What do you think of online piano tuning courses just so I can tweak my piano between tunings? I live in a remote area and it is not easy to get a tuner to come over. I have a 2012 Kawai. I guess I should practice the tuning on an old piano first of course.

Why not just buy a book on tuning? For what you want to do, you wouldn't really neesd to invest in a whole online course.

The Arthur Reblitz book is excellent, and another good option is the Haynes Piano Manual. You can see descriptions and review of them on my website.

Best regards,

David.
http://www.davidboyce.co.uk/piano-books.php
http://www.davidboyce.co.uk/haynes-piano-manual.php

I have a few customers I have coached over the years to keep unisons touched up and such...maybe your tuner will oblige if you ask nicely.

Thanks for your input, I'll look into both options. This is a great forum to get information from professionals.

Brooke

No. Just... no. If anything, follow Emmery's advice. And/or, get Verituner and some quality piano tuning tools, and some books, and have at it.

You can also start by viewing YouTube videos.

But the problem with that is that some are not doing a good job and some piano tuning videos on YouTube are plain misleading.

You can try on my site, I have put some YouTube videos but I have commented on them so to guide you.

My Video Tutorial is soon to be released in English so you might check it out too.

You can download for free a trial version of Tunelab.

And you can do a complete tuning with the trial version, too. Just avoid changing notes (it stops for two minutes after every 14th note) and, if you're using the Android version, don't touch the phone during the delays.

But that's overkill if you just want to adjust the occasional octave or unison.

Greetings,
It isn't rocket science. Unisons are a simple, difficult, chore. Tuning them also tunes who ever is doing the tuning, in that it activates brain circuitry directly controlling our hearing. This is valuable for any musician. The home tuner can worry about stability later, if the pin has to be adjusted daily, it costs nothing. I say, go for it, but odds are, you are going to break a string. Either by turning the wrong pin or turning the right pin but listening to the wrong note, or B!ang! doesn't matter. If you are not mindful about where you put the hammer, you will break a string.
I think any reasonably sensitive person can equate pin movement with pitch after enough trial and error. If the basic understanding of the friction/tension/pin is there, experience will quickly teach the diligent the rewards of finesse.
Regards,

You are all so knowledgeable and I'll bet this all comes easy to you. However, I am a newbie...I was thinking about the first two options offered. While a book can be helpful there is nothing like seeing and hearing the instruction. Better still someone who knows what to do teaching those little things that sometimes make all the difference with getting it right or frustration and failure.

Since I know so little about this it might be useful to read then "see" and hear through the video. I appreciate all the suggestions, will look at them all. I will let you know how it worked out. This might take some time. I was thinking of getting an old piano on the cheep so as not to mess mine up, I want to play mine for lessons and that might be difficult if I mess things up while learning how to tune.

Thanks ,
Brooke

The idea of a "learning" piano is a very good idea.

Yes, a "learning" piano, especially if I mess up!

Thanks for the help. You guys are awesome!

Brooke

Can I highly recommend you buying a quality tuning lever if this what you want to do rather than a cheap learner one. Over my 54 years of tuning I have used all sorts of tuning levers and recently purchased a Fugan lever and I am amazed how nice it is to use. It has a carbon fibre shaft and is very light and strong. A 2012 Kawai could have extremely tight pins which you wont be prepared for, so get a long shaft model.
http://www.fujanproducts.com/ . Tuning and setting the pin takes a lot of practice so using a quality lever will give you a head start.
Robin

On your own piano you are prone to obtain a tired pin after some training, the pianos used for learning tuning have the pins and strings changed until it is not possible anymore (unless the pins are so large that tuning is almost impossible with some precision)

Reblitz say no much about tuning and all that partial match control theory is real but can be misleading.

Mario Bruneau made a huge job on videos and animation, but shows only his own method, where the pin find its natural place because it is made free by impacts.

slow tuning is not as hard on the block, but concert tuners have no enough time to do it, often so many are using that nudge and impact method. Concert pianos are repaired more often, due to their value, the cost of repair is not considered important. (they are changed for more recent ones after some time anyway)

On older pianos, or if one need to learn on one piano only, slow method with high control is absolutely harmless to the block and the pins.

In the end that is the pin that say to the tuner that the note is tuned, so felling all its motion from the start of the move to the end is really providing some control on the process.

Thank you both for the info and insight. Having someone with expert experience is sooo helpful. Good tools are very important to do a good job with little or no frustration or even just to be able to do the job at all! In this case I want to do it right.

I was thinking of putting an ad in the local paper about purchasing an inexpensive piano or I guess I could ask some music teachers. I'm not sure on how to go about it.

Thanks,

Brooke

Hi,
What online course are you thinking of? I am doing this with a student in Australia next month.

Isaac can you please explain why the partial match theory is misleading and what tuning method you propose is better than that?

Thank you

I don't know which course, I haven't gotten that far yet. I thought I would start by reading first. Any suggestions for an online course?

Brooke

Good tuning technique can produce great results and takes much education, time and practice to develop. Improper tuning technique can break strings and damage the instrument in more ways than one might think. Read everything that you can. The PTG website also offers good study resources. Visit with the piano tech schools. Ask lots of questions. Make an informed choice. Best wishes