Learning more about your piano

Why does a piano go out of tune?

Temperature and humidity change are the main causes of pitch change in a piano. The piano is an instrument with well over 200 tensioned strings and because the piano's soundboard is made of wood it is subject to constant climate changes.

As humidity rises, the wood in the soundboard swells. This stretches the piano's strings causing higher pitch. During dryer weather the soundboard flattens out lowering the tension on the strings thus lowering the pitch.

Each year your piano's pitch will be affected by hot, summer weather and the use of central heating in the winter.

Ideally, you would tune your piano twice a year to allow for seasonal variations.

If you have just moved house along with your piano, you should allow the piano to rest and become acclimatised to your new home for at least a month before the first check and tuning.

How is a piano tuned?

Although there are only 88 keys, a piano has over 200 strings - one per note in the low bass, two per note in the upper bass, and three per note in the treble.

The average tension per string is approximately 160 lbs . The combined tension of the strings is 18 to 20 tons, or almost 30 tons in a concert grand.

The strings gradually increase in thickness and length from treble to bass, and bass strings are also wrapped with copper.

Most of the piano has 3 thick steel strings at high tension struck by a felt hammer. These are called ‘Trichords’.

The Piano Tuner places a wedge between two of the three strings and tunes them one string at a time. The other two strings are then tuned to exactly the same pitch. These are called ‘Unisons’.

The higher end of the bass has two copper wound strings tuned together in ‘ Unison’ and the low bass has one thick copper wound string, a ‘Solo’ string.

All of the strings are held at high tension by a tuning pin which has been hammered into a large laminated block of wood until the pins are very tight.

These pins are turned with a tuning crank, until the piano is in tune.

It takes a professional about an hour to tune all the strings on a piano.

How do I look after my piano?

Keep your piano in tune. It was specifically designed to be tuned to the international pitch standard of A-440 cycles per second.

Your piano will sound its best you will get most pleasure if it is tuned regularly and kept in proper playing condition.

Keep your piano clean. Keep the keyboard covered when not in use to prevent dust from accumulating.

Clean keys by occasionally wiping them with a damp cloth and drying them immediately. Never use rubbing alcohol, bleach or other cleaning products to clean your piano keys.

The cabinet of the piano can be made from different types of wood, grains and finishes. The cabinet should be cared for as you would any other wood furniture. Avoid aerosol spray polishes that contain silicone.

The maintenance of the inner workings of the piano and regulation should be left to a professional Piano Tuner / Technician. Resist dusting the inside of your piano, oiling the moving parts, or using moth or insect repellents.

Try to maintain a fairly consistent temperature and humidity control in the room where your piano is housed. It's important to keep your piano away from heating as central heating dries out the wood.