How do I tune my piano?

In the life of any piano owner, there may be a need to tune the instrument yourself. To successfully carry out this operation, you will need to follow the established instructions step by step.

The tuning of the piano has been carried out according to the same scheme for many years, since since the creation of a musical instrument its design has remained practically unchanged. The purpose of this procedure is clear — to get the keyboard sounds to match the standard tuning of the instrument.

It is important for the Self-taught Adjuster to concentrate as much as possible and relax the shoulders, trying to make each movement smoothly and without unnecessary force.

Immediately before tuning, diagnostics are required. It all starts with checking the keys: using a ruler, you need to determine whether they maintain evenness in both planes. It makes sense to move each key at the base and at the edge to find out how loose it is. The pressing depth of the key should be 10 mm on average. The absence of backlash is definitely assessed.

It is important that the dampers visible at the top fit very tightly against the strings. When you press the right pedal, they should move at the same time. In addition, we must not forget about checking the hammers - these bars should be triggered immediately after pressing the keys. The distance between these parts and the strings should not exceed 45 mm, and it is important to keep the surface of the hammers perfectly polished.The break point of parts cannot go beyond the 2 mm boundary.

The piano is always tuned with the same set of instruments. Most of the work is done with a tuning key. This device acts on pins (pin) - special pegs with micron thread. The essence of the tuning lies in the fact that the slightest effect of the key can change the tension of the strings: when pulled, the tuning rises, when loosening, it decreases. The pegs themselves, which look like blocks of different types of wood, are fixed at a slight angle on a special board - a pinwheel bank.

The more edges a tool has, the more efficient the process is. As a rule, the tetrahedral models are only used for tuning pianos with fine pins. The professional wrench has a tapered tapered hole, which allows it to work with pin of different sizes. Some types of tools come with replaceable heads, which is very convenient for work. The handle can be either in the shape of the letter "G" or "T".

Damper wedges will dampen those strings that don't need tuning. In fact, they are rubber pads that are inserted between metal threads or fixed to a wire handle to handle hard-to-reach areas. It will be possible to construct them independently from an eraser cut diagonally and "pricked" on a knitting needle. Reverse tweezers come to the rescue if using damper wedges fails. These tools are located between the hammer cuttings.

Of course, piano tuning is impossible without a tuning fork, an instrument capable of reproducing a clean note as a guide for further tuning. This device is classic and electronic. In the first case, you have to focus on the note "A" of the first octave. Such a tuning fork looks like a two-pronged fork, at the end of the handle of which there is a ball. The structure must hit a hard surface, and then lean against the resonating material, as a result of which the "la" sound will appear.

An electronic tuning fork today is most often an application in a mobile phone.

Some craftsmen prefer to tune the piano using a tuner, although some experts hold the point of view that a modern device is not able to cover the required frequency range. In principle, you can navigate simply by ear, but double-checking the result with the help of a special tool will not be superfluous.

To tune the piano yourself at home, you need to start by lifting the top cover and looking for the clips. The latter are located in the corners of the upper part of the front vertical panel. By pushing back the latches, you will be able to remove the panel yourself and open the keyboard.

In the lower register it is usually one thick string, in the middle register it is two strings, and from the middle to the end of the keyboard there are three strings each. These accords are called "chorus". The strings of the same "chorus" have the same thickness, but differ in length. Do-it-yourself adjustment is correct to carry out within each harmony, aligning the strings relative to each other, as well as relative to the intervals of other "choruses". It is not correct to adjust the position of each part individually.

The workflow begins with the "la" of the first octave. Actually, it should be the middle string of each chorus.This is done as follows: in consonance, a string is selected that has the greatest working state and the smallest non-working one. This means it will be less distorted and easier to tune.

As a rule, in this case we are talking about the first strings of the "chorus". Having chosen one copper thread, it will be necessary to drown out the rest of the participants in the consonance with damper wedges inserted between them. Several strings can also be fenced off with thick cloth tape.

Next, the selected string is tuned by using a tuning fork and winding a key. The main purpose of these actions is to eliminate beats so that their frequency is more than 10 seconds. At the next stage, which depends on the state of the first string, the intervals of the first octave are "tempered". Since each interval has its own number of beats, it is important that the tuner listens carefully. Moving on to other strings, you will need to remove the plugs one by one, not forgetting to line up the unison. Having worked out the central octave, you can move on to the rest of the sounds, following higher and lower from the center.

In general, it is customary to distinguish two main methods of setting up the instrument, although the work in each begins with the sound "la". Quart-fifth tuning is considered more accurate and therefore more commonly used. In this case, the tuning is done by alternating quarts (that is, 4 semitones) and fifths (5 semitones), hence the name. First, an octave is built, and then the work goes from left to right - clearly in intervals. We must not forget that on the fourth the sound should rise by "beat per second", and on the fifth - decrease by "beat per second".

According to the second technique, tuning is carried out according to a quarter-octave tuning: up by a fifth and down by an octave, starting also from the "A" of the first octave.

If only a few strings are out of tune in the piano, creating a "chorus" of one key, then follow the slightly different instructions. Alternatively, for testing, the "C" key of the first octave is pressed, the hammer of which simultaneously strikes three strings. Without weakening the pressure, it is necessary to clamp each thread in turn and carefully monitor the sounds in order to understand which of them violates the overall picture. Having found the "intruder", you should put the key on the peg adjacent to it and begin to twist it gently, from time to time pressing the key again and controlling the sound. The required pitch is correctly determined by the tuner, and it is important to continue the key movement until the string coincides with it. The second string should be in tune with the first in unison, and the third string should be tuned to the first two.

It is generally accepted that after purchasing a new piano within the next 12 months, it will need to be tuned twice over the next 12 months. When buying from hand, you will have to configure it once, but almost immediately after the musical instrument is delivered to its permanent place. However, in both cases, before inviting a specialist, you still need to wait about a week for the mechanism to adapt to the room's microclimate. Using the piano constantly, you will have to adjust the mechanism every 6 months.

It should be understood that this work takes a significant amount of time. If the piano is tuned regularly, then it will take from 1.5 to 3 hours of work, but if the specialist has not touched the instrument for a long time, then the number of hours will be much greater - perhaps even in three approaches. In order for the result of the work to remain as long as possible, the temperature in the room should be maintained at 20 degrees Celsius, and the humidity at 45 to 60%.

People who are not specialists often make the same mistakes when setting up on their own, for example, they do not take mechanical defects into account. The fact is that before setting up the instrument, it must always be tidied up with respect to the mechanics: fix the screws, adjust the joint clearances, glue some parts, install hammers. Sometimes it becomes necessary to perform and intonate - to seal the felt covering the hammers. To do this, special intoning needles are used to move the tissue to the center, pressing or loosening it if necessary. This procedure is quite important, since felt quickly fails with the most commonly used hammers.

It is also important to check the condition of the hammer pusher in a timely manner. There is a spring in the design, which from time to time falls out of the train, then clinging to nearby parts - it should be corrected first.

For how to tune your piano, see the following video.