Piano Tuning

Piano Tuning

A piano is a musical instrument with a manual keyboard actuating hammers that strike wire strings producing sounds that may be softened by means of pedals. The word piano is obtained from the Italian name called pianoforte which means soft and hard. Piano is widely used in the western music for solo performances and is the most common musical instrument, for its wide spread influence. Piano is a famous instrument for private household ownership and among the upper class. Piano was established in the year 1700 in Florence by an Italian named Bartholomew Christopher.

PIANO TUNING

Piano tuning means adjusting the tension of each of the strings using a tuning hammer to turn the tuning pins, so that the pitch of each string sounds pleasingly in harmony with every other string according to certain rules and customs. Tuning is one of the most basic kinds of piano maintenance. The most important cause for the pianos to be tuned is the change in the humidity from season to season that occurs in most temperature climates. Some of the pianos are weak in structure that actually twists slightly from season to season as a result they need frequent tuning.

CERTAIN GUIDELINES FOR PIANO TUNING

Piano tuning is one of the most complicated process that takes a lot of training and skill to do it right. The first thing necessary to remember when the piano goes out of tune is that the instrument is always under a varying stress. The strings are stretched at an average tension of around 150 to 200 pounds a piece, so that the iron plate together with the heavy wooden framing carries a strain totaling from 18 to 20 tons. The three necessities to a good piano are tone, touch and durability. Tone is the medium of the pianist's art. It is more important that the tone which is produced should be beautiful in quality. To begin with each key or note on a piano can be played in 25 degrees of touch if it is required otherwise the sound of the piano would be expressionless. The soundboard is merely a thin sheet of spruce a three eighths of an inch in thickness. If the soundboard is properly constructed the whole board becomes like a huge elastic spring. And if it is more elastic the tone from the piano becomes freer and more agreeable.

Piano Playing