Piano tuning by a beginner — Pianoconcerto Forum

010

Member

Posts: 2

December 27, 2013, 14:39

Hello everyone

I was given an upright piano (Young Chang U131). It is at least 20 years old and has practically not been played since it was bought. I don't know much about the piano, I don't know how to play it, and what I do know I learned by talking to a musician friend (who has tuned some pianos) and from your videos, and other videos. I play other instruments: guitar, djembe/congas, sax. Now the piano is out of tune in the sense that, apart from the central area of the keyboard, the low part and the high part are out of tune both compared to the central area and between various adjacent keys. I have a good ear, of that I am sure; I often happen to hear things in instruments or songs that other people near me do not hear, so I would like to try tuning the piano myself; I bought the tools for both regulation and tuning. I have read many posts in this forum and, having already made some attempts at tuning the piano, I noticed that once a key has been tuned, the tuning is not yet stable and moves; this also happens with the guitar, especially with old strings, so I imagine that once I have tuned everything, I will have to touch up the tuning to stabilize it. The doubt that arises is whether to use the 440 or 432 tuning fork, because having tried with 440, my A is too high and sounds more like the next C than the middle A.

The procedure I am following is this:

- I put velcro between the strings, blocking the outer strings of each note

- with the tuning fork (I used 440) I take the middle A

- I tune from the middle A onwards (upwards) and then move to the lows

- I check the tuning by playing the III, IV, V, etc.

- I remove the velcro and tune the side strings for each note (one at a time) with the central one

The result I have obtained so far sounds good (according to my ear)

do you have any advice or any slap on the wrist :-))) to give me?

is my doubt about which tuning fork to use correct?

Greetings to all, best wishes and truly compliments for the videos and the answers on the forum, technical and simple at the same time

thanks infinitely

Eugenio

Thesimon

Administrator

Posts: 4,504
City: Ariccia, RM

December 28, 2013, 03:19

Hi Eugenio,

the advice I feel like giving you is to entrust yourself to a competent technician. Without taking anything away from your initiative, good ear, and willingness to do things, which are always necessary and fundamental elements; but it is a fact that one does not become a tuner with these characteristics alone. One must work alongside expert technicians and tune a few hundred pianos before performing a decent tuning. Our videos, as already stated several times, are not intended to teach how to tune / regulate / voice / restore a piano... They intend to put the musician in the right correlation with the piano technician: making them speak the same language, so that the musician can express their impressions with awareness and find the right way to resolve issues together with the tuner's competence and experience. On the other hand, these videos also serve to put the pianist in a position to distinguish the professional technician from the improvised technician who, besides doing a poor job, could also cause damage to the instrument. I want to dwell specifically on this last sentence... Causing damage to the piano can imply very high repair costs, therefore I reiterate my advice to call a professional and consult with them regarding any work that needs to be done.

Thank you for the wishes, which I also extend to you, and thanks for the compliments regarding the forum. Welcome among us!

010

Member

Posts: 2

December 28, 2013, 03:27

I thank you for the answer, I realize the distance that exists between me and a tuner, I have absolutely no intention of defining myself even remotely as such. Trying to tune the piano for me is like getting intimately acquainted with the instrument, feeling the change that results from my action. In any case, I intended to turn to a professional tuner after my attempts (successful or not). From your response, I deduce that the risk of causing damage is higher than I imagine; I still ask you to answer the questions to clear up my doubts, just so I know

Thank you so much, regards

Thesimon

Administrator

Posts: 4,504
City: Ariccia, RM

December 28, 2013, 03:38

To answer your questions...

Piano tuning is essentially divided into four phases:

1) Isolation of the outer strings of each unison

2) Dividing the middle octave (with beat counting) using third and sixth or fourth and fifth tuning methods with reference to A 440

( A 432 is no longer officially used by Verdi )

3) Tuning the upper and lower octave intervals, which are brought to zero beats relative to the divided middle octave

4) Tuning of the unisons

To divide the middle octave, certain sequences of dyads must be followed which, upon listening, must have a predetermined number of beats. The tuning must be stopped by finding the balance of the tuning pins. If this phase is not completed perfectly, the tuning of the entire piano will suffer because you will carry the errors over to the octaves as well. If the piano is significantly below reference, several tunings must be performed at intervals of time using references other than A 440 but in increments... This is necessary so that the piano settles without losing its tuning too quickly. Tuning a slightly out-of-tune piano is already quite difficult if one has no experience; tuning an antique piano that presents countless problems borders on the impossible. That is why I recommended a professional tuner to you