It can vary, but most pianos should be tuned once every 6-12 months. Pianos that are played very frequently or sit in a room with unstable conditions (humidity, temperature) may need to be tuned once a season/once every three months. Pianos that are used for professional purposes – or pianos in colleges – are usually tuned even more often than that, sometimes on a monthly or weekly basis.

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The longer you wait between each tuning, the more difficult it will be for your piano to stay in tune. Your piano will try to “settle” back to its previous string tension each time. If you wait several years and let your piano go flat, it will naturally go out of tune faster. But if you tune your piano at least once a year, it is more likely to stay in tune on its own.

Tuning your piano is also about more than keeping the notes in tune; it is a preventative measure against potential issues. Having a professional piano tech regularly looking at your piano can help fix small issues along the way before they develop into bigger, much more expensive problems.

Time and humidity, for the most part! Increases in humidity stretch the wood and make the notes go sharp, decreases in humidity shrink the wood and make the notes go flat. These changes are usually very small, so it takes a while to see a significant change in pitch. Additionally, over long periods of time, pianos usually go flat because the strings are becoming more stretched out.

Unusual activity, such as moving, can also cause a piano to go slightly out of tune.

There is always a small risk that a string may break. More often than not this will not happen, but there’s always a chance. If a string breaks, it’s up to you whether or not to replace it.