Listening and patience is the work of the piano tuner, and it is far from an easy task. First, since the strings all push together on the same piece of wood, the soundboard (the piano speaker), each change in their tension results in changing tension of the approximately 199 neighboring strings. The more regularly the tuning is done, the more stable it will be, but sometimes you will come across a piano that has been neglected for many years. In this case, I will have to grant it several times in a row (during the same appointment, don’t worry!) This is why I am planning a longer appointment for new clients.
A regular tunning, one that should be done at least once a year, is done during a 2 hour appointment. In the case of a piano that has not been tuned for several years, we should rather schedule a meeting of around 3 hours.
Did you know that concert halls usually have their piano tuned at every concert, and in some cases even during intermission?
Your piano is a formidable machine with several hundred mechanical adjustment points which, when perfectly tunned, allow the pianist to have full control of its instrument. What could be more musical than a piano that responds to all the subtleties, to the slightest changes in articulation or in volume from the performer?
The piano, by its wooden structure, is an instrument very sensitive to the conditions in which it is found and in particular to changes in humidity.
It is very important to position it to preserve it from severe changes in humidity. The settings and tuning are greatly affected by the swelling of wood in a humid environment. Did you know that the traditional way to extract blocks of marble was to drill a hole in the rock face, insert a wooden rod of the same size, and soak the end of it in water. If the expansion of wood caused by absorbing water is enough to break a material as rigid as marble, imagine how forcefully it can change the tension on the approximately two hundred and forty strings as well as the mechanical parts.
Like any good machine, over time wear and tear gets involved and your loyal friend needs urgent care. From a misaligned or misaligned part to a larger breakage, a technician can perform several kinds of repair on site. Annual tunning is generally the time to let me know about any other little issues you have observed with your musical instrument.
This is when we can make the right decisions together to get you back to playing music as soon as possible.