Thanks, I just got an upright piano for free from 1930s and I am thinking of calling a Technician to come and tune it. I will check to see if I need a pitch raise which I almost feel it will need one. Great video.
In my experience with tuning pianos that are near or older than 100 years old is that pitch raising perils is over rated. I have brought pianos up to A440 in one pass and never broke a string or cracked a bridge or the plate. Pianos built before 1939 were not all scale designed for A440, but they were built strong enough to be made to play pitches even higher than A435. For pianos with worn out pin blocks, this may be more of a problem to handle being brought up to A440 in one pass and of course will need several tunings to stabilize. I have yet to see any piano I restring over 100 years old develop a plate cracking somewhere tuned to A440 when it may had been designed to be tuned at A435 or somewhere else below A440. I believe there are many tuners that use this excuse to get more money out of the customer. When I restring for a customer, I tune it a minimum of 5 times over a period of 2 months because new strings do stretch quite a bit. I do not charge for these extra tunings. Just my 2 cents worth.
What ever you say is absolutely true I tuned one note on my piano which was a F# instead of a G and didn’t break a string didn’t split the bridge all went to planned.
Thats really nice to hear. I have a 114 yrs old Pleyel piano I've bought recently, and there are no technicians in my city. My piano is out of tune and tuned to A=415hz or something like that(A becomes G#). I dont care that much of this difference because I use to play all alone, but so far I've played on 440hz instruments and listened to recorded music in this pitch, so it would be nice to raise the pitch of my piano to get a better experience. Because of its age I didnt think it was possible, all that I know is 20 years ago it was tuned to 438hz and the last tuning probably was in 2011. A technician will come over and I hoped it would be soon, but now unfortunately due to coronavirus only God knows when... Cant wait to see it in tune, even flat.
I have a 1961 Wurlitzer spinet that I bought 7 years ago that hadn’t been tuned in many years and most keys were a whole step flat or more. I tuned the piano myself to concert pitch and no broken strings or other problems. The first tuning took me about 5 hours. A couple days later I did a fine tuning that only took about 40 minutes. If your piano has not been neglected or abused and the strings are in good shape and not rusty or corroded it seems unlikely you’ll break a string.
I had a Ymaha G1 tuned the other day, which was the first is sevaral years, and heard the technician saying something to the wife about the possibilty of breaking strings. She is the one who plays. None broke and later I found out that a pitch rasie was done. Now I understand the need for one. As for the maker of this video, I love his explanations, as well as his playing.
Some years ago, I inherited a reed organ. I knew that frequently they were NOT tuned to a440, but usually a bit lower. I thought it would be nice to have the piano & organ tuned together so I could do dual-keyboard works. Well, the next time my piano was due for a tuning, I asked the tuner to see if he could tune them together. Alas, it turned out that the ogan was tuned about 1/8 of a tone ABOVE modern concert pitch. The other reed organ to whch I have access is in the museum at my church. We have a little chamber music group at the church (basoon, flute, oboe/English horn, keyboard.) I suggested, "Why not use the reed organ? The reed sound would go with the other woodwinds, wouldn't it? Alas, the reed organ at church is tuned 1/4 tone BELOW standard pitch. The basoonist said that string players could tune down to it, but wind players can''t.
I neglected my poor, little upright for a long time. After not tuning it for 22 years I called a technician for a pitch raise. Thanks for the explanation.
gaara125able A pitch raise initially followed by a tuning shortly after. This was done last December. To my untrained ear it still sounds pretty decent.
@@KeepingOnTheWatchI know you aren't an expert, and I know that this post was a long time ago, but I'm looking to buy a used piano from an online site and it hasn't been tuned for four years. From your experience, do you think it will be too expensive to bring back to normal?
Amanda02927 Based on my own personal story you should be okay. However, be sure to look at the soundboard for any obvious cracks, play every single key (are there any that don’t work?), have there been any mice in there? (easily detectable from little mouse ‘treasures’ they leave behind in the interior). Was it left untuned simply because of neglect or because it’s untunable? Sometimes the pins and the wooden pinblock will not allow the strings to be tightened, making a tuning impossible. Of course, this is the worst case scenario. Does anyone else have anything to add and help Amanda out?
Does my piano need a pitch raise because its almost a half step out of tune and the a4 note sounds like a g#4 and it changes in pitch when it gets to c#6 because any thing higher the c#6 is more in tune and anything lower than f4 is mor in tune too please respond
Pitch raises are not in percentages, but in fractions of a semi-tones. A piano may be a half-step flat. I guess you could call that 100%. But sometimes pianos can be a whole-tone flat which would then be called 200%!
@@LivingPianosVideos thanks. The fellow who wrote 100% explained to me that autocorrect changed his intended cents to percent. So 100 cents make sense?
Am a professional concert tuner/technician. Robert Estrin is a remarkably effective educator. You can bank on his advice.
Thanks, I just got an upright piano for free from 1930s and I am thinking of calling a Technician to come and tune it. I will check to see if I need a pitch raise which I almost feel it will need one. Great video.
In my experience with tuning pianos that are near or older than 100 years old is that pitch raising perils is over rated. I have brought pianos up to A440 in one pass and never broke a string or cracked a bridge or the plate. Pianos built before 1939 were not all scale designed for A440, but they were built strong enough to be made to play pitches even higher than A435. For pianos with worn out pin blocks, this may be more of a problem to handle being brought up to A440 in one pass and of course will need several tunings to stabilize. I have yet to see any piano I restring over 100 years old develop a plate cracking somewhere tuned to A440 when it may had been designed to be tuned at A435 or somewhere else below A440. I believe there are many tuners that use this excuse to get more money out of the customer. When I restring for a customer, I tune it a minimum of 5 times over a period of 2 months because new strings do stretch quite a bit. I do not charge for these extra tunings. Just my 2 cents worth.
What ever you say is absolutely true I tuned one note on my piano which was a F# instead of a G and didn’t break a string didn’t split the bridge all went to planned.
Thats really nice to hear. I have a 114 yrs old Pleyel piano I've bought recently, and there are no technicians in my city. My piano is out of tune and tuned to A=415hz or something like that(A becomes G#). I dont care that much of this difference because I use to play all alone, but so far I've played on 440hz instruments and listened to recorded music in this pitch, so it would be nice to raise the pitch of my piano to get a better experience. Because of its age I didnt think it was possible, all that I know is 20 years ago it was tuned to 438hz and the last tuning probably was in 2011. A technician will come over and I hoped it would be soon, but now unfortunately due to coronavirus only God knows when... Cant wait to see it in tune, even flat.
@@Thiago-px9ev hey Thiago, how's your piano now? Have you turn it yet?
I have a 1961 Wurlitzer spinet that I bought 7 years ago that hadn’t been tuned in many years and most keys were a whole step flat or more. I tuned the piano myself to concert pitch and no broken strings or other problems. The first tuning took me about 5 hours. A couple days later I did a fine tuning that only took about 40 minutes. If your piano has not been neglected or abused and the strings are in good shape and not rusty or corroded it seems unlikely you’ll break a string.
I had a Ymaha G1 tuned the other day, which was the first is sevaral years, and heard the technician saying something to the wife about the possibilty of breaking strings. She is the one who plays. None broke and later I found out that a pitch rasie was done. Now I understand the need for one. As for the maker of this video, I love his explanations, as well as his playing.
Some years ago, I inherited a reed organ. I knew that frequently they were NOT tuned to a440, but usually a bit lower. I thought it would be nice to have the piano & organ tuned together so I could do dual-keyboard works. Well, the next time my piano was due for a tuning, I asked the tuner to see if he could tune them together. Alas, it turned out that the ogan was tuned about 1/8 of a tone ABOVE modern concert pitch.
The other reed organ to whch I have access is in the museum at my church. We have a little chamber music group at the church (basoon, flute, oboe/English horn, keyboard.) I suggested, "Why not use the reed organ? The reed sound would go with the other woodwinds, wouldn't it? Alas, the reed organ at church is tuned 1/4 tone BELOW standard pitch. The basoonist said that string players could tune down to it, but wind players can''t.
I neglected my poor, little upright for a long time. After not tuning it for 22 years I called a technician for a pitch raise. Thanks for the explanation.
Walter B. Was it possible to tune it after all those years?, I have an upright piano that hasn't been tuned in 20 years, and I'm worried about that.
gaara125able A pitch raise initially followed by a tuning shortly after. This was done last December. To my untrained ear it still sounds pretty decent.
@@KeepingOnTheWatchI know you aren't an expert, and I know that this post was a long time ago, but I'm looking to buy a used piano from an online site and it hasn't been tuned for four years. From your experience, do you think it will be too expensive to bring back to normal?
Amanda02927 Based on my own personal story you should be okay. However, be sure to look at the soundboard for any obvious cracks, play every single key (are there any that don’t work?), have there been any mice in there? (easily detectable from little mouse ‘treasures’ they leave behind in the interior). Was it left untuned simply because of neglect or because it’s untunable? Sometimes the pins and the wooden pinblock will not allow the strings to be tightened, making a tuning impossible. Of course, this is the worst case scenario. Does anyone else have anything to add and help Amanda out?
@@KeepingOnTheWatch thanks so much! I will keep looking into it.
I have a 1942 Francis Bacon upright player piano that is about a semi-tone flat. It is in tune with itself (more or less).
Wonderful clear explanation! Thank you!
Sounds expensive?
Love this enthusiastic fella!
Does my piano need a pitch raise because its almost a half step out of tune and the a4 note sounds like a g#4 and it changes in pitch when it gets to c#6 because any thing higher the c#6 is more in tune and anything lower than f4 is mor in tune too please respond
I just love the sound of the piano 👍
When I get a tuning and pitch raised in the next month or so, how long should the tuning last?
my Kawai is 1/2 - 1 semitone flat
Thanks for this video.
So very simply, tune the piano back standard tuning?
Very informative.
great video
What would be a 100% pitch raise?
Pitch raises are not in percentages, but in fractions of a semi-tones. A piano may be a half-step flat. I guess you could call that 100%. But sometimes pianos can be a whole-tone flat which would then be called 200%!
@@LivingPianosVideos thanks. The fellow who wrote 100% explained to me that autocorrect changed his intended cents to percent. So 100 cents make sense?
@@stephenrichie4646
100 cents is 1 whole step.
@@thomasreedy4751 Actually, 100 cents is a semitone or a half step.
Throw it away and get a digital piano.