Piano Tuning and how to tune a piano

Piano Tuning

Edward Stewart is an experienced and fully qualified piano tuner offering expert piano tuning and repairs in and around West Sussex. 01903 816463 Mobile 07860 505033

I would personally recomend having your piano tuned twice a year to ensure you have the best sound at all times.
However some clients, like concert halls and pianos used for public performance may need more frequent tuning. I am frequently called upon to tune pianos at the Brighton Centre for many of the famous bands and groups.
Music Teachers, Colleges and many of the East Sussex and West Sussex Primary and Secondary Schools call upon Simply Pianos to have their pianos tuned twice a year.
Pianos used less frequently in the home I would recomend a once a year tune.
Dont worry about remembering to have your piano tune, I do all that for you. After the first time I have tuned your piano I will diarise to give you a call every 6 months or once a year to arrange a convenient time to vist.
Piano Tuning takes on average about an hour. The areas I cover on a weekly basis include Steyning, Upper Beeding, Washington, Storrington, Ashurst, West Chiltington, Worthing, Brighton, Hove, Lewes, Haywards Heath, Burgess Hill, Horsham, East Grinstead, Arundel, Crawley, Small Dole, Henfield, Bramber, Wiston, Dial Post, High Salvington, Findon & Findon Valley, Thakeham, Billingshurst, Pulborough, Ashington, Durrington, Angmering, Goring, East Preston, Sompting, Lancing, Shoreham, Portslade, Patcham, Falmer, Stanmer, Cowfold, Bolney, Hurstpeirpoint, Hassocks, Ditchling, Burgess Hill, Haywards Heath, Cuckfield, Lindfield, Warninglid, Handcross, Southwater, Broadbridge Heath, Monks Gate, Manningsheath, Plumbers Plain, Nuthurst, West Grinstead, Shermanbury, Wiston. I can make arrangements to travel outside of these areas so please do give me a call and we can discuss this further.

A basic guide to piano tuning. A piano is hard to tune because it has more than 250 strings which are held under very high tension. This means that the tuning pins they wrap around have to be set very tightly in a strong wooden block. That means that you have to have a special wrench to turn them up or down.

The technician starts with one string in the middle of the piano (where you can hear best) and gets the pitch for that from somewhere else, usually a tuning fork. Then he sets about 12 notes right in the same area (a chromatic scale).

But if you've ever looked in your piano you've probably seen that each key has three strings (two or one in the bass)--so he has to block off the outside strings of each key with a strip of felt so only one string will sound at a time for each note. After he gets enough notes tuned in the middle he can work in both directions by listening to octaves that go with the notes already set.

The final step is to pull out the strip of felt and tune the two outside strings of each note to the middle one. And that's about it. Be sure you choose your piano technician carefully, just as you would with any other professional service.

You don't have to have a license to set up shop as a piano tuner, so there are a lot of poorly trained or untrained people around working on pianos and taking money for it. (It's not a good idea to let Grandpa or Uncle Bob do it, either, just because they happen to be handy with tools.)

Piano tuning and servicing is a very complicated process that takes a lot of training and skill to do it right. Oh, one more thing: DON'T TRY TUNING YOUR PIANO YOURSELF!

To arrange an appointment to have your piano tuning please call Ed Stewart on 01903 816463 or 07860 505033. Areas covered are East & West Sussex