Piano tuning, in contrast to other instruments, for instance a guitar is considerably a lot more complex to tune. Not only does it need making tiny adjustments in the piano strings to calibrate the intervals between their pitches, the interaction among the notes themselves also have to be tuned. Thus each and every piano could have slightly unique pitches from each other, and still be known as "in tune". It also means that competent personnel, such as piano technicians, piano rebuilders, and others, who preferably have undergone professional training from a excellent organization, such as the Piano Technicians Guild, should do piano tuning.
In learning how to be a piano tuner, numerous fundamental concepts have to be mastered. One of them is temperament and beating. Temperament refers to a tuning system that attempts to conform the just intervals to a given value. An interval is the ratio between the absolute frequencies of two pitches, and the term just intervals refer to those ratios which are basic entire numbers (making them less difficult to tune).
On the other hand, the beating method goes hand in hand with temperament, as the tempering procedure causes beats, or fluctuations in sound intensity, and the rate of beating is then adjusted to a given value. Tables and octaves are employed as a reference for these processes.
Other concepts are stretched octaves and stretched fifths, which are also essential to discover to accurately tune the piano. Simply put, stretched octaves refer to the fact that the frequencies of strings do not fall into entire number multiples, and as the piano tuner moves beyond the temperament region, the octaves are "stretched" beyond their theoretical values.
Despite this phenomenon having said that, it is essential to maintain interval and tonal consistency among all the pitches. The fifth, or an interval spanning five staff positions, are also stretched as a consequence of the tuning procedure.
It can be said that piano tuning is a challenging process, but provided that 1 understands the principles and abilities involved, it is doable by a non-trained individual. The tools needed are piano tuning wrench, a set of dampers, and an electronic or manual pitch reference. As for skill, the most crucial is how to set the pin correctly. It is imperative not to twist or impart torque to the pin while adjusting it, but rather move it in a sort of lifting fashion, to stay away from the pin twisting back on its own, and losing its tune.
Of course, after all is said about the complexity of this entire procedure, maybe a professional tuner is still the very best and most convenient answer.
