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I’m a doctor and treat patients with covid.

My piano was due for a tuning in March and the Rona delayed things. I hate when it’s just a bit out of tune and it is more than a bit so have only played digitally since then but I missed my acoustic.

My piano tuner guy is a bit old and I don’t want my potential home germs to kill him so I learned to tune my Yamaha C6 Grand with the help of the Cyber tuner app and YouTube. It actually sounds great! It’s definitely some technological magic! It only took 2 hours.

I watched hammer and pin technique so hopefully it wii be stable.

Never thought I’d shell out $1000 for an app and I’ll still have my tech come at least once per year (hopefully). But it should eventually pay for itself and knowing my piano can always be in tune is a nice bonus.

I glad for it's situation and your tuning now,
good lucks,

Wow, $1000??? I had no idea it was that much. What’s the name of the app?

Congratulations ! You solved your problem. lf do not we do not social distance we may all end up having to tune our own pianos.

AlphaTerminus
Thanks so very very much for the incredible job you do everyday to care for your patients. Prayers for the best for your patients and that you stay healthy.

We shall pray for ALL medician staffs now!

Yes thank you for caring ❤ so much and for your good work.
Perhaps we should say thank to all doctors and nurses everywhere , in all countries for their good work in saving lives in this tragic time.

It didn't occur to me that the actual name of the app was CyberTuner....

Anyway, if anyone is interested, here's the app:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/cybertuner/id490451741

Super interesting.... I won't be buying it any time soon, but it is interesting!

Congratulations on your tuning app and your piano tuning!

I tuned one of my pianos yesterday and thought I'd make a short video and post it on FB. I wouldn't dare post it here...

I used to enjoy tuning my pianos almost as much as I enjoyed learning to play them. But now, it is more of a chore and I'd rather just play. But there are advantages to being able to tune your own piano, a least to a level that makes you happy.

However, I went the cheap route and I use the TuneLabPro software, which serves my purposes fine. I think many of the pros use the Cyber Tuner.

Rick

Interesting. CyberTuner costs a little more than 7 tunings. Of course that doesn’t cover costs of tuning tools or training. If I wasn’t already retired and enjoying the freedom of a very empty schedule I might consider going to training courses and become a piano technician’s assistant. It’s very fascinating. But I think I’ll leave it to the experts with better hearing. Professional pianists typically have excellent hearing from years of training. When a customer with a new piano keeps having a problem with selected keys that the piano tuner can’t hear, it’s a worrisome situation and I really would just become exasperated. Of course if I were the tuner in question from the other thread, I’d probably recommend we call in an expert and bring a very sensitive tuning guide, instrument or app.

My thoughts as well, j&j.

Although I have tuned several pianos for others over the years, and for free, as favor or courtesy, I don't tune pianos for others, for money, and have no plans to do so. I have absolutely no desire to go into the biz of piano tuning for a fee, mostly for the reasons you mentioned.

My piano tunings are plenty adequate for my purposes, but if I spent two hours, or more, pounding away at the keys, not yielding any musical sound, but yet a lot of high decibel, ear damaging noise, (at least until you finish the tuning:-), and a potential customer wasn't satisfied with my tuning, I would be disappointed and upset, both for myself and the piano owner. Especially, if I knew beyond a doubt that the piano sounded 10 times better than when I started, and was reasonably in tune based on established standards.

Most people are not that hard to please, but some people will never be satisfied or pleased, despite how well the piano tuning may be. There is no way I would want to subject myself to that kind of emotional and psychological punishment.

On the other hand, (two sides to every scenario:-) I think some piano tuners think that if you don't like their tuning, there is something wrong with you and your ears, and not their tuning.

Being in any type of service industry can be difficult at times. I know, because I'm a tough customer myself, and have been in the service industry before.

"But it's all right now, I learned my lesson well. You see, ya can't please everyone, so ya got to please yourself": Ricky Nelson, Garden Party.

Rick

Glad you're happy with it. A lot of high level technicians use this app, in the field and the concert halls. I do rather like its display best of all the ones I've seen, but I opted for $600 Verituner (5 years ago) instead for my iPhone, and am not about to spend another $1,000 on a tuning app! It still needs to be verified by ear for best results.

Why not post your tuning procedure here as well Rick ?

Hey, thanks for your interest, Lady Bird!

However, an amature venturing in amongst the pros is like a hen venturing into the fox house.

Rick

Well if you post it here and not in the Technicians Forum you could inspire some if us in learning something about tuning. We shall chase all foxes away, well we shall try.
At least you know you are really appreciated here Rick !

Lady Bird, you are too kind! You are appreciated here too. In fact, I think the PW forums have livened up a bit since you have joined us! Your contributions here do indeed make PW a better place, in my view.

You are wise, and experienced, and very knowledgeable when it comes to pianos, and you are a trained classical pianist and a registered piano teacher with many years of experience, and wisdom. So, you yourself are a pro, but perhaps not a fox?

I posted that tuning video on my Facebook page, and not on my YouTube channel. My Youtube fans and subscribers like to hear fast boogie-woogie, oldies rock-n-roll tunes, old honky-tonk saloon piano tunes, and original songs/arrangements, and I like to give them what they want and like. I have almost 25,000 subscribers and try to keep them happy.

If I decide to post the tuning video on my YouTube channel (or Dropbox), I will certainly send you the link. I wouldn't want to horn in on or hijack AlphaTerminus' thread. (any more than I already have:-)

I will say, however, that tuning a piano is not at all easy, and most piano tuners earn their money. But I do enjoy the challenge, as well as the sound of a freshly tuned piano.

All the best!

Rick

The Shelter in Place orders got me to try Entropy Tuner and PianoMeter. I know they're not pro-grade tools, but they get the job done well enough for me. It's not going to put my regular tuner out of a job since he'll help me with my action and other things associated with a 90 year old instrument. The new strings and pinblock help out alot.

I had bought a cheaper tuning kit awhile back with the intention to attempt touch -ups between tunings, but was too chicken to try. I finally gathered up enough courage because of the lockdown, and now I touch up regularly. Our piano stays in pretty decent shape all of the time. I'm pretty conservative, so i watched youtube after youtube about tuning technique, and read all of the threads in the tuner-technician forums about Entropy tuner and PianoMeter. I'm certainly not an expert, but I'm really happy I tried because the results are good for me.

Jesus Christ that's a lot of money...

If you want to try Entropy Piano Tuner with my tweaked algorithm, email me the file and I'll calculate a tuning for you for free. I worked on it for a month straight and am pretty confident with the method it uses.

I was going to post a video of Chopin Ballade 4 done on my piano tuned with it but I got too perfectionist and keep scrapping recordings for single wrong notes -_- Personally I think it sounds pretty good.

Acoustic pianos are expensive complicated instruments and tuning them is no small task. I fully expect to be charged somewhere in the 130 to 150 USD for a tuning and any maintenance tweaks and additional money for longer tasks such as regulation and/or voicing. Also, I’d expect professional tuning apps and tools to cost good hard earned money because acoustic pianos are expensive instruments to make, buy, and maintain.

But, in my humble opinion, it’s sooooooooo worth it.

You aroused my curiosity.
Do you mean that you "fine tuned" (pun intended) the algorithm developed for Entropy Piano Tuner? In what way (naive and sincere question)?
I use Entropy Piano Tuner and find it easy to use as well as definitely good enough for me. Could you please expand on your algorithm?
Thank you.