I learned to tune pianos in the 60’s at Northwestern University while studying organ performance and choral conducting. I must enjoy it given that I’m still doing it! Tuning is an interesting skill involving a good ear but also a lot of understanding of the mechanics of the piano, the history of the instrument, and control of fine movements of the tuning pins.

Maintenance of your piano is important not just in tuning but also just to keep things working. Does a key stick? Does one note sound louder than another? Are the keys uneven? During a tuning, I will check over the piano and, if the fix is minor, will fix it as part of the tuning. If there is anything major or if something can be done to improve your playing experience, I’ll let you know along with the estimated cost..

When a piano hasn’t been tuned in a long time, it may be so out of tune that a single tuning will not result in a stable tuning. In this case, I do a pitch raise which means that I first do a rough tuning to bring it up to pitch and then go back and do a fine tuning. There is tremendous pressure on the piano from the strings. When you pull the pitch up, the case and soundboard need to stabilize before you can do a good tuning.

The next challenge is to deal with what we call false beats. On old pianos, some strings can “beat” all by themselves. When we tune, we want to eliminate beats between neighboring strings. When one has a false beat, it is impossible to get a pure unison. We make these as good as they can get!