An Introduction

The piano tuner-technician's work is possibly one of the most misunderstood of all professions. To the layperson, the tuner at work seems to be involved in something that is perhaps technically quite complicated in its procedure, but is in essence transparent - he/she is listening to notes and putting them 'into tune', by adjusting the string tensions. This much appears to be obvious - but as is so often the case, all is not quite what it seems.

By contrast, consider the example of a computer technician. The computer technician servicing a computer is not only involved in something that seems technically complicated, but precisely what he/she is doing is not necessarily at all clear, to the uninitiated. 

The fact is, precisely what the piano tuner does is no more obvious than what the computer technician does. It only seems so. Apart from moving the tuning pins (wrest pins), what the piano tuner is actually doing is not only invisible, but inaudible to most people.

It is probably true that most musicians have little or no idea how the tuner achieves the necessary results. Someone who knows something about theoretical acoustics, particularly about beats, may still be in the dark. The 'traditional' theory of beats that appears in specialist text books and then finds its way into more general circles, only touches the surface of the piano tuner's true art. Every artist tuner with years of experience knows this.

The following pages aim to dispel some of the common myths and assumptions about piano tuning.

Go to the six myths