Piano tuner

Piano tuner

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David Klavins tunes his Una Corda piano

Piano tuner is a profession from the category of craft-like trades that can be practiced in Germany and Austria without a license. The training to become a piano tuner is integrated into the professional training to become a piano and harpsichord maker . The fields of employment are u. a. in craft and industrial piano manufacturers, music shops and in independent commercial practice . The activity includes the mood of pianos , wings and Cembali by the tension of the strings regulated, and so the sound tuning harmoniously and the interference of the individual strings choruses be eliminated. In addition, there are other service work, mainly at the customer's and in concert operations, such as the optimization of the intonation (the sound) by processing (removing, pricking, etc.) the hammer felts, putting on new strings and regulating the piano mechanics.

technology

A piano tuner works with a tuning fork or tuner , tuning wedges made of rubber, felt or leather-covered wood to dampen strings that are ringing, and a tuning hammer . Start by creating the so-called temperature octave, for example in the circle of fifths from the concert pitch a ¹ :

${\displaystyle a^{1}\searrow a\nearrow e^{1}\searrow e\nearrow h\nearrow fis^{1}\searrow fis\nearrow cis^{1}\nearrow gis^{1}\searrow gis}$

${\displaystyle as\nearrow es^{1}\searrow es\nearrow b\nearrow f^{1}\searrow f\nearrow c^{1}\nearrow g^{1}\searrow g\nearrow d^{1}\nearrow a^{1}}$

Down arrow: down an octave - Up arrow: up a fifth

If you were here all the octaves and fifths pure , so beat-free vote, the last fifth would narrow considerably. Because of this so-called Pythagorean comma , the tuning is equal (in equal temperament), that is, each individual fifth is placed a little too tightly (undershoot). After applying the temperature octave, tune up and down in octave steps with constant control of the fifths.

Other methods of tuning a piano are also in use. For example, you can create a circle of thirds (thirds or sixths) instead of the circle of fifths (fifths or fourths). Or you tune a-a1 (octave up), a-e1 (fifth up), a-d1 (fourth up), e1-h (fourth down), b-f sharp1 (fifth up), f sharp1-c sharp1 (fourth down) , c sharp1-g sharp1 (fifth up), g sharp1-dc1, dc1-b, b-f1, f1-c1, c1-g1. Various control intervals are checked for correct beat numbers. If the tuning is set equally, the beats of all intervals from the bass to the treble become equally faster.

Inharmonicity

A balanced temperature differs from instrument to instrument and is based on the individual inharmonicity line, which results from the diagram of the inharmonicities of the individual strings over the entire range. The inharmonicity of a string describes the spread of the first overtone in cents compared to the physically ideal value and depends on the diameter, alloy and tensile load of the string. The larger the diameter, the stiffer the alloy and the lower the tensile load of the string (assuming the same string length), the higher the inharmonicity, which is ideally between 0.5 and 0.6 cents in the middle position. In the treble there are inharmonicity values ​​of over 15 cents. Due to the individuality of the respective straight line of inharmonicity, pianos from different manufacturers of the same height, which are balanced in themselves, can never sound harmoniously together. Large concert grand pianos with long strings (up to over 3 m in length) have far less inharmonicity than small pianos (sometimes <1.10 m in height). The sub-fluctuation of the fifths (between 0.9 and 1.4 Hz in the area of ​​the dashed octave ) is based on the inharmonicity line of the respective instrument .

The inharmonicity also determines the spread of the octaves, as there is a need for a compromise between pure fundamental and pure overtones, especially with octaves. Tones above the middle register are tuned higher, and tones below are tuned lower than they should be tuned mathematically. The octave below the concert pitch in which the temperature was set is already affected by this spread. It is therefore generally not possible with the piano to tune completely beat-free octaves, especially with small instruments with high inharmonicity.

For the reasons mentioned, it is not possible to use an ordinary tuner to achieve a balanced mood. In the case of high-priced devices, you can roughly enter the height of the instrument, but of course no individual inharmonicity line is stored here. With these devices, however, it is possible to save a mood that was previously set by ear.

Vertebral duct

Another difficulty in tuning the piano is the so-called setting of the tuning pegs. It is important to control the torsion , the static and sliding friction as well as the spring action of the tuning peg in the direction of string tension. The so-called vortex duct is also dependent on the diameter, the roughness of the thread and the stiffness of the tuning peg as well as the nature of the sound post . The smaller the diameter of the tuning peg (starting from 6.6 mm up to 7.75 mm with replaced pegs), the finer the same rotary movement has on the tuning, since the diameter of the string ring is smaller. Furthermore, with smaller pegs there is less friction in the sound post as well as more spring travel and torsion. Further factors of tunability are the friction of the string at the contact points of the silie (also capo, bridge on the cast plate) and pressure rod or the points of passage of the clasps as well as at the interlacing of the bridge . The proportion of non-vibrating string parts (from the front length of the string and the attachment) also plays a role - the larger this is, the finer the same rotary movement of the tuning peg has on the tuning. Even a movement of 1/100 mm in the vibrating part of the string can cause a detuning of several Hertz , depending on the scaling .

Bar pressure

Tuning up instruments poses a particular difficulty, as the strings are guided over the bridge with a certain amount of pressure. The bridge has an elevation of up to 2 mm compared to the normal position of the strings, which results in a bridge pressure of up to 60 kg. If the string tension is now gradually increased, the bridge pressure is also increased at the same time, so that previously tuned strings relax again accordingly. This can be counteracted by making several corrections, but also by spreading it appropriately while tuning.

Moods

In addition to the equally floating tuning , the piano tuner sometimes has to use historical tunings (primarily for harpsichords and fortepiano ). a. the Werckmeister tuning , the mid-tone tuning , the Kirnberger tuning , the Vallotti tuning or a tuning that is pure in selected keys . Occasionally, deliberate detuning of a few vibrations per tone is desirable, e.g. B. for jazz productions.

See also

Piano and harpsichord maker

Web links

Wiktionary: Piano tuner  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

• Association of German Piano Manufacturers

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Law on the Order of Crafts (Handwerksordnung). Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection, accessed on July 22, 2017 (Annex B, list of trades that can be operated as craft trades or trades similar to craft trades). 
2. ↑ Piano tuner - activity content. Federal Employment Agency, accessed on July 22, 2017 . 
3. ↑ Miriam Noemí Valenzuela: Investigations and calculation methods for the sound quality of piano tones . Herbert Utz Verlag, 1998, ISBN 978-3-89675-343-4 . - limited preview in the Google book search
4. ^ Ulrich Laible: Expertise in piano construction . 3. Edition. PPV Medien, 2000, ISBN 978-3-923639-95-3 .