Joan's Piano Tuning and Lessons

01/08/2024

Hello folks! I'm Joan, the expert Piano Tuner. I've been tuning pianos for 40 years (and I still have perfect pitch)!
I travel throughout Suffolk and Nassau and just a bit of eastern Queens. I can figure out most any sticky key problem within seconds and am kind to your wallet.
I'm almost always on time and you will get top notch service, reliability and courtesy. I'll even pet your dog and show your kids how the insides work (as long as they don't bite).
I'll be putting some more articles on all things Piano, but for now, welcome to Joan's Piano Tuning and Lessons. I hope you enjoy your stay!
Here's how to reach me - 516-223-4676

12/30/2023

11/30/2017

Hi fine Piano People. I was about to write another article containing useful information about Pianos or Piano Tuning or Learning Piano but then I took my hands off the keyboard, stared at the ceiling and I asked myself, “Isn’t there already so much pertinent information in our stressed out brains? Isn’t it time to give our brains a rest?” So, here’s a piano tuning story from the archives of my memory…

I was called to tune a piano in lower Manhattan (sorry, I don’t tune in Manhattan anymore but if you contact me, I’ll try to find you someone). Anyway, I went to tune a piano in an apartment in lower Manhattan for a woman named Rivka or Rebecca or something like that. The apartment was cluttered, bathtub filled with newspapers, boxes everywhere. It was hard to even get to the piano. I put my tool box down and spoke a little with Rachel (Ruchel? Hanna?). I noticed most of the lid had been painted white (sloppily) but the rest of the piano was a wood finish. No biggie, lots of people start to refinish or paint their pianos and never finish (they don’t finish finishing :-)). When I opened the lid, I saw more than the typical evidence of life and death in a piano – moth larva, mouse droppings and my not so favorite roach eggs. While I was examining the piano, Rochelle was telling me about her animals - her precious birds. How she lost her precious birds. I was half listening because I was checking the bridges at the bottom of the piano for cracks.

Finally, since it seemed this was of great importance to my customer (and since I really care more about people than pianos…don’t hate me for that), I asked what kind of birds she had. She told me Doves. I closed up the piano and asked her for a rag to see if I could rub off some of the paint on the lid but there was no way. It wasn’t coming off.

I was deliberating if this pushed the limit for sanitary working conditions while Rina was almost wailing about her birds. I asked her how many doves she had and why were they gone? She told me that the health department took them away from her. Judging by the cluttered house and f***l matter in the piano, I could kind of understand why.

“How many birds did you have? “ I asked. “Sixty four!” she answered. Then it hit me. What’s white, looks like paint and is really hard to scrape off your windshield? If you haven’t gotten it yet, I had been trying to rid the piano lid of the p**p of sixty-four birds.

The best part of my job is meeting people in their own homes, when they’re at their best and most authentic. Sometimes though, it can be creepy, disgusting or sad (or all of the above).

12/15/2014

Joan's Piano Tuning and Lessons 516-223-4676
Top 8 most asked questions about Piano Tuning

1) What is Piano Tuning?
Inside the piano there are metal strings, that are struck by white, felted mallets called ‘Hammers‘ which create the sound you hear when a key is depressed. If a string is too loose, it is considered ‘Out of Tune’ and the tuner will put a wrench on the tuning pin to tighten the string. If the string is too tight, the tuner will loosen it.
Keys that stick, rattle, buzz or click are in need of repair and are not fixed during piano tuning, though many tuners are also able to fix these problems.

2) Why do I Need to Tune the Piano?
Musical Instruments are tuned to a standard pitch called A440. This means that an A on the piano, at a frequency of 440 vibrations per second, will match an A on a violin or a flute. If a contestant on American Idol sings out of tune, the judges will tell them they’re “Too pitchy!” and the singer might be cruelly tossed off the stage. If your piano is too ‘Pitchy‘, you may hear an unclear, wobbly vibration or a song might not sound the way it should.
Most musicians tune their own instruments every time they play. Unfortunately, if you tuned your piano every time you sat down to play, you might have to sell your house, cars and the college educations of your children to pay for all that tuning…which leads me to the next answer…

3) How Often Should I Tune the Piano?
Taking into consideration that some pianos go out of tune faster than others, here is my recommendation:
A) If the piano is being played by one person between 1 - 4 hours a week - The piano should be tuned every 6 months.
B) If the piano is being played by more than one person, (or more than a total of 4 hours a week), you may want to ask your tuner the next time she comes whether the piano seems overdue. If so, she may suggest tuning it every 3 months.
C) If the piano is only played once a year at Thanksgiving, Chanukah, Christmas, Ramadan, Diwali, Kwanza… you may want to have the piano tuned just once a year. If you choose this option, it is best if you pick the same time every year. This way, the piano will go through all the humidity changes of the seasons and the tuner will have to do the minimal amount of tuning. Speaking of humidity changes…

4) How Can I Keep the Piano Tuning Stable?
Here are a few ways to help keep the piano tuning stable:
a) Never play it - I don’t recommend this option but a heavily played piano will go out of tune a little sooner than a piano that’s not played at all.
b) Keep it away from:
- Baseboard heating
- An active fireplace
- A damp basement
- Long Island in general (especially the South and North Shores)
Humidity changes can actually wreck your piano, causing the wood to shrink and swell and the metal to rust. If you must keep the piano in a bad spot, you can help control the humidity with a room humidity system or you can…
c) Install a piano climate control system. These are made specifically for pianos and installed by an experienced tuner/technician inside an upright or under a grand. You can buy either just a dehumidifier (I suggest these for most pianos on the Island) or the whole dehumidifier/humidifier system if you‘ve also got dryness issues in winter.

5) Should I Tell my Kids/Grandkids not to Bang?
Unfortunately, a piano that goes out of tune or breaks from being banged on already has underlying problems so the answer is, no, let those kids bang away. You’ll have to come up with another reason to stop the noise… “Playing loudly causes hair to grow out of your ears,” “Bang and I’ll take away your DS…”

6) What’s Going to Happen if I Don’t Tune the Piano?
- Many tuners would have you believe that horrible things will happen to your piano if you don’t tune it but in most cases, the piano will not suffer much - it’s your wallet that will. If you decide to tune the piano after years of neglect you will probably have to shell out a few hundred to get it back into tune. This is called a “Pitch Raise,” which entails tuning the piano 2 or 3 times to get it back to the correct pitch.
- It is also more likely that a string or two may break during a long, overdue tuning, costing you anywhere from $40 - $150 bucks. Any new string will take time to become stable - usually about a year.
- Your children may be scarred for life! Well, if they play on an out of tune piano, they may have a hard time learning what ‘In tune’ means.
- You may be embarrassed when a talented friend or relative comes over, and blurts out, “When is the last time you tuned this horrid piano??”
- It can’t be played with another instrument. If the piano’s ‘A’ is not quite an ‘A‘, an accompaniment with a flute or violin may sound more like a bad car alarm.
- Wads of dust may accumulate. Most tuners will dust the piano during the tuning at no charge, which brings us to…

7) How do I Clean my Piano?
The Exterior - If you have a Polyester (shiny shiny) finish - Use a soft, dry rag and press hard to rub out fingerprints. For dust, you can dampen the rag just slightly. Of course, the dust will come right back and I haven’t really found anything that will stop that. You just have to know that it’s obvious to you but not obvious to guests, who usually gush over this impressive finish. If you have a Wood finish - I recommend Murphy’s Oil Soap, lemon oil or even Olive oil (though this may make your piano smell a like an Italian restaurant).
The Interior - Please don’t remove the wedding/Bar Mitzvah pics to open up your upright to clean it. Most tuners will be happy to do that when they tune the piano.
The Soundboard of a grand - That’s the wood you can’t reach under the strings on a grand piano. There’s no easy way to clean it and it’s best left to a careful tuner, who will try her best not to scratch the very sensitive wood (because she’s made that mistake once and learned her lesson very, very well)!
The Keys - Key tops, whether ivory or plastic can be cleaned with a slightly damp rag. If there are stubborn black or gray areas, you can dab the rag with a little bar soap, but not too much! Piano keys are made out of wood and you don’t want to get the wood wet. Yellowing is the result of aging and can only be whitened by having the keys removed and bleached or replaced, which can cost you a few hundred or a few thousand - depending on whether the keys are plastic or ivory.

8) How do I Get my Kid to Practice?
Hey, that‘s not my job but maybe if the piano is in tune, your kids may play it. Actually, the biggest motivator is when children see their parents playing!

12/09/2014

Top 10 Facts About Sticky Keys
or Getting Yourself Out of a Sticky Situation
by Joan Schwartz – Piano Tuner/Technician

1) What is a sticky key?
A sticky key can be described as any problem in the key, action (playing mechanism) or damper mechanism that causes the note to play improperly. This includes a note that doesn’t play at all, poor repetition, a mushy feeling when the key is depressed or a note retaining its sound long after the key has been released (unless you absentmindedly left your foot on the sustain pedal).

2) Why do pianos get sticky keys?
In my almost thirty years of experience tuning and repairing pianos, I would estimate there are about five hundred reasons. Here are some of the most common:
- The felt under the key needs compressing.
- The felt around the tiny joints connecting the wooden parts in the action is pressing against a tiny part called a Centerpin.
- Something is stuck between the parts - a paper clip, piece of gum, greeting card, pencil, coin, last month’s electric bill, a grilled cheese sandwich, birds…
- A sticky substance such as coffee, cola or Jack Daniels has been spilled into the piano.
- A hammer has cozied up too close to its neighbor.
- A naughty child who thought an open upright piano was a giant set of Tinker Toys pulled the hammers off their shanks (I’ve seen this more than once).
- The slim piece of wood on a grand piano closest to your tummy is warped or swollen and pressing up against the white keys.

3) Is there any way to prevent sticky keys? WARNING! This chapter is not for the squeamish and may make you wet under the collar.
Well, it all depends on what’s causing the problem. If children are constantly putting objects in the piano, you may want to get rid of your children.
That said, much of it is really about location, location, location (which really means humidity). As I mentioned in a prior article, excessive or deficient moisture is the bane of pianos everywhere. Pianos are made of wood. Humidity makes wood swell (you might see this in your tight front door in summer). Dryness makes wood shrink (got wooden floors? Ever notice the cracks seem to sometimes get wider in winter?) Pianos are made of metal. Moisture tarnishes and then rusts metal. Pianos have lots of felt. In humid weather, felt gets all fluffy and puffy. Humidity levels affect your soundboard, pin block, bridges, strings, keys, hammers, dampers…need I say more?
The best way to prevent sticky keys is to place your piano in a stable environment, which means not too close to a fireplace or a drafty window, not against baseboard heating, not in a basement and not on Long Island. I know. You’re thinking, “THIS CHICK IS CRAZY! I love Long Island!” If you don’t live too close to the water and you have central air going all year long, you shouldn’t have too much of a problem with humidity. Just don’t go on long vacations where you turn the system off. If you do live near the water and love the feel of a warm ocean breeze drifting through your house, you MUST consider installing a Dampp-chaser dehumidifier (No, I don’t work for the company. They’re just the only decent piano climate control manufacturer I know). If you must have your piano close to an active fireplace, you MUST consider installing a Dampp-Chaser humidifier system in your piano. These systems regulate the piano’s environment, re**rding potential damage, keeping your keys free and easy to gracefully rise and fall and your action parts non-arthritic. If your tuner doesn’t install humidity systems, there is a listing by state and town on the Dampp-chaser website. There’s also a little star next to the more experienced installers (ahem).

4) Should I tell my grandchildren/children/guest offspring not to bang?
As I also mentioned in a previous article, most damage done by the little ‘bangers’ is due to already weakened parts (you see…I really do love children). Evil toddlers and their toy trucks and spare change do way more damage than those merely exploring the piano’s dynamic potential.

5) Why does the key stop sticking 5 minutes before the tuner comes to fix it?
This is called Murphy’s Law and it ain’t so great for your tuner either. Fortunately, through our special kind of magic, good tuners can usually get the sticky little devil to stick or see what may be causing the problem. Most of the time, the reason why it stops sticking is because of changes in humidity (here she goes again with the lecture). If you called the tuner during a wet spell and the tuner arrived on a beautiful, sunny, dry day, your wood may have shrunken back to a better size. Did I mention that humidity is a huge cause of sticking keys?

6) My tuner fixed the stick and now it‘s sticking again!
Yes indeed. Call the tuner and have her/him come back. This time, make sure to tell the tuner/technician to check the rest of the keys. Unfortunately, if the tuner didn’t charge you for the repair to begin with, you may have to pay for the repair now. Fixing sticky keys is NOT part of piano tuning, though many of us may throw in a couple of free repairs since we’re already at your house. If the tuner already charged you for this specific repair, make sure you sit down and play the note over and over while the tuner’s there. Here’s another trick. Play the note repetitively while the sustain (right hand) pedal is depressed. If a key is sticking, it is more likely to be obvious when the pedal is depressed.

7) My new piano has sticky keys. Should I bring it back?
Dear colleague, do not panic. MANY pianos will have tight key bushings (in English, fluffy felt under the keys) when they’re new. I actually think it can be a good thing. New pianos with chubby bushings will have lots of felt to compress in the years to come. The sticking can be remedied by having your tuner remove the keys and compress the felts, using a key-easing pliers.
If the problem is not due to fluffy felt, the store will usually cover this repair, though sticky keys are not usually in a piano’s warranty.

8) Why do my keys stick more in the summer?
Humidity.

9) Joan, should I try to fix the problem myself?
Well, you can call your tuner and see if he can talk you through an easy fix (maybe a little key massaging) but glancing through the youtube-fix-it-yourself sticky key videos (they scared me), I would STRONGLY recommend you DON’T take apart your piano and try it.

10) Hey Joan, what‘s the most interesting thing you‘ve found in a piano?
I went to the home of my regular customer, Mrs. Morgenstern and opened the lid of her grand piano. I jumped back about two feet when I saw a large bluebird (dead) clinging to the strings. White spots dotted the soundboard. The housekeeper removed the carcass because I told Mrs. Morgenstern, “I don’t do dead birds.”
“Oh! My god! I have to apologize to my daughter,” Mrs. Morgenstern gasped, covering her cheeks with her hands. Turns out, she had left her 16 year old daughter alone for the first time and when she got back, found what looked like white paint drops all over the floor. Her daughter denied wrongdoing but was punished anyway. We figured out that the bird must’ve gotten in through the chimney, flown around for a while and took its last breath on top of the piano strings. And that it p**ped a lot!

12/05/2014

Expert Piano Tuning, Piano Repair, Estimates and Appraisals available throughout the island and Queens. Piano lessons available in Commack.

12/05/2014

How do I go About Buying a Piano?
- a piano buying tutorial by Joan Schwartz

1) Should I buy a piano or a keyboard?
Ask the teacher. When I first started tuning pianos thirty plus years ago, most piano teachers insisted that their students play on an acoustic (real) piano. These days, teachers may have to be keyboard-tolerant if they’d like to put bread on their tables. Some teachers are perfectly happy with keyboards and more and more teachers are using keyboards themselves.
- Cheap keyboards don’t have adequate pedals. If a keyboard even has a pedal, it does not work like a piano’s pedal. It’s usually some funky plastic thing that looks like a computer mouse. The more expensive keyboards do have working pedals.
- You want a keyboard that is touch-sensitive. This doesn’t mean that the keyboard cringes when you touch it. It means that when you strike the keys with force, they’ll play loudly and when you touch them gently, they’ll play softly. The piano was originally called the Pianoforte, meaning softloud, since unlike its predecessor, the harpsichord, the piano could be played dynamically.
- Pianos sound better. Unless you shell out quite a few bucks, most pianos will sound richer than most keyboards.
- Pianos are beautiful. Acoustic Pianos are not only lovely sounding instruments but they are crafted pieces of furniture that can be passed from generation to generation. They become part of your home and are attractive to visitors. The disadvantage of owning a real piano is that you have to tune it, sometimes repair it and ideally regulate it periodically.

2) Should I Buy a New Piano or a Used Piano?
Buy New: Most stores give new piano buyers a manufacturers warranty (usually for 5 - 10 years), covering the major parts of the piano. I’ve found that in most cases (Murphy‘s law), the warranty won’t be needed until the day after it expires. You will usually get a free or reduced price tuning and free or reduced price moving. A new piano has to be tuned more often at first until its strings are stable.
Buy Used (or the classier sounding, “Pre-Owned“): There are many great used pianos on sale for way less than they’re worth. Many people don’t realize the value of their piano and may sell it for about $500 even if the piano is really worth $1,000 to even $3,000. Many of these good old pianos last longer than the pianos made today and many were made in America, which is now a rarity.
More than likely, a used piano hasn’t been tuned for years and will need 2 or 3 tunings right away. You will also have to pay for moving, any repairs and possibly the cost of an appraisal by your tuner. Even with these expenses, you will pay a lot less for a used piano than for a new one.
If you’re buying a used piano, you MUST have a technician check the piano. Only a tuner/technician will know if the piano is untunable or just out of tune. A skilled tuner/tech will check the pinblock, the soundboard, the bridges, the action, the pedals and the case. A badly out of tune piano may not signal a big problem and a nicely tuned piano may actually have major problems. You can’t tell this by playing it, though you might like to have someone play it to evaluate the tone and touch.

3) Should we Rent a Piano or Buy a Piano?
Most piano stores will apply a portion of your rental payments toward the cost of the piano. If within that time, you don’t make up your mind and buy it, any further payments you make will be like throwing money away. In my experience, most people do buy the rental. As far as expenses, you will probably have to put down a security deposit and you may have to pay for moving and tuning. Your option is to buy an inexpensive used piano, which you can then sell if little Hannah decides that playing the piano isn’t her life’s calling.

4) If I’m Buying a Used Piano, Should I go to a Store or Find one Privately?
We piano teachers are usually wooed by at least one piano dealer who sends us coupons and sales fliers. If you are going to go the piano store route, you may want to ask your teacher whom she/he recommends. If you buy a used piano from a store, you usually get some kind of warranty and possibly reduced price moving and tuning.
If you look for a piano privately, you may pay as much as 3/4th less but you have no recourse once you take the piano home. That’s why I reiterate, IF YOU WANT TO BUY A PIANO PRIVATELY, YOU MUST HAVE A PIANO TECHNICIAN CHECK IT OUT! I’ve saddened too many nice people telling them their new used piano isn’t tunable.

5) Should We Buy a Grand or an Upright?
Here’s the general rule: The longer the strings, the louder the sound. Grand pianos are generally louder and usually have a heavier touch, which allows serious pianists more control over when and how a note sounds. Grand’s usually have fewer sticky keys but may take the technician longer to fix if they have to take apart the action. The upright category encompasses spinets, consoles, studios and uprights. Spinets are the smallest and most inferior as far as design. Uprights are the tallest and have a fuller sound and more responsive keys. An inexpensive spinet may be perfect for a beginner though serious players may need to eventually upgrade to a better model.
This may sound shallow but it’s important how you feel about this piece of furniture in your house. Is it going in your living room? If you buy a grand for your 6 year old and he stops playing after a year, will you kick yourself or enjoy your prized piece of furniture? Do you have room for a grand? If you buy an upright, do you have an inside wall without baseboard heating in which to place it?

6) Can You Tell Me Some Good Brands to Look For?
Pianos are made in China, Japan, Germany, Indonesia, Russia, Europe and rarely in America but you can’t tell the origin by the name. Many German-name pianos are actually made in Korea. Some Japanese brands are partially made in America. One Russian brand sounds Chinese. Oy oy oy! To straighten out the confusion, I recommend reading The Piano Book by Larry Fine, which you can buy or pick up at your local library. I agree with most of Larry’s opinions and he even goes into Steinway models. I find many German pianos to be exquisite but costly. Many old American pianos such as Sohmer and Baldwin have pinblocks that are so strong, they last almost 100 years. Did I say that you MUST have a technician check out the piano…?

7) Where Do We Put the Piano in Our Home?
I’m not a decorator but if it’s going in your living room, you might want to consider whether it matches the other woods in the room. If it’s in a busy area, it may get nicked and scratched, though a piano in plain sight may encourage students to play more.
Pianos are comfortable at humidity levels at which people are comfortable - between 35% and 55% relative humidity and ideally at about 45%. Here are some no-no’s:
- No active fireplace in the room with the piano (sorry, Santa)
- No baseboard heating close enough to make the piano feel warm to the touch
- Not against a window
- Not in an even remotely damp basement
- Not too close to the laundry room

I’m already feeling some hostile reader vibes for my comments about the fireplace and basement. Here’s what you can do to re**rd any deterioration (note the word re**rd as opposed to the word arrest). If you MUST put the piano in a damp place, you must install a dehumidifier in the piano. They cost about $200 and up - installation included. If you MUST put the piano in too dry a place, you MUST put a humidifier in the piano or control the humidity in the room with strong humidifiers, especially during any fireplace use. As I said in my last article, I recommend piano dehumidifiers (ask your tuner) for all pianos on Long Island in houses without steady central air control.

8) So, Joan, How do I Get Started?
a) Ask your neighbors and friends if they know anyone selling a piano or if buying new, ask your teacher or tuner if she/he has any coupons or favorite reputable stores.
b) Ask your tuner or teacher if they have any favorite brands.
c) You can search online websites such as Craigslist, Backpage and any other site that has classifieds or even try your local Pennysaver.
d) If you hate the hassle of visiting people’s homes, you can stop into a piano store.
f) If you’re looking for high end pianos, your best bet is to ask your tuner for recommendations.
g) To be well-informed, borrow or buy Larry Fine’s Piano Book.

11/12/2014

Joan's Piano Tuning and Lessons