All pianos benefit from tuning on a regular basis. How often depends on the usage of the piano but certainly at least once per year is advisable even if the piano gets little used in that period. The more a piano gets tuned the more stable it will become. Many concert pianos get tuned daily and of course before every performance.

Another factor which affects the piano’s tuning is our weather. During periods of low humidity, a piano can drop in pitch and when humidity rises the reverse can happen.

If a piano is left untuned over a long period of time, as well as going out of tune with itself,  it’s pitch will gradually lower so you may eventually end up playing a piece in the key of C and it actually sounding in B or lower!

Pianos are designed for the exertion of many tonnes of string tension so an instrument which has been left un tuned for years could start to suffer some structural defects.

Construction

A piano is mainly made from various timbers, iron, steel and brass. Each material is chosen for the job it has to do in the piano. For example spruce is frequently used for the piano soundboard for it’s good sound transmitting properties, iron is used for the frame for it’s strength and steel wire for the strings which have to sustain high tensions. Piano design has changed little in years whilst the construction or methods used to build pianos have in recent times become highly automated resulting in high standards of build quality at a lower cost. Having said that, in the same way no two trees are identical on the planet, no two pianos can ever be either, given a very large part of them are made from timber.