I have tuned pianos by ear ever since I was trained at The University of Ontario’s Piano Technology program seven years ago. I’d never had interest in electronic tuning aids. The last year though, I was noticing that my pitch raises weren’t sticking as well as I would have liked them too. A pitch raise is required if a piano is a certain amount off of the standard tuning pitch of A = 440 HZ which is concert pitch. If a piano overall is below pitch a considerable amount, then a piano needs a preliminary tuning (pitch raise). The problem with a pitch raise is that the tuner needs to compensate for the fact that by the time he is done the pitch adjustment, the piano will have gone flat. So I would tune it sharp, the best I could by guessing, hoping the pitch would end up where I needed it to end up. It was haphazard and terribly inconsistant. Some times the piano would need a second pitch raise at my expense.

Earlier this year, I happened upon a piano tuning application for the iphone. It was one that has been around a long time for certain pocket PC’s and such. This tuning application by Tunelab has a very sophisticated pitch raise software included in it. The software calculates the amount the tuner needs to tune the piano sharp for it to remain at pitch when he is finished. It takes the guess work  out of the whole pitch raise scenario. The final tuning is done after the pitch raise and checked by ear. I have to say, I have been a far happier person since implementing this pitch raise app in my practice.