How Often Should You Tune Your Piano? A Piano Technician’s Guide

As a piano technician, I aim to make your piano the best it can be. However, what I can achieve during a tuning largely depends on the piano's condition when I begin.

If a piano hasn’t been tuned in 5 to 10+ years, the first visit will be more of a triage. While I will do my best to improve its sound, it won’t be anywhere near its full potential. The adjustments I make during this visit will be larger, and the piano will resist the changes.

When a piano is tuned regularly—ideally every six months—the adjustments I make are smaller and more precise. A piano resists change less when the adjustments are minor, and the instrument stays in tune longer between appointments. A common question I get is…

How often should you tune your piano?

The answer depends on the standard you want to hold. For example, at the Jack Singer Concert Hall in Calgary, we tuned the pianos before every performance. If the performance featured a world-class soloist, we’d often tune the piano before each rehearsal and again just before the performance. This would result in weekly, if not daily or twice daily, tunings.

A piano will go out of tune this quickly, which is why this level of care is necessary for high-stakes performances.

Maintaining such a high standard in your home is unrealistic.

As a practical and cost-effective solution, I recommend twice-yearly tunings. This is educational for beginner musicians because it helps them learn what 'out of tune' sounds like. If there is ever a time when the piano is not being played, a yearly tuning is typically sufficient for general maintenance. However, keep in mind that it WILL go out of tune in that time.