PART 1: OUT-OF-TUNE ACOUSTIC PIANOS ARE DETRIMENTAL TO STUDENTS
Unison Tuning
Most notes on a piano are linked to two or three strings, which are struck simultaneously by the hammer associated with the note’s key. These multi-string notes are called unisons.
Each string of a unison is normally tuned to match the pitch or vibration rate of the others. If this is the case, the tone will be beautiful, clear and undistorted. In addition, the tone can be subtly varied, creating the lovely and intriguing impression of a rainbow of tonal colors.
Volume can also to subtle degrees if unisons are in tune. This effect, called dynamics, is a major aspect of playing the piano with feeling or expression.
Control of these factors, in combination, represent the essence of piano artistry.
As soon as one or more strings of the unison note fall out of tune to a significant degree, it typically jangles loudly. (In some cases, it may actually rattle or buzz.) In turn:
A. The tone changes from beautiful to ugly and annoying. In short, musical sound is replaced with distortion, like a stacticky radio station.
B. Due to the jangling, the volume of the note is difficult to control. Also, in comparison to neighboring unisons that are in tune, an out-of-tune unison is usually considerably and inappropriately louder. Students of ours, who have been trained to control volume, will struggle to restrain the force applied to an out-of-tune unison, to quiet it down and blend it with the other notes. In the worst cases of out-of-tuneness, this will be impossible.
Overall, once numerous unisons across the keyboard are out of tune, the student can no longer produce what can be rightfully considered music. Instead, the piano becomes an offensive noisemaker.
Pitch Tuning
Each note on the piano, whether it’s produced by unison or a single strings, must have a specific pitch/vibration rate. When it changes extensively (usually dropping in pitch or “going flat“), the student no longer hears the notes composer intended them to hear.
This a severe problem musically that no student should ever be subjected to.
Harmonic Tuning
Another major aspect of piano tuning involves regulating the pitch relationships between two or more notes played together, which is referred to generally as harmony. If a piano has pitch tuning problems, it will also have harmonic tuning problems, which often manifest as chords that sound “sour”.
At this point, as in the other cases, the piano ceases to be a valid musical instrument, and no student who hopes to progress in their piano studies at the artistic level should be subjected to it.
Summary of the Detrimental Effects of Out-of-Tune Pianos
When a student’s piano is out of tune, there can be no meaningful enjoyment of the music, which discourages the student from practicing.
Furthermore, regularly listening to a piano with out-of-tune unisons, pitches and harmonies does untold damage to a student’s developing musical ear. In particular, the ear becomes desensitized to pitch and tone distortions, and eventually perceives them as normal.
In essence, piano practice becomes similar to learning how to paint with sunglasses on.
Regarding bad unisons, the student is unable to practice the volume and tone control skills being taught in their lessons.
Regarding bad pitch and harmonic tuning, they are not hearing standard/accurate pitches or harmonies as they practice.
In sum, allowing a student to practice on an out-of-tune piano for a considerable length of time is setting them up for MUSICAL FAILURE.
Doing so also represents a false economy: saving money on tunings leads to wasting much more money on lessons that are ultimately unproductive.
To use a sports analogy, practicing on an out-of-tune is like giving a child a warped wooden racquet to use for their tennis lessons.
PART 2: WHY PIANOS GO OUT OF TUNE
Piano strings, made of metal, appear to be very rigid. Nonetheless, they need to be flexible enough to vibrate and produce audible sounds. As a result of this flexibility, their tension (tightness) is essentially changing constantly–starting when your piano technician packs up their tools and walks out the door.
Beyond that, the large wooden soundboard of a piano, and two long wooden strips called bridges, glued together, support the downward pressure of the strings.
As the humidity surrounding the piano changes (a near constant phenomenon), the soundboard/bridge assembly rises (with higher humidity) or falls (with lower humidity). This changes the tension on the strings in a random fashion, which causes the piano to produce jangling/noisy unisons and incorrect notes.
Other factors that affect the tuning stability of or de-tune a piano are exposure to:
- direct sunlight or HVAC airflow
- outdoor air from open windows or doors
- moisture from bathrooms or kitchens close to the piano
Frequent and/or loud playing will also throw a piano out of tune.
Furthermore, a major factor in doing so is infrequent tuning, discussed below. Essentially, the more often a piano is tuned, the longer it will stay that way between tunings. As the interval increases to six months or more, the strings get used to being in an out-of-tune state in terms of tension. Thus, when the piano is finally tuned, the strings want to return to their former out-of-tune tension in short order.
PART 3: FREQUENCY OF PIANO TUNINGS
With respect to the de-tuning factors above being present in most homes, families with acoustic pianos used by children don’t have them tuned often enough. As a result, the instrument may only sound good for a few weeks throughout the year.
(Due to teaching remotely and listening to students’ acoustic pianos for over a year and a half, we can personally confirm this to be an irrefutable fact.)
In particular, piano technicians usually recommend 1-2 tunings per year, which makes budget-conscious parents happy. In contrast, concert hall pianos are tuned one or more times per day, and sometimes, during the intermission. How can this be if pianos stay in tune for at least six months?
Apart from the fact that concert pianists usually play more loudly than students, the solution to this mystery is a matter of common sense: A piano should be tuned whenever it’s out of tune.
Since this is not affordable for most people, a reasonable compromise for pianos in Minnesota is three times per year, as follows:
March/April (as soon as temperatures are consistently above freezing)
June/July (as soon as the air conditioning is running frequently throughout the day)
November (as soon as the heat is running frequently throughout the day)
For the record, our head teacher has his piano tuned 5-6 times per year. Specifically, it’s tuned whenever several frequently-played unisons are out of tune.
Key Point: The more often you tune your piano, the longer it will sound reasonably in tune between tunings.
PART 4: MAINTENANCE OF TUNING STABILITY/TONE QUALITY AND PROTECTING YOUR PIANO FROM DAMAGE
To make each tuning last as long as possible, the humidity surrounding the piano should not fluctuate more than 5% up or down from a particular set point.
We prefer an average of 45%, which means that ideally, the humidity would not drop below 40% or rise above 50%. During the heating season, maintaining 45% may fog up windows and cause moisture buildup on the walls. If so, 40% is acceptable during that time.
Also, pianos have about 10,000 parts. Many of these are made from wood/leather/felt, and in some cases, adjusted to tolerances as small as 1000th of an inch. Thus, limiting humidity fluctuation allows the piano’s moving and stabilizing parts to function properly year ’round. In contrast, expensive regulation work will be needed to correct problems with a piano subjected to the opposite conditions.
Avoidance of low humidity (below ~30%) also prevents cracking and warping of wooden parts, de-crowning of the soundboard (which degrades the tone of the piano), etc., etc.
What’s less commonly known is that a dried out piano loses some of its beauty of tone. In addition, the keys may move too freely, making the volume/tone of notes difficult to control.
High humidity (above 60%) causes wooden parts to swell up, making the keys feel sluggish. It can also cause the tone to become somewhat soggy. Subsequently, if the humidity drops into the danger zone below 30%, the same parts shrink.
This creates the kitchen sponge syndrome, which expands with water and then dries out in its absence. As we all know, the sponge loses its symmetrical shape when the latter occurs. This is essentially what happens to the wooden action parts of a piano when steady humidity is not maintained.
Furthermore, after about a year of steady use, the hammers of a piano become excessively hardened. This usually makes the tone unacceptably harsh or bright. In turn, the piano’s ability to produce a wide range of volume levels and tone colors is significantly limited. The solution: a piano technician inserts needles into the hammer felts, thereby restoring their original resiliency. This service is referred to as a “hammer voicing” or “voicing“.
PART 5: DON’T BUY AN ACOUSTIC PIANO UNLESS…
We recently heard a recording of a student’s piano playing at home, and heard that most of the unison notes had the ugly jangling sound discussed earlier. This explains why, in their lessons at our studio, the student had difficultly controlling volume and tone quality on our grand piano. (This piano is fully tuned at least four times per year and touched up as necessary between tunings.)
Ultimately, piano lessons are about learning how to play an acoustic, and thus, the ideal learning situation is to practice on one.
However, unless you’re willing to invest about ~$700 a year in tunings, hammer voicing and keyboard/action maintenance, most of the time, your child will be practicing on an unpleasant sounding instrument with an uneven key touch response. (Our remote lesson teacher witnesses this on a weekly basis for the student who has an acoustic piano.)
In sum, the problems directly above interfere substantially with meaningful musical advancement. In short, they can learn to “hit the notes”, but that’s about it.
As a bottom-line alternative, we recommend a Casio PX-870 with a subwoofer, vertical stand, and pedal board. This digital piano configuration costs about $1000, has a good tone, a decent key action, and rarely needs maintenance. Note that the subwoofer is especially important for overall depth of tone and bass response, as affordable digitals have small built-in speakers.