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Aural piano tuning is the art of making adjustments to the tensions in the strings of a piano so that the instrument is in tune.
Introduction
The meaning of the term in tune in the context of piano tuning is not as straightforward as it might seem, as it does not refer to the assignment of particular fixed set of pitches as it may with other instruments. Fine piano tuning requires an assessment of the interaction between notes, which is different for every piano, thus in practice requiring slightly different pitches from any theoretical standard. Pianos are usually tuned to a modified version of the system called equal temperament (see Piano key frequencies for the theoretical piano tuning). In all systems of tuning, every pitch may be derived from its relationship to a chosen fixed pitch. In the case of piano tuning, A440 is the usual standard.
Piano tuning is distinct from repairs or other maintenance that may be carried out (e.g. regulation of the action). There are typically about 220 strings in a full-sized piano, which may have a combined tension of about 20 tonnes. Tuning involves making minute adjustments to the tensions of these strings, in order to properly align the intervals between their tones.
Temperament and beating
The relationship between two pitches, called an interval, is the ratio of their absolute frequencies. Two different intervals are perceived to be the same when the pairs of pitches involved share the same frequency ratio. The easiest intervals to tune are those that are just, which have a simple whole-number ratio. The term temperament refers to a tuning system which tempers the just perfect fifth (which has the ratio 3:2) in order to satisfy some other mathematical property; to temper a fifth, in this case, is to slightly narrow the interval by flattening its upper pitch slightly. (For a more rigorous explanation of various temperaments, see Equal temperament, Meantone temperament, and Well temperament). A system of temperament can also be known as a set of bearings, from early treatises on temperament which suggested a fifth could be flattened "as much as it can bear".
Tempering an interval produces a beating, which is a fluctuation of the intensity of sound heard when an interval is played. The rate of beating is determined by the difference of their absolute frequencies, and is heard clearly when two pitches are close enough together that this difference is small (less than 20Hz). Because the actual tone of a vibrating piano string is not just one pitch, but a complex of tones arranged in a harmonic series, two strings which are close to a simple harmonic ratio such as a perfect fifth will produce a beating at a higher pitch due to an interaction between their harmonic series. In the case of an interval that is close to a perfect fifth, the strongest beating will be heard at 3 times the fundamental frequency of the lower string (known to musicians as an octave plus a perfect fifth up), and 2 times the frequency of the higher string (an octave up). Where these frequencies can be calculated, a temperament may be tuned aurally by timing the beatings of tempered intervals.
One practical method of tuning the piano begins with tuning a set of strings in the middle range of the piano to a temperament octave. Once these strings are tuned, the tuner may proceed to tune all other pitches by comparing octave intervals against this temperament octave. This is convenient, because the octave is the most easy interval to tune (having the simplest ratio of 2:1) after the unison (1:1). (These octaves are tuned to have no beating.)
The following table lists the beat frequencies between notes in an equal temperament octave. The top row indicates absolute frequencies of the pitches; usually only A440 is determined aurally. Every other number indicates the beat rate between any two tones (which share the row and column with that number) in the temperament octave. Begin by tuning one note to the other so that the beating disappears, temper that interval in the appropriate direction (either making the interval wider or narrower, see further below) until the desired beat rate is achieved. Slower beat rates can be carefully timed with a metronome, or other such device. For the thirds in the temperament octave, it is difficult to tune so many beats per second, but after setting the temperament and duplicating it one octave below, all of these beat frequencies are present at half the indicated rate in this lower octave, which are excellent for verification that the temperament is correct. One of the easiest tests of equal temperament is to play a succession of major thirds, each one a semitone higher than the last. If equal temperament has been achieved, the beat rate of these thirds should increase evenly over the range of the piano.
| 261.626 | 277.183 | 293.665 | 311.127 | 329.628 | 349.228 | 369.994 | 391.995 | 415.305 | 440.000 | 466.164 | 493.883 | 523.251 |
| 0.00000 | 14.1185 | 20.7648 | 1.18243 | 1.77165 | 16.4810 | 23.7444 | C | |||||
| 13.3261 | 19.5994 | 1.11607 | 1.67221 | 15.5560 | 22.4117 | B | ||||||
| 12.5781 | 18.4993 | 1.05343 | 1.57836 | 14.6829 | 21.1538 | A♯ | ||||||
| 11.8722 | 17.4610 | .994304 | 1.48977 | 13.8588 | 19.9665 | A | ||||||
| 16.4810 | .938498 | 1.40616 | 13.0810 | 18.8459 | G♯ | |||||||
| .885824 | 1.32724 | 12.3468 | 17.7882 | G | Fundamental | |||||||
| 1.25274 | 11.6539 | 16.7898 | F♯ | Octave | ||||||||
| 1.18243 | 10.9998 | 15.8475 | F | Major sixth | ||||||||
| 10.3824 | 14.9580 | E | Minor sixth | |||||||||
| 14.1185 | D♯ | Perfect fifth | ||||||||||
| D | Perfect fourth | |||||||||||
| C♯ | Major third | |||||||||||
| C | Minor third | |||||||||||
This next table indicates the pitch at which the strongest beating should occur for useful intervals. As described above, when tuning a perfect fifth, for instance, the beating can be heard not at either of the fundamental pitches of the keys played, but rather an octave and fifth (perfect twelfth) above the lower of the two keys, which is the lowest pitch at which their harmonic series' overlap. Once the beating can be heard, the tuner must temper the interval either wide or narrow from a tuning that has no beatings.
| Interval | Approximate ratio | Beating above the lower pitch | Tempering |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unison | 1:1 | Unison | Exact |
| Octave | 2:1 | Octave | Exact |
| Major sixth | 5:3 | Two octaves and major third | Wide |
| Minor sixth | 8:5 | Three octaves | Narrow |
| Perfect fifth | 3:2 | Octave and fifth | Slightly narrow |
| Perfect fourth | 4:3 | Two octaves | Slightly wide |
| Major third | 5:4 | Two octaves and major third | Wide |
| Minor third | 6:5 | Two octaves and fifth | Narrow |
Stretched octaves
The tuning described by the above bearing plan will give a good approximation of equal temperament across the range of the temperament octave. If it were extended further, however, the actual tuning of the instrument would become increasingly inaccurate. This is due to a factor known as inharmonicity, which is present in different amounts on all piano strings. The harmonic series of strings does not fall exactly into whole-number multiples of a fundamental frequency, but rather each harmonic is slightly sharper than a whole-number ratio, and this sharpness increases as higher tones in the harmonic series are reached. This means that an aurally tuned octave will be slightly wider than the just 2:1 ratio assumed above, known as a stretched octave.This has the effect that, on a piano, the notes in the higher register will end up slightly sharper than those in the lower octave. This is less apparent on longer pianos which have thinner strings (string inharmonicity is directly related to thickness). Despite this deviation from the simpler ideal equal temperament, this is considered the correct way to tune a piano because it maintains interval identity across the piano, which generally improves the sound of music played on it.
There are other factors, physical and psychoacoustic that affect the tuner's ability to achieve a temperament. There are additional inharmonic effects due to soundboard resonance in the bass strings, and there are other effects such as poorly manufactured strings or peculiarities of resonance or bridge shape which can cause beatings in some notes that are unrelated to the tuning and that the piano tuner cannot correct.
- See also: Piano acoustics, and Stretched tuning.
References
- Jorgensen, Owen. Tuning. Michigan State University Press, 1991. ISBN 0-87013-290-3
External links
- Piano Technicians Guild - Information on piano tuning and becoming a Registered Piano Technician.
- Piano tuning, music, mathematics and philosophy
- Fundamentals of Piano Practice, Chapter Two: Tuning Your Piano
- How to tune a piano yourself
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