It's a Piano... What Could go Wrong? Part 1: Introduction

Pianos are supposed to be able to play.  Most of the time they do.  The fact that many pianos are still able to perform this function after fifty, sixty, even one hundred years, show that pianos are well designed to perform this basic function: to play on demand.

But, alas, this doesn't happen automatically.  Pianos are made of archaic materials, like wood, wool, leather, and iron.  The modern piano has remained virtually unchanged for the past 140 years.  Things can go wrong.

The most common ailment of the piano is the infamous "sticking key".  Many people use this label for any problem with the piano, whether it involves the key or not.  A true "sticking key" is simply a note that does not play on demand, or as readily as expected and needed.  This is the general symptom.

The cause is not as simple to identify.  The next series of postings to this "blog" will try to show some of the many things that can cause a "sticking key" and other ailments.  Also, it will attempt to show how a basic vertical and grand piano action works.

I hope you enjoy!

Thomas Dowell, RPT
Dowell Piano

Frequently Unasked Questions (But You Probably Want to Know)

Wow!  It has been a long time since I've put anything new on this blog.  Time flies by anymore, and I have been keeping myself busy.  So, because I don't have any interesting photos, I thought I would take some time to answer questions that you probably are thinking to yourself whilst I tune your piano, but you may be afraid to ask:

Q: How long will it take you to tune my piano?
A: The short answer is, about 2 hours. 

The long answer is that it can depend.  Usually when I make a service call, I arrive on time, (or I'll call if I'm running more that 15 minutes off, either late or early), and greet my client.  Usually I try to talk to them about the piano, what his or her thoughts are on the piano, the history of the piano, etc.  Sometimes I'll talk to the client for 10-15 minutes.  Am I just wasting my time doing this?

In my mind, no.  My goal when coming to any piano, is to match the performance of the piano to the expectations and needs of the client.  By talking with the client, I get to learn half of that equation.  Every piano, every piano, needs more than just a tuning, and based on my conversation with the client, I can help guide them as to what can be done to bring the piano closer to their expectations, if anything.  I try to foresee any work that needs to be done.

After that, I usually take 1 to 1 and a half hours to actually, physically tune the piano.

Once that is done, I quickly troubleshoot any problems that standout, such as adjusting pedals, or fixing a sticking key.  I do these small maintenance checks for free.

Then, another 10 minutes or so to talk to the client about what I saw in the piano, and help layout a guideline for future maintenance to the piano.

All in all, it adds up to about 2 hours that I am actually in the client's home.  Then I hop in my trusty Chevy, and repeat the process again.

Q: Are you really wearing earplugs while you tune my piano?  Doesn't that keep you from hearing the piano?
A: Yes, I try to wear earplugs as much as possible when tuning a piano.

Believe it or not, the noise I make when tuning a piano can be damaging to my ears.  To make sure that I will be able to continue tuning for many years into the future, I try to protect my ears by wearing earplugs.

Also, I feel that earplugs help me tune better.  For example, when you are driving westbound on a road in the evening, the sun will shine in your eyes.  To help you see better, you might have a pair of sunglasses in your car to help block out some of that light.  Similarly, when I tune, there is a great amount of sound being produced, and my ears can become fatigued and overwhelmed by that sound, making fine adjustment impossible to discern.  By wearing earplugs, it's like sunglasses for my ears, filtering out all that extra sound, allowing me to hear what I need to hear.

Q: Is that an iPod that you are using to tune my piano?  Can you only tune pianos with a machine?
A: Yes, I use an iPod Touch to help me tune pianos.  I can, however, tune aurally, or with only the ear.

First of all, I view the iPod Touch, not as a media player or toy, but as the Apple Computer version of a Pocket PC.  The iPod Touch is as powerful as most premium Pocket PC's (which are required for most tuning programs), and is a better value many Pocket PC's as well.  I purchased a program, called Tune-Lab, that is specifically designed for tuning pianos.  This is an expensive, professional program.  You can visit the website, www.tunelab-world.com, to find out more information about the program and its developer, Mr. Robert Scott.  He is smart person, and I have had the opportunity to attend some classes that he has presented.

While I do have the piano tuning program, I was taught to tune pianos the old fashioned way: with a tuning fork, and a sharp ear.  I consider myself a hybrid tuner.  I tune the piano first with my iPod, or in more general terms, my ETD (Electronic Tuning Device).  Then, I tweak and do the final setting by ear.  I view my ETD the same way that I view power tools in woodworking.  A carpenter can save time by using a table saw or planer, but the best craftsmen will do the final fit and finish by hand.  This saves time, and can result in better accuracy than using either one to the exclusion of the other.

Well, I hope this was informative.  Maybe you don't have these questions, but other ones.  Please, never hesitate to ask any question you may have about your piano, or what work I'm doing to your piano.  I place the highest value on the trust that is given by my clients, and I strive to always maintain that trust.

I hope you have a wonderful day.

Thomas Dowell, RPT

Everday Phenomena in Pianos

Now for something completely different, here is a post about some very interesting things that happen every time you sit down to play a piano.  Even if this doesn't change how you play the piano, it might change you perspcective on all the components that create the sound we associate with pianos.

Partials
Partials can be heard on every single note of every stringed instrument, wind instrument, and just about every other type of instrument that you can think of.  I personally can't think of an instrument that wouldn't have partials.  Even the human voice has partials.  What is this common, but perhaps unknown, phenomenon?

It all starts with something that vibrates fast enough, that we can hear these vibrations as a sound.  Let's look at a piano string.  If you play A4 on your piano, it should sound at about 440 Hertz, meaning the string completes a vibration cycle 440 times every second.  But this is not the only sound that we hear in a piano string.  The string also behaves like two strings that are vibrating at twice that frequency, about 880 Hz.  Not only that but it acts like a 3 strings vibrating at 3 times the frequency of 440, or about 1320 hz.

This pattern continues infinitely, until the pitches become two high for human ears to hear, or they become too weak to be heard.  These harmonics, overtones, or partials, happen all the time.  Want to see this in action?  If I come to your house, and you have a Slinky type toy, or even a simple phone cord, I can show you how this is possible.  Maybe I'll post a video of it sometime.

Partials are numbered from lowest to highest.  In the above example, 440 Hz is called the 1st partial.  880 Hz is called the second partial, 1320 Hz is called the third partial, and so on.  These partials come very close to other notes higher up the scale.

Beating
No, don't worry.  I don't beat pianos unless they start it.  Beating makes tuning a piano by ear possible.

Beating occurs when two sounds are at nearly the same freqencies.  When they are working together, they sound louder.  When they are working against each other, they cancel each other out.  Let's try and illustrate this.

Imagine two children bouncing on a trampoline.  Each child represents a sound wave.  If both children are bouncing together perfectly, they will both bounce higher than they would alone.  In sound waves, this would be called "beatless".  What if the children are not bouncing together?  They do not bounce as high, perhaps even lower than they would alone.  Eventually, though, they would both bounce in sync once.  On that one bounce, they would bounce higher than before.  In sound waves, we hear this peak of energy an increase in volume.

Lets take two strings then, one vibrating at 440 Hz, the other at 441 Hz.  Because in the course of one second, there is a difference of one vibration cycle, you will hear one beat per second.  Most people say "wah-wah-wah..." when trying to imitate it.  Every second, the strings will work together once, and cancel each other out once.  This makes the volume of the strings fluctuate, and becomes a "beat".

Inharmonicity
This phenomenon is closely linked with harmonics.  Inharmonicity it the difference between the theorectical partial structure of a vibrating string, and it's actual partial structure.  What does that mean?

Let's go back to A4, vibrating at 440 Hz.  Theorectically, if the first partial is vibrating at 440 Hz, the second partial should be twice that frequency.  In reality, it is not exactly twice the frequency.  On many pianos, when the first partial is 440 Hz, the second will be 881 Hz.  Not a huge difference, but enough to notice, especially when trying to make an octave sound "in tune". 

This difference it caused by the stiffness of the wire.  The stiffer the wire, the more inharmonic the partials of the string will be.

The amount of inharmonicity is unique to each piano, really to each piano string.  That is why a piano tuning is must always be fitted to the piano carefully.  It is like the fingerprint of the piano.

Light Bending Phenomenon
This is just a really cool thing to see, even if it has no practical value.  I've seen it once or twice, but was fascinated by it. 

I was tuning a piano next to a window with sunlight hitting the strings (not a good idea, by the way).  When trying to make two strings "beatless", I saw the shadow that the strings cast.  The shadows would fluctuate in with and clarity exactly in sync with the audible beats that I was listening for.  When the strings became beatless, the shadow remained motionless.

What causes this?  I have no idea.  Perhaps the sound waves when beating create a variable thickness of air, causing the more light to be absorbed when the strings are canceling each other out.  Perhaps the light is bending around vibrations in an unpredictable way.  Your guess is as good as mine.  Perhaps the day will come when mankind could tune a piano by observice the strings, not listening.  Just not in my lifetime.

Well, I hope you enjoyed reading about these little things that I find so fascinating about pianos.  I could go on (if you want, just ask me about the psycho-acoustic affect, or pitch identification), but this is enough for one post. 

Keep on making music.
Thomas Dowell, RPT

Regulating: Tuning the Machine

Perhaps the title to this post is misleading.  Regulating has little to do with "tuning the piano".  What is regulating?  Why is it important?  How often do pianos need regulating?

What is regulating or regulation?  I wasn't sure why the word "regulation" was used, so I looked  up the definitions of regulate and regulation.  Lo and behold, the definition of regulate can be "to adjust so as to ensure accuracy of operation".  Regulation can have the definition "the percentage difference in some quantity related to the operation of an apparatus or machine".  In pianos then, when one regulates, he or she is putting the mechanical parts of the piano (also called the "action") into their ideal relationship.  A piano is said to be in good regulation when all the adjustments are within acceptable tolerances of ideal.  In a way, it is like "tuning" the action to its most efficient level.

Why is regulating important?  To start, let's think about how the piano's action works.  Whether a grand or a vertical piano, the idea behind a piano action is to excite the strings of the piano, which creates the musical sound that we know.  To excite and energize the strings, all pianos use hammers, felt covered pieces of wood that hit the strings.  The hammer cannot just strike the string and remain in contact with it; it would mute the vibration of the string immediately.  Instead, the hammer gets thrown at the strings, and then is free to bounce off the strings, allowing them to sound.  To throw the hammer, there are many adjustments that have to be made.  Here are just a few of the adjustments:

Let-off- How far the hammer gets thrown at the strings.  Once let-off occurs, the hammer's momentum allows it to travel to the strings.  When let-off is too far away from the strings, the hammer doesn't strike the strings with the greatest amount of force.  It has to get thrown too far.  Also, when let-off is too great, it is harder to play softly on the piano.  Think of trying to sink a putt in golf.  The farther you are from the hole, the harder it is to sink the putt with the right amount force.  The same is true with playing softly.  The pianist has greater control of how hard to hit the strings.

Key-Dip- The power stroke of the piano.  This is the distance the front of the key moves downward when played.  This downward stroke powers the rest of the action to strike the keys.  There is a certain range of movement that feels normal to a pianist, about 9-10 mm. 

Hammer Blow distance- How far the hammer must travel from its at rest position until it hits the strings. The farther the hammers travel, the more force they can exert on the strings.  Key-dip and blow distance are directly proportional to the amount of aftertouch is percieved.

Aftertouch- This is the distance the front of the key travels after let-off.  Again, there is a specific range of aftertouch that feels normal to pianists.  This distance is regulated by adjusting the key dip and hammer blow distance. 

These are just a few of the adjustments that will go into regulating a single note of a piano.  There are others as well.  When a piano is out of regulation, it will probably still play.  The piano will not, however, play as softly as it could, nor as powerful as it could, and the pianist will have a harder time accessing the dynamic ranges inbetween.  If the regulation of the piano is inconsistent, an the piano will have inconsitent tone, jumping from mellow to bright from note to note.  Overall, the instrument will be less musical. 

On the other hand, when the piano is in regulation, the touch of the piano is even.  The artist can have complete control over the dynamic range of the piano, from ppp to fff.  The tone of the piano is even.  Ideally, the artist is only limited in expression by his or her own skill, not by the limitations of the instrument.

How often do pianos need to be regulated?  This answer will vary with the amount of use the piano recieves, as well as the tolerances of the pianist.  With all the force that goes into making the hammers hit the strings, parts of the action will wear out, compress, or deform.  Just like tuning, a piano remains in a better state of regulation when the environment of the piano is stable.  For most pianos, a regulation should be done every few years.  The ideal frequency will be a very wide range between similar pianos, based on how much the piano gets played, and also the type of music being played.  Also, a performance piano will probably have touch up regulating done more often.

In conclusion, regulating is the act of adjusting the action of the piano, and regulation is the the general state of how close the action is to its ideal adjustment.  When the piano is out of regulation, touch and tone will be inconsistent and poor.  When the piano is in regulation, the touch and tone is more even, and the piano is more musical and enjoyable to play.  All pianos need regulation from time to time, based on the environment around the piano and how often it is used.

Hopefully, you haved learned a little bit about the piano action, and what regulation means in terms of how the piano will feel and sound to play.  If you have any questions about your own piano, or about pianos in general, please feel free to contact me.

Thank you for your time, and have a pleasant day.

Thomas Dowell, RPT

Beautiful Tone- How is it Made?

Tone. You may have heard that a certain piano has great tone, or weak tone, or mellow tone, or a bright tone, etc. What is tone? What is the ideal piano's tone?

Well tone is the quality of sound that comes out of a piano. This is not to be confused with the volume, or pitch of the piano. When a piano makes a beautiful sound, then it is said to have good tone. This does not mean that all pianos sound alike, or that there is one definition of good tone. Just like art, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. If you like the sound a particular piano makes, then, for you, that piano has good tone. How do you get the best tone from your piano?

What factors create the final tone of the instrument? Perhaps the largest facet of tone is the construction of the piano. This can lead to differences in tone between pianos that cannot be changed without careful redesign of the piano. Many manufacturers have their own unique tone quality. A Fazioli will never sound like a stock Steinway, nor will a Seiler sound like a Bluthner (pardon my lack of umlauts on Bluthner). The tone qualities are unique to each manufacturer, and for the most part, cannot be changed. I will refer to this as the tone body of the piano. These parts of the piano, (the pinblock, the soundboard, the scale design) are the reservoir that can be tapped when striving for tone. Any other work done to the piano can only draw from this tone body. Voicing or regulating, for example, cannot make up for a poor soundboard. Servicing the piano will simply expose the beauty lying in the tone body.

So, you have picked a piano that has a tone quality you like. What can be done to make the done even better, or rather, expose more of the beauty within the piano? I went to a class at the recent PTG National Convention, in Las Vegas, about the art of Voicing, or regulating the tone of a piano. Andre Oorebeeck, a Master Voicer from the Netherlands, explained that when he recieved training in Japan from Yamaha, they higlighted a sign that said:

"Perfect Tuning + Perfect Regulation + Perfect Voicing = Beautiful Tone."

Really, this is true. When all three aspects of piano maintenance are done, the result will be a beautiful piano, as long as the tone body has enough to give. Let's look at why these three areas are so important

REGULATING
Regulation puts the mechanical parts of the piano into their correct relationships. A well regulated piano will provide a consistent, even touch to the keyboard of the piano. It also enables the tone of the piano to be consistent and even, as all notes will have an equal amount of energy going into the strings. This improved the sound of the piano quite remarkable, many times to my own amazement.

TUNING
Tuning puts the piano into harmony with itself. When a piano is in tune, the tone will increase greatly. There are many preferences that can be put into a tuning, but a piano that has been expertly tuned will give no doubt that it is in tune.

VOICING
When the tone has been built up with regulating and tuning, better tone can still be achieved by voicing the hammer. The hammer, the part of the piano that hits the strings, can be shaped, needled and hardened to produce the best tone. Also, when there are inconsistencies in the tone after tuning and regulating, voicing the hammer can even these out. Voicing is usually the last step, as it is hard to tell whether inconsistent tone is coming from poor regulation or poor tuning. It is the last step toward beautiful tone.

So, those are the steps needed to maximize the tone of any piano. These are not beginners skills, and by no means am I a master at them. I still work hard to improve all of these skills. Does your piano need any of these processes? If you would like your piano to sound its abesolute best, the only way is to have it tuned, regulated and voiced carefully.

Hopefully this information was helpful and informative. Please feel free to contact me about any questions you have, no matter what they are (as long as they are about pianos). Until next time,

Regards
Thomas Dowell, RPT

The Basic Question- How Often to Tune a Piano?

This is a common question, and a seemingly simple one as well. How often does a piano need to be tuned? How long does a tuning last? The answers are not so simple. It involves understanding what tuning is, as well as why pianos go out of tune. When talking about tuning stability, I am referring to how quickly the piano goes out of tune.

Let's start by looking at all the areas that a music string or wire touches in the piano, the component that actually makes the sound we hear. First, there is the tuning pin. The string is tightly wrapped around the tuning pin about 3 times. Next, the string will pass through an agraffe (a small piece of brass screwed into the plate with holes in it) on some pianos, or through a pressure bar or capo bar on other pianos. The next part of the is known as the speaking length of the string, because this is the actual part of the string that dictates the pitch of the string. The string then passes over the bridge of the piano. This bridge links the string with the soundboard, which converts the energy of the vibrating string into the sound of the piano. Finally, the string termintes in a loop, which is put around a hitch pin on the cast iron plate, behind the bridge. This is repeated hundreds of times throughout the piano. Hopefully these pictures can explain things as well.

The tuning pins, and on the edge, the agraffes.

This shows the bridge as well as the hitch pins.

Because the string touches all these points, they all affect the pitch that we percieve as the sound of the piano. To complicate things, most of these points are fairly unstable. The strings in the piano are under thousands of pounds of pressure, and slowly lose that tension over time. The cast iron plate seems to flex and change position slightly when raising and lowering pitch of the strings, adding to instability. The tuning pins can become loose, and allow the string tension to lower. More than any other cause, however, is the expansion and contraction of the wood in the piano's soundboard and bridge. As relative humidity changes, the wood expands and contracts. This changes the tension on the string in an uncontrolled manner, putting the piano out of tune.

So, how do we equate this with the ideal frequency of tuning a piano? Well, where I live, right between Milwaukee and Chicago, we have four very distinct seasons, with four distinct humidity levels during those seasons. Since the largest cause for a piano to go out of tune is changes in humidity, which changes the soundboard and bridge position, four times a year is ideal. For most pianos, if they are tuned 4 times per year, once per season, they will never sound "out of tune", and will suffer least from tuning instability.

Is it possible to lengthen the amount of time between tunings? Yes. Control the temperature and humidity around the piano. The more stable the environment around your home and the piano, the longer the piano will stay in tune. A very effective method of maintaining a consistent environment around the piano is by installing a humdity system in the piano. This must be done by a skilled technician. Most systems involve a small humidifier and dehumidifier. There is a humdistat, which measures the humdity inside or around the piano, and turns on the other components based on that reading. These can improve tuning stability when properly used.

Do all pianos need to be tuned? In a word, yes. No matter how stable you keep the environment around the piano, it will slowly fall out of tune. The piano's soundboard will move slightly, the strings will slowly lose their tension and fall out of tune, etc. The piano strung piano is nearly a living thing, and is in constant change. Even under ideal conditions, the highest level of tuning will only last a couple days, maybe only a few hours. This is why performance pianos ideally are tuned for every performance. You may not require that high level of tuning, but helps keep expectations in perspective.

If you can only tune your piano once a year, do at the same time every year. The piano will probably not sound best for most of the year, but this avoids putting undo stress on the piano. The reason why will be the discussion of a future blog.

Tuning is only one part of the equation of what makes a beautiful sounding piano. This will be another article for a later time.

So, in conclusion, there are many areas that affect the pitch of a single string, and on as a whole, the piano. Pianos will stay in tune longer when they are kept in a stable environment. Even when this is done, the piano still needs regular tunings.

I am just scratching the surface of why pianos need tuning. There are many other reasons, some of which we know, some that are a mystery.

Thank you for your interest, and I hope you have a pleasant day.

Regards,

Thomas Dowell

Welcome to the Dowell Piano Blog!

Good day, and welcome to my blog. My name is Thomas Dowell, and I am a Registered Piano Technician in the Twin Lakes, WI area. I hope that you will learn some things from this little corner of the world, as I try to explain what I do, with my own unique perspective of things.

I am not the source of all wisdom when it comes to pianos. I am still searching and trying to understand what I see when I work on pianos. Why do pianos behave, react, move and breathe the way they do? Why are some pianos seemingly immortal, still sounding and playing after 100+ years, and others die after only 15 or 20? Why does one piano go out of tune faster than another? Why does one piano sound differently than another?

I have ideas, lots of thoughts, but certainly never enough knowledge. My hope is to impart a little bit of that knowledge to those that would like to know more.

Thank you for your time.

Regards,
Thomas Dowell, RPT