Are my piano keys made of ivory?

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For the most part telling if your keys are ivory or plastic is simple. These below are ivory. Notice how there is a seam between the wide part of the key and the narrow part that goes between the sharps. This two piece design was done to keep from wasting precious ivory.

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These below are plastic. They are one piece. The newest molded keytops have the front of the key molded into the same piece as the top. Plastics have come a long way and almost all new pianos have plastic keytops.

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Exception to the rule. These below are from a Hamburg Steinway which is expensive enough to have one piece ivory keytops. Notice the grain in the keytop, which is not usually present in plastic keytops. There are some plastics which have a fake grain but it is usually very straight and regular.

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Chances are if your piano is older than the 1930s, it had ivory keytops, after that are plastic or celluloid. They keytop are just a thin wafer on top of a wooden key, so they can be replaced.

Cleaning the soundboard

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Have you wondered how you clean dust and dirt out from under the strings? There is no vacuum that will pull the dirt up through the strings. It is best to have me do this cleaning but I will show you the process. The important tool is a long strip of steel to push a rag under the strings.IMG_7604(3)IMG_7604(2)

The soundboard steel works the cloth under the strings and pushes it over to the long side of the piano where it can be pulled out and cleaned.IMG_7604(1)IMG_7604(4)

A paintbrush makes a great tool to remove dirt from between the tuning pins and around the hitch pins. Keep a vacuum close as you use the brush. IMG_7604

Here is the cleaned out soundboard.

New Online Booking System

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I have a new way for you to set up an appointment. Just click the Booking Appointment link in the main menu and you will see instructions. Just fill out the form there. Then I send you an email with a customized link to the schedule. It only takes a minute and eliminates phone tag!

Piano House in China

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Found this picture of a building in China.

The Piano House, Located in Huainan City, China, A Hui Provence

The building was built for music lovers and acts as a Performance and Practicing place for Music students from the local College in Huainan City

Piano Strings

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There are somewhere around 230 strings in a piano. They range from a speaking length of only 2″ to 7 feet or more. In the low bass there is only one string per note. Then in the upper bass, 2 strings per note. In the middle and treble there are 3 strings per note. This is to balance out the loudness of each area. The upper strings are plain steel wire. Although they all look alike, there are many sizes of plain wire that are only .001 inch different. In the bass section, the strings have copper windings around them to make them heavier so they will vibrate more slowly. The lowest notes can have 2 layers of copper to make them large without making them too stiff.

Tuning a piano involves adjusting every string. I first get one of the strings in the right relation to notes around it, and then tune the unison to match the other two strings to the one already tuned.

Piano wire is probably the strongest material in your house. It is very difficult to make it hard and strong enough without it becoming brittle and breaking easily.

Repairing a broken string

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Strings on a piano break sometimes just as they do on other string instruments. One repair that can be done is to splice the string back together with a tuners knot. This is often a better repair than replacing the string because it can be done immediately. Bass strings have to be made to order for each piano so that takes time. Also a spliced string settles back down to tuning stability quicker than a new string does.

I know it seems strange to picture tying a knot in piano wire but this can be done and creates a good repair.