Tips For Keeping Your School Pianos in Tune

An Aid For Greenville County Music Teachers

  1. Ask the tuner to come after you've stabilized the atmospheric conditions in your room for at least three days. In other words, if the AC has been off all summer, don't get your piano tuned the day you turn it on.
  2. Try to budget about $170 for a room dehumidifier (Home Depot has a very good model that I use in my studio with my grand piano). You would be suprised to see the amount of water I dump from my machine every day in the summer. Using this dehumidifier saves on AC bills, because it runs much less electricity, and can at times be used in place of the AC. Remember that if your piano goes out of tune quickly, humidity is the biggest culprit.
  3. The fact that humidity plays the biggest role in wrecking a piano tuning, does not mean it plays the only role. Last week I tuned a string teacher's piano in one of the Greenville elementary schools. The air conditioner in this room had ran rampant for days (much to the frustration of the teacher), and was keeping the room extremely cold (less than 60 degrees.) When I went to tune the piano, it was extremely sharp, this being a result of the cold room. I had to lower the piano to A440, and with the present conditions, I don't expect the tuning to last long. Therefore we can conclude that in an ideal situation, the AC or heat will keep the room within a 10 degree span, and a room dehumidifier will keep the room between 50% and 60% humidity.
  4. Buy a $7.00 hygrometer so you can know just what the humidity in your room really is.
  5. Come back after Labor Day, and I'll have some more ideas for keeping your piano tuning stable. If you're having problems, please email me by going to the contact page (menu).