Friday, August 7, 2009

The piano singeth again

Received a text message from my piano tuner: "According to my records, your piano was tuned by me in 11/8/07. Would you like to service your piano?" How clever is that? I don't suppose anyone (except piano teachers and musicians) actually keeps track of when they tune their pianos, it's probably Task No.187 on the priority list after "clean fans". So I thought it was rather enterprising of him to gently remind his customers that maintenance is due.

Actually, it's more than due, it's way overdue. You're supposed to tune your piano once every 6-9 months but our last tuning was 2 years ago. But better late than never, right?

First, he opens up the front board and brushes all the felt keys. Then he places this electronic thingamajig on top of the piano, which tells him for each string, how much it needs to be tightened. Gone are the days of metal tuning forks and the tuner's exacting ear, today, even piano tuning relies on technology.

It's quite a mechanical process, you basically test string by string. According to him, my piano is 10% out of tune. Doesn't sound too bad what, considering. I told him it's because my kids hardly practise, haha.

The whole process takes about 45 minutes, then he sits down to test out the sound and the pedals.

Then it's done! And because my piano tuner is such a nice guy, when he saw me taking pictures, he removed the whole lid to show me what it looks like inside.

Pretty nifty instrument, don't you think?
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5 comments:

  1. HLAugust 8, 2009 at 10:42 AM

    Auntie Monica,

    Wow, the piano is so complicated! By the way, do you play the piano? You must be so talented!

    ReplyDelete
  2. monlimAugust 8, 2009 at 1:32 PM

    Yes, I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to learn to play. It's a beautiful instrument :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Veronica_LAugust 8, 2009 at 5:43 PM

    Wow, nice piano. Never seen it in X-Ray view!

    You really have a nice guy for a piano tuner. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousAugust 8, 2009 at 10:47 PM

    LOL...I just tuned ours a few weeks ago....that was after 1.5 yrs!! :P There was some strange sounds from the base keys and my little one could not stand it. Then there was this muffled sound for the longest time....and the truth was nothing to do with tuning but we forgot to lift up the book panel to let the sound out!! I think we do miss our tuner for such reminders... LOL

    qx

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousAugust 9, 2009 at 11:20 PM

    Hi Mon,

    We just had our piano tuned not long ago too. He did not need the electronic thingy (placed on the piano on foto) you mentioned. He used his ears cos he said that way the piano actually will sound more pleasant to our human ears. Recently, he just earned a certification from Japan to tune grand pianos too... Like your tuner, he is very nice too!

    SC

    ReplyDelete

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