Aural
Piano Tuning
The Art of Aural Tuning
While the practicality and efficiency of an electronic tuning device is tempting to many technicians, at The Artful Key we choose to embrace the beauty and timelessness of pure aural tuning, ensuring the absolute best sound for every piano.
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What makes aural tuning different?
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Aural tuning is done exclusively by ear, in a highly-accurate process that melds science and art.
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Aural tuning takes more time and training to do, but is rewarding at the end for technician and client.
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Aural tuning enables us to appreciate the traditions of the past on today's modern instruments.
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History
Aural tuning (or “tuning by ear”) has been around for centuries. In fact, many early keyboardists would be found tuning their own instruments in the way that sounded best to their own ears. The precursors to the piano, the harpsichords and pianofortes, had fewer strings and were designed with a lower tension on the frame so they were easier for most any musician to tune, but the piano tuning profession emerged as the piano introduced higher tensions, more strings, and greater complexity with the tuning process. Now, the average piano has about 230 strings on average with many thousands of pounds of tension, which enables the long sustain and greater projection that modern instruments enjoy.
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The Aural Tuning Process
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Setting Pitch The magic all starts with a single pitch reference – historically, a tuning fork. This gives the tuner a reference so the piano can be tuned at exactly the international standard pitch, which is 440Hz at the note A4 (the A above middle C). This pitch standard is what enables pianos to be played with each other as well as with other instruments and electronic recordings. It has been in use since the early 1900s.
Temperament After tuning the single string to the pitch reference, the next step is “tuning the temperament.” This involves setting the width of the intervals of the piano- the fifths, fourths, the thirds and many others so that they all sound smooth and consistent across the piano, with certain intervals getting progressively faster as they’re played up the piano. This gives the piano harmonious chords that all blend with each other, enabling pianists to play in any key and have it sound essentially the same.* For every interval tuned, there are aural checks that can be used to prove that a certain note is where it needs to be, considering the relationship to other notes.
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The temperament process is a main difference between aural tuning and tuning with a computer/electronic device. Fitting the ideal temperament to every piano takes time and skill to do, while when tuning electronically the temperament is automatically calculated for the tuner, saving both time and mental energy.
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Octaves and Fifths After completing the temperament, the tuner spreads the temperament throughout the rest of the seven-and-a-quarter octaves, usually by tuning octaves and/or fifths up and down the keyboard to be pure or almost pure. Octaves in the bass are tuned "wider," or more stretched, than in the treble, because the rich harmonic structure requires it. Aural checks can be used again to prove that notes are optimally in tune in relation to the neighbors, and consistency is of utmost importance here too so that the temperament remains true and the piano sounds ideal everywhere. When tuning electronically, the computer also automatically calculates this for the entire piano.
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Unisons The last step is just tuning the single strings previously tuned to the other two matching strings, or “tuning the unisons.” In the treble, there are three strings per note, tapering down to two in the tenor/bass and one in the lowest bass notes, and it’s crucial for the notes with multiple strings to have them exactly match the previously-tuned individual string. This is what gives the piano its clean tone when done well and enables the beautifully tuned temperament to come through.
*At least, that’s how we do it in the modern era of “Equal Temperament.” In Mozart’s time and before, they tuned slightly differently so that a C chord sounded more pure and a Gb chord was very dissonant. These “historical temperaments” are what gave the different key signatures different “colors” of sound to the attentive listener. Earlier than this, certain keys were unusable because of the amount of dissonance in them in order to make the common keys pure.