In fact there are more moving parts in your piano than your car! The piano action needs occasional maintenance, called regulation, to ensure quick repetition and consistent touch. These covers also keep dust from gathering inside the piano and keep the strings looking new. Tailored string covers are strongly recommended for grand pianos in coastal regions where sea breezes can quickly have a corrosive effect on piano strings. These systems help your piano resist these changes. Where desert dryness or coastal humidity exist, a humidity control system, made especially for the piano called a Piano-life Saver is a wise investment. Changes in your piano’s environment impact the instrument’s ability to be stable and hold its tune, so the best plan is to make sure the instrument’s environment is as consistent as possible – it is important to realize that piano tunings do not come with guarantees like a repair on a home appliance, for example, because your technician has no control over the piano’s environment after it has been brought to pitch. These factors can cause dramatic swings in relative humidity and temperature. It's important to keep your piano away from heating, air conditioning or air return vents, fireplaces, frequently opened windows, outside doors, or direct sunlight. Further, pianos allowed to dip below pitch run the risk of piano strings breaking during the process of restoring the instrument’s pitch – another reason to keep your piano maintained! Try to maintain a fairly consistent temperature and humidity in the room where your piano is placed. Bringing a neglected piano back to life can be a project.

Follow up tuning shortly thereafter will be important before the piano can be considered somewhat stable at pitch.

If a piano has a lapse in service a pitch raise - at additional cost - will be necessary. Everything that holds the piano at pitch is made of wood, and seasonal changes in relative humidity and temperature are what cause a piano to go “out of tune” whether it is being played regularly or not. That is akin to waiting until your car is “running bad” to have the oil changed! Regular maintenance is the key. If you wait until your piano sounds bad to have it tuned, you have no doubt waited too long. Keep your piano in tune! It was structurally designed to be tuned to the international pitch standard of A-440. Skilled service is economy - neglect is costly.

Schimmel piano course at factory