How Often Should You Tune a Piano?

Pianos are delicate instruments that require the right care, attention, and maintenance to keep the clarity and accuracy of their tone. 

A large part of regular piano maintenance is piano tuning — understanding how often your piano needs to be tuned and when to tune it can make all the difference in the quality of its sound and overall playing experience. 

 

The Care and Maintenance Required for A Piano

Compared to other personal musical instruments, pianos are instruments that require a relatively low amount of maintenance to stay in good working order. 

Surface level wipe-downs with a polishing cloth and keeping your piano free from moisture are basic actions that should be completed after each playing session to keep your piano in good condition. 

In addition to these, pianos will also need to be tuned at a regular rate. Whether you’re a beginner, an everyday player, or a professional pianist – tuning is essential for ensuring the accuracy of your piano’s sound. 

Tuning Your Piano Every Six Months

So, how often does a piano need to be tuned? It’s generally agreed that they should be tuned every six months. Although, this will depend on how often you’re playing, and how strenuously you’re playing the piano.

Pianos have steel strings inside them that are held in place by tuning pegs. These strings are under constant tension as a result of being pulled taut to produce the specific frequencies of sounds that you hear when you press a key. 

Over time, it’s normal for these strings to become a little bit loose, and produce sounds that are not as precise as before. Changes in your piano’s environment, like when moving it to a different location, can also affect your piano’s tuning. To keep the sound of your piano consistent and accurate, six months is the usual timeframe after which the re-tuning of piano strings is required. 

A clear sign that your piano needs tuning is when it starts to sound a little off-key when played. Naturally, you’ll want to avoid this as the tuning process can take some time, and piano tuners may not always be immediately available on call.  

Having a regular tuning schedule for your piano will allow it to produce the perfect pitch for each note, every time it’s played. 

Tuning Concert Pianos

Used primarily for performance, concert pianos usually don’t see as much practice activity compared to home pianos. They can often face extended periods of storage until they are needed for a recital. 

Keeping a concert piano well-tuned is crucial as it needs to be able to deliver a high-sound performance each time it is used. These types of pianos (usually grand piano models) should go no longer than a month without a tuning service and should be professionally tuned before each performance. 

Tuning Home Pianos

Home pianos are played either for practice or in casual settings, meaning that they don’t face the same performance requirements that concert pianos do. Keeping them tuned for pitch-perfection isn’t as necessary, but they still eventually need to be tuned. 

If you have a home piano, consider sticking to the recommended period of six months for tuning services. That way, your piano will stay well-maintained regardless of how often you play it. 

What Happens During Tuning?

Piano tuning is a delicate process that is performed by piano service experts who undergo years of specialised training. 

In a typical tuning session, piano tuners focus on adjusting the tuning pegs that hold the steel strings in place to modify the tension in the strings. A piano with 88 keys will have around 230 strings, and each one will need to be measured and adjusted to the correct frequency.  

Not only that, there are also complex harmonies that each key will have to match. These harmonic frequencies are a niche part of the tuning process that only expert piano tuners will be aware of.  

The entire tuning process can take up to 60 minutes. During this time, you can expect to hear your piano’s keys being played over and over as the tuning expert adjusts its tone.

 

What Happens When You Don’t Tune It?

When a piano isn’t tuned, the number one thing it loses is its sound. Out-of-tune pianos are difficult to play and practice on reliably as they no longer have the accuracy of sound. 

Apart from this, pianos can potentially lose their ability to stay in the correct tuning if they are not tuned for a long time. Since pianos are held together by wood, the shape of the wood can warp over a long period and cause sound issues after a lack of proper tuning. 

You can avoid these issues by carrying out regular tuning on our piano. There is no downside to having your piano tuned often; doing so will increase its reliability and performance readiness. 

 

Final Thoughts

Have you had your piano tuned recently? If it’s been more than six months, you should seriously consider getting a professional tuning service to keep your piano in good shape. 

At Gospel Pianos, we encourage all piano owners to have their pianos regularly tuned with our expert piano tuning services. Our in-house piano technicians at our piano showrooms in Sydney can give your piano the care and maintenance it needs today.