The piano requires various forms of maintenance to produce its best sound. Maintenance is also important for the appearance of the piano. Steinway Model D A piano is a keyboard instrument, widely used in western music for solo performance, chamber music, and accompaniment, and also as a convenient aid to composing and rehearsal. ...

Tuning

Pianos that are prized by their owners are tuned regularly, roughly once every four to six months for domestic pianos, and always just before a performance in concert halls. This is done partly for esthetic reasons, and partly because the longer a piano is left out of tune, the more time and effort technician will need to restore it to correct pitch.

The effect of being out of tune depends on degree. When a piano is only slightly out of tune, it loses the glowing tonal quality characteristic of a freshly tuned piano, probably because strings slightly out of tune with one another have weaker sympathetic vibrations. Pianos that are more than slightly out of tune tend to be unpleasant to play and listen to, to an extent that varies with the ear of the listener.

Pianos go out of tune primarily because of changes in humidity. Tuning can be made more stable by installing special equipment to regulate humidity, inside or underneath the piano. There is no evidence that being out of tune actually harms the piano itself.

There are a growing number of musicians and composers who are tuning the piano in order to achieve different kinds of harmony not possible with equal temperament tuning (normally found on the piano). Examples of such persons are La Monte Young, Terry Riley, and Michael Harrison - to name a few. Their tunings create never before heard of combinations of intervals (some large and some "micro") that lend themselves to many beautiful and interesting new harmonies, scales, and textural effects not possible in equal temperament. Of course, these brands of tuning are limited by the internal structure of the instrument itself. One must be very careful because the soundboard or "plate" can only hold so much tension before it breaks.

Voicing

The felt hammers of the piano tend to harden over time. They also form grooves at the points of contact with the strings. Harder hammers produce a brighter tone quality, which may ultimately become harsh and undesirable. Piano technicians can soften hammers using special tools called voicing needles. They also sometimes use special hardening agents when the hammers are too soft. In either case, an important goal is uniform tone quality across the piano, since the hammers are not used with equal frequency and therefore tend to wear unevenly. How much and how forcefully the piano is played is a factor in how often a piano is voiced.

Regulation

Over time, the action of a piano tends to alter in its function due to the compression of felt, and a skilled technician can restore it to its original level of precision, in a process called regulation. Indeed, many pianos are not perfectly regulated when released from the factory, and benefit from regulation in the store or in the home. The goal is to even the touch of the piano from note to note and to make it possible to play very softly.

Appearance

Pianos are fine furniture, and in this role they benefit from cleaning and polishing, done carefully to avoid introduction of any fluids into the piano's interior. For many piano finishes, dust removal is better done with a feather duster than a cloth, which minimizes the abrasive effect of the dust. Consult your piano technician for recommendations of cleaning and polishing products suitable for your piano.

Restoration

Pianos have a limited lifetime, usually measured in decades. However, in some decrepit pianos the frame and often at least some of the action parts remain in good condition, and piano rebuilders are able to restore an instrument by replacing a large fraction of its parts. These include the strings, pinblock, bridges, soundboard and ribs, hammers, and many parts of the action. Restoration is generally worth doing only if the original piano was of high quality. But sometimes a family heirloom will get a new lease on life by a competent rebuilder.