The Basics, Placement
There are two “nevers” for piano placement:
1. Never place the piano in direct sunlight. This means checking if the sun will be shining on the piano during any portion of the day.
2. Never place the piano in direct heat. If a heat register will be blowing on it (or for that matter, an A/C vent), either move the piano, close the vent, or purchase a deflector to redirect the heat away from the piano.
Finish Care
The most important suggestion I can make is to keep all drinks off the piano; they can not only mar the finish but, if spilled, can leak inside doing much more damage.
When you dust, try to dust in the direction of the grain on wood-finished pianos. Dust can be abrasive, which is why dry dusting is not recommended unless using a special duster, Swiffer, or any of the electrostatic dusting materials that pick up dust instead of pushing it around.
The two types of piano finishes found today—lacquer on older pianos and polyester/polyurethane on newer ones—may also be wiped down with a clean, slightly damp cloth. Spray-type polishes are not recommended. Cory makes piano-specific polishes for the differing finishes, which I offer, along with their key cleaning liquid.
Tuning - How Often?
Most manufacturers recommend tuning a new piano 3 to 4 times the first year and twice a year after that.
I find in my experience I have some customers that tune their pianos more often than twice a year and others that once a year works for them just fine. The large seasonal changes are most noticeable after the onset of heating season in the fall and after the end of heating season in the late spring/early summer.
General Rules of Care
Keep the piano tuned and try not to overfill the bench (the bottoms break out easily). Wipe off the keys periodically with a damp cloth.
Play the piano regularly, a played piano is a happy piano!
Do not try to make repairs yourself. I carry a supply of parts, specialty tools, which I paid for years ago, and the correct glues. Frequently I have found it is more expensive to re-repair a do-it-yourselfer’s good intentions than for me to just repair it in the first place.
Humidity Control Systems and Your Piano
Much of your piano is wood, which changes size and shape as the humidity in the room rises and falls. When the humidity increases, wood swells; and when it decreases, the wood shrinks.
When the wood in your piano swells or shrinks, the tuning changes as the string tension goes up and down. That is why pianos tend to be sharp in the summer and flat in the winter.
Note the string travel at its high point: the bridge (gray/black zigzag on maple), which is glued to the spruce soundboard that swells with humidity and shrinks back when it dries.
Humidity also affects other wooden parts of the piano, including the pinblock, soundboard, and bridges. Tuning pins are held tight by the wooden pinblock. If a pinblock dries out too much, the piano will not stay in tune because the tuning pins can’t resist the string tension.
Your piano’s soundboard and bridges, which can crack if they get too dry, are critical for good tone and volume. They can be repaired, but avoiding the problem is a better solution.
You can keep track of your piano’s humidity with a hygrometer (humidity meter). Both pianos and humans are at their best when the humidity is between 40% and 50%, so you will both benefit.
For long-term humidity control, you might consider installing a Dampp-Chaser system to automatically monitor and control the humidity inside your piano. Call or email for more information.