This may be a very silly question, but is it a sign that a piano needs tuning when objects lying on or near the piano start vibrating/buzzing along with a certain note? And how about when the things that are buzzing are within the piano? I found that usually after a few weeks or so this buzzing stops by itself, or may move to another note.

I’ve just had my piano tuned and there’s still buzzing within the piano when pressing the middle-D. Did my tuner miss it, or is this something that he needn’t fix when wearing his tuner-hat (instead of his technician-hat)?

Thanks for your help,
regards, Thea

Hi Sparrow: The buzzing noise you are hearing on certain notes can be described best as a "sympathetic vibration." The item making the noise is being excited at the same frequency as the particular note on the piano that makes the noise happen. It is not a sign that the piano needs tuning, as it can occur as easily in a tuned or untuned instrument. The problem is finding it! Your technician may not have heard it at the time he was tuning (since you indicated it comes and goes) or he chose to ignore it for whatever reason. It is correctable but may take some doing especially since it is inconsistent. It may be easiest to find and correct using two people: one playing the note that creates the buzz, and the other locating it. The possibilities are many: soundboard problems, foreign objects in or near the piano, string problem, I have found a common cause to be an item that has fallen in behind the piano (assuming its a vertical) and is resting against the soundboard making the noise. You will have to try to locate the problem when it is there (obviously) otherwise you wouldn't know whether or not you've corrected it. Noises of this type are very irritating, but take heart, there is a reason, and it is fixable.[EMAIL]null[/EMAIL]

There are certain things that vibrate and buzz around my piano as well when I play certain notes. It's the most annyoing thing in the world, it is!

And hopefully it's not an intermittent buzz because that can drive the tech crazy! You want it there strident as ever when he comes to check it out.

I speak from personal experience on this.

Mark Mandell www.pianosource.com

Thanks for your advice! I opened the piano (upright) and vacuumed wherever I could reach. It was amazingly clean for a 17 year old piano. This didn’t help, however.
When I touch the left string of the central-D with the tip of my finger while hitting the key the ringing sound is gone, when I touch the middle string, it’s much worse, and touching the right string doesn’t make any difference. Is this an indication that it may have something to do with the strings?

Then based on what you just said, I'd have the string/bridge connection checked out. If even a small particle of wood somehow wound up lying there, it could cause a buzz when the note's played.

Mark

Thanks for the help. I looked again but coulnd’t find anything. I’ll ask my tuner next time he’s here. I’ll try not to get annoyed too much by the extra ringing tones, and hopefully it’ll go away soon. It could be that going out-of-tune may fix it, right? Then the string will emit vibrations on another frequency (pardon my non-technical language) and the buzzing object won’t feel obliged to join in.

I’ll also ask my tuner why he didn’t notice/remark on this. It’s as if the sound got more noticeable after the last tuning, but that may be my imagination. We’ve only had this tuner for about a year. The tuner we had when we lived somewhere else, fixed everything without us having to ask about it, and wouldn’t even charge extra for this. I guess we’ve been spoiled by him.

Bye for now, regards, Thea