Tune a Piano Yourself Blog

Guestbook - James

Thu, 16 May 2013 16:03:34 +0000

Just thought I'd thank you for this information, I recently ordered the tools and I need to gather information beforehand, this certainly helped :)

Guestbook - Ray

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 22:08:58 +0000

Thanks for your reply.

I will do as you suggested and slowly bring the pitch up over a few tunings. I greatly appreciate your time and all the great information you provide on your site.

Thanks,
Ray

Guestbook - Ray

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 22:05:05 +0000

Hi Scott,

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

Scott replies: That's not a huge difference, but a large enough difference across the piano to call for a pitch raise. My guess is that a professional tuner would raise the pitch in one pass. However, if I were to do it myself as a non-pro, I would do it in stages to protect the strings. I would try 10 cents at a time, wait a few days, then go back a second time. On the second pass, just get it close, and let it relax again. On the third pass, you can try to be more precise as the final tuning. You may need to tune again in a few weeks and touch up in between, but it should eventually stabilize.

Guestbook - DC

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 01:11:14 +0000

Hi Scott, first, thanks for sharing this with the world.

I have a question, you say not to use the korg to tune the whole keyboard cause it will not sound right, it will not stretch the octaves.
Does this mean that if I properly and successfully tune by ear, the korg would show notes far from the middle octave out of tune? How many cents out of tune is considered normal?

Thanks

Scott replies: Yes, a properly tuned piano will show the upper and lower octaves not to be in perfect sync with the "ideal" mathematical progression of octaves. The difference increases as you move further out. The differences are unique to each piano, so there is no way to say exactly how many cents any particular note will be. If you go to my tutorial main page, How to Tune a Piano Yourself, and scroll down, you will find a chart that gives you an example of what the differences will be.

Guestbook - Rob the hacker

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 20:47:02 +0000

Thanks for the site. I contacted someone about tuning it myself and got an earful-not mean or ill willed but my gut reaction is "I can do that" Well 4 hrs later and a broken string -on my wife's baby grand Sohmer c.1950- it sounds 80% better, but I was after improving it a bit- at least getting rid of dissonant strings (one of the 3 being out more than a tad)

Of course I wish I could have given it 100- perfect tuning job-, but I took up tune from approx 438 to 440- It has been a while since being tuned. I got gun shy after breaking the string but pulled it through and got 2 out of 3 strings keeping the sound together. Took longer than expected but a good activity for a Sunday afternoon. Borrowed a kit from a friend- might have to get my own

Thanks for the site- A great asset for the common man.

Scott replies: I am glad you found this information useful. Yes, breaking a string is always a possibility, even for a professional. Of course, a professional is less likely to do so, and may fix it him or herself. Sometimes it is due to over-stretching or other poor technique, but sometimes it is inevitable due to the age or condition of the string.