Oh, how cool it would have been to see this in 1983 when I started. Then my search would be much shorter. But even now it’s very informative. Thank you very much!
When I was young, one of the highlights of the year was sitting and watching our piano tuner tune the piano. Made the hairs on your neck stand up, so this is a real fix. Many thanks.
The ear is the best tool for tuning a musical instrument. A strobe tuner can get you the same result but it's cumbersome. Using the ear you can get perfect intonation and much quicker than having to use a machine you have to read and relate to while tuning. Before I was a performer (guitar) I always tuned by ear with a fork. I use a clip-on tuner now for simplicity. I still like to use a fork on my acoustic just for fun.
Nice work. Thanks for providing the opportunity to watch a full piano tuning. I am just getting started as a tuner and it's been a huge learning experience every time. I do prefer the sound of using electronic tuning apps though. I'm not sure I like this temperament, but your skills are certainly better than mine on unisons.
Great video. I am going for my RPT. I noticed you are wearing a watch and rings. For those of you newbies like me out there, I was told to remove anything that could put the slightest mar on the piano even on the plate. Many of the pianos we will tune will have cost the owner up around $250K - some are priceless antiques. Some owners may even hover over you to scrutinize you as you tune or service (touch) their piano... that is some serious pressure. Have you ever experienced that?
I don't do audiences. I have PTSD so someone hovering over my shoulder while I work is a no-go. Move on and find some clients who will leave you to work. Nobody does their best work with distractions and piano owners like that are nothing but a distraction. If they are so worried about their piano, they should learn how to tune it themselves. Then they can spend all week getting their laundry list of complaints just perfect. Some people will always have unrealistic expectations and it is better to just keep on walking. I've worked on commercial aircraft costing $100m plus. $250k is chicken feed next to that. But yeah, you have a point. Shouldn't wear anything that could scratch the piano, especially when working on one this cherry. I think OP doesn't really have that much respect for the instrument itself, just what it can do for him and probably thinks the sound quality is 90% his work and 10% Steinway when it is really the other way around.
@@Lurch-Bot I agree, I could not work with a customer hanging over me, a small inquisitive child may be OK, but that too would be a distraction. I too worked on multi million dollar equipment in the US Air Force so I have confidence working on priceless pianos... bu t I would be very careful.
In my experience people don't ever hover other than for a second and most of the time they are in another room due to the loud volume while tuning. Surprised he's not wearing ear plugs, most piano tuners I know do as it protects your ear health.
@@SamuelMcgrealPianoServices Thanks for the reply. I went to an on-line school for tuning but the guy turned me down when I refused to buy products from his sponsors. He said I "wasn't serious about becoming a piano tuner". I can't find a mentor in my area so I purchased Authur Reblitz's book "Piano Servicing, Tuning, and Rebuilding". I then wrote my own software that tunes to a Railsback curve that can be adjusted to each piano. I don't even have to listen at all, it prompts me what strings to mute, which string to tune, and how hard to press a key. I just tune a string until I get a green light. It has me tune a few cents sharp and then it prompts me to do a hard strike to set the pin/string and recheck it. When done, it prompts to press every key for review/touch up. When done, I get a graph and tuning score compared to the target Railsback curve. My software even keeps info on disk about each piano. I use a piezo pickup on the sound board, a magnetic pickup on the strings, and a microphone over the piano. I even have a feature to simulate 3 tuning pins so those without a piano can practice - tuning using simulated tones - but why bother, you don't need to hear anything with my software. I use advanced signal processing techniques that includes Fourier analysis for amplitude, frequency and phase over time in a waterfall graph to pick out things the human ear can't detect. Using 3 points for an audio source goes beyond a typical tuner. Anybody can tune to concert quality with no experience in piano tuning.
I use an app to set my temperment. It comes out okay for me. But I always enjoy hearing someone who knows what they're doing (narrow, wide etc) do an entire piano.
While I don't much care for electronic tuning, an app would give better results than what OP is getting. An expensive tool doesn't automatically ensure you know what you are doing. In fact, if someone thinks they need to spend that much, regardless of how good their ear is, they likely don't have any wrench turning skills. I use a cheap ass hammer. An expensive one won't compensate for a lack of feel.
Looking to learning to tune pianos myself. Been a music teacher for 26 years and a private piano/violin for about 10. Can you post the link for your tuning hammer. I want a quality hammer that will last when I get started. Thanks
You can have the best tool in the world but it only counts if you know how to use it. Meanwhile, I'm using a $15 POS and it works fine for me. My experience working in commercial aviation maintenance has taught me you're better off learning how to do a good job with crap tools and then you get the good tool and you'll do a great job.
Great vid! Show (or tell) how you use the tuning fork. This fork is what I prefer because it’s bigger that most, so you can keep it between your fingers in the left hand and play the F with your thumb. And being larger, it’s a bit louder that most. Very good!
I’ve read about this method and others like it. Can someone please explain why we tune F3 to the fork, then tune A4 to that? The matching beats etc makes sense but the WHY alludes me! Cheers
Lol. Pins are angled and string tension locks them in place. It isn't a violin. And sometimes simply applying some sideways pressure is all it takes to make a fine adjustment. You can basically walk the pin around in the hole to get very minute adjustments.
I'm sorry was trying to offer some constructive criticism, when there is many beats or 10 cents out when tuning one string to another you will definitely need to move pin to move string up and then back, set pin and then stabilize string, I have learnt alot about pianos and tuning in last 28 years but you have to be open to listening to people when they offer advice.
@@paulknight6508 The person you are replying to is correct. When you are at the stage where a string requires only minute adjustment, 'bending the pin' is all that is required to stabilize the tuning. Striking the string firmly will test how stable the string is. Of course, when a string is well out of tune, you must turn the pin. But as you close in on the 'sweet spot', tiny manipulations of the pin is what is required (piano tuner 40 years).
Sorry don't agree. Good piano tuners don't bend pins to set strings. When you pull down pianos to restring and been tuned like this pins are like banana's. Damages plank when you take them out.
Thanks so much for sharing this! So - understanding that you're not going for concert-level perfection here - AND that what we hear from the recording may or may not match up with what you were hearing in the room... Do you have any way to describe how close you're trying to get? I hear a roll on many of the unisons. Some folks describe this as a "bloom". But a lot of the time, you're moving on to the next thing faster than I can tell what's really going on. It may just be that I hear slower than you. I know that I would really benefit from more verbal description of what you are listening to (which partial - what check you're using, etc). Again - great job! I'm also reminded again that some of my favorite recordings have instruments that are way far from perfect. Bill Evans Village Vanguard - Vince Guaraldi Christmas - both have badly out of tune instruments that are absolutely perfect in the hands of those performers. The whole thing fascinates me.
@@beethovensg This is a temperament with which I am not familiar. Could actually be the point of this temperament. But most likely OP doesn't really know what they are doing.
Hello, I am Kevin McAlley. I have been looking for a new running lever. You mentioned that the one you use is a Sanderson lever. Could you provide a link to it? Thank you.
One has to listen to these type of videos with the sound up to hear the whole spectrum. I tried doing it late at night, and I kept the sound too low to hear the differences.
You can't really learn pitch discrimination from a YT video. You are absolutely not hearing the same thing they are. It is all compressed and it is very difficult to hear the beating without extensive post-processing of the audio.
Not all Tuning forks work on any piano they work better on new modern piano like A440z older pianos are tune on A435z for not breaking Strings and cracks Steel Frame
튜닝핀 컨드롤을 수십년간 터득한 개개인한테 어떤방법이 좋다고 말할수는 없지만 모두가 선호하는 규정에 맞는 방법이 있죠 그에 앞서 내 맘에 들지는 않지만 본인만에 특별한방법이 다 있겠죠 즉 말해서 어떻게 튜닝핀 컨트롤을 허든간에 맞다고 판단하고 튜닝해머를 이동한후 2~3번 타현을 했을때 그음이 변한다면 무슨소용이 있을까 핀스톱의 스트라이크죤을 찾아보자
A big part of the skill of tuning a piano, is to not only to tune the strings, but to tune them in such a way that they *stay in tune* - 'setting the strings'.
Can anyone please tell me that I am crazy.... but actually I don't like the way the grand sounds after tuning....Am I the only one that thinks so..? Not to discredit the tuner's competences but just to get a notion as to whether or not I am the only one that finds this...
Obscure temperament he probably isn't even doing right in the first place. There isn't much to be gleaned from this video. Hypothetically, if you were bad at tuning, you could just claim it is some obscure temperament most people don't know as a cover.
Finally someone who can tune by ear! Mostly they only tune with digital gadgets. Then they struggle for days and the result is a big pile of shit. Then when you tell them, they get offended. I also have a tuner, but I only use it for the A440.
@@theo5030 It is true that there is more to tune, but you cannot tune the piano properly with a digital tuner. The pitch rises slightly steeper than the logarithmic scale, and each instrument is unique. And hearing demands this. If someone can't tune, even if they use a tuner, the result won't be good either. It's like when someone can't cook and does everything according to the cookbook. You can eat it, but it's not as delicious as what an experienced chef cooks.
@@zongihangi11 I've encountered pianos that don't sound optimal even after being tuned by ear. Conversely, I've also experienced perfectly tuned pianos that were tuned using Electronic Tuning Devices (ETDs).
Does the piano in this video sound good to you? You have to check your ears if you think it does. In the last 15 years alone, over 1,000 RPT tuners have switched from aural tuning to ETD. Many of them are concert tuners.
OP has a fantastic piano, expensive tuning fork and a hammer that might as well be gold plated. Meanwhile, I actually tuned a piano today with a $15 hammer and a couple of rubber wedges. It will need a touchup but it isn't my fault some people went out of their way to be noisy.
![Chris Langan - The Interview THEY Didn't Want You To See - CTMU [Full Version; Timestamps]](/img/n.gif)
Oh, how cool it would have been to see this in 1983 when I started. Then my search would be much shorter. But even now it’s very informative. Thank you very much!
When I was young, one of the highlights of the year was sitting and watching our piano tuner tune the piano. Made the hairs on your neck stand up, so this is a real fix. Many thanks.
I LOVE this! Now I can hear you tune whenever I wish!
Thank you!
The ear is the best tool for tuning a musical instrument. A strobe tuner can get you the same result but it's cumbersome. Using the ear you can get perfect intonation and much quicker than having to use a machine you have to read and relate to while tuning. Before I was a performer (guitar) I always tuned by ear with a fork. I use a clip-on tuner now for simplicity. I still like to use a fork on my acoustic just for fun.
Thanks for the video! It was a joy watching you tune. I've been enjoying your other videos as well. Very good stuff!
Nice work. Thanks for providing the opportunity to watch a full piano tuning. I am just getting started as a tuner and it's been a huge learning experience every time. I do prefer the sound of using electronic tuning apps though. I'm not sure I like this temperament, but your skills are certainly better than mine on unisons.
I almost cried when you got to the last part of the concert.... 52:45..... not only listening, but also watching you....
Great video. I am going for my RPT. I noticed you are wearing a watch and rings. For those of you newbies like me out there, I was told to remove anything that could put the slightest mar on the piano even on the plate. Many of the pianos we will tune will have cost the owner up around $250K - some are priceless antiques. Some owners may even hover over you to scrutinize you as you tune or service (touch) their piano... that is some serious pressure. Have you ever experienced that?
I don't do audiences. I have PTSD so someone hovering over my shoulder while I work is a no-go. Move on and find some clients who will leave you to work. Nobody does their best work with distractions and piano owners like that are nothing but a distraction. If they are so worried about their piano, they should learn how to tune it themselves. Then they can spend all week getting their laundry list of complaints just perfect. Some people will always have unrealistic expectations and it is better to just keep on walking.
I've worked on commercial aircraft costing $100m plus. $250k is chicken feed next to that. But yeah, you have a point. Shouldn't wear anything that could scratch the piano, especially when working on one this cherry. I think OP doesn't really have that much respect for the instrument itself, just what it can do for him and probably thinks the sound quality is 90% his work and 10% Steinway when it is really the other way around.
@@Lurch-Bot I agree, I could not work with a customer hanging over me, a small inquisitive child may be OK, but that too would be a distraction. I too worked on multi million dollar equipment in the US Air Force so I have confidence working on priceless pianos... bu t I would be very careful.
In my experience people don't ever hover other than for a second and most of the time they are in another room due to the loud volume while tuning. Surprised he's not wearing ear plugs, most piano tuners I know do as it protects your ear health.
@@SamuelMcgrealPianoServices Thanks for the reply. I went to an on-line school for tuning but the guy turned me down when I refused to buy products from his sponsors. He said I "wasn't serious about becoming a piano tuner". I can't find a mentor in my area so I purchased Authur Reblitz's book "Piano Servicing, Tuning, and Rebuilding". I then wrote my own software that tunes to a Railsback curve that can be adjusted to each piano. I don't even have to listen at all, it prompts me what strings to mute, which string to tune, and how hard to press a key. I just tune a string until I get a green light. It has me tune a few cents sharp and then it prompts me to do a hard strike to set the pin/string and recheck it. When done, it prompts to press every key for review/touch up. When done, I get a graph and tuning score compared to the target Railsback curve. My software even keeps info on disk about each piano. I use a piezo pickup on the sound board, a magnetic pickup on the strings, and a microphone over the piano. I even have a feature to simulate 3 tuning pins so those without a piano can practice - tuning using simulated tones - but why bother, you don't need to hear anything with my software. I use advanced signal processing techniques that includes Fourier analysis for amplitude, frequency and phase over time in a waterfall graph to pick out things the human ear can't detect. Using 3 points for an audio source goes beyond a typical tuner. Anybody can tune to concert quality with no experience in piano tuning.
Nice!
How are you creating stability?
I use a Korg OT 120 Orchestra Tunner very nice machine for Tuning
Pretty soothing
I use an app to set my temperment. It comes out okay for me. But I always enjoy hearing someone who knows what they're doing (narrow, wide etc) do an entire piano.
While I don't much care for electronic tuning, an app would give better results than what OP is getting. An expensive tool doesn't automatically ensure you know what you are doing. In fact, if someone thinks they need to spend that much, regardless of how good their ear is, they likely don't have any wrench turning skills. I use a cheap ass hammer. An expensive one won't compensate for a lack of feel.
Looking to learning to tune pianos myself. Been a music teacher for 26 years and a private piano/violin for about 10. Can you post the link for your tuning hammer.
I want a quality hammer that will last when I get started. Thanks
You can have the best tool in the world but it only counts if you know how to use it. Meanwhile, I'm using a $15 POS and it works fine for me. My experience working in commercial aviation maintenance has taught me you're better off learning how to do a good job with crap tools and then you get the good tool and you'll do a great job.
Nice
he Do fine Tuning and Temperament and make sure all the octave are right
... and Vince Guaraldi "close the door"☺️
Great vid! Show (or tell) how you use the tuning fork. This fork is what I prefer because it’s bigger that most, so you can keep it between your fingers in the left hand and play the F with your thumb. And being larger, it’s a bit louder that most. Very good!
I’ve read about this method and others like it. Can someone please explain why we tune F3 to the fork, then tune A4 to that? The matching beats etc makes sense but the WHY alludes me! Cheers
Hi, you need to move the tuning pins, not just flex them around. Dont get stable tunings unless setting pin and string.
Lol. Pins are angled and string tension locks them in place. It isn't a violin. And sometimes simply applying some sideways pressure is all it takes to make a fine adjustment. You can basically walk the pin around in the hole to get very minute adjustments.
I'm sorry was trying to offer some constructive criticism, when there is many beats or 10 cents out when tuning one string to another you will definitely need to move pin to move string up and then back, set pin and then stabilize string, I have learnt alot about pianos and tuning in last 28 years but you have to be open to listening to people when they offer advice.
@@paulknight6508
The person you are replying to is correct. When you are at the stage where a string requires only minute adjustment, 'bending the pin' is all that is required to stabilize the tuning. Striking the string firmly will test how stable the string is. Of course, when a string is well out of tune, you must turn the pin. But as you close in on the 'sweet spot', tiny manipulations of the pin is what is required (piano tuner 40 years).
Sorry don't agree. Good piano tuners don't bend pins to set strings. When you pull down pianos to restring and been tuned like this pins are like banana's. Damages plank when you take them out.
Thanks so much for sharing this!
So - understanding that you're not going for concert-level perfection here - AND that what we hear from the recording may or may not match up with what you were hearing in the room...
Do you have any way to describe how close you're trying to get? I hear a roll on many of the unisons. Some folks describe this as a "bloom". But a lot of the time, you're moving on to the next thing faster than I can tell what's really going on. It may just be that I hear slower than you. I know that I would really benefit from more verbal description of what you are listening to (which partial - what check you're using, etc). Again - great job!
I'm also reminded again that some of my favorite recordings have instruments that are way far from perfect. Bill Evans Village Vanguard - Vince Guaraldi Christmas - both have badly out of tune instruments that are absolutely perfect in the hands of those performers.
The whole thing fascinates me.
Unisons are horrendous
Tune with a tuner if you have no hearing. I can't say anything else, sorry.
@@beethovensg This is a temperament with which I am not familiar. Could actually be the point of this temperament. But most likely OP doesn't really know what they are doing.
@@Lurch-Bot okay.
Yeah, I wonder too why his unisons are not perfect. Maybe he is doing a rough tuning?
Hello, I am Kevin McAlley. I have been looking for a new running lever. You mentioned that the one you use is a Sanderson lever. Could you provide a link to it? Thank you.
They mentioned a Sanderson Accu-Tuner.
The one I have that looks similar to his is from reyburn and they have some of the highest quality tuning hammers available on the market
One has to listen to these type of videos with the sound up to hear the whole spectrum. I tried doing it late at night, and I kept the sound too low to hear the differences.
You can't really learn pitch discrimination from a YT video. You are absolutely not hearing the same thing they are. It is all compressed and it is very difficult to hear the beating without extensive post-processing of the audio.
Hey man , I noticed that you r using a new tuning hammer, how was it? better than fujan tuning lever? where did you get it?
@@tiffanyduke7856 I smell a tool snob.
Not all Tuning forks work on any piano they work better on new modern piano like A440z older pianos are tune on A435z for not breaking Strings and cracks Steel Frame
You know what your doing, can you teach?
Wow so many people in the comments who know everything about piano tuning. Crazy
튜닝핀 컨드롤을 수십년간 터득한 개개인한테 어떤방법이 좋다고 말할수는 없지만
모두가 선호하는 규정에 맞는 방법이 있죠
그에 앞서 내 맘에 들지는 않지만 본인만에 특별한방법이 다 있겠죠
즉 말해서 어떻게 튜닝핀 컨트롤을 허든간에 맞다고 판단하고 튜닝해머를 이동한후
2~3번 타현을 했을때 그음이 변한다면 무슨소용이 있을까
핀스톱의 스트라이크죤을 찾아보자
A big part of the skill of tuning a piano, is to not only to tune the strings, but to tune them in such a way that they *stay in tune* - 'setting the strings'.
I will never understand how to recognize 7 or whatever beats/second, let alone 5 or 9... I can barely recognize beats.
It's simply a matter of practice.
@@Jack-hy1zq I can recognize beats now, but still don't see myself recognizing 5, 7, or 9 beats/second
@@FryChicken You don't count them, over a period of time you just get to know what they should sound like.
@@chriswalden6519 And that can achieve sufficient accuracy?
"Лапша" на уши...
Can anyone please tell me that I am crazy.... but actually I don't like the way the grand sounds after tuning....Am I the only one that thinks so..?
Not to discredit the tuner's competences but just to get a notion as to whether or not I am the only one that finds this...
Obscure temperament he probably isn't even doing right in the first place. There isn't much to be gleaned from this video. Hypothetically, if you were bad at tuning, you could just claim it is some obscure temperament most people don't know as a cover.
It's a Boston piano! So obviously it sounds bad.
I would be laying my tools on a cloth, not just tossing then around on interior parts.
Очень артистично...
Но с ушами всё плохо..
Finally someone who can tune by ear! Mostly they only tune with digital gadgets. Then they struggle for days and the result is a big pile of shit. Then when you tell them, they get offended. I also have a tuner, but I only use it for the A440.
Can't you hear that this aurally tuned piano doesn't sound as good as it can be? No ear can beat the accuracy of an electronic tuning device.
@@theo5030 It is true that there is more to tune, but you cannot tune the piano properly with a digital tuner. The pitch rises slightly steeper than the logarithmic scale, and each instrument is unique. And hearing demands this. If someone can't tune, even if they use a tuner, the result won't be good either. It's like when someone can't cook and does everything according to the cookbook. You can eat it, but it's not as delicious as what an experienced chef cooks.
@@zongihangi11 I've encountered pianos that don't sound optimal even after being tuned by ear. Conversely, I've also experienced perfectly tuned pianos that were tuned using Electronic Tuning Devices (ETDs).
@@theo5030You are wrong. In fact it is not possible to properly tune a piano with electronic devices.
Does the piano in this video sound good to you? You have to check your ears if you think it does.
In the last 15 years alone, over 1,000 RPT tuners have switched from aural tuning to ETD. Many of them are concert tuners.
Как настройщик и профессиональный музыкант,скажу откровенно:"звучит рояль фальшиво ,отвратительно,я бы не стал на нём играть ...
Quit 'having fun' and showing off, you wasted a lot of time and clearly didn't leave it in tune. Best to leave it to the experts.
I you just finished tuning my piano, I’d ask for my money back.
OP has a fantastic piano, expensive tuning fork and a hammer that might as well be gold plated. Meanwhile, I actually tuned a piano today with a $15 hammer and a couple of rubber wedges. It will need a touchup but it isn't my fault some people went out of their way to be noisy.
ерунда
Do not like. It does not sparkle.