After many years of suggesting “wait 2-3 months” I now have a more comprehensive answer.

Music has a standard pitch (A440). It allows a pianist to play along with a guitarist, the radio, or Spotify. From the day the piano is manufactured, the strings are pulling against the pin holding them in place. This causes a minute unravelling of the string. The soundboard and bridge also sway with humidity stretching the strings. This unravelling, and stretching changes the speaking length of a string.

A shift in the speaking length of a string creates a variation in pitch. At first this shift in pitch is mild, and creates what some describe as a chorus effect. Now, if the strings remain close to each other, the sound is still pleasant, however, the further away they are from each other the more noticeable the difference.

When you notice unfavorable waiving between notes, it is time to tune your piano! (Or when the pitch starts to drop less than -5 cents from A440)

Yes, we do have a technician who restores player pianos, and can help tune yours!

Piano wire is held at a certain pitch by a pin. In some cases, the tuning pins can go loose on a piano. The block of wood beneath the 200+ tuning pins can crack, usually in a line across multiple pins, making them untunable. The repair is very extensive, requiring removing the action, strings, all the pins, the plate, etc. And costs thousands of dollars. Without this repair, the tuning simply will not last more than a day, or sometimes, minutes.

With years of experience, at the start of my career, I learnt to tune purely by ear for the first few years. It was good ear training, and helped me associate pitch without the comfort of needles on screens measuring for me. However, I not use apps to support my ear. If you rely on needles you can sometimes miss the harmonicity of the whole piano. But if you don’t have one, I’ve noticed tunings can have incorrect stretches, as the reference notes change.