Basics of Piano Care

I’d like to start by talking about basic piano care… The aspect of piano care that everyone is familiar with is tuning. Pianos go out of tune due to changes in humidity, which swells and shrinks the wood of the soundboard, bridges, and action parts. This happens regardless of how much or how little the piano is played. We STRONGLY recommend having your piano tuned twice a year. This is in line with all manufacturer’s recommendations. If you put it in terms of car maintenance (the other big, complicated machine in your life), tunings are the oil changes of piano care. It’s important to note that your piano may be out of tune and still sound relatively ok, but not be at the correct pitch. More on this in a future post. Is your piano out of tune? Find out how to determine this here.

A piano is a very complex instrument, with up to 10,000 parts - many of which move and are subject to wear over time. This causes the piano to function at a sub-optimal level, lessening your enjoyment and making playing and learning more difficult. The good news is this is a relatively easy condition to combat. Every 3 years or so, the action should be serviced. To do this, we remove the action, clean it with compressed air, lubricate all action centers, and tighten all screws (over 200 in uprights!). This serves three purposes: it makes the piano play better, avoids problems due to contaminant buildup, and allows for the detection of small issues before they become big ones. If it were a car, this would be the inspection and basic tune up.

As the piano ages, the parts deteriorate. Felt gets compressed, screws loosen, and gravity acts on the hammers. The result is poor performance - lack of dynamic range, the inability to play softly, and unevenness of touch. The solution to this is regulation. Regulation is the adjusting of numerous measurements and tolerances for each note, bringing the piano back to a level of playability it enjoyed when leaving the factory (or better). This takes several hours, but it is a normal and necessary part of caring for your instrument. In car terms, it’s like having the transmission serviced, and alignment done, and a thorough tune up - like a 50,000 mile service. This should be done every 5 years or so, but can also be done piecemeal at your six month appointments to spread out the expense. Vertical Regulation is explained in greater detail here, and Grand Regulation can be found here.