As your Piano Tuner Wilmington DE , I find that piano owners are often not aware of the importance of regular piano tuning. Our last few blog articles detailed an explanation that may help with understanding the importance of regular tuning of your piano. This blog post will summarize those articles.
To review, there are two major reasons to tune a piano regularly:
To benefit the player
To benefit the piano, so it will last longer
Our first article discussed the importance to the player, then subsequent articles discussed why your piano will last longer if it is maintained properly.
The first article regarding the benefit to the player explained that learning to play piano has significant benefits beyond simply learning to play the instrument. It is well documented that children who learn piano perform better in language and math, and have greater success in multiple areas of their adult lives. These benefits appear to stem from the fact that playing piano is an unusually complex neural activity. By learning to play piano, the student expands their mental capacity, such that other activities benefit. The flip side is that learning to play piano is very difficult, and requires significant effort. For a student to maintain their enthusiasm for learning to play, they require the reward of beautiful music at the end of their effort. It is important, then, that the instrument be in optimal condition, so that it provides the reward of beauty. Since pianos loose their tuning gradually, the beauty of the music will slowly diminish before the student consciously realizes the problem. For that reason, all manufacturers recommend tuning at least every six months. If you wait until the piano sounds bad, that is too late. The student’s progress will have been compromised for months before the situation is corrected.
Subsequent articles discussed the stress and damage to the instrument itself, when it is not tuned regularly. The piano strings are stressed not so much by being out of tune, but by the process of restoring the proper tension. Replacing broken strings can be an expensive endeavor. The piano soundboard, on the other hand, is torsion-ally stressed by the piano being out of tune, since the tension falls unequally on the different sections of the piano. A damaged soundboard significantly reduces the value of your investment.
This concludes our series of articles on the importance of regular piano tuning. Every manufacturer recommends tuning twice a year, whether or not the piano is played.
If you have any questions about pianos or their care, please let us know. We are your Wilmington DE piano tuning service. We also provide professional piano services Philadelphia PA, Eastern Shore Maryland and Southern NJ.
