Does every piano need tuning every year?

Question

Our upright piano has been last tuned about a year ago. (It was a major retuning, two sessions, including bringing it up from something 435-ish to 442 Hz.)

I just tried to check whether it is still in tune and I couldn't find any flaw.

1. It just sounds good when practicing.

2. Using tuning software (basic Android phone, Intonia Pro in tuning mode) I was able to check that every note (every struck key) is chromatically consistent with a 442 Hz tuning.

   For additional science, I also checked that everything between A1 and C7 was visually detected as higher than consistent with 441 Hz tuning and lower than 443 Hz; there's a gradual 440-ish tail in the deepest basses as expected. I'm not sure I really checked the top few notes as carefully as the rest, none of these was off to the tuner or to my own ear.

3. Individually picked strings for each key were in unison, judging just by ear. No vibrato, no pitch differences. In this step I ignored the bass notes that have just a single string.

Apparently the professional tuner has done a very lasting job a year ago - or I'm missing something I should also check.

I'm tempted to consider this condition of the piano more than sufficient for amateur and student use and re-check its tuning only in another year or two.

Except that every online resource I can find advises to invite a tuner at least once a year, if not twice. Are such guidelines written simply to create more business for tuners? Or is this a marvelous instrument that's resistant to humidity fluctuations?

[After asking this question and learning things from the initial answers, I started to pay attention to ambient humidity. It seems to be fluctuating only between 50% and 30% over many months - from autumn to mid-winter. There's no fireplace, no AC. This low variance of humidity is apparently contributing to year-to-year stability of tuning.]

Answer 1

If the piano's passed an inspection that meticulous, then it doesn't need a tuning.

"Once a year" is general advice to correct for seasonal variations of humidity.

In climates with a significant winter and summer, other advice is to tune a few weeks after you've started to run the furnace, and then again after you've started to run the air conditioner. But I've sometimes gone 18 months between tunings despite living in the American Midwest, where some joke that we get twenty seasons per year.

Indications that a tuning would make the piano more enjoyable to play:

• treble chromatic scales have uneven loudness, because the unisons are drifting apart, making some notes bright and zingy

• late romantic repertoire starts sounding muddy

• bare octaves start sounding rich

• the piano was recently moved (to a different building, not just across the room).

But this piano is very far from needing a tuning in the sense of "if it doesn't get one soon, then all the strings will need replacing."

Answer 2

This isn't like a car where you change oil every year even though it's running perfectly well. (Do I detect something of that thinking behind your question?) Tune it when it needs tuning. If you've got a piano (and a location) where tuning holds for a year plus, be happy!

Answer 3

After a year without seeing a technician that kind of stability is remarkable.

If your piano technician is as skilled at regulation and voicing, as they appear to be at tuning, then bring them in anyway. They can probably make the instrument sound and play even better for the same money as a tuning. Allow that the technician should probably be the one to decide best bang for buck and it should be clear to you what they're going to do, before they do it.

Answer 4

It is possible that you simply have a very stable piano and it's in a stable environment. Also, sometimes, a well-scaled piano will drop in pitch very uniformly across the octaves, which can fool you into thinking your piano is still at A=440. Here is a short article that I have written covers the many factors which determine how often to have your piano tuned, I hope you find it to be helpful: How often should my piano be tuned?

Answer 5

Apparently the professional tuner has done a very lasting job a year ago - or I'm missing something I should also check.

Apparently, the professional tuner is a very good tuner, indeed!

Although the other answers seem to be right, I'd like to add the following points to have present:

1. the tuning depends, partially, on how and how much the piano is being played, thus, the frequency at which it should be tuned may vary for each one player (apart from each piano!)

2. already noted, but here we go again: it will vary for each piano and each environment.

Having said that, what I strongly recommend, having noted that the professional tuner has done such an excellent job, is to ask him what he recommends. I think he will know best, and as it looks like he really knows his stuff, I'd definitely ask for his opinion.