Did you know that a piano can have up to 12,000 moving parts? It's true. Not only that, but many of those parts are moving parts. And if you want your piano to stay in good working order, it needs a little bit of maintenance to stay its best.
Your first year of piano ownership will require the most maintenance (it's kind of the opposite of owning a car). You'll want to get it serviced two to four times that year. After that, talk to your piano technician to see how often it needs to be serviced. Serving includes tuning, regulating, voicing, and repairing or replacing worn out parts.
A piano has over 200 strings and when the technician starts tuning a piano, it's the strings he's going to work on. The technician wants all the strings to have the correct pitch.
Pianos go out of tune due to a variety of reasons but the main one is humidity. If you live in a climate with large humidity changes throughout the seasons, you'll need to get your piano tuned more often than if you lived in an area where it's pretty constant all year round. You could also keep the piano in an environment where humidity is controlled year round but for most of us that's not practical.
Regulating a piano involves the adjustment of the mechanical aspects of the piano. Cloth parts compact and settle, and that rascal we call humidity can actually cause slight changes in piano dimensions.
Voicing a piano is an adjustment of the tone of your piano. As you use your piano, hammers wear and compact and some notes will become too harsh. At this point, your piano needs to be voiced. Most people find that their piano needs to be voiced every 1-5 years, depending on how much use your piano receives.
You'll also want to make sure you take good care of the exterior of the piano too. Neglecting the exterior of your piano can, believe it or not, affect the sound quality of your piano. Keeping it clean is a pretty simple job, but one thing to remember is that you don't want to use furniture polish.
Reconditioning a piano typically doesn't need to be done very often, but once in a while your piano technician may tell you that the time has come to get the piano reconditioned and certain parts will need to be replaced.
The step beyond reconditioning is rebuilding. This is a very labor intensive process and also quite expensive, but caring for your piano can help you avoid the expense of a full rebuild.
A piano is an investment. (not a gigantic paperweight that needs dusting.) If you properly maintain your piano, not only can it provide a lifetime of music and enjoyment, but it can actually increase in value.
About the Author:
Gray Rollins writes for PianosCentral - a site that helps people learn how to play the piano. Come check out Rocket Piano review and the Pure Pitch Method at his site.
