• Software piano tuning programs for Windows or Mac platforms provide everything from basic guitar tuners through full professional piano ETDs; prices range from freeware to $1900 for the gold standard Reyburn CyberTuner.


• If you have an Apple iPod touch or iPhone, several tuning apps are available from simple tuners to full professional piano tuners. Cleartune is a basic chromatic tuner we can recommend.


• Some professional piano tuning software titles are available for both mobile and desktop platforms. TuneLab Piano Tuner, a professional piano tuner app for $300. Tunelab is also available for iPad, PocketPC and PC. TuneLab is specifically for piano tuning. It will help to stretch octaves (See "Stretching Octaves" in the discussion below) and raise pitch. Moreover, its enhanced graphical display is designed for piano tuning. Verituner is another professional software program available for iPod, iPad, PC and Pocket PC, starting at $600. Of course, both have their own learning curves which we will not go into here. Even if you use TuneLab or Verituner, the other parts of our piano tuning tutorial still apply.

For more about piano tuning, see our tutorial home page. For more information about software based tuners, check out this guide.

We have introduced a new visual aid to our main page, our piano tuning tutorial. We have summarized the basic steps of piano tuning into a helpful infographic. It is only a summary, an overview, a mere outline...frankly, the infographic is woefully lacking in sufficient detail to actually enable one to tune a piano. To begin tuning with just this graphic is like attempting brain surgery after reading about the procedure in a blog post. For all the very important details, be sure to read the other 5000 words on the tutorial page! See the full-sized graphic below the break or on the tutorial page.

I produced it because it is always helpful to have a road map. When I first explored piano tuning, no such outline existed. Piano tuning has accumulated two hundred years of lore. Sometimes tuning authors are so caught up in the lore, that the essential steps get lost. That's what I found when I started. This website is my way of explaining the process in terms anyone can understand. It has evolved as my own understanding has increased. Our new infographic is just one more step in that evolution. Okay, we're getting longwinded here. For your enjoyment, here's the full sized piano tuning infographic. Click it to be taken to the tutorial.

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Temperament strip in position.

Temperament Strip

The temperament strip is a mute that most piano tuners find essential. We have not shown it in our tutorial for simplicity sake, but it is easy to use. The temperament strip is a band of felt with which mutes many strings at the same time. A typical placement mutes the outside strings of a section of trebles or duples so that only one string from each note sounds at a time. (Push in with a screw driver.) The tuner can tune one string in every note without having to move mutes between notes. Tune the unisons, sequentially pulling the temperament strip. Many professionals use this mute especially for setting the temperament.

Treble Mute

The treble mute mutes the middle string of a three-string "treble." One can also mute one or two strings quickly without placing wedges or using a finger.

Voicing, Regulation and Repair

Voicing is servicing the felt on the hammers to modify the brightness or mellowness. Regulation is adjusting the action, or the way the hammers and keys physically move. They are technically not repairs, but rather part of comprehensive tuning and maintenance.

For voicing, regulation or repair, you'll need additional tools, such as this basic regulation tool kit. Repairs and restoration are beyond this website. Check our book recommendations for more information on these advanced procedures.

Do not read this post if you are a piano fan with a weak stomach.

Sadly, a problem for our modern age is how dispose of an old piano. The piano is not the must-have living room item for the middle class that it once was. The size and weight make them incovenient to move, especially if all your potential takers are ambivalent about owning one in the first place. Many people find them in an elderly relative's home after the relative has broken up housekeeping. Or left behind in a rented garage, or discarded from a church basement, or... you get the idea. Even if a new potential owner can be found, a neglected piano can be prohibitively expensive to rehabilitate. And, reality of it is that pianos though long-lived are not immortal, especially the less expensive brands that were popular in the 20th century. For all these reasons the 21st century has to see to the disposition of the remains.

Who do you call to dispose of a 500 pound chunk of metal and lacquered wood? I imagine it's a bit like modern equivalent of disposing if a dead horse in the city. Can't bury it in the backyard...now what?

Well, in the New York Times recently there was the unsettling story of piano disposal. Some piano movers will, for an extra fee, discretely take the piano off your hands. Some of the nicer, well-branded ones are resold, but only the best make that cut. The rest are broken down. Sometimes working parts are scavenged, but the supply outstrips demand. The metal can be salvaged. (There's a good bit of metal in a piano, so if you are shopping for a disposer, find a company that will at least bother recycle.) The wood, however, is burned or landfilled.

OK, enough of that gloomy story. Now, for your entertainment here's a video of pianos being dumped in a landfill. Enjoy!

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