How to Tune a Piano

Posted on July 22nd, 2009 by Carmelia

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Owning a musical instrument like the piano is quite like owning any other instrument–you have to tune it every once in a while. Use (or disuse) and time combined can lead your instrument becoming gradually off-key. Generally speaking, you need to have a piano tuned twice a year. Here’s how to remedy that.

Materials

Electric tuner
Mutes
Tuning wrench

Procedure

Open up the piano to reveal the piano’s strings and hammers.

piano tuning

Press the Middle C. By doing this action, you’ll be able to locate the Middle C’s hammer. Check if the hammer is hitting three strings.
Follow the strings from the hammer to locate where the pin of the strings is located.
Tune the keys with one string at a time. To do this, you’ll have to prevent the other strings from vibrating by placing rubber tuning wedges against the other strings.
Loosen the one string you’re tuning before tightening again with your tuning wrench, but do this with a very light hand. Remember that piano strings are very tense and need to be dealt with using minimal force as possible.
Put your electric tuner to C and tighten the peg very slowly. Do not overly tighten the peg, as this can cause the string to break. The best way to turn the peg is to turn it only slightly, let it rest, and give it another slight twist.
Tune the peg just so that it sounds a little sharp.
Remove the tuning wedge on the second of the strings and hit the key. Tune the second string until it matches the tone of the first string that you tuned. Do the same for the third string, if applicable.
Repeat Steps 3 to 8 with the rest of the middle octave. You can then base the rest of the correct notes on it on the lower and higher octaves based on the middle octave you just tuned.