"When you're really done, make sure to put all the crap on the Piano back, so those inclined to view it as a piece of furniture, don't get mad at you.." Lmao, you crack me up!!! So True!!!
Thanks! After playing piano my whole life and making a ton of records.. I’m gonna try tuning my piano and saving some cash. Wish me luck. Thanks for this video!
Good job bro. This helped a ton. Unlike alot of the pro concerto pianists in this comment section, I get it. It's a used piano you got for free off CL. It is what it is.
I am a pianist and tuner myself... I also have my own recording studio... In order to have an acoustic piano in the studio and keep it perfect tune you almost have to be a technician or have someone on staff to tune. Good video.
@@hannahmorse9330 I love being able to tune... My mother passed away when I was very young. I was in my 30s when we lost daddy... He was disabled on a fixed income. A local tuner and my music mentors got me started.
I miss mom and dad terribly. Folks said they'd be proud of my music. You can listen to a song on you tube.... Jim gilliam/go rest high on that mountain. Or on my Facebook page. Jim Gilliam.
Thanks! Gonna try it. All the piano tuners in my area want 150$ plus for just one hour of tuning. I finally got a piano off Craigslist after not having one for over ten years, and it cost me 350$. It’s in pretty good shape but it needs some tuning and some tweaking here and there. Gonna learn what I can so I don’t dump too much money into it. We aren’t very well off and I had to save up just to get this piano. Heck, if I can learn to service pianos I can charge an arm and a leg fur my services too 😑
A good quality tuning hammer/wrench is a joy to use, you don't have to worry about buggering up your pins and besides, if you are going to tune your own piano it means you are serious about it, so get a life time tool and don't cut any corners or risk your piano.
Thanks, my keyboard after 20 years died. So I was got a cheap piano since it would have to live in the garage, I got the kit and was able to tune the first have of the middle C octave but, thanks for the explanation on how to use the dampeners, now I need to fix the pedals.
I’m not an expert at all but learnt piano when I was young, and know it goes slightly sharper in the higher octaves and slightly flatter on the lower octaves And yes tuning in 4ths and 5ths makes sense to get harmonics sounding good. I really don’t know though hence why I am looking up videos here. There’s an old piano here I want to tune myself as I have a good ear, but now I think it is probably too off to keep a fresh tuning, It’s half a step flat.
I'm tuning my piano that was given to me by a neighbor tonight.. I did a test tune on A4 - 440, and once had finished, my A and A# were literally in unison.. Soooo wish me luck, i'm a full half step flat as well :(
This was perfectly done. You got into the nitty gritty of how to dampen two of the three strings etc. Good sense of humor as well. Thanks a lot for posting this. I'll be giving this a shot as soon as my tuning wrench arrives. 🙌
In the Seattle area piano tuning runs about $400 to bring to pitch piano that is flat by 25 cents. After doing that twice in 6 months, decided to try tuning on my own. Have an Everett studio upright that had not been tuned in 20 years. General condition is good with no obvious defects. So far have got it up to with in 5-8 cents. Sounds pretty good. Any particular tips for the bass strings, have found them to be more difficult to hear the pitch.
I have this exact type of piano, a 1958 Baldwin Acrosonic. Thing is, it hasn't been serviced in over 15 years (at least). So I'm taking it upon myself to restore it. I have vacation next week and am purchasing a tuning kit today to maybe get it up to pitch. It will NOT sound perfect, but it WILL sound better than it does now. Thanks for the tutorial.
I learned with an "A-440" tuning fork, felt strip, rubber strip, tuning hammer, and my ear. I'm older now and would probably do it your way. I was taught by a blind man at the Michigan School for the Blind back in the 60s. Like an idiot I didn't keep doing it and now would have to learn it all over again. Theory drove me nuts and still can't remember it. Fixing or replacing parts drove me bonkers too.
Thank you for your time and for sharing this video. My piano was out of tume for many many years, so I recently gave it a try. Unfortunately I broke a couple of strings, that I am about to replace. I spend quite a long time to carfully adjust every note to the absolute pitch. My piano now sounds absolutely intune, but its "boaring". The original tunning was far more vivid. I was wondering what was wrong with it, until I found an article stating that the three strings per note should not be in perfect tune, but intentionally tuned to 5 to 7 cents apart. I have tried to tune the midde C according to this method and the note sounds much more "chromatic". I would like to have your oppinion on that. Is it right or wrong? If string must have a small offset what should that be? Once more, conftats for toy video.
This video is Awesome. I know how to tune other instruments and this video explained it perfectly. They’re kinda all same concept. Would you do a video for more restoration of old pianos. For example, the key pegs where you play, the wood itself. Stuff like that?
geez, Some of the negative comments here are discouraging. I like my piano tuned often, but with Covid it's a bit dicey right now to let anyone into the house. I do know a little about tuning theory but never practiced enough to get proficient. I have what I need and will go ahead and attempt to tune my own Steinway M, with the blessing of a good friend who is a master technician. He assured me I know what I'm doing well enough to not cause any damage. The down side of doing it myself is that it will take all day instead of 2 hours, and likely not be up to concert stage standards. Hopefully it will come out good enough for my purposes as a hobbyist.
Thank you so much giving us this information it is really help full. like my self can't afford to pay some one to tuner, because is so expansive. I'm getting piano for my self. they don't know how long they had tune. this piano 1896 Kohler & Campbell
I appreciate your video very much. I may try to tune an old piano where I work that’s WAYYYYY out. The place will not pay for a professional tuner, so if I can improve it, that would be very good for the ppl there. Ty!
If it were that easy this would be fine...however, there is much more to it than this. Considerable skill is involved in manipulating the wrest pin, and, with the crank at the angle shown, you are as likely to bend the pin rather than turn it. Best advice: get a full sized upright or a grand not less than 6 feet long, then call in a real piano tuner!
On the other hand - a free piano off Craigslist/Facebook marketplace is still a free piano and thus deserves to be freely tuned by yourself. Not everone is a concerto penist.
This kind of thing makes me crazy. Unless you have a huge amount of space and a boatload of money, don’t bother? Sorry, but music is for everyone. Even the poors. My niece has dreams of science and smart phones are killing dexterity. If I can make my mother’s 60 year old piano work for her, I’m going to. The area I live in literally doesn’t even have a professional tuner. Good advice though!
Question: Since we use equal temperament, shouldn't tuning be a bit more complicated that just tuning to perfect relationships between octaves? I always was under the impression that a piano is intentionally slightly out of perfect tune with itself, but a little tiny bit at a time, so that all the 12 keys are (relatively) in tune across the whole keyboard. Wouldn't using our ear to get octaves give us something more perfectly diatonic than that? Of course, speaking as someone who's never tuned a piano, and so obviously with some potential to be wrong. . .
this is a DIY shortcut that I took to improve a very out of tune cheap (free) beater piano--it is not "the right way" to do it--if you want to learn how to do this properly, I'm sure there are lots of resources out there and clearly tons of know-it-all assholes here in the comments who probably wouldn't be willing to teach you but could at least direct you to a school ;^)
You're correct. It's because of the inharmonicity of steel strings. The octave, fifth, third, etc. overtones of steel strings are not exactly at the octaves, fifths or thirds, but slightly higher than that. Pianos are tuned in order to correct this inharmonicity as best as possible, meaning that each key will be slightly off key, as you say. I'm not a piano technician, so I cannot say if you can arrive at a correct tuning by matching octaves by ear like this guy is doing. But I'm guessing it would be a pretty crude approximation, if anything. What I can tell, however, is that this guy's piano is nowhere close to being in tune at the end of the video. If it's due to his bad ear, his bad technique, his bad piano, or all three, I cannot really tell.
im not a "know it all asshole" but i am a pianist... and the best tuner I ever had just had a tuning fork and tuned the whole piano from one note. he tuned from 4ths and 5ths.
This is, actually, how old-time professionals tuned pianos to provide for that “stretch” where the higher octave are slightly higher than perfect pitch, and the lower octaves are slightly lower than perfect pitch. If you tune by ear, your ear hears this as the most pleasing and in-tune interval. If he were to play one of the higher keys with his tuning app, it would say it was sharp. An A vibrates at 440 in the middle octave, and perfect pitch would vibrate at 880 an octave above it. But that actually doesn’t sound quite right. So you tune it higher so it will sound right. One side note, a piano tuner I spoke with said it’s better to check your tuning by playing 3 octaves together. Very good, informative, entertaining video. Thanks!
I notice that you tune UP to the pitch from BELOW the pitch. That IS the way they tell you to tune a guitar, to take the slack out of the geared machine head. But a piano does not have machine heads like a guitar. Professional piano tuners all say to tune DOWN to the pitch from ABOVE the pitch. They say it will stay in tune longer if you do it that way.
You want to go down from a higher pitch if you do this with your piano. Tuning up is a common beginner mistake and the reasoning is it is easier to tune up as opposed to down with how much tension is on each string. This is where a good tuning hammer and hammer technique comes in handy. Issue with tuning up is the piano will go out of tune faster. The ideal way to do it is to try to set the pin so that the bottom of the tuning pin is set to a neutral spot or a slight tension to pull the pitch up while the top part of the pin is keeping the tension. I will not go into great detail, but just think tune so that you go slightly sharp then bring the pitch back down.
So you said if a piano is sitting for a while it will never stay in tune, is there a way to fix that. I just started learning piano on an electric keyboard and decided to get my grandma's piano. It's probably been a long time since anyone played it. I figured it would just need tuned, but now your making me think it might be more trouble than it's worth
I don't think it's true that you can't tune it again. The metal frame holding the strings, is under enormous tension, and it stays in a shape in equilibrium with the strings. If multiple strings lose too much tension, the frame will shape itself proportionally. So when you start tuning them back, the frame will slowly deform again, and all the strings you tuned will have their tension changed, and lose tune. It can take days for the frame to stabilize again under the new tension, which will then require more tuning; the whole ordeal becomes very laborious, and costly.
03:56 My piano hasn't been tuned in two years. Is that too long? Do you think my piano can be brought back to pitch? I have 6'11" Yamaha middle grand. Very expensive. I'm kicking myself for procrastinating having it tuned; especially, because of Covid. I can't even get my piano tuner to return my calls. Please let me know if it's too late. Thank you.
I only have an upright piano but yes it can! My piano hadnt been tuned in 13 years and after the tuning it sounds brand new! Only thing is my piano tuner had to come twice in the week to adjust after a few days
Hah at all the crap on the piano and the people seeying the piano as furniture.. Just recently managed to get those people to not put heavy brass candleholders on top which keep resonating and distracting me...
In school back in the 60s it was interesting what we'd find inside the pianos we tuned. Everything from dead mice to mice droppings, old food, toys, jewelry,....
This has given me the confidence I need to attempt to tune my piano. I was very scared to do it before as everyone told me I can’t do it without professional experience and so on, but anyway I’m having my piano professionally tuned next week so I’ll watch the guy do it and pay attention
if your piano is rare or expensive, I wouldn’t do it as your first attempt... but if it was cheap or free (like mine), ignore everybody else and just try it-that’s what I did
A professional tuner is well worth paying--if you can find one. Alas, I may have to learn to make a good tuning on my own--because tuners are busy and scarce in my area. But if I am going to learn to tune, I want to make a good tuning...not just better than it was before. An out of tune piano is not worth playing. I have no problem with diy tuning because I understand that I might just get it all wrong or harm my piano. On the other hand, I have a Hallet Davis c1907 tuned originally for A430 and it is an elderly piano whose action I've repaired over a few years. I don't mind learning on this elderly piano and I can tell, in it's day, it had a mighty sound, beautiful tone. Pianos are not destined to live forever. And many acoustic pianos are up for adoption...people are begging someone to please own the piano they do not want anymore. If I cannot succeed at making a good tuning, I will have learned something about the process--about temperament about listening and so forth and likely I will try to adapt to playing a piano-like electronic keyboard. I know a good tuning when I hear one, but I am doubtful I can be the creator of one. Nothing ventured nothing gained. Update: Feb 2018...turns out the piano was tunable...and my tuning has improved, too. My thanks to all who have posted tuning videos.
And this, class, is why I'm getting a digital piano- I can't afford a professional, nor do I trust this method (Correction: Nor do I trust MYSELF doing this method)
yeah man! this is a casiotone 7000 I got on a curb from someone’s trash-if you like this sound, check out the musical project it’s from, Reindeer Brother on whatever streaming service you prefer
So it does not. The issue was that in order to use a machine you need to measure inharmonious even for what is referred to as the temperament octave or the first octave he did with the machine. Now using the octives to tune the rest of the piano from the temperament octive does get you close, but there usually its best to use various intervals like perfect 4ths and 5ths. So when you play a 4th the combination should beat 1 time every second. In short it should have a slight roll to the sound of the note instead of being pure. 4ths are also what are referred to as expanded. This means that you can tune the interval pure so the notes do not beat at all, then spread the notes apart until they beat 1 time every second. Perfect 5ths are once you can use with perfect 4ths. So a perfect 5th is what is referred to as contracted or you tune the note so that its pure and bring the 2 notes closer together. This interval should beat 3 times in 5 seconds so a bit of a slower beat rate than the perfect 4ths. With this you can also use tests such as the using a 3rd and a 10th to compare beat rates. I will not go into anymore detail, but this is what you have to do to get the piano in tune and your octaves in equal temperament are technically not perfect. They will be slightly dirty if you truly distribute everything equally. And when you get to areas like the base sometimes you just have to make the best sounding compromise. Especially in a cheap spinet such as the one shown in this video. Now you don't need to tune by ear. I personally only use aural tuning as a means of checking the machine I use to tune. This works really well for me as machines including my Sanderson IV which is a very nice tuning device are not always perfect. They are about 98% accurate, but remember that each piano as 88 notes and I doubt that you want any notes in your piano out of tune if you paid someone what most tuners charge for a tuning. So we have to use your ears to make sure the machine is right. However, most people cannot tell if a piano is out of tune until it is at least 10-15 cents flat. Someone with perfect pitch will also fail to recognize this until its 7 cents flat. The methods we use get you within 2 cents of perfect. So use that information as you will. The method in this video will not take care of inharmonious, but I will say as a piano tech, it will do the job for many people who really cannot tell the difference between a good and a bad tuning. What a good technician (keyword being good) can do is keep an eye on your piano to ensure that your piano isn't developing any issues and acts as a time to get any adjustments you want done to your piano to be done when its time to tune. And if you really like having your piano in perfect tune and don't have the time to regularly tune your piano we will be happy to help, but I will admit that we spent years of our lives to learn how to tune to the level that we do and thus can be expensive and I would say its better to use a method such as the one detailed in this video because you don't have the funds to afford a piano tuner than to let your piano get in worse and worse condition. While the method will not get you perfect, it will keep the pitch in check so that when you do hire a technitian he only has to modify the existing tuning as opposed to do a full pitch raise. Not to mention as you get better at tuning you can take the time to assess your piano and figure out if it needs work or not or if anything got damaged. I hope this answers your questions.
I am tuning a note to its octave up or down same note pitch--this is how you get the piano to "agree" with itself, and without it the octaves will not match in tuning (if you just tuned them independently)
@@SethCrosby I come from tuning guitars, so yes it is using the tuner for the core octave, then just matching pitch by ear for all of the remaining octaves
They're kinda one and the same, no? When tuning by ear, the only time it sounds not-wrong are when the beats have minimized, so when you move the pitch to sound more in unison, you're hearing the beats get longer and longer until they vanish. That is, when you're tuning til it 'sounds good', you're listening for beat-elimination whether you realize it or not, is that right? Thanks for this video, it filled me with genuine excitement, gonna try for the first time this week!! :)
@@SethCrosby It is with beats. Octives beats and he is tuning them pure. What he is forsaking however are things like using perfect 5ths and 4ths and various test notes to set the temperament which leaves a bit to be desired when it comes to the stretch of the temperament octive. But as a quick and dirty way of tuning when you don't have an extra 150 bucks to hire someone like me, it certainly will get the job done. I don't think you are expecting a perfect tuning but I will say that it will keep tension on the harp and board so if you do decide to hire a tuner, they will likely not have to to a pitch raise to get it in tune. Alternatively if you are running a junky spinet like the one in the video it doesn't make sense to spend more money on a single tuning than the piano is worth value wise.
I think that 99.9 percent of pianos will stay in tune, even if it was a whole step flat. It has to be "pitch raised" once or several times. A "pitch raise" is not a "tuning" because, even though it is the same procedure, it is not as precise as a tuning. When you "pitch raise" a piano, you pull it up to the correct pitch but imprecisely. (A professional will take 45 minutes or more to tune a piano but a "pitch raise" takes twenty minutes or so.) To prevent string breakage .... The first time that you "pitch raise" the piano, you might want to do this . . . . Before you pull (stretch) every string with the tuning lever, a professional tuner will push the tuning lever to the left a little bit, which turns the pin (a tiny bit is sufficient but you can turn the pin more and it won't hurt). This procedure displaces the string from where it has been sitting for many years. (You might hear a tiny crack noise.) You repeat this pitch raising several times until the strings stay at the correct pitch. (It might take six times or more and several days if it was a whole step flat.) Then you tune it. You might have to tune it again in one month, then again in two months, then three months, etc. but eventually it should stay in tune for the average time for every piano (six months but some stay tuned for less time, some stay for a year. Environment plays a large part.) Some pianos need to have screws tightened, etc. to stay in tune but that is a small percentage. Now you can learn how to replace or tie a string after you break it. (Just kidding.) A string doesn't usually break but a string can break at any time, even if the piano is being tuned by a top-notched professional. If a string breaks in the middle or top of the keyboard, you will still have one or two strings to play on that note. Only the bottom fifteen notes (more or less) have one string.
Maybe… A Professional Piano Tuner will inspect the condition of the Piano before committing to Pitch Raise and Fine Tune it the Concert Pitch. Also, why would One posit this kind of a question to an Amateur?😊
that’s outside of my own experience-but I am guessing it has something to do with the leather wrapping the pin being worn out / probably needs to be replaced
I mean, that's the point of view I came at it from... honestly I wouldn't DIY tune on a great piano, but I got this one for free and I imagine a lot of people have cheap or free pianos for which the tuning would cost close to the cost of the piano itself--in that case, if you can tune a guitar, yeah I'd give it a shot!
Thank you so much! I was hoping that would generally be the method, I am getting my first piano today! A nicely kept Henry F. Miller Spinet.. its close to tune most of the way, some of the higher notes are the most out of tune.. great job!
No it's called tuning. Equal temperament is a kind of tuning standard, because of the way physics work, you'd actually never really reach the same pitch.
There are professional piano tuners that warn you to tune your piano yourself. You would risk damaging something, and above all tuning requires a very good ear and knowledge and experience etc. That's all true, I think, but I want to have an unequal temperament on my piano. In order to achieve that, I want to tune it myself so that the tuning pleases my ears. I have to mention that I am extremely picky regarding tuning.
You know if you want to do unequal temperaments it is best to learn to properly tune yourself. I am a technitian and will tell you this. So long as you use a decent head on your tuning hammer (the head being the tip that goes on the tuning pins) you should be fine. You can put good heads on bad hammers, but the damage ususally comes from those crappy amazon tuning hammers that come in those kits that you find for 50 bucks on amazon. A workable tuning hammer will by itself fcost at least 60-100 usd. And they will not come in a kit. Howard piano industries doe sell a decent tuning hammer for beginners (though I do consider him to be a bit pricy) But if you really want to get into doing a lot of tuning and using the various unequil temperaments such as a young or a Werchmeister or a kirnberger temperament you may want a nicer hammer with low amounts of flex which will give you a much easier time adjusting the pins. My experience with unequil temperaments is different composers sound better with different temperaments. For example Chopin sounds horrible with werchmeister, but sounds fantastic with the young temperament so if you go down this route you may find yourself tuning your piano once every few days or once a week. What you can do is use a tuning app like tunelab as a referance point and get good at listening to beat rates. Basicly learn how to put a note out of ftune and then put it back in tune. Learn the various checks and do this for equil temperament. Equil temperament is the current standars and thus the temperament with the most resources on how to do, and once you have gotten your ear training up to par, then start experimenting with the unequil temperaments. Tunelab does have them programed into it in the software and so do most of the professional grade ETDs (electronic tuning devices). And as someone who is also picky about tuning I will say being able to play the piano with a tuning hammer within arms reach to touch up a note is really nice. I think some tuners are worried that people doing it themselves will somehow make their jobs irrelevant, but I honestly find that learning something about tuning actually provides a greater appreciation. If anything it has granted me more business telling people that they can try it themselves because what ends up happening is they find that its difficult and they can never get it sounding as good as a professional. Which is just as with any profession that takes years of practice to be competent at. Just as learning how to play a piano concerto yourself doesn't diminish a concert performance learning how to tune your piano doesn't take away from the quality of a good tuners tuning. You being picky about your tuning is evidence enough of that. I have never had a client come to me and say "I learned to tune my piano so I don't need your services anymore" I have had "we really cannot afford to have our piano tuned" and honestly in that situation I would rather a poor tuning be put on the piano to maintain pitch than no tuning at all. And if something serious goes wrong with the piano I know I will get a call because being a piano technitian is way more than just tuning. I know many techs that exclusively rebuild high end pianos and some who only do player piano system installs. Not to mention techs that do all of it along with running their own piano store. So don't let anyone tell you that you CAN'T tune your own piano. Just use a decent tuning hammer and stop tuning any notes that don't change when you start pulling on your hammer as that indicates that you are on the wrong string. So long as you keep that in mind you shouldn't break strings. Though you can have strings break on you and there is a difference. Good luck.
@@zackeryhardy9504 Oh, thank you for your so long and so encouraging advice, dear Zackery Hardy! In the meantime I was lucky enough to have found a very adept technician who is really capable to tune any kind of historical temperament (Kirnberger, Vallotti, Young, Bach-Lehmann, mean-tones, Werckmeister - you name it). I don't write his name here in public on the internet, but he is from the oldest music store in Switzerland, the so called "Musik Hug" in Zürich which can look back to a history of more than 200 years of serving the music instrument loving clientele. That gentleman bases his knowledge of historical temperaments and the development of different tuning systems through music history on the piano technician Mr Wolfgang Wiese in Bremen (Germany). Mr Wiese analysed the thirds (C-E in C major) over the circle of 5ths throughout history and discovered that (starting e.g. by meantone) the 3rds gradually show a less pure curve over the two or three centuries of known unequal temperament. (Have a look at his homepage " wolfgang-wiese.de/ " - it's in German, but it's really worth reading). Bottom line: In the beginning I had a quite extreme temperament on my piano with a completely pure (!) third C-E (and the keys with more flats and sharps having their thirds rather steeply streched, accordingly). Now, that my piano had been tuned for the 2nd time by that wizard from Musik Hug, I "simply" asked for the Werckmeister III temperament. As my piano skills will improve, I might dive into different tunings. Being a fan of impressionistic piano works (Ravel), I might try Young one day. But for the moment I am delighted by Werckmeister III. I very much hope that unequal temperament would find its way back to the practice of piano tuning. To my ears, it enhances so much the tonal quality of the instrument and adds so much more shades and colours to the keys. Best regards from Switzerland!
@@oneirdaathnaram1376 I definately prefer well temperaments for classical, baroque and many romantic era pieces. The music was not written for equil temperament and I find that historical temperaments generally elevate the music as they were writing music with the good and bad sounding intervals in mind.
@@NagumaSardonicus No, I simply play J.S. Bach, but in the Bach-Lehman temperament. It sounds so much more interesting. I also like Werckmeister III, which I had on my piano before I have found a piano tuner that can reproduce the Bach-Lehman temperament. Now I am REALLY happy.
+Ben Briggs, Please elaborate...how is using a tuning kit bad for a piano? How is it different than a professional using their own kit? I am genuinely curious because i know nothing about piano's and I want to tune my wife's without ruining it (much).
Ok, well firstly the angle of the tuning hammer is very important. The string should always be pulled up, reducing the stress on the tuning pin, and or bushing. This video demonstrates what not to do.
I recommend reading Piano Tuning, Repair and Rebuilding, by Arthur Reblitz. Also (in full colour and very reasonably priced) The Haynes Piano Manual. There is also the monumentally good, and comprehensive - but expensive - Pianos Inside Out; the best book on piano technology ever produced.
Like the comedy. As with all this type of thing, the "experts" will call foul, with little or no reason. Or more probably because they are going to lose income. Good stuff
I've seen a lot of free pianos on Craigslist but was skeptical about getting one cuz many are outta tune. But this seems so easy to learn to save $80 or more. Thanks!
The information presented here is not accurate. There is something called “stretch” related to how you solve the Pythagorean comma. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagorean_comma. If you don’t know how to stretch octaves the result will be horrendous, as we can hear on this very didactic (what Not to do) video.
Not to be negative nancy.... but, this is how amateurs tune pianos...Coming from a piano player this does not sound good at all. you're better off paying someone else to do it rather than ruining your piano sound and have to spend more time fixing it. You have to stretch the octaves after setting middles key. then you have to set the temperament by comparing intervals and using your ears. most technicians can fix out of tune keys in a matter of minutes.... but if you mess up the temperament in a piano you kinda have to start from scratch to fix 70+keys
It needs years and a professional training to be able to tune pianos. There is a lot more to it than watching green ligth on the smartphone. The final result was terribly out of tune, when reading the comments it seems like I am the only one who notices this. Not a single tone was good in my ears. Just saying, I have been tuning pianos for a while and the technique you are teaching is wrong. You have to go a little sharp instead of flat first, put the hammer on 12 o'clock and hit the keys much harder. Anyways, dont want to make you feel bad, just giving a little vote for better hiring professional tuners, its good for the instrument and musical joy :)
I hardly know where to start except to say PLEASE don't do this to your piano. I honestly believe that Jesse has good intentions, but there is way too much bad information here - and in the end, the instrument isn't even *close* to "in-tune". When he gave the "thumbs up" at :22, I was shocked. I thought that he was about to *start* tuning this very out-of-tune piano! Instead, he says "Sounds good!" No, dude - it doesn't. Not even in the ballpark. If you want to learn to tune, study with someone who knows what they are doing, or you risk damaging the instrument permanently. Otherwise, Jesse - keep those excellent videos coming... just step away from the piano.
You're right its not even close to in tune, but, I think you missed his disclaimer at 3:05...... "Even if it doesn't sound perfect, if it sounds better than when you started, you've accomplished something! Not happy with how it sounds? Well, then go back and do it over again."
I tune my own for free, besides the once-off cost of the equipment I bought. I don't play any musical instrument, but friends who do have a much worse ear than I do. I agree with the comment that his piano still sounds way out but it is hard to tell from a youtube video played digitally. My piano has had some loose pins, which would mean getting a tuner in would have been a pointless waste of time. I've learnt how to fix those....
Everyone in the comments has me worried about ruining my piano like this but I remembered I got it for free on letgo so it don't really matter that much to me
do you belong to some professional tuner cult or something man? why you trippin. let the man tune his goddamn piano so that he doesnt have be dependent on people.
It's more about the proliferation of REALLY bad information that gets me regarding these videos. 3.58 'A piano, once it has been left drastically out of tune, for too long, can never actually be brought back to pitch'. Who decided that this little gem was correct? Lyle Wood is right, if you want your piano to sound as good as it can, then ring a tuner & get the cash together to pay him/her to do a GOOD job. You weren't taking care with the octave I heard you tune. You should hold the octave below while tuning the octave above, not let the octave below go while doing the one above - it defeats the purpose if you can't hear the note you're ACTUALLY tuning TO. Your unisons weren't clean either. If you put it out there like you have, you should expect to get called on it.
@@priyanujpancake6159 Piano TECHNICIANS are paid members of a real cult--or guild as they call it. They are like the mob and will go after you. Piano tuners are cool though. They don't have membership fees to protect and advertise their business interests.
Go ahead and give it a try, your local piano tech will appreciate the business a week later when you call to have the strings you broke replaced, and after you realize that your tuning is terrible. Also, there is a lot of bogus info in this video, I laughed pretty hard a few times. SMH.
Thank you for taking the time to not just explain how to tune, but actually showing examples.
Just make sure you don't delete this video so that next time when I tune mine, I can rewatch it. Give you one big like. You're amazing, dude.
"When you're really done, make sure to put all the crap on the Piano back, so those inclined to view it as a piece of furniture, don't get mad at you.." Lmao, you crack me up!!! So True!!!
I found your videos to be the most helpful of all the ones I've watched on piano tuning! Thanks!
so glad to hear I could help!
Thanks! After playing piano my whole life and making a ton of records.. I’m gonna try tuning my piano and saving some cash. Wish me luck. Thanks for this video!
Good job bro. This helped a ton. Unlike alot of the pro concerto pianists in this comment section, I get it. It's a used piano you got for free off CL. It is what it is.
this was great i had my piano tuner guy try and reschedule 3 times so tonight i watched ur vids im done paying this guy thank you!
Good video, bud. I know that I’m ten years too late…this helped me out A LOT. Thanks!
I am a pianist and tuner myself... I also have my own recording studio... In order to have an acoustic piano in the studio and keep it perfect tune you almost have to be a technician or have someone on staff to tune. Good video.
@@hannahmorse9330 you must know how to tune and how not to damage the pinblock. I've tuned pianos over 40 years now.
@@hannahmorse9330 I love being able to tune... My mother passed away when I was very young. I was in my 30s when we lost daddy... He was disabled on a fixed income. A local tuner and my music mentors got me started.
I miss mom and dad terribly. Folks said they'd be proud of my music. You can listen to a song on you tube.... Jim gilliam/go rest high on that mountain. Or on my Facebook page. Jim Gilliam.
I followed you directions and it worked out great. Thanks!
Thanks! Gonna try it. All the piano tuners in my area want 150$ plus for just one hour of tuning. I finally got a piano off Craigslist after not having one for over ten years, and it cost me 350$. It’s in pretty good shape but it needs some tuning and some tweaking here and there. Gonna learn what I can so I don’t dump too much money into it. We aren’t very well off and I had to save up just to get this piano. Heck, if I can learn to service pianos I can charge an arm and a leg fur my services too 😑
A good quality tuning hammer/wrench is a joy to use, you don't have to worry about buggering up your pins and besides, if you are going to tune your own piano it means you are serious about it, so get a life time tool and don't cut any corners or risk your piano.
Thanks, my keyboard after 20 years died. So I was got a cheap piano since it would have to live in the garage, I got the kit and was able to tune the first have of the middle C octave but, thanks for the explanation on how to use the dampeners, now I need to fix the pedals.
"Tune to itself" THANK YOU, I would have used the software for the whole thing, you saved me from some frustration !! THANKS AGAIN !
glad I was able to help!
I’m not an expert at all but learnt piano when I was young, and know it goes slightly sharper in the higher octaves and slightly flatter on the lower octaves
And yes tuning in 4ths and 5ths makes sense to get harmonics sounding good. I really don’t know though hence why I am looking up videos here. There’s an old piano here I want to tune myself as I have a good ear, but now I think it is probably too off to keep a fresh tuning,
It’s half a step flat.
I'm tuning my piano that was given to me by a neighbor tonight.. I did a test tune on A4 - 440, and once had finished, my A and A# were literally in unison.. Soooo wish me luck, i'm a full half step flat as well :(
Thank you very much - love the way you do it - straightforward with no drama .....
This was perfectly done. You got into the nitty gritty of how to dampen two of the three strings etc. Good sense of humor as well. Thanks a lot for posting this. I'll be giving this a shot as soon as my tuning wrench arrives. 🙌
Thanks very much! I was asking myself how to tune 3 strings, I have to get these rubbers. I will try this myself.
Definitely the most helpful tuning video I've come across so far. Thanks brotha! Keep making people laugh!
I don't have a acoustic piano in my possession myself but this will definitely come in handy when I inevitably will buy one.
In the Seattle area piano tuning runs about $400 to bring to pitch piano that is flat by 25 cents. After doing that twice in 6 months, decided to try tuning on my own. Have an Everett studio upright that had not been tuned in 20 years. General condition is good with no obvious defects. So far have got it up to with in 5-8 cents. Sounds pretty good. Any particular tips for the bass strings, have found them to be more difficult to hear the pitch.
This video was perfect to help a family member tune their piano! Thank you! 😃
i like the sound - mysteriously tuned - ambient & positively *attituned*
I have this exact type of piano, a 1958 Baldwin Acrosonic. Thing is, it hasn't been serviced in over 15 years (at least). So I'm taking it upon myself to restore it. I have vacation next week and am purchasing a tuning kit today to maybe get it up to pitch. It will NOT sound perfect, but it WILL sound better than it does now. Thanks for the tutorial.
I learned with an "A-440" tuning fork, felt strip, rubber strip, tuning hammer, and my ear. I'm older now and would probably do it your way. I was taught by a blind man at the Michigan School for the Blind back in the 60s. Like an idiot I didn't keep doing it and now would have to learn it all over again. Theory drove me nuts and still can't remember it. Fixing or replacing parts drove me bonkers too.
Thank you for your time and for sharing this video. My piano was out of tume for many many years, so I recently gave it a try. Unfortunately I broke a couple of strings, that I am about to replace. I spend quite a long time to carfully adjust every note to the absolute pitch. My piano now sounds absolutely intune, but its "boaring". The original tunning was far more vivid. I was wondering what was wrong with it, until I found an article stating that the three strings per note should not be in perfect tune, but intentionally tuned to 5 to 7 cents apart. I have tried to tune the midde C according to this method and the note sounds much more "chromatic". I would like to have your oppinion on that. Is it right or wrong? If string must have a small offset what should that be? Once more, conftats for toy video.
One of the best videos
Thanks so much for these! I'm feeling brave enough to try this when we get our piano in a few weeks!
Best video I have watched
This video is Awesome. I know how to tune other instruments and this video explained it perfectly. They’re kinda all same concept. Would you do a video for more restoration of old pianos. For example, the key pegs where you play, the wood itself. Stuff like that?
Me tuning my nana's old piano that's been silent for the past 20 years.
Nana: You better put all my picture frames back on top of it when you finish.
it’s an epidemic! lol
@@DIYMusic I fucked up the order of the frames, she mad 🤣
Great videos! Thanks.
You even reminded us to put the crap back, so thoughtful. ☺️👍🏻
Great tutorial. Thank you!!!!
You are so informative and pretty funny. People like you are worth subscribing. Thank you very much sir. Have yourself a good day/night.
thanks so much--glad you enjoyed it!
Oh yeah! but which is funnier: The interesting presentation or the bad tuning?
geez, Some of the negative comments here are discouraging. I like my piano tuned often, but with Covid it's a bit dicey right now to let anyone into the house. I do know a little about tuning theory but never practiced enough to get proficient. I have what I need and will go ahead and attempt to tune my own Steinway M, with the blessing of a good friend who is a master technician. He assured me I know what I'm doing well enough to not cause any damage. The down side of doing it myself is that it will take all day instead of 2 hours, and likely not be up to concert stage standards. Hopefully it will come out good enough for my purposes as a hobbyist.
Excellent video Jesse. I used to tune pianos when I was younger with just a tuning fork and my ear. This really helps. Tuning kit on its way........
You need to tune your pianino again m8.
Thank you so much giving us this information it is really help full. like my self can't afford to pay some one to tuner, because is so expansive. I'm getting piano for my self. they don't know how long they had tune. this piano 1896 Kohler & Campbell
Wow that was so helpful. Thank you so much. Bless you.
Great DIY video. Looking forward to tuning our piano. Thanks!
hey dude! very cool that you are doing this DIY! check out the method known as Defebaugh Temperament and you will enjoy the results!
I appreciate your video very much. I may try to tune an old piano where I work that’s WAYYYYY out. The place will not pay for a professional tuner, so if I can improve it, that would be very good for the ppl there. Ty!
If it were that easy this would be fine...however, there is much more to it than this. Considerable skill is involved in manipulating the wrest pin, and, with the crank at the angle shown, you are as likely to bend the pin rather than turn it. Best advice: get a full sized upright or a grand not less than 6 feet long, then call in a real piano tuner!
On the other hand - a free piano off Craigslist/Facebook marketplace is still a free piano and thus deserves to be freely tuned by yourself. Not everone is a concerto penist.
This kind of thing makes me crazy. Unless you have a huge amount of space and a boatload of money, don’t bother? Sorry, but music is for everyone. Even the poors. My niece has dreams of science and smart phones are killing dexterity. If I can make my mother’s 60 year old piano work for her, I’m going to. The area I live in literally doesn’t even have a professional tuner. Good advice though!
your video gave me the confidence to finally tune my acoustic piano and stop using the digital one, thank you
i think you're supposed to tune in 4ths and fifths too
Thanks! Going to apprentice for a while then.....?
My A is 426hz. The rest of it seems in line with this. Should I tune the piano around this or push the pitch up but risk snapping strings?
Question: Since we use equal temperament, shouldn't tuning be a bit more complicated that just tuning to perfect relationships between octaves? I always was under the impression that a piano is intentionally slightly out of perfect tune with itself, but a little tiny bit at a time, so that all the 12 keys are (relatively) in tune across the whole keyboard. Wouldn't using our ear to get octaves give us something more perfectly diatonic than that?
Of course, speaking as someone who's never tuned a piano, and so obviously with some potential to be wrong. . .
this is a DIY shortcut that I took to improve a very out of tune cheap (free) beater piano--it is not "the right way" to do it--if you want to learn how to do this properly, I'm sure there are lots of resources out there and clearly tons of know-it-all assholes here in the comments who probably wouldn't be willing to teach you but could at least direct you to a school ;^)
You're correct. It's because of the inharmonicity of steel strings. The octave, fifth, third, etc. overtones of steel strings are not exactly at the octaves, fifths or thirds, but slightly higher than that. Pianos are tuned in order to correct this inharmonicity as best as possible, meaning that each key will be slightly off key, as you say.
I'm not a piano technician, so I cannot say if you can arrive at a correct tuning by matching octaves by ear like this guy is doing. But I'm guessing it would be a pretty crude approximation, if anything.
What I can tell, however, is that this guy's piano is nowhere close to being in tune at the end of the video. If it's due to his bad ear, his bad technique, his bad piano, or all three, I cannot really tell.
im not a "know it all asshole" but i am a pianist... and the best tuner I ever had just had a tuning fork and tuned the whole piano from one note. he tuned from 4ths and 5ths.
This is, actually, how old-time professionals tuned pianos to provide for that “stretch” where the higher octave are slightly higher than perfect pitch, and the lower octaves are slightly lower than perfect pitch. If you tune by ear, your ear hears this as the most pleasing and in-tune interval. If he were to play one of the higher keys with his tuning app, it would say it was sharp. An A vibrates at 440 in the middle octave, and perfect pitch would vibrate at 880 an octave above it. But that actually doesn’t sound quite right. So you tune it higher so it will sound right.
One side note, a piano tuner I spoke with said it’s better to check your tuning by playing 3 octaves together.
Very good, informative, entertaining video. Thanks!
Thanks Jesse, yours was the best. I'm going to try it out this week.
Great vid thx!!
Thank you so much! So helpful
great tutorial many thanks
I notice that you tune UP to the pitch from BELOW the pitch. That IS the way they tell you to tune a guitar, to take the slack out of the geared machine head. But a piano does not have machine heads like a guitar. Professional piano tuners all say to tune DOWN to the pitch from ABOVE the pitch. They say it will stay in tune longer if you do it that way.
You want to go down from a higher pitch if you do this with your piano. Tuning up is a common beginner mistake and the reasoning is it is easier to tune up as opposed to down with how much tension is on each string. This is where a good tuning hammer and hammer technique comes in handy. Issue with tuning up is the piano will go out of tune faster. The ideal way to do it is to try to set the pin so that the bottom of the tuning pin is set to a neutral spot or a slight tension to pull the pitch up while the top part of the pin is keeping the tension. I will not go into great detail, but just think tune so that you go slightly sharp then bring the pitch back down.
So you said if a piano is sitting for a while it will never stay in tune, is there a way to fix that. I just started learning piano on an electric keyboard and decided to get my grandma's piano. It's probably been a long time since anyone played it. I figured it would just need tuned, but now your making me think it might be more trouble than it's worth
I don't think it's true that you can't tune it again. The metal frame holding the strings, is under enormous tension, and it stays in a shape in equilibrium with the strings. If multiple strings lose too much tension, the frame will shape itself proportionally. So when you start tuning them back, the frame will slowly deform again, and all the strings you tuned will have their tension changed, and lose tune. It can take days for the frame to stabilize again under the new tension, which will then require more tuning; the whole ordeal becomes very laborious, and costly.
Subscribed. :)
03:56 My piano hasn't been tuned in two years. Is that too long? Do you think my piano can be brought back to pitch? I have 6'11" Yamaha middle grand. Very expensive. I'm kicking myself for procrastinating having it tuned; especially, because of Covid. I can't even get my piano tuner to return my calls.
Please let me know if it's too late. Thank you.
I only have an upright piano but yes it can! My piano hadnt been tuned in 13 years and after the tuning it sounds brand new! Only thing is my piano tuner had to come twice in the week to adjust after a few days
Not too late.
Why would you this Amateur such a Question?
Hah at all the crap on the piano and the people seeying the piano as furniture.. Just recently managed to get those people to not put heavy brass candleholders on top which keep resonating and distracting me...
In school back in the 60s it was interesting what we'd find inside the pianos we tuned. Everything from dead mice to mice droppings, old food, toys, jewelry,....
Thanks so much my friend 🙏😊🙂
This has given me the confidence I need to attempt to tune my piano. I was very scared to do it before as everyone told me I can’t do it without professional experience and so on, but anyway I’m having my piano professionally tuned next week so I’ll watch the guy do it and pay attention
if your piano is rare or expensive, I wouldn’t do it as your first attempt... but if it was cheap or free (like mine), ignore everybody else and just try it-that’s what I did
A professional tuner is well worth paying--if you can find one. Alas, I may have to learn to make a good tuning on my own--because tuners are busy and scarce in my area. But if I am going to learn to tune, I want to make a good tuning...not just better than it was before. An out of tune piano is not worth playing. I have no problem with diy tuning because I understand that I might just get it all wrong or harm my piano. On the other hand, I have a Hallet Davis c1907 tuned originally for A430 and it is an elderly piano whose action I've repaired over a few years. I don't mind learning on this elderly piano and I can tell, in it's day, it had a mighty sound, beautiful tone.
Pianos are not destined to live forever. And many acoustic pianos are up for adoption...people are begging someone to please own the piano they do not want anymore. If I cannot succeed at making a good tuning, I will have learned something about the process--about temperament about listening and so forth and likely I will try to adapt to playing a piano-like electronic keyboard.
I know a good tuning when I hear one, but I am doubtful I can be the creator of one. Nothing ventured nothing gained.
Update: Feb 2018...turns out the piano was tunable...and my tuning has improved, too. My thanks to all who have posted tuning videos.
And this, class, is why I'm getting a digital piano- I can't afford a professional, nor do I trust this method (Correction: Nor do I trust MYSELF doing this method)
Did you use a Casio keyboard when you were making the music for this video? It sounds like an MT-70 and I had one of those as a kid
yeah man! this is a casiotone 7000 I got on a curb from someone’s trash-if you like this sound, check out the musical project it’s from, Reindeer Brother on whatever streaming service you prefer
Does this tuning method take care of inharmonicity?
So it does not. The issue was that in order to use a machine you need to measure inharmonious even for what is referred to as the temperament octave or the first octave he did with the machine. Now using the octives to tune the rest of the piano from the temperament octive does get you close, but there usually its best to use various intervals like perfect 4ths and 5ths. So when you play a 4th the combination should beat 1 time every second. In short it should have a slight roll to the sound of the note instead of being pure. 4ths are also what are referred to as expanded. This means that you can tune the interval pure so the notes do not beat at all, then spread the notes apart until they beat 1 time every second.
Perfect 5ths are once you can use with perfect 4ths. So a perfect 5th is what is referred to as contracted or you tune the note so that its pure and bring the 2 notes closer together. This interval should beat 3 times in 5 seconds so a bit of a slower beat rate than the perfect 4ths.
With this you can also use tests such as the using a 3rd and a 10th to compare beat rates. I will not go into anymore detail, but this is what you have to do to get the piano in tune and your octaves in equal temperament are technically not perfect. They will be slightly dirty if you truly distribute everything equally. And when you get to areas like the base sometimes you just have to make the best sounding compromise. Especially in a cheap spinet such as the one shown in this video.
Now you don't need to tune by ear. I personally only use aural tuning as a means of checking the machine I use to tune. This works really well for me as machines including my Sanderson IV which is a very nice tuning device are not always perfect. They are about 98% accurate, but remember that each piano as 88 notes and I doubt that you want any notes in your piano out of tune if you paid someone what most tuners charge for a tuning. So we have to use your ears to make sure the machine is right.
However, most people cannot tell if a piano is out of tune until it is at least 10-15 cents flat. Someone with perfect pitch will also fail to recognize this until its 7 cents flat. The methods we use get you within 2 cents of perfect. So use that information as you will. The method in this video will not take care of inharmonious, but I will say as a piano tech, it will do the job for many people who really cannot tell the difference between a good and a bad tuning. What a good technician (keyword being good) can do is keep an eye on your piano to ensure that your piano isn't developing any issues and acts as a time to get any adjustments you want done to your piano to be done when its time to tune. And if you really like having your piano in perfect tune and don't have the time to regularly tune your piano we will be happy to help, but I will admit that we spent years of our lives to learn how to tune to the level that we do and thus can be expensive and I would say its better to use a method such as the one detailed in this video because you don't have the funds to afford a piano tuner than to let your piano get in worse and worse condition. While the method will not get you perfect, it will keep the pitch in check so that when you do hire a technitian he only has to modify the existing tuning as opposed to do a full pitch raise. Not to mention as you get better at tuning you can take the time to assess your piano and figure out if it needs work or not or if anything got damaged.
I hope this answers your questions.
When you are "tuning to itself", are you hearing beats, like when you are tuning individual strings of a note to their partner?
I am tuning a note to its octave up or down same note pitch--this is how you get the piano to "agree" with itself, and without it the octaves will not match in tuning (if you just tuned them independently)
@@DIYMusic so you are doing this by ear, not by beats?
@@SethCrosby I come from tuning guitars, so yes it is using the tuner for the core octave, then just matching pitch by ear for all of the remaining octaves
They're kinda one and the same, no? When tuning by ear, the only time it sounds not-wrong are when the beats have minimized, so when you move the pitch to sound more in unison, you're hearing the beats get longer and longer until they vanish. That is, when you're tuning til it 'sounds good', you're listening for beat-elimination whether you realize it or not, is that right?
Thanks for this video, it filled me with genuine excitement, gonna try for the first time this week!! :)
@@SethCrosby It is with beats. Octives beats and he is tuning them pure. What he is forsaking however are things like using perfect 5ths and 4ths and various test notes to set the temperament which leaves a bit to be desired when it comes to the stretch of the temperament octive. But as a quick and dirty way of tuning when you don't have an extra 150 bucks to hire someone like me, it certainly will get the job done. I don't think you are expecting a perfect tuning but I will say that it will keep tension on the harp and board so if you do decide to hire a tuner, they will likely not have to to a pitch raise to get it in tune. Alternatively if you are running a junky spinet like the one in the video it doesn't make sense to spend more money on a single tuning than the piano is worth value wise.
Thank you!
I think that 99.9 percent of pianos will stay in tune, even if it was a whole step flat. It has to be "pitch raised" once or several times. A "pitch raise" is not a "tuning" because, even though it is the same procedure, it is not as precise as a tuning. When you "pitch raise" a piano, you pull it up to the correct pitch but imprecisely. (A professional will take 45 minutes or more to tune a piano but a "pitch raise" takes twenty minutes or so.) To prevent string breakage .... The first time that you "pitch raise" the piano, you might want to do this . . . . Before you pull (stretch) every string with the tuning lever, a professional tuner will push the tuning lever to the left a little bit, which turns the pin (a tiny bit is sufficient but you can turn the pin more and it won't hurt). This procedure displaces the string from where it has been sitting for many years. (You might hear a tiny crack noise.) You repeat this pitch raising several times until the strings stay at the correct pitch. (It might take six times or more and several days if it was a whole step flat.) Then you tune it. You might have to tune it again in one month, then again in two months, then three months, etc. but eventually it should stay in tune for the average time for every piano (six months but some stay tuned for less time, some stay for a year. Environment plays a large part.) Some pianos need to have screws tightened, etc. to stay in tune but that is a small percentage. Now you can learn how to replace or tie a string after you break it. (Just kidding.) A string doesn't usually break but a string can break at any time, even if the piano is being tuned by a top-notched professional. If a string breaks in the middle or top of the keyboard, you will still have one or two strings to play on that note. Only the bottom fifteen notes (more or less) have one string.
Great video, I tune y own piano as well.
My piano was last tuned in 1967. Our piano tuner died the next year. Would it be advisable to try to tune it or is it too late?
Maybe…
A Professional Piano Tuner will inspect the condition of the Piano before committing to Pitch Raise and Fine Tune it the Concert Pitch.
Also, why would One posit this kind of a question to an Amateur?😊
0:27 With relative tuning I would still be checking the tuner just to see.
I tried to tune a piano, but when I tighten one string it goes down to the previous pitch. is it solvable or not?
that’s outside of my own experience-but I am guessing it has something to do with the leather wrapping the pin being worn out / probably needs to be replaced
Loose tuning pins.
Super helpful video! (Kinda scary music sting at the end haha)
that’s the idea! ;^)
Nice job Jesse! I love the gratuitous horror movie piano bang noises! :)
How do you put the wedges at the high end. The hammers are too high!
I usually pull the hammer back and put the wedges beneath where they strike- it’s a bit awkward, but it works
Gracias
what kind of the piano is it?it is very mini and low
it's a baldwin acrosonic spinet upright
same kind of piano I have!
So, is this recommended for the average handy-man-joe that knows his way with tools and guitars?
I mean, that's the point of view I came at it from... honestly I wouldn't DIY tune on a great piano, but I got this one for free and I imagine a lot of people have cheap or free pianos for which the tuning would cost close to the cost of the piano itself--in that case, if you can tune a guitar, yeah I'd give it a shot!
How much for this job?
I don’t understand the question…
@@DIYMusic how much you can charge for a job like this?
I love your explanation videos, so thank you very much. But man, your spinet sounds awfully out of tune at 2:53.
I've watched many DIY vids on tuning a piano, yours is the best by far. Thanks for the great info.
itsmovinfast wow, so glad to hear it was helpful!
Thank you so much! I was hoping that would generally be the method, I am getting my first piano today! A nicely kept Henry F. Miller Spinet.. its close to tune most of the way, some of the higher notes are the most out of tune.. great job!
So impressed
My wife is the one who putted all the crap on top of my piano
Good demonstration
IS THIS CALLED EQUAL TEMPERMENT
No it's called tuning.
Equal temperament is a kind of tuning standard, because of the way physics work, you'd actually never really reach the same pitch.
Looks hard
ugh spinet pianos sound so bad
indeed
they really, really do. I grew up playing an upright grand, and it took me forever to realize the difference
There are professional piano tuners that warn you to tune your piano yourself. You would risk damaging something, and above all tuning requires a very good ear and knowledge and experience etc. That's all true, I think, but I want to have an unequal temperament on my piano. In order to achieve that, I want to tune it myself so that the tuning pleases my ears. I have to mention that I am extremely picky regarding tuning.
You know if you want to do unequal temperaments it is best to learn to properly tune yourself. I am a technitian and will tell you this. So long as you use a decent head on your tuning hammer (the head being the tip that goes on the tuning pins) you should be fine. You can put good heads on bad hammers, but the damage ususally comes from those crappy amazon tuning hammers that come in those kits that you find for 50 bucks on amazon. A workable tuning hammer will by itself fcost at least 60-100 usd. And they will not come in a kit. Howard piano industries doe sell a decent tuning hammer for beginners (though I do consider him to be a bit pricy) But if you really want to get into doing a lot of tuning and using the various unequil temperaments such as a young or a Werchmeister or a kirnberger temperament you may want a nicer hammer with low amounts of flex which will give you a much easier time adjusting the pins.
My experience with unequil temperaments is different composers sound better with different temperaments. For example Chopin sounds horrible with werchmeister, but sounds fantastic with the young temperament so if you go down this route you may find yourself tuning your piano once every few days or once a week.
What you can do is use a tuning app like tunelab as a referance point and get good at listening to beat rates. Basicly learn how to put a note out of ftune and then put it back in tune. Learn the various checks and do this for equil temperament. Equil temperament is the current standars and thus the temperament with the most resources on how to do, and once you have gotten your ear training up to par, then start experimenting with the unequil temperaments. Tunelab does have them programed into it in the software and so do most of the professional grade ETDs (electronic tuning devices). And as someone who is also picky about tuning I will say being able to play the piano with a tuning hammer within arms reach to touch up a note is really nice.
I think some tuners are worried that people doing it themselves will somehow make their jobs irrelevant, but I honestly find that learning something about tuning actually provides a greater appreciation. If anything it has granted me more business telling people that they can try it themselves because what ends up happening is they find that its difficult and they can never get it sounding as good as a professional. Which is just as with any profession that takes years of practice to be competent at. Just as learning how to play a piano concerto yourself doesn't diminish a concert performance learning how to tune your piano doesn't take away from the quality of a good tuners tuning. You being picky about your tuning is evidence enough of that. I have never had a client come to me and say "I learned to tune my piano so I don't need your services anymore" I have had "we really cannot afford to have our piano tuned" and honestly in that situation I would rather a poor tuning be put on the piano to maintain pitch than no tuning at all. And if something serious goes wrong with the piano I know I will get a call because being a piano technitian is way more than just tuning. I know many techs that exclusively rebuild high end pianos and some who only do player piano system installs. Not to mention techs that do all of it along with running their own piano store. So don't let anyone tell you that you CAN'T tune your own piano. Just use a decent tuning hammer and stop tuning any notes that don't change when you start pulling on your hammer as that indicates that you are on the wrong string. So long as you keep that in mind you shouldn't break strings. Though you can have strings break on you and there is a difference. Good luck.
@@zackeryhardy9504 Oh, thank you for your so long and so encouraging advice, dear Zackery Hardy!
In the meantime I was lucky enough to have found a very adept technician who is really capable to tune any kind of historical temperament (Kirnberger, Vallotti, Young, Bach-Lehmann, mean-tones, Werckmeister - you name it). I don't write his name here in public on the internet, but he is from the oldest music store in Switzerland, the so called "Musik Hug" in Zürich which can look back to a history of more than 200 years of serving the music instrument loving clientele.
That gentleman bases his knowledge of historical temperaments and the development of different tuning systems through music history on the piano technician Mr Wolfgang Wiese in Bremen (Germany). Mr Wiese analysed the thirds (C-E in C major) over the circle of 5ths throughout history and discovered that (starting e.g. by meantone) the 3rds gradually show a less pure curve over the two or three centuries of known unequal temperament. (Have a look at his homepage " wolfgang-wiese.de/ " - it's in German, but it's really worth reading).
Bottom line: In the beginning I had a quite extreme temperament on my piano with a completely pure (!) third C-E (and the keys with more flats and sharps having their thirds rather steeply streched, accordingly). Now, that my piano had been tuned for the 2nd time by that wizard from Musik Hug, I "simply" asked for the Werckmeister III temperament. As my piano skills will improve, I might dive into different tunings. Being a fan of impressionistic piano works (Ravel), I might try Young one day. But for the moment I am delighted by Werckmeister III.
I very much hope that unequal temperament would find its way back to the practice of piano tuning. To my ears, it enhances so much the tonal quality of the instrument and adds so much more shades and colours to the keys.
Best regards from Switzerland!
@@oneirdaathnaram1376 I definately prefer well temperaments for classical, baroque and many romantic era pieces. The music was not written for equil temperament and I find that historical temperaments generally elevate the music as they were writing music with the good and bad sounding intervals in mind.
Playing period music ancient Temperments?
@@NagumaSardonicus No, I simply play J.S. Bach, but in the Bach-Lehman temperament. It sounds so much more interesting. I also like Werckmeister III, which I had on my piano before I have found a piano tuner that can reproduce the Bach-Lehman temperament. Now I am REALLY happy.
?¿ please check your information carefully before trying this at home. This guy is trashing his piano without realising it. Very Sad 😢
+Ben Briggs hmm Why is that?
+Ben Briggs, Please elaborate...how is using a tuning kit bad for a piano? How is it different than a professional using their own kit? I am genuinely curious because i know nothing about piano's and I want to tune my wife's without ruining it (much).
Ok, well firstly the angle of the tuning hammer is very important. The string should always be pulled up, reducing the stress on the tuning pin, and or bushing. This video demonstrates what not to do.
Okay - so where is your video? What do you recommend for people who want to learn?
I recommend reading Piano Tuning, Repair and Rebuilding, by Arthur Reblitz. Also (in full colour and very reasonably priced) The Haynes Piano Manual. There is also the monumentally good, and comprehensive - but expensive - Pianos Inside Out; the best book on piano technology ever produced.
need to re-tune it sounds totally off.
My favorite part is "Putting al the C@#$p back on the Piano" :-)
Like the comedy. As with all this type of thing, the "experts" will call foul, with little or no reason. Or more probably because they are going to lose income. Good stuff
I've seen a lot of free pianos on Craigslist but was skeptical about getting one cuz many are outta tune. But this seems so easy to learn to save $80 or more. Thanks!
Are you Billie joe Armstrong,..can I have your autograph?
The information presented here is not accurate. There is something called “stretch” related to how you solve the Pythagorean comma. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagorean_comma. If you don’t know how to stretch octaves the result will be horrendous, as we can hear on this very didactic (what Not to do) video.
I’m not a professional tuner, but the final result was horrible to my ears. Sorry, I can’t stand dissonances.
What are you talking about? It's not that bad at all
You're right youre not a professional tuner and probably not a player either. Your comment is ignorant
Not to be negative nancy.... but, this is how amateurs tune pianos...Coming from a piano player this does not sound good at all. you're better off paying someone else to do it rather than ruining your piano sound and have to spend more time fixing it. You have to stretch the octaves after setting middles key. then you have to set the temperament by comparing intervals and using your ears. most technicians can fix out of tune keys in a matter of minutes.... but if you mess up the temperament in a piano you kinda have to start from scratch to fix 70+keys
It needs years and a professional training to be able to tune pianos. There is a lot more to it than watching green ligth on the smartphone. The final result was terribly out of tune, when reading the comments it seems like I am the only one who notices this. Not a single tone was good in my ears. Just saying, I have been tuning pianos for a while and the technique you are teaching is wrong. You have to go a little sharp instead of flat first, put the hammer on 12 o'clock and hit the keys much harder.
Anyways, dont want to make you feel bad, just giving a little vote for better hiring professional tuners, its good for the instrument and musical joy :)
Do this and use the money you save to buy a piano that isnt a spinet and then hire a tuner for the expensive one
great idea--spinets suck! :^)
I hardly know where to start except to say PLEASE don't do this to your piano.
I honestly believe that Jesse has good intentions, but there is way too much bad information here - and in the end, the instrument isn't even *close* to "in-tune". When he gave the "thumbs up" at :22, I was shocked. I thought that he was about to *start* tuning this very out-of-tune piano! Instead, he says "Sounds good!" No, dude - it doesn't. Not even in the ballpark. If you want to learn to tune, study with someone who knows what they are doing, or you risk damaging the instrument permanently.
Otherwise, Jesse - keep those excellent videos coming... just step away from the piano.
I guess we all are entitled to say what sounds good or even tastes good (to us). Just some people improve with experience and some don't.
You're right its not even close to in tune, but, I think you missed his disclaimer at 3:05...... "Even if it doesn't sound perfect, if it sounds better than when you started, you've accomplished something! Not happy with how it sounds? Well, then go back and do it over again."
So? just refine his process - and ignore hiring you at an exhorbitant fee
Garth N.....exorbitant fee!? Since when has the cost of having your piano tuned been exorbitant? Most people only need it done annually.
I tune my own for free, besides the once-off cost of the equipment I bought. I don't play any musical instrument, but friends who do have a much worse ear than I do. I agree with the comment that his piano still sounds way out but it is hard to tell from a youtube video played digitally. My piano has had some loose pins, which would mean getting a tuner in would have been a pointless waste of time. I've learnt how to fix those....
People are stupid creatures...
Everyone in the comments has me worried about ruining my piano like this but I remembered I got it for free on letgo so it don't really matter that much to me
Dude, you need to call a professional tuner!
do you belong to some professional tuner cult or something man? why you trippin. let the man tune his goddamn piano so that he doesnt have be dependent on people.
I've never heard it stated that way. That's a VERY good argument. Of course, a piano is more difficult and time consuming.
It's more about the proliferation of REALLY bad information that gets me regarding these videos. 3.58 'A piano, once it has been left drastically out of tune, for too long, can never actually be brought back to pitch'. Who decided that this little gem was correct?
Lyle Wood is right, if you want your piano to sound as good as it can, then ring a tuner & get the cash together to pay him/her to do a GOOD job.
You weren't taking care with the octave I heard you tune. You should hold the octave below while tuning the octave above, not let the octave below go while doing the one above - it defeats the purpose if you can't hear the note you're ACTUALLY tuning TO. Your unisons weren't clean either.
If you put it out there like you have, you should expect to get called on it.
@@priyanujpancake6159 Piano TECHNICIANS are paid members of a real cult--or guild as they call it. They are like the mob and will go after you. Piano tuners are cool though. They don't have membership fees to protect and advertise their business interests.
Go ahead and give it a try, your local piano tech will appreciate the business a week later when you call to have the strings you broke replaced, and after you realize that your tuning is terrible. Also, there is a lot of bogus info in this video, I laughed pretty hard a few times. SMH.
Joe Kemple why is that?