With a chromatic tuner you can tune just about anything, You can use a chromatic tuner to tune a piano, but have to follow a certain procedure (already explained by me in another article). In short, have to recalibrate at every step. Also these chromatic tuners can’t read too well the very low and high frequencies of the piano, so you must have the ability to tune by ear at least unisons and octaves.

Specific computer and electronics piano tuners and its main applications
These ones are specially thought for pianos. They can read partials, correct inharmonicity and calculate the stretch for every note in the piano. All these functions are produced automatically, so you only have to worry about reading and tuning. These more sophisticated tuners can also have some interesting applications:

One of the most atractive applications I can see is to be able to record a good aural tuning, so you can reproduce in the future as many times as you want. Just think, you are inspired and produce an outstanding aural tuning in a particular piano, why not record it? So when you tune again the same piano you can replicate the same excellent tune you did before. You never know, maybe next time the muses will not be around. Inspiration? yes it’s a fact, some days you tune better than others.

Another important function, probably the most interesting one, is when tuning in noisy environments. In these situations when hearing the beats can be tricky, an electronic tuner can be of great help and significantly improve your tuning. In some of these electronic or computer tuners you have also the possibility to connect accessories like a contact mike.

Also an electronic tuner can make life easier when tuning to a non-standard pitch, for instance, A 442. That kind of tuning is required mainly when the piano is going to play with brass instruments as those have the particularity to lift their pitch when they have been playing for a while.

Can also be handy when tuning two pianos that have to play together. You tune one piano aurally and record the tuning, then replicate the tuning you have just recorded on the second piano to the exact parameters.

Summary
So, you could ask: Why to learn to tune a piano aurally when you can use an electronic piano tuner device or a piano tuning software? An electronic or computer based piano tuner can be a good asset  and certainly a valuable tool for professional piano tuners, but in no way can replace aural tuning. To have a good insight of his job a piano tuner should always be able to tune a piano aurally. That will no doubt enhance considerably the quality of his work.

In my opinion aural and electronic tuning are compatible, and there is nothing that indicates the contrary. The two ways can co-exist and work nicely side by side. Why not to used the best of both worlds? After all, technology is here to stay, or so they say.

©  copyright Juan Olalla 2010 

What do you think about this article, has it been helpful to you? Got some questions? Please leave a reply. Your opinion and/or suggestions are highly appreciated. Thanks                                                      

Old pianos, the plain truth

 This is about Old Pianos, and how their owners often overate them. In plain words, an old piano  regarded as a “gem” by his/her owner, for the piano tuner is often just a piece of  “old junk”. Better not to say!

Not long ago, (probably a few years) I had a telephone call asking to tune a piano. By the tone of her voice, I guessed the potential customer was and old lady. I must point out that every time I get a call asking for an appointment, I ask for some information. Things  like, what’s the piano maker, how old it is, (the piano, not the customer), and so on. But this time, I probably was busy and didn’t ask more information, just the address. Big mistake.

Few days later I went to do the job, which incidentally was quite far away, in a village about 100 kms. from my place. A charming old lady was there to greet me. Her house, full of antiques, truly looked like a museum. The whole place expired tradition and memories. In that house everything was old, very old. By the way, the pic of the piano in this entry doesn’t correspond to the piano involved in this story.  This is just a  pic from a piano rougly the same period. but in a much better condition.

She took me to the piano, “the jewel” she said. When I saw the “jewel”, at first glance I knew that wasn’t my lucky day. I cursed my negligence for not asking sufficient information before accepting the job and giving an appointment. Let me clarify this, I don’t undertake jobs for pianos over a certain age and state.  Experience tells you, in the vast majority of circunstances they are not worth it. Not for the piano owner neither for the piano tuner.

Any way, it was a massive upright piano, probably mid-19th century, that is about 150 years old, easily. All kind of ornaments, chandeliers and so on, so highly appreciated at the time. I open the top lid, and as expected, a total ruin. The strings, all rusty. The action, neglected and completely out of condition. Also, as in all the pianos of that time, wooden string-plate. 

For the ones of you who don’t know, a piano with a wooden plate, is a piano that in the vast majority of cases, simply is not tunable, and therefore useless, at least from a technical point of view, of course. Cast-iron plates only started to be broadly manufactured around the beginning of the 20th century.

I must admit that my first impulse when I saw the “jewel” was to give an excuse and run away. But not, I didn’t chicken out. After all, I wasn’t prepare to waste the whole day and do about 200  kms. just for nothing. So, I started seriously inspecting the piano.

As I was evaluating the piano, and by extension the silly mess I got myself in, the charming old lady was illustrating me. She bought the piano only two months ago from an old gentleman that obviously had known better times. He inherited the piano from his parents, who at the same time, inherited it from his grandparents.

It is a gorgeous piano which have seen several generations and therefore of a very high value (she reasoned). I am a little bit ashamed to say (she giggled) but the best thing is that I bought this beauty for a ridiculous bargain price (she lowered her voice), just 2000 euros. 

I almost faint, 2000 euros!!?? For me, that old thing wasn’t worth it the money to transport it, and this woman had paid 2000 eutos!!. I wouldn’t accept that piano, even as a gift!!. As often happens, she was totally unconcern about the mechanical condition of the instrument and because there were no missing keys, she more or less figure out that an ordinary piano tuning would be all that was required to bring the piano back to live.

There are times and situations in the life of a piano tuner that are hateful, and this was one of them. How to tell this nice old lady that her piano wasn’t exactly a “jewel”. Well, trying to be as diplomatic as I possible could, I told her that although her piano was certainly a beauty, in reality the mechanical condition left much to be desired, so what the piano needed wasn’t just a tuning, but a restoration.

Now then, a full restoration (I kept informing the lady) would be extremely costly (I wasn’t certainly, willing to do it) and an ordinary standard tuning, little less than impossible, as the pin-block wouldn’t hold the new pressure of the strings (the piano was about one and a half whole steps down).  In the very improbable case that the piano were able to hold the tune, it would be needed at least three sessions to raise the piano pitch, up to standard.

 The lady, to my amazed, didn’t look surprised at all, and took it quite well. This made think that maybe she new more about the piano than she admitted to know. Well, she insisted that I tuned the piano lower pitch, so at least she could play it. 

Then, I did one of the things I most dislike. That is to tune a piano lower pitch. But the customer is always right and the one who subscribes have neither will nor intention to discuss the instructions of his payer. The piano was tuned a whole step down (as requested, impossible to tune it any higher)) and I also did a couple of repairs and odd regulations. 

To finish the whole job took me about four hours. I have to do a first rough tuning, follow by a second fine one. Hated the job, but at least, the old lady was happy to “play” her piano and I didn’t wasted the day and the long driving.  A day to reflect and also to forget.

Notice: If you are a newbie piano tuner or want to work as a such,  I strongly advice you to keep your thoughts (regarding a very old piano) to yourself, as that piece of “old junk” can mean a lot to his/her owner. In order to survive in this business, better to be polite and discreet.

©  copyright Juan Olalla 2010 

Has his articule been helpful to you? Got some questions? Please, leave a reply. Your opinion and/or suggestions are highly appreciated. Thanks                                                      

Why some pianos don’t stay in tune

Why some pianos don’t stay in tune (after you tuned them)
You have done what looks like a good piano tune, but after a few days or even hours the piano is out of tune, again !!?? Does it sound familiar to you? Two hours of work wasted. What went wrong?

This is one of the most popular topics in the world of piano tuning. Why some pianos don’t stay in tune. What can we do to properly fix a tune so that the piano stays tuned for a reasonable period of time.

This nuisance may be due basically to two main  reasons. The first one, to an improper use of the tuning hammer. The second one, to the fact that the piano that you are trying to tune could be simply “not tunable”. Yes, some pianos are not possible to tune for a number of reasons.

Very old pianos, specially if they still have wooden frames are in the vast majority of circumstances impossible to tune. The pin-block, far too old can’t hold its grip on the pins, and therefore the tension falls and the strings flatten down very soon, sometimes at the same time as you tune.

Also, a piano that doesn’t stays in tune may be due to structural problems. For example; a broken pin-block. Also a cast-iron plate can be broken or just fissured, even the frame can be damage. In any of those cases the repair can be very costly, and only worth in prestigious expensive brands.

Now, if the piano is fairly new, chances are that the reason for don’t staying in tune is due to a faulty tuning lever manipulation. In my opinion, a good technique with the tuning hammer, accounts for at least half of the success of a piano tune. What to do then? Obviously improve your skill with the tuning hammer.

Have in mind something very important. For a piano to stay in tune is utterly important to properly set pins and strings. My advice; strike the keys solidly “staccato” stile, don’t be afraid. Also, move the tuning hammer a bit too far while playing the keys with firm blows till in tune. I am convince that by following these two simple recommendations, you will improve the quality of your piano tunings. Good luck.
© copyright Juan Olalla 2010  

 

Tuning a piano with an electronic tuner

This free guide will show you how to “really” tune a piano with an inexpensive tuner. If you want to tune your own piano and have a decent chromatic tuner, this articule is for you.

Reality check:  Most piano tuning tutorials you see on the internet that pretend to show you how to tune a piano with an ordinary cheap tuner are fundamentally wrong, misleading at best, that is a fact. If your idea is to tune your piano armed with a chromatic tuner and a chart of the 88 theoretical piano pitches, sorry to dissapoint you, but things do not work that way. I know you probably dont believe me, so I encourage you to try (as they say, seeing is believing) anyway that will be a good exercise!

Before going any further let me point this out; A piano (any piano) can not be properly tune at least a “temperament” is set in advance either by aural or electronic means.  Ok, but what is the “temperament”? The temperament could be defined as a group of notes in the center of the keyboard (approximately one octave) that are tuned in a certain way. Once the temperament is set we will use it as a reference to tune the rest of the keyboard. Really what this articule is all about is to show you how to set a temperamente with a chromatic tuner.

Given that every note at the piano has a theoretical perfect pitch (for example A4 = 440 htz) it could be assumed that to tune a piano all you have to do is to tune each note to those theoretically perfect pitches. Unfortunately this is not true and whoever has tried that way, will agree that the outcome is rather disappointing. 

So,  can you tune a piano with a low cost electronic tuner? The answer is Yes, but also No!! It all depends on how you do it. There are specific electronic piano tuners and software, but the cost of these  are quite high.  Unless you are going to tune many many pianos they are not worth buying, so if you have an old Chromatic Tuner anywhere, rescue it, maybe you can give it a second life. Let me say that those for tuning guitars are not useful, also better if the tuner is of a certain quality. the one at the pic works quite well. Incidentally,  I dont sell electronic piano tuners neither have any commercial interest in them.

As far as I know, this is the first time on the internet that a method for setting the temperament and by extension to tune a piano with a simple Chromatic Tuner is clearly exposed. So, patient readers and friends hold your breath, the secret is going to be revealed….

Using the procedure that follows you can set a basic and could we say “acceptable” temperament. Let me warn you that the process is slow as you must recalibrate the tuner at each note. I would recommend  nervous and impatient people better to abstain.

Step one:
First thing you have to do is to calibrate the Chromatic Tuner to A-4 440 (standard tuning pitch). This means that  the A4 ( A above middle C) should vibrates at 440 htz (pulses or beats) per second.

Step two:
Now using a felt strip mute each side string of the unisons ranging from F33 to F45 (the temperament range). Look the picture below.

Step three:
Tune F33  to its theoretical frequency (174, 614 htz) then select the tuner to F45 (F just one octave higher). Again strike on the keyboard F33. You will be measuring the
second partial of F33. Now, what we read we subtract from the original theoretical frequency (174,614) and the result that we get we divide by 12 ( The 12 notes of the temperament that we are about to set) 

You have already determined the exact amount of stretch that requieres every note at the temperament. Now just add that little portion to the theoretical frequency of each of the 12 notes, recalibrating the tuner apropriately. Complicated? not really, please read again. As with many things, this is harder to explain than to do.

Step four:
 Tune the temperament (F3 – F4) starting  at F3 (key number F33) moving upwards one note at a time to F4 (note F45). Remember to recalibrate the tuner at each note as we explained earlier.

Step five:
Once you have finish setting the temperament, tune by octaves the upper part of the keyboard, then the bass section. At this stage I would recommend to tune by ear as the chromatic tuner doesn’t work too well on the low and high section of the piano.

This system of tuning a piano with an electronic tuner although not perfect is far superior to just “tune” by replicating the theoretical notes of the piano. Do not forget the importance of a good tuning hammer technic and properly setting  pins and strings. By the way, in case you care to know the cromatic tuner at the header is the “korg OT-120?  priced at about 50 US dollars.

If you are really serious about tuning pianos I would reccomend you to take your time and learn proper aural tuning, or as a second best, to invest in a dedicated electronic or software pro piano tuner, there are some good ones in the market. Calculate and expenditure of about 1000 USD.

©  copyright Juan Olalla 2010 

What do you think about this article, has it been helpful to you? Got some questions? You are welcome to leave a reply. Your opinion and/or suggestions are highly appreciated. Thanks

 

Tuning a piano in noisy environments, tricks from the pro

They called you to tune a piano for a concert at the last hour. The time available is ridiculously short, about half an hour, and to top it up is very noisy. What to do?

This is one of the tricky situations a piano tuner might encounter, when tuning at a concert.  Just imagine the situation; it’s terribly noisy as sound engineers and musicians are testing the sound. To make matters worst they ask you to hurry up as the concert will start in half an hour. How can you properly tune the piano in those circumstances?
You complain, but the answer is a typical “sorry, we understand you but you have to make do with what you’ve got”.  

You feel like swearing at them and walk away. Why haven’t they call me with time in advance? you rightly think. Reality check: in the real world this kind of situations are far from rare. Tuning a piano for a concert, ideally should be done in the morning or early afternoon, just before the sound engineers and musicians arrive, alone and in silence. Anyway, cool down and don’t panic, above all DON’T RUN AWAY.

What to do then? As I say before, keep yourself cool. After all is not your fault they called you with such a short time notice. You are not responsible for the lack of foresight of the organizers. Well, as it is materially impossible to do a full standard piano tuning you will concentrate on the unisons, specially the middle ones, also the middle upper section if possible.

Why to concentrate specifically on the middle and upper section unisons? Because this is the most played part of the piano and therefore bound to be out of tune.  Also, a unison out of tune can be really very conspicuous. So if you manage to get them right, the piano, although not perfect will have improve quite a big deal.

So, you will produce a makeshift piano tuning which I personally refer to as “cowboy emergency tuning” !! Play a chromatic scale up and down the keyboard and try to identify the keys that are out of tune, or at least the keys that are worst, then write them down on a piece of paper or make a little sign on the keys so you don’t forget.

Make sure there isn’t any key in the bass or treble section wickedly out of tune. If there is one or two, tune them, if not, don’t waste time and move quickly to the middle section, more or less from A25 to C64. Tune those unisons the best you can. To finish the job, check again by doing another chromatic scale up and down the keyboard. The whole job wouldn’t take you more than 20 minutes (the time available).

Maybe this procedure doesn’t look very orthodox, but the purpose is not to execute a work of art piano tuning, but to overcome a particularly exceptional situation, just trying to do the best with what you’ve got. They can ask you to do your best, but nobody can compel you to produce miracles !.

©  copyright Juan Olalla 2010 

Has this article been useful to yout? Got some questions?  Your opinion and/or suggestions are highly appreciated. Please leave a reply. Thanks

“The piano tuner” by Daniel Mason (reviewed by another piano tuner)

I don’t consider myself a compulsive reader but every now and then I find the time to relax and read, even if it is only for a few minutes. Sometime ago while visiting a book-shop at my home town I found a book that catch my eye “The piano tuner” by Daniel Mason. Out of curiosity I bought it.

The story takes place  in Victorian England and is about a piano tuner living in  London that went to “do a job” to Birmania, in those days under the British Empire (I figure out, at that time probably was quite difficult to find a local piano tuner). The man had to leave his new wife and his peaceful existence in London to undergo an adventure that changed his live and indeed ended it.

 What surprised me about the book, apart from the good written story was the excellent documentation. The author describes the job of a piano tuner in quite a convincing manner describing things like the tools for tuning a piano, changing and replacing broken strings, the technique of tuning a piano, the terrible effect that the humid weather and the rain forest had on the piano and so on.

I also found quite interesting the reference to Erard pianos as that was the piano he had to mend. Erard pianos for those of you who don’t know was one of the biggest and most prestigious piano brands, mainly because they were the ones that invented and pioneer the repetion lever (the repetion lever has been one of the most important innovations in the history of piano building and at the time considered as a major breakthrough). I have tuned a handful of Erard pianos and found them very refined with a very pleasent and precise action Nowadays the modern piano is not too different from the one describe in “The piano tuner”

Looking the credits at the end of the book I found where Mr Mason got most of his  documentary material from. The book  “Piano tuning and allied arts”  by William Braid White. Incidentally that was the first piano tuning book I ever had, edition 1946 and although quite old and batter I still keep it. 

“The piano tuner”  by Daniel Mason  is highly recommended.  Quite interesting and pleasent to read, but just in case anybody had a job for tuning a piano in Birmania and think of me as a suitable candidate, please look in another direction, I am busy.

©  copyright Juan Olalla 2010

Has this article been helpful to you? Got some questions? Please leave a reply, your opinion and/or suggestions are highly appreciated. Thanks