Monthly Archives: April 2016

April Update

April has seen a steady increase in new piano tuning customers (mainly from Sheffield, but a few from Rotherham, Doncaster and Chesterfield and one from Hathersage which allowed me to have a nice day trip out there a few weeks ago). I’ve been piano tuning professionally for nearly two years now and I’m at the stage where I receive a new enquiry almost every day. Every now and then I will forget to keep take my mobile phone out with me (I’ve never been a phone person but I’m trying to be better) or I’ll leave it charging and in some instances I occasionally miss calls from potential customers. If this happens to you then I sincerely apologise; I will see the missed call status at some point during the day and will get back to you immediately. If you phone me and I’m out you could always try contacting me by email if you feel so inclined (I check my email inbox multiple times per day).

Aside from the piano tuning business, I had a trip to London last weekend for my Dad’s birthday. It was the first time I’d had a good trip away from Sheffield in a while, so I enjoyed the bustle of being in a different city. Lots of good food, visited some art galleries, walked through Camden market, and didn’t think about piano tuning for a change! I got back in Sheffield on Sunday night and prepared for band practice the next day, which was held in Barnsley.

– Richard, piano tuner Sheffield.

How Long Should You Wait Before Getting Your Piano Tuned After Delivery?

A piano owner in Sheffield just emailed me, asking how long he should wait before getting his second-hand piano tuned after delivery. I replied with the following (edited slightly):

Piano dealers will often tell you to wait a while (usually a few weeks, but in this persons case 3 months) before getting your piano tuned to allow to it “settle into its new home”. Their view is that the piano will not hold its tuning very well until it has gotten used to the changes in humidity, which affect the soundboard and the inner workings of the piano. While this is true, changing temperature and humidity will subtly affect the tuning of the piano all year round, and in my experience, the extent to which these changes affect the stability of the tuning are often exaggerated. Speaking from experience, the extent to which the strings are tightened has a more drastic affect on how long the piano stays in tune than does the room’s atmospheric conditions. Leaving the piano months without a tuning will ensure that, when the piano tuner is finally booked, the whole piano is even more flat that it would have been. Then the piano tuner will have to stretch the strings even more than they would have done, putting more pressure on the soundboard resulting in a less stable tuning. For this very reason, piano tuners recommend that a piano is tuned at least once every six months. This way you will have a piano kept close to concert pitch and will stay in tune for longer after each tuning.

– Richard, Piano Tuner Sheffield.