A piano exposed to fluctuating temperatures will need to be tuned even more regularly. Why all street "play me" pianos become unplayable after a few months
yeah changing humidity and temperatures are bad for pianos and floor heating is the death for one. if you have floor heating then you are lucky if it holds the tuning for half a year before actually sounding out of tune. another problem is that it can happen that the tuning pegs can get lose and then it won't hold the tuning at all until they get changed into thicker ones.
@@benm12310 the problem with them is that they dry out the wood of the piano and wood moves and cracks when it get's too dry. another problem is that the piano has a resonance plate out of wood in the back and that can crack and lose it's form and then you lose most of the resonant frequencies in the tone.
Your right! A little country church not far from me only ran the heater or A/C (depending on the season) twice a week. Their poor piano suffered excess heat or cold plus humidity extremes the rest of the time.
If it is your studio.. I completely understand.. Because while some musicians have talent, many will make excuses for being nearly tone deaf.. and a Mic’d piano isn’t easy to “Tune up” in Pro tools..
Getting it tuned regularly also helps maintain its value. An instrument that isn't properly cared for becomes worthless, fit only for the dump, which is really unfortunate for something as large and as expensive as a piano.
@@YeshanuI guess it depends on how expensive the piano is to begin with. A piano tuner costs about $200. Makes sense for a $20'000 piano. Maybe not for a $2000 piano
Even if you aren’t playing, it is still a machine and will get dirt and rusted without maintenance. Unfortunately people who buy for decor, should just by a fake one :(
Some colleges and conservatories have a full time professional piano tuner. Between concert hall pianos, practice rooms, common areas, lesson rooms, etc, there's a lot of pianos, and they want great performance out of them. The concert hall pianos get tuned daily, the practice rooms somewhere between weekly and monthly.
As soon as the season changes, I notice certain keys slightly out of tune. That is why I have always had mine tuned every 6-8 months. I do play daily, so I may notice more than most people.
I wasn't surprised because my instinct was 6-12 months, but I've played the piano for pretty much my whole life so I think my brain absorbed that information from how often we had our piano tuned.
My older brother was a child prodigy and we had a grand piano in our childhood house. I remember an older guy coming over about twice a year to tune the piano. This was way before new-fangled apps. He had a tuning fork! Anyway, he always brought a sack lunch with a corned beef sandwich and it took him several hours to tune the piano. My brother had the gift of perfect pitch, too. So he could tell if the piano was out of tune before anyone else noticed! Ah, the good old days. I would wake up every morning before going to grade school hearing my brother practicing before he went to the same grade school.
My grandma had an old air driven player. Sadly we were told at one point it could no longer be tuned as it had sat without a tuning for so long it would possibly break the frame. He even suggested releasing the tension on the old beastie so it doesnt implode randomly someday. He brought in this fance portable scanner thing and apparently it sat overtuned for a long time and it weakened the iron in the frame. I think it was a cast iron frame. He didnt even charge us for looking at it as he was so sore it couldnt be saved.
I really hope that piano didn't get thrown away because of this misinformation. The worst that could happen if the pins didn't become loose from normal wear or temperature swings is it would need multiple tunings while the strings stabilise and everything settles. If someone says a piano can implode even if it gets dropped, they don't know what they're talking about as that would require the strings to suddenly tighten in a way where they lose a substantial amount of their length which is impossible. If the piano is still around, he should get it checked out my someone else or learn to tune it himself which isn't hard, just repetitive, super long, boring and requires a lot of patience but it's always best to get it checked by a professional first to make sure it doesn't need any work to prevent the soundboard from cracking if it has any structural issues depending on the conditions it was stored in. If it doesn't hold a tune because the pinblock is worn and it needs a lot of work, it would most likely be more worth getting restored than to buy a new piano thanks to the decline in quality and the condition of the earth being in a state where no pianos should be made until the surplus of old ones are restored and put back into commission. Suggesting to release the tension so it doesn't implode randomly sounds like today's anti right to repair fear mongering. If you look around youtube, you can find people restoring pianos that are over 200 years old and in much worse condition to like new condition preserving the original soundboard that comes out warped, cracked and in multiple pieces.
I got reality checked by this guy. Dude makes a living tuning grand pianos, and I cannot even tell one person in my lifetime that had such a piano in their home. 😂
Although this one is not a grand piano, and these are pretty cheap if you just want to have a regular piano at home. Mostly because of their size, weight, and maintenance.
I had an 1857 ronisch upright piano and when it got to my house, it was still just as in tune as it was in the store and I'm exceptionally good at hearing differences in tone. I can't speak for how in tune it was when it left my possession since I had to return it cause the owner of the shop I got it from covered up the issues and lied about performing work on it to get it out the door and they picked it up half a food and just dropped it onto the dolly on the way out.
That is how it works. If you let a car sit in your driveway for 30 years you cant drive it either. Your piano is so used to being out of tune that it can no longer hold a tuning. The tuner would tune it and 5 minutes to a day later it would sound absolutely terrible again. It is not the tuners fault it is whoever never got it tuned in 30 years' fault. So if that piano has been sitting in YOUR house, then it is your fault. I hope you were laughing at yourself. If you don't mow your front lawn for 30 years a lawnmower is not gonna chop down the thick forest of adult trees in your front yard either.
@@jackroberts1733I am not because I understand that. You gotta understand one thing. It came with the house. And it also is in a painful spot to move it. Like it’s on the ground floor on what was an old patio. It can’t move anywhere without a pain in the ass. I don’t play on it anymore I use my electric piano but I still find it funny it can’t be tuned anymore
@@Koronora I'm still not sure why you find that funny...and yeah it must be a pain to move a Piano on the ground floor...(now I find THAT funny!!!) I am not a Piano mover but I have moved a few pianos...once a 6' grand up to the second floor...and the stairs had a 90 degree turn in them. That was not a fun day! But I understand inheriting a Piano with your house. You didn't pick it out and it was probably not tuned in a while before you inherited the piano, so you are absolved of all blame as to it being in such a condition where it is basically totalled like a car (untunable piano). At least now you could learn some Ragtime music on your honky tonk piano or turn it into a bookshelf or a fish tank or a wine cabinet or something...lol. It is sad how many pianos end up in the landfill... My brother has a Piano like yours...inherited with the house and untunable. It looks pretty cool on the outside but pop the hood and there is moth damage everywhere...
@@jackroberts1733the worst part is the fact that if I did get it up the stairs there is immediately a thin hall way and a 90 degree turn. I wish I could get it fixed up. It was built in 1903 and last serviced in 1974. Crazy how old it is.
I hate it when they spread this kind of misinformation because so many pianos get thrown away because of it. If the pins aren't loose and it has been kept in good weather conditions, it would need multiple tunings but a piano never becomes untunable simply because it hasn't been tuned in too long.
That is so funny as someone who just finished their music degree my guess was they needed way more maintenance that (like every 4 months) but that’s just because it felt like the piano tuner was in all the time! I wonder if professionals tune more often (I use a keyboard)
dam this guy is smart first he understands confusion pianos second the engine oil was a perfect example like every idk about miles but every 5-9 thousand km oil meeds to be changed which it depends on the person how much km they put on in 6-12 months but yeah 6-12 months i see ppl come back
Yeah I play violin and cello, and I imagine that it’s similar to that in the sense that you wouldn’t wait half a year before retuning a violin (because it would be so out of tune it would be horrible) and also slight variations in temperature and humidity can wreck the intonation of these instruments, which if you don get retuned quickly can ruin some parts of the string instruments like the bridge. Unfortunately tuning a piano is significantly harder though, as long as you have a little experience tuning a string instrument it’s pretty easy.
A piano needs tuning more often when the humidity and temperature changes often or over a wide range, also pianos that get moved all the time. The next factor is how often it gets played. There is a difference between an instrument that is somewhere in a school and gets used by many people and a piano at home that gets played only at Christmas once a year.
I had a piano like that. When we had a tuner come to tune it, he refilled and said it wouldn't be worth it for the amount of work that would have been needed - replacing broken strings and such.
Now the good thing about owning an electric piano is that it not only sounds really similar, it also has more capability, and it also never has to be tuned
How often a piano should be tuned depends upon the particular piano (its design, construction, and condition), the temperature and humidity of where it is, whether these fluctuate and if so by how much, how much is is played and how much of that is forte and fortissimo. There is also a question of the sill of the tuner. A highly skilled tuner be able "set the tuning pins" more skillfully, so that loud playing on the strings will not lower the pitch of the strings as much as if they were set unskillfully.
I work backstage for an orchestra and ours get tuned multiple times a month. Granted, that's likely because when we take them downstairs on the stage lift they bump a fair amount when pushed over the lift threshold.
I knew this. My mom told me as a pianist-- "Baby girl, a piano needs to be tuned as often as we need a tooth cleaning bc we ourselves are instruments, every 6 months to a year." But we were SUUUUUUUPER poor and any time she had saved enough to tune it, her husband stole it and would use it for himself for whatever reason. As soon as I get a job and pay down my school debts to a decent level, I wanna have her piano tuned for the first time in 30 years. She deserves it. My mama has lived a HARD life and has managed to be able to hold onto her piano by sheer will. Im amazed at how well her piano plays even after how many moves it's been through.
Hey @PianoDoctor. My dads piano, a cherished memory of his father who passed when my dad was 12, is horribly out of tune, and desperately needs some likely major fixes. The problem is, it was looked at previously and the person said the piano is unrepairable. Is there anything that can be done for it?
Hardy anything is unrepairable. Often the question is whether it’s worth the expense. If the sentimental value is high, then perhaps it will be worth an expensive repair.
It depends on the style and manufacturer. Because we like using car terms here I guess? Think of it as "totaled" where a totaled Ferri and totaled honda civic have very different meanings. You can rebuild a wrecked car no matter what but when you're replacing the engine, frame, transmission, axials, etc. How much of the old car lives in the rebuild?
You’re just saying that so you can charge more money 🤣🤣🤣 I was the one on Messenger stating about that Yamaha issue where the hammers bounce over twice. Recently, I took the hammer mechanism out again, put it back in, and there’s another issue now
.... If you have somewhere near you that sells pianos/instruments... that's a good place to start. Chances are they're either doing it themselves or paying for someone to do it.. in the first case you could apply for a job and in the second case you could use the information they might give you to contact the firm/induvidual and ask. (Or even search for such courses near you.. but unless you find a way to practice what you learn and get better at it....
Oh yeah, I think I read this in a trivia game or something. I was quite surprised, too. I'm not a pianist, but when knew it, I even was like "Wait, you can tune these things?" XD
Me who hasn't tuned his piano in 10 years....and somehow it's still in tune...Got it tuned a week ago and tech said nothing was far out of tune and it just needed some adjustments
@@GarryBoyer I bought my 1926 Jacobs Brothers upright player in 2003 when I boght my house. I've never had it fully tuned and it gets played every day. I do have tuning equipment and fix the individual notes I can hear as they slip out, but that's the extent of it.
Kind of relieved as I was expecting you to say more often than that! I worked in a studio where the piano got tuned once a week (even if it wasn't played that week)
I'm a piano tech in "my local area". Prices vary greatly. I ask customers to budget about $140 ish a year. The importance of tuning at LEAST once a year can't be stressed enough, for multiple reasons. Take good care of a piano and it will last much longer than neglected one.
A yearly tuning can't be stressed enough. Please.. it's cheaper than paying for the extra work a neglected piano will need. I'm also a piano tech, I can't speak for all techs, but if a customer keeps their piano tuned regularly, most of my customers tune every 6 months mainly because of the humidity fluctuation of where we live, i won't charge for minor repairs or adjustments.
Depends on the country you live in, in my country and with the tuner we have found its only 50€ per tuning, no matter how long it takes him(2 hours usually). If you can afford a piano, you can afford to get it tuned once a year,.
I just wish I had the money to get ours tuned. It’s a beautiful stand up grand piano that was custom made for a church which we later bought at an auction when it shut down. Absolutely beautiful piano but i don’t even know the last time it was tuned so it’s not even playable anymore 😢
Not that they will ever truly replace the majestic grand piano BUT digital sampled pianos today are a phenomenal option -very affordable. Fantastic ones cost under $5k -ultra realistic piano samples with variety of miking styles -ultra portable -play anytime with privacy headphones -stylish -some have built in metronome and recording -they NEVER EVER go out of tune
Even a spinet piano is better than a digital piano when you think about realism and natural feel and sound but even if they made the perfect digital piano that duplicates a piano in software instead of samples and uses a real piano action, enshittification of the electronics industry ruins every good potential. They become less affordable real fast when the manufacturer ether refuses to sell you parts or sells you more than what you need while most people won't work on them so you might have to learn how to work on it yourself.
We tune our Samik grand piano every 1 to 1,5 years, as soon as we feel that the pitch is slightly off or that one of the keys works badly. Our tuner has regularly applauded us for doing it so frequently and regularly since it keeps the quality of the piano up.
I just got my baby grand tuned after 8 months and I’m happy that it’s being taken care of. I’m so grateful with it and all the usefulness it has provided me over the years, it doesn’t hurt me to pay for what it deserves.
I got a piano like three years ago and it got out of tuned because of me playing really ‘vigorously’😂 and have never been tuned. But now that I am a full on music student, I can finally tell the difference of the sound the piano made three years ago and immediately got it tuned. Thank u so much for this short as it gave me a tip to always tune my piano if I can. I will keep that in mind😊😂
You should tune it twice a year with the changing of the seasons. I cant understand people who buy a Piano and never tune it. It is like buying a puppy and never feeding it. Let that go on long enough and your piano will literally DIE and become UN-tunable. You should be investigated for piano abuse...
My grandma played the piano and hers was tuned once a year, whether it needed it or not. She also had an organ. My grandma was very talented. I miss hearing her play.
Manufacturers are not the most practical with repair instructions because they down want to be liable for a breakdown. "Well did you follow the repair rules?"
I wish i could afford to get our piano tuned regularly - inherited it after my grandma passed but we just don't have the money. He's 100% right tho, you can hear the pitch change over time!
Location plays a huge role as well. Climates that stay the same all year round are heaven for pianos, and if she has it stored in the middle of the house, far from any heat/ac vents and not in direct sunlight, there’s a hood chance you can keep it in tune way longer than most pianos.
@@tangyorange6509 never thought about that! It is far away from any windows/heavy light sources, but as for heat; she lives in michigan, so deffinatley big temperature changes throughout the year
It really depends on the conditions. Having your piano near a window that is often opened/closed needs to be retuned more often (temperature changes). 6 months is really the minimum for a home piano. I personally get mine tuned every 1 1/2 years and periodically check with app to see how far off the pitches are. But again, my piano is in a nice warm room that always stays that way.
In Minnesota, I would say twice a year for seasonal fluctuations in humidity. We have AC to dehumidify and a humidifier for the winter, but it still goes out.
My violin teacher had a friend with such perfect pitch that she needed her piano tuned every few weeks at most, and would only let a particular piano tune do it. You know how it's grating to hear a flat piano, imaging feeling that if the piano is only a cent or two out! I don't know how she could stand listening to music at all.
The further out of tune a piano is allowed to get, the more load variation is placed on the harp, and the more torque is required on the pins to bring it back. That's hard on the block. Tune your pianos twice a year, or more if you live in a highly variable climate.
I need to tune my piano all the time. You are right about people not "hearing it" - we hear the out-of-tune as some kind of character until the beats/untuned sounds are too much for registering the subtleties of harmonies. I would so much like to find a piano technician who can regulate the keys better - I got it done but there are still some minor problems.
I had a Huntington Upright that was an Oak case model made in 1919.. it had ridiculously stable tuning… and a wonderfully sensitive and strong action.. Loved it.. (too heavy for the house I have now) …My inherited 3/4 upright from Mason and Hamlin built in 1946 with a Mahogany case has a wonderful warm sound that gets muddy in mere weeks.. despite being in a completely controlled environment..
I take the car thing over to the guitar side of things. I don't have an acoustic piano 😞. But I try and aim for every 6 months. I changed my strings on june 9th my birthday, and I'm goin to change them december 9th
Tuner here. 6 months is fine, but the vast majority of home pianos aren’t played that much and don’t go out of tune until the year mark. I even have a few pianos that don’t go out of tune for 18 months. Really depends on piano, usage, weather conditions
Cruise ships have them tuned before they begin it's voyage. As someone has already written, they fluctuate due to temperature. Same thing with all stringed instruments.
Got it, we should tune our Piano's every 5,000 miles.
So, if you play Vanessa Carlton, you need to tune it every four repeats
@@PianoKwanManyou made my day with this comment 😂😂
MMWDT
Terry fox
He got a point
A piano exposed to fluctuating temperatures will need to be tuned even more regularly. Why all street "play me" pianos become unplayable after a few months
yeah changing humidity and temperatures are bad for pianos and floor heating is the death for one.
if you have floor heating then you are lucky if it holds the tuning for half a year before actually sounding out of tune.
another problem is that it can happen that the tuning pegs can get lose and then it won't hold the tuning at all until they get changed into thicker ones.
@@dovos8572I didn’t know that about the heated floors. Thanks
@@benm12310 the problem with them is that they dry out the wood of the piano and wood moves and cracks when it get's too dry. another problem is that the piano has a resonance plate out of wood in the back and that can crack and lose it's form and then you lose most of the resonant frequencies in the tone.
Your right! A little country church not far from me only ran the heater or A/C (depending on the season) twice a week. Their poor piano suffered excess heat or cold plus humidity extremes the rest of the time.
And fluctuating humidity!
*laughs in electric keyboard*
you dont reflow all the solder joints on the circuit board of your e-piano twice a year?
@@gillsejusbates6938a a noise artist, I do this to make new circuits
Cries in life span.
For my keyboard I still have to oil them at least once a year so different kind of maintenance I geuss
I swear my keyboard is out of tune bruh
"you can tune a piano, but you can't tuna fish" - Sun Tzu, probably.
Way too underrated
Daaang
A toucan is a bird.
A three can is a black guy with a speech impediment.
"Can a match box? No, but a tin can." -Confucius, I think.
You toucan't
As a recording engineer, we get the piano tuned A LOT, at least once a week if it's being used on the session
😮
I am guessing that it has quite a high "milage"
Damn, what are the expenses like for that per month? 1-3K?
@@Un1234l , Piano isn't used that much on pop/rock records!
If it is your studio.. I completely understand.. Because while some musicians have talent, many will make excuses for being nearly tone deaf.. and a Mic’d piano isn’t easy to “Tune up” in Pro tools..
My grandparents tune their piano every 6 months. It never gets used.
Getting it tuned regularly also helps maintain its value. An instrument that isn't properly cared for becomes worthless, fit only for the dump, which is really unfortunate for something as large and as expensive as a piano.
So cute ❤
@@YeshanuI guess it depends on how expensive the piano is to begin with. A piano tuner costs about $200. Makes sense for a $20'000 piano. Maybe not for a $2000 piano
Even if you aren’t playing, it is still a machine and will get dirt and rusted without maintenance. Unfortunately people who buy for decor, should just by a fake one :(
My technician at his first visit asked how often I wanted my instrument (7.5 ft Bechstein c.1885) tuned. "If I could afford it, every day."
The acrosonic in my basement hasnt been tuned in 35+ years and it plays just fine
@@spudwickthrockmorton2112doubtful
@@spudwickthrockmorton2112 🤣
@@spudwickthrockmorton2112some pianos just built different 😂
Some colleges and conservatories have a full time professional piano tuner. Between concert hall pianos, practice rooms, common areas, lesson rooms, etc, there's a lot of pianos, and they want great performance out of them.
The concert hall pianos get tuned daily, the practice rooms somewhere between weekly and monthly.
I just watched this video to tell that I am alive.
a reference to the last video?
Hey I'm still alive as well 🎉🎉🎉
You're doing a great job at being alive, please keep it up
Ha ha ha ha staying alive
Moaning Myrtle in the Hogwarts girls bathroom:
As soon as the season changes, I notice certain keys slightly out of tune. That is why I have always had mine tuned every 6-8 months. I do play daily, so I may notice more than most people.
I wasn't surprised because my instinct was 6-12 months, but I've played the piano for pretty much my whole life so I think my brain absorbed that information from how often we had our piano tuned.
Tuned my piano 4 times this year. There is nothing better then a freshly tuned piano.
My older brother was a child prodigy and we had a grand piano in our childhood house. I remember an older guy coming over about twice a year to tune the piano. This was way before new-fangled apps. He had a tuning fork! Anyway, he always brought a sack lunch with a corned beef sandwich and it took him several hours to tune the piano. My brother had the gift of perfect pitch, too. So he could tell if the piano was out of tune before anyone else noticed! Ah, the good old days. I would wake up every morning before going to grade school hearing my brother practicing before he went to the same grade school.
What happened to your brother?
He became the next grand piano@@spidey5558
What a wonderful memory!
I loved watching the piano tuner. He would always play a request when he finished. We really enjoyed that. Playing the piano helped my mom de-stress❤
So....I gotta change the oil on my piano every 3000 notes. Got it.
Ah, it would be nice if there would be a counter on piano's like there are in cars :)
I have played 5 minute long pieces that are about 3000 notes long.
You should get it tuned more like every 3,000,000 notes.
My grandma had an old air driven player. Sadly we were told at one point it could no longer be tuned as it had sat without a tuning for so long it would possibly break the frame. He even suggested releasing the tension on the old beastie so it doesnt implode randomly someday. He brought in this fance portable scanner thing and apparently it sat overtuned for a long time and it weakened the iron in the frame. I think it was a cast iron frame. He didnt even charge us for looking at it as he was so sore it couldnt be saved.
This is heartbreaking 😭
I'd be sore too tbh.
I really hope that piano didn't get thrown away because of this misinformation.
The worst that could happen if the pins didn't become loose from normal wear or temperature swings is it would need multiple tunings while the strings stabilise and everything settles.
If someone says a piano can implode even if it gets dropped, they don't know what they're talking about as that would require the strings to suddenly tighten in a way where they lose a substantial amount of their length which is impossible.
If the piano is still around, he should get it checked out my someone else or learn to tune it himself which isn't hard, just repetitive, super long, boring and requires a lot of patience but it's always best to get it checked by a professional first to make sure it doesn't need any work to prevent the soundboard from cracking if it has any structural issues depending on the conditions it was stored in.
If it doesn't hold a tune because the pinblock is worn and it needs a lot of work, it would most likely be more worth getting restored than to buy a new piano thanks to the decline in quality and the condition of the earth being in a state where no pianos should be made until the surplus of old ones are restored and put back into commission.
Suggesting to release the tension so it doesn't implode randomly sounds like today's anti right to repair fear mongering.
If you look around youtube, you can find people restoring pianos that are over 200 years old and in much worse condition to like new condition preserving the original soundboard that comes out warped, cracked and in multiple pieces.
Once every season for me. It’s not just the tuning, it’s keeping everything playing and feeling great.
I got reality checked by this guy. Dude makes a living tuning grand pianos, and I cannot even tell one person in my lifetime that had such a piano in their home. 😂
Although this one is not a grand piano, and these are pretty cheap if you just want to have a regular piano at home. Mostly because of their size, weight, and maintenance.
@@vurpo7080 if you think pianos are cheap then you need to get reality checked
As a former piano mover, every time it gets off the truck.😂
I had an 1857 ronisch upright piano and when it got to my house, it was still just as in tune as it was in the store and I'm exceptionally good at hearing differences in tone.
I can't speak for how in tune it was when it left my possession since I had to return it cause the owner of the shop I got it from covered up the issues and lied about performing work on it to get it out the door and they picked it up half a food and just dropped it onto the dolly on the way out.
My piano is so old and out of tune that the tuner said he can’t tune its anymore and I found it funny.
That is how it works. If you let a car sit in your driveway for 30 years you cant drive it either. Your piano is so used to being out of tune that it can no longer hold a tuning. The tuner would tune it and 5 minutes to a day later it would sound absolutely terrible again.
It is not the tuners fault it is whoever never got it tuned in 30 years' fault. So if that piano has been sitting in YOUR house, then it is your fault. I hope you were laughing at yourself.
If you don't mow your front lawn for 30 years a lawnmower is not gonna chop down the thick forest of adult trees in your front yard either.
@@jackroberts1733I am not because I understand that. You gotta understand one thing. It came with the house. And it also is in a painful spot to move it. Like it’s on the ground floor on what was an old patio. It can’t move anywhere without a pain in the ass. I don’t play on it anymore I use my electric piano but I still find it funny it can’t be tuned anymore
@@Koronora I'm still not sure why you find that funny...and yeah it must be a pain to move a Piano on the ground floor...(now I find THAT funny!!!)
I am not a Piano mover but I have moved a few pianos...once a 6' grand up to the second floor...and the stairs had a 90 degree turn in them. That was not a fun day!
But I understand inheriting a Piano with your house. You didn't pick it out and it was probably not tuned in a while before you inherited the piano, so you are absolved of all blame as to it being in such a condition where it is basically totalled like a car (untunable piano).
At least now you could learn some Ragtime music on your honky tonk piano or turn it into a bookshelf or a fish tank or a wine cabinet or something...lol. It is sad how many pianos end up in the landfill...
My brother has a Piano like yours...inherited with the house and untunable. It looks pretty cool on the outside but pop the hood and there is moth damage everywhere...
@@jackroberts1733the worst part is the fact that if I did get it up the stairs there is immediately a thin hall way and a 90 degree turn. I wish I could get it fixed up. It was built in 1903 and last serviced in 1974. Crazy how old it is.
I hate it when they spread this kind of misinformation because so many pianos get thrown away because of it.
If the pins aren't loose and it has been kept in good weather conditions, it would need multiple tunings but a piano never becomes untunable simply because it hasn't been tuned in too long.
That is so funny as someone who just finished their music degree my guess was they needed way more maintenance that (like every 4 months) but that’s just because it felt like the piano tuner was in all the time! I wonder if professionals tune more often (I use a keyboard)
As a daughter of a piano tuner I am honestly surprised people didn’t know the piano needed to be tuned regularly. 😅
dam this guy is smart first he understands confusion pianos second the engine oil was a perfect example like every idk about miles but every 5-9 thousand km oil meeds to be changed which it depends on the person how much km they put on in 6-12 months but yeah 6-12 months i see ppl come back
I move pianos and almost Everytime we move one they get tuned. I don't do this but I am looking into it.
Yeah I play violin and cello, and I imagine that it’s similar to that in the sense that you wouldn’t wait half a year before retuning a violin (because it would be so out of tune it would be horrible) and also slight variations in temperature and humidity can wreck the intonation of these instruments, which if you don get retuned quickly can ruin some parts of the string instruments like the bridge. Unfortunately tuning a piano is significantly harder though, as long as you have a little experience tuning a string instrument it’s pretty easy.
A piano needs tuning more often when the humidity and temperature changes often or over a wide range, also pianos that get moved all the time. The next factor is how often it gets played. There is a difference between an instrument that is somewhere in a school and gets used by many people and a piano at home that gets played only at Christmas once a year.
This is why I have a digital piano :D
I just realized that my over 100 year old piano hasn’t been tuned in almost 20 years
I had a piano like that. When we had a tuner come to tune it, he refilled and said it wouldn't be worth it for the amount of work that would have been needed - replacing broken strings and such.
It also depends on the player. I worked in a recording studio for years and after a heavy handed avant-garde jazz player, we had to get it tuned.
*when you play on a keyboard instead*
Now the good thing about owning an electric piano is that it not only sounds really similar, it also has more capability, and it also never has to be tuned
naaaa bros last vid was wild
We made it
@@niamh4139 Fr lol
How often a piano should be tuned depends upon the particular piano (its design, construction, and condition), the temperature and humidity of where it is, whether these fluctuate and if so by how much, how much is is played and how much of that is forte and fortissimo. There is also a question of the sill of the tuner. A highly skilled tuner be able "set the tuning pins" more skillfully, so that loud playing on the strings will not lower the pitch of the strings as much as if they were set unskillfully.
I work backstage for an orchestra and ours get tuned multiple times a month.
Granted, that's likely because when we take them downstairs on the stage lift they bump a fair amount when pushed over the lift threshold.
My piano teacher had her piano tuned once a year as well, it surprised me back then but if it has to be done it has to be done
I knew this. My mom told me as a pianist-- "Baby girl, a piano needs to be tuned as often as we need a tooth cleaning bc we ourselves are instruments, every 6 months to a year." But we were SUUUUUUUPER poor and any time she had saved enough to tune it, her husband stole it and would use it for himself for whatever reason. As soon as I get a job and pay down my school debts to a decent level, I wanna have her piano tuned for the first time in 30 years. She deserves it. My mama has lived a HARD life and has managed to be able to hold onto her piano by sheer will. Im amazed at how well her piano plays even after how many moves it's been through.
You should come to Conover Square in my home town. It was Schaller Piano Co and some of the pianos really need tuning!
Hey @PianoDoctor. My dads piano, a cherished memory of his father who passed when my dad was 12, is horribly out of tune, and desperately needs some likely major fixes. The problem is, it was looked at previously and the person said the piano is unrepairable. Is there anything that can be done for it?
Hardy anything is unrepairable. Often the question is whether it’s worth the expense. If the sentimental value is high, then perhaps it will be worth an expensive repair.
Get a second opinion or even a third.
It depends on the style and manufacturer. Because we like using car terms here I guess? Think of it as "totaled" where a totaled Ferri and totaled honda civic have very different meanings. You can rebuild a wrecked car no matter what but when you're replacing the engine, frame, transmission, axials, etc. How much of the old car lives in the rebuild?
You’re just saying that so you can charge more money 🤣🤣🤣
I was the one on Messenger stating about that Yamaha issue where the hammers bounce over twice. Recently, I took the hammer mechanism out again, put it back in, and there’s another issue now
How do I become a piano doctor like you
This is probably one of the things that you can't learn online. Maybe search for piano tuning course schools?
.... If you have somewhere near you that sells pianos/instruments... that's a good place to start. Chances are they're either doing it themselves or paying for someone to do it.. in the first case you could apply for a job and in the second case you could use the information they might give you to contact the firm/induvidual and ask. (Or even search for such courses near you.. but unless you find a way to practice what you learn and get better at it....
Oh yeah, I think I read this in a trivia game or something. I was quite surprised, too.
I'm not a pianist, but when knew it, I even was like "Wait, you can tune these things?" XD
Me who hasn't tuned his piano in 10 years....and somehow it's still in tune...Got it tuned a week ago and tech said nothing was far out of tune and it just needed some adjustments
my piano was last tuned in 1993. Every note is consistently off by 15 cents. Because it's consistent, it sounds fine honestly.
@@GarryBoyer I bought my 1926 Jacobs Brothers upright player in 2003 when I boght my house. I've never had it fully tuned and it gets played every day. I do have tuning equipment and fix the individual notes I can hear as they slip out, but that's the extent of it.
Kind of relieved as I was expecting you to say more often than that! I worked in a studio where the piano got tuned once a week (even if it wasn't played that week)
I was thinking about getting a piano. Is getting them tuned usually a lot of money?
I'm a piano tech in "my local area". Prices vary greatly. I ask customers to budget about $140 ish a year. The importance of tuning at LEAST once a year can't be stressed enough, for multiple reasons. Take good care of a piano and it will last much longer than neglected one.
A yearly tuning can't be stressed enough. Please.. it's cheaper than paying for the extra work a neglected piano will need. I'm also a piano tech, I can't speak for all techs, but if a customer keeps their piano tuned regularly, most of my customers tune every 6 months mainly because of the humidity fluctuation of where we live, i won't charge for minor repairs or adjustments.
Depends on the country you live in, in my country and with the tuner we have found its only 50€ per tuning, no matter how long it takes him(2 hours usually). If you can afford a piano, you can afford to get it tuned once a year,.
We pay €130 and get it tuned about three times a year. (Humid climate, daily 1-2 hour playing)
It depends on who you hire and what piano you have. I have an upright console which cost about $140.
so glad i have a electric piano it saves me so much money
I think my parents haven't tuned their piano in 30 years. ha
Which is sad, it’s just a show piece and not really used by anyone to play music.
@@azzajohnson2123 That and they are worried it will cost a lot of money to repair.
I just wish I had the money to get ours tuned. It’s a beautiful stand up grand piano that was custom made for a church which we later bought at an auction when it shut down. Absolutely beautiful piano but i don’t even know the last time it was tuned so it’s not even playable anymore 😢
That’s an amazing example to give, the car servicing.
I’ve watched many pianos blow up because people don’t tune them or take them to get serviced.
Me laughing while i play a digital piano
Not that they will ever truly replace the majestic grand piano BUT digital sampled pianos today are a phenomenal option
-very affordable. Fantastic ones cost under $5k
-ultra realistic piano samples with variety of miking styles
-ultra portable
-play anytime with privacy headphones
-stylish
-some have built in metronome and recording
-they NEVER EVER go out of tune
Even a spinet piano is better than a digital piano when you think about realism and natural feel and sound but even if they made the perfect digital piano that duplicates a piano in software instead of samples and uses a real piano action, enshittification of the electronics industry ruins every good potential.
They become less affordable real fast when the manufacturer ether refuses to sell you parts or sells you more than what you need while most people won't work on them so you might have to learn how to work on it yourself.
We tune our Samik grand piano every 1 to 1,5 years, as soon as we feel that the pitch is slightly off or that one of the keys works badly. Our tuner has regularly applauded us for doing it so frequently and regularly since it keeps the quality of the piano up.
I just got my baby grand tuned after 8 months and I’m happy that it’s being taken care of. I’m so grateful with it and all the usefulness it has provided me over the years, it doesn’t hurt me to pay for what it deserves.
I got a piano like three years ago and it got out of tuned because of me playing really ‘vigorously’😂 and have never been tuned. But now that I am a full on music student, I can finally tell the difference of the sound the piano made three years ago and immediately got it tuned. Thank u so much for this short as it gave me a tip to always tune my piano if I can. I will keep that in mind😊😂
You should tune it twice a year with the changing of the seasons. I cant understand people who buy a Piano and never tune it. It is like buying a puppy and never feeding it. Let that go on long enough and your piano will literally DIE and become UN-tunable. You should be investigated for piano abuse...
Pretty sure my music department in college had every piano tuned at least once a semester. It was great.
My grandma played the piano and hers was tuned once a year, whether it needed it or not. She also had an organ.
My grandma was very talented. I miss hearing her play.
Yes! I have my piano tuned every 6 months.
So as often as its recommended to do a full cleaning of a brass instrument! Learned that one the hard way lol.
Thank you for giving such a clear answer, I've been trying to research pianos since I want to own one someday
2 to 3 times a year. My father tuned pianos.tuneup. Many were concert grands.
Manufacturers are not the most practical with repair instructions because they down want to be liable for a breakdown. "Well did you follow the repair rules?"
Some piano should be tuned even more often than that. Especially the rare ones .
Every 6 months is what I learnt, too. And it should also be tuned every time after you move the piano
I wish i could afford to get our piano tuned regularly - inherited it after my grandma passed but we just don't have the money.
He's 100% right tho, you can hear the pitch change over time!
My grandma's piano has been sitting there goin strong for like 5 years since it's last tuning 😬
Location plays a huge role as well. Climates that stay the same all year round are heaven for pianos, and if she has it stored in the middle of the house, far from any heat/ac vents and not in direct sunlight, there’s a hood chance you can keep it in tune way longer than most pianos.
@@tangyorange6509 never thought about that! It is far away from any windows/heavy light sources, but as for heat; she lives in michigan, so deffinatley big temperature changes throughout the year
Humidity is as important as temperature, if not more.
The piano at my school got tuned once a week
*laughs with a guitar
Guitar has to be tuned roughly every time you play it...
@@xuko6792 i think he means the ease of tuning it
We tune our pianos once a year and are very happy about it 😊❤
Also nothing is stopping people learning to tune their own piano
It really depends on the conditions. Having your piano near a window that is often opened/closed needs to be retuned more often (temperature changes).
6 months is really the minimum for a home piano. I personally get mine tuned every 1 1/2 years and periodically check with app to see how far off the pitches are.
But again, my piano is in a nice warm room that always stays that way.
Saying its Backed up by piano manufactors is the worst argument you could give
When you buy a new piano, they say this one is so good you only need to tune it once a century. 😉
My piano is almost 100 years old and it sounds amazing and I don't even remember the last time I got it tuned🤣
I tuned my piano 4 years ago and i can literaly not hear any major difference only the lowest and highest key are out of tune
View thirsty spammer 😈
Btw this is a joke
I tune my baby grand. It’s not that hard if you do it once a year, but getting it professionally cleaned and tuned really changes the game.
how has no one mentioned that the perfect solution to the question is just to tune your piano when it goes noticeably out of tune???
My partner has perfect pitch.And can hear
Instantly when my piano goes out of tune. Hence it gets tuned every 4 months.
Because it may not be noticeably out of tune when it should be tuned. It isn’t just tuning that’s happening, it’s maintenance to everything.
The piano that you tuned is very gorgeous!
Reply to last video:
Hey, I'm not the one who died
I am the one who knocks
Me neither!
@@ReignBTW_21611Me neither neither
Me too.
Me neither
Sounds like owning a piano is like owning a pet or having a kid - don't unless you can afford to take care of it.
In Minnesota, I would say twice a year for seasonal fluctuations in humidity. We have AC to dehumidify and a humidifier for the winter, but it still goes out.
*sideways look at the family piano that was last tuned before I was born*
"Oh you poor thing"
With how much he build up the upsettingness of the time I genuinely thought he was going to say to tune it once a week or something like that 😭😭
My violin teacher had a friend with such perfect pitch that she needed her piano tuned every few weeks at most, and would only let a particular piano tune do it.
You know how it's grating to hear a flat piano, imaging feeling that if the piano is only a cent or two out! I don't know how she could stand listening to music at all.
The further out of tune a piano is allowed to get, the more load variation is placed on the harp, and the more torque is required on the pins to bring it back. That's hard on the block. Tune your pianos twice a year, or more if you live in a highly variable climate.
meanwhile the violin players:
tunes everytime they open the case.
If you ask any specialist, they’re going to find a problem.
When you’re happy about having an electric piano 😊
Make sense 😂 thank you 🙏🏻
Pianos: Tune every 6 months or so
Guitars: Tune every couple hours
My music teacher gets it done twice, for warm weather and cold weather.
I need to tune my piano all the time. You are right about people not "hearing it" - we hear the out-of-tune as some kind of character until the beats/untuned sounds are too much for registering the subtleties of harmonies.
I would so much like to find a piano technician who can regulate the keys better - I got it done but there are still some minor problems.
I had a Huntington Upright that was an Oak case model made in 1919.. it had ridiculously stable tuning… and a wonderfully sensitive and strong action.. Loved it.. (too heavy for the house I have now) …My inherited 3/4 upright from Mason and Hamlin built in 1946 with a Mahogany case has a wonderful warm sound that gets muddy in mere weeks.. despite being in a completely controlled environment..
I take the car thing over to the guitar side of things. I don't have an acoustic piano 😞. But I try and aim for every 6 months. I changed my strings on june 9th my birthday, and I'm goin to change them december 9th
Me using a digital piano: I am four parallel universes ahead of you
In piano recordings, in every pause.
Tuner here. 6 months is fine, but the vast majority of home pianos aren’t played that much and don’t go out of tune until the year mark. I even have a few pianos that don’t go out of tune for 18 months. Really depends on piano, usage, weather conditions
This is my new favorite
Swooon
So fun to watch!
I figured they need tuning every 6 months, depending on how often and how hard they're played.
Cruise ships have them tuned before they begin it's voyage.
As someone has already written, they fluctuate due to temperature. Same thing with all stringed instruments.
Waiting for a piano to go out of tune before performing maintenance is like waiting for the engine to misfire before changing the oil.
Oh I thought it was going to be an unreasonable amount 1-2× a year is pretty good.
The piano industry made that up! We all know that you never have to do it!
... sure buddy