What Causes Pianos to Sound Out of Tune?
Buying a piano is often considered to be one of the most significant investments toward learning an instrument. Serious buyers often invest toward a high-quality piano with crisp sound and design qualities beyond a regular piano. However, even the most expensive and high-quality styles are prone to go out of tune every few months. Knowing these reasons will help protect the buyer's initial investment in the piano's quality.
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The Process
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The process for a piano to sound out of tune starts with the soundboard, which is designed with a crown and is constructed to be slightly raised in the middle in comparison to its edges. This design serves to amplify the sound of the piano as vibrations bounce off the crown. The problem here arises if the soundboard expands and pushes up on the bridge of the piano where the strings are stretched across. This causes the strings' pitch to increase. Since the soundboard is crowned only at the center, strings are not evenly stretched which causes each key to sound out of tune in relation to each other.
Weather and Humidity
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One of the primary reasons pianos go out of tune is due to atmospheric changes. These changes can be drastic, such as a change of climate and season, but can also be caused by a slight drop in temperature. The wood from the piano is sensitive to these weather changes and absorbs moisture in the air over time. This causes the wood to contract, which causes the soundboard to rise up. Conversely, as this moisture leaves the wood during colder seasons, the wood tends to slack and the soundboard crown relaxes, causing the piano to sound slightly lower in pitch.
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Over or Lack of Use
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Overuse or lack thereof can cause a piano to go significantly out of tune. Even in the most controlled environment situations in constant room temperature, an unused piano will deteriorate at the same or faster pace. String tension is a moving force by nature; it is not designed to be in a stagnant state for too long. On the other hand, overusing the piano will cause the internal tuning pins to turn more which will pull the strings out of tune faster than normal.
Expert Insight: Suggested Tuning
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A piano should be tuned every 3 to 6 months depending on its quality and structure. During this time a piano will start sounding a quarter pitch sharper or flatter than its normal tone across the keys. Pitch raising is the process to correct this problem, which involves two steps: a rough tuning to bring all keys to a standard pitch (less than a quarter pitch sharper or flatter), and then a fine tuning of each key to the actual pitch.
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References
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- Photo Credit piano image by Sergey Goruppa from Fotolia.com
