Comments for How to Tune a Piano

Comment on Digital piano or acoustic piano by Juan

Juan — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 18:07:43 +0000

Hi Tony,
Probably the piano that you was playing was half a step flat and that obviously is not right. Solution for that? call the piano tuner to pitch rise the piano to standard A 440, which by the way should be done in two times. Regards, Juan

Comment on Digital piano or acoustic piano by Tony

Tony — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 16:28:42 +0000

Hi Robert,
i currently own a digital piano. But one day i was playing guitar and i switched to piano and realized every single note on the piano was half a step flat. Do you have a solution for this? please email me at tonythetigertony@gmail.com

Comment on Contact by Ray

Ray — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 19:30:40 +0000

Thank you Juan.

I will give that approach a try and tune two times. I appreciate the great information you provide on your blog.

Ray

Comment on Contact by Juan

Juan — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 10:42:55 +0000

Hi Ray,
20 cents down in pitch is not too flat, in fact it is quite ordinary. 20 cents is the equivalent to 5 beats (4 cents = 1 beat), that means your piano it is roughly at 435 bps.

Yamaha grands are in general pianos easy to tuned, beats are easy to hear and recognize. To do a good job I recommend you tune the piano in two times. First time bring the piano to standard pitch 440 bps (at this stage do not need to be too precise) and let the piano settle down for one or two days, then fine tune again, this second time try to be as precise as possible with special attention to the unisons. I think by following this procedure, your piano will nicely tuned. Remember to strike the keys solidly (very important) in order to settle down the pins. Good luck!

Regards,
Juan

Comment on Contact by Ray

Ray — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 01:59:30 +0000

Hi Juan,

Thanks for all the great information. I have a question. I have a brand new (4 years old) Yamaha Grand and I am going to attempt to tune. I have tuned before a few notes on several pianos and being a musician for all my life, I know and can tell the beats and interval and unison tuning you talk about.

My question id when I just checked the A above middle C, it is flat -20 cents on my Korg OT-120. It seems like all the notes are flat -20 cents. Do you recommend I bring the temperament up 20 cents to be dead center in tune? Is this to much of a raise in pitch to cause problems and break a string(s)?

I greatly appreciate your reply.

Thanks,
Ray

Comment on Contact by Cabbie Glass

Cabbie Glass — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 21:17:18 +0000

Thank you, Juan, for the information regarding my piano. I do hope to get several more good years out of it – I loved playing it when it was in tune. It has been well cared-for over the years, so I’m hoping I can find a qualified tuner in my area. The thought of learning to tune it myself seems a bit daunting, to say the least!

Again, thanks for the advice.

Best regards,
Cabbie Glass

Comment on Contact by Juan

Juan — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 13:49:23 +0000

Hi Cabbie,
Thank you for visiting our web. Your piano was built at Derby, Connecticut in 1917. By no means it has to be a lost caused, I have seen pianos much older than that and still in good condition. If it has not been tuned for a long time, it would probably needs to lift the pitch to standard A440 and also a good regulation. Those two things do not have to be necessarily expensive and will make wonders for the piano.

Probably your best option is to call a good piano tuner to give you an estimate and his/her professional advice.

Regards,
Juan

Comment on Contact by Cabbie Glass

Cabbie Glass — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 03:37:38 +0000

I have an old upright Sterling Co. piano with a metal plate Serial # 69652 A few years ago, it had beautiful, resonant tones, but it has been moved and is in need of tuning. I hope you won’t tell me it’s a lost cause; I cannot afford to invest in a new piano and would love to play this one again.

PS. I couldn’t figure out how to send photos

Comment on Fast piano tuning, the tricks of the pros by Pittsburgh Piano Tuning

Pittsburgh Piano Tuning — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 19:44:55 +0000

As a piano tuner I would say you did a great job educating new readers. Keep up the good work!

Comment on Piano tuning procedure by Juan

Juan — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 09:34:37 +0000

Hello Ed,
I get your point and partly I agree with it, but please let me say that the objective of a book like “How to tune a piano” is not to make a professional piano tuner just by reading the book (that would be insane), but to provide the basic-intermediate knowledge and right directions to anybody interested in piano tuning.

We all know that to be a pro tuner takes years of work and experience, but I also think about the ordinary piano owner who wants to tune (or at least to better) his own piano, this guy has all the time (no customer behind to worry about) and can compensate his lack of expertise by putting more time into it.

About “screwing up” the piano, the most common mistake students make is the odd broken string, which if you look at it on the bright side is an excellent opportunity to learn how to replace broken strings, by the way, full instructions for doing so are contained in my second book “How to repair a piano”.

In whole, this book does not promise the moon nor miracles, but it will no doubt be of great help for any serious and motivated person who just wants to learn how to tune pianos.

Hasta la vista amigo,
Juan Olalla