Tuning the Piano guide
How to Set Up and Use Tuning the Piano
Ever wondered what a technician is actually doing during a visit? Here's the real, step-by-step sequence behind a professional piano tuning.
Ever wondered what a technician is actually doing during the hour or two they spend hunched over your piano? This is the real sequence behind a professional piano tuning, laid out step by step — genuinely useful if you want to understand the process, follow along with more confidence next time someone visits, or start learning the craft properly yourself.
What You Need Before Starting
A proper piano tuning needs a specialised tuning lever that fits your piano's pins exactly, rubber mutes or felt wedges to isolate individual strings within a unison, and ideally an electronic tuning device to measure pitch and inharmonicity. A quiet room matters too — background noise makes it much harder to judge unisons and beats by ear. One honest warning first: turning a tuning pin with the wrong technique can slip or strip it, and over-tightening a string can snap it, so this sequence is best treated as a guide to the process rather than an invitation to start immediately on a piano you can't afford to damage.
The Full Process, Step by Step
- Inspect and assess pitch. The technician checks the piano's general condition, how far its overall pitch has drifted, and whether any strings or pins look unstable before touching a single note.
- Set the temperament. A central section of the keyboard is tuned first, carefully balancing the fourths, fifths, thirds and sixths within it — this becomes the reference for everything that follows.
- Extend the tuning outward. Working out from that central temperament through the bass and treble, the technician tunes each octave relationship, widening them slightly to account for the piano's own inharmonicity.
- Tune each unison. For notes with two or three strings, the strings are brought into close agreement with each other so the note rings cleanly rather than wavering.
- Stabilise and check. A final pass through octaves, chords and repeated notes confirms nothing has shifted, and any pin that isn't holding firmly is reset properly.
Why the Order Matters
Skipping straight to the ends of the keyboard without a settled temperament in the middle is a common beginner mistake — every later note is judged against that central reference, so an unstable temperament throws off everything built on top of it. This is also why piano tuning isn't something you can rush: each stage depends on the one before it holding steady.
Aural Checks Alongside Electronic Measurement
An electronic tuning device — the Sanderson Accu-Tuner is a well-known example — can measure a piano's individual inharmonicity and suggest a tuning curve for each string, which speeds the process up considerably. But steps 2 and 4 above still rely heavily on listening: judging how a chord sits together, or whether a unison has stopped wavering, is a skill a screen can't fully replace. Most technicians use the two together rather than picking one.
Which Tool Does Which Job
| Stage | Main tool | What it's for |
|---|---|---|
| Setting the temperament | Tuning lever, trained ear | Balancing intervals within the central reference section |
| Extending outward | Tuning lever, electronic device | Widening octaves to match the piano's own inharmonicity |
| Tuning unisons | Mutes or wedges, tuning lever | Isolating and matching each note's two or three strings |
| Final check | Ear, played chords and octaves | Confirming nothing has shifted before finishing |
A full session, done properly, typically runs to an hour or more on an instrument that's already reasonably close to pitch — longer if a preliminary pitch raise is needed first, since the strings need a chance to settle before the fine work will hold.
When to Call a Professional Instead
If your piano is a long way off pitch, hasn't been touched in years, or you're not confident handling a tuning lever without damaging a pin, this is exactly the point to book someone qualified rather than working through the steps above alone. Our buyer's guide to piano tuning covers what to look for when you do, and our round-up of options by budget weighs the DIY route against paying a professional.
The Bottom Line
Piano tuning follows a logical, repeatable sequence — temperament first, then outward, then unisons, then a final check — and understanding it makes the whole process far less mysterious, whether you're watching a technician work or considering learning it yourself. If you're new to owning a piano altogether, our beginner's guide and our plain-English explainer are good next stops.
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