How Often Should a Piano Be Tuned?

Most pianos need tuning twice a year — once as the seasons turn from dry to humid, and once as they turn back. That’s the standard interval piano makers and technicians have used for over a century, and it holds for the large majority of home pianos, whether they’re played daily or barely touched.

Why twice a year, and not “when it sounds off”

A piano’s soundboard is wood, and wood moves with humidity. As it swells and shrinks across the seasons, the tension on all 200+ strings shifts unevenly — some notes drift more than others. By the time a piano sounds obviously out of tune to an untrained ear, it’s usually been drifting for months. Tuning on a schedule, rather than waiting for that point, keeps the drift small enough that each tuning is a quick correction instead of a fight to drag the pitch back into place.

When the interval should change

• New or newly-moved pianos: a piano that’s just arrived, or just had a major string or action job done, needs a follow-up tuning sooner — often within a few weeks — while the new strings finish settling.
• Heavy use: practice-room pianos, church pianos played several times a week, or a home piano used for serious daily practice can benefit from three to four tunings a year.
• Unstable climate control: a piano in a room with a window unit, a wood stove, or no climate control at all will drift faster than one in a steady, whole-house HVAC environment.
• Performance prep: if a recital, audition, or recording session is coming up, a tuning in the days beforehand — separate from the regular schedule — is worth it.

What happens if it goes longer

Pianos that go a year or more between tunings don’t just sound worse — they can need a pitch raise first: a preparatory pass to bring the whole instrument back up to standard pitch before the fine tuning that makes it sound right. That’s an extra step (and cost) that a twice-a-year schedule usually avoids entirely.

What a visit actually includes

A standard tuning visit is about listening and small adjustments string by string — no disassembly, no chemicals, nothing that requires the piano to be out of use for more than the appointment itself. If something else turns up during the visit — a sticking key, a buzz, a hammer that needs voicing — that gets flagged and quoted separately, not folded silently into the tuning.