Piano Tuning: A Simple and Accurate Method for Amateurs (Dover Books On Music: Piano)

The author has lots of personal embellishment in this book, but it is very good for explaining the process of tuning a piano. In addition, it introduces what the author calls the "perfect" plan or process in his discussion of temperament. I agree with his assessment. However, I also use the Korg OT-120 Tuner and have adapted his process accordingly. I couldn't have come up with my own technique without studying the book. However, it's not a casual read. But, then again, it's free under Amazon Prime.

This is a great place to start if you are considering tuning your own piano. This provides a good foundation, including attitude, piano repairs,piano parts drawings, music theory, etc. Its written many years ago. I'd couple this purchase with the following however: If you have an IPhoneor even a computer, get the IPhone app: APTuner for about $5.00. You won't need an expensive $40 meter like I purchased if you do that.I got my tool kit on amazon ...the #1 Rated Piano Tuning Kit by Miriam Song for about $35. Its "Good Enough" for the non-professional. The two things you need the most are the big handle to adjust the strings, and the little rubber sound dampers when you work on the strings that come in bunches. The other thing I recommend is to watch several videos on You Tube describing how to tune your own piano. From watching a number of these, it takes away the jitters and you just plunge in. Learning to figure out which string to attach your device to, and how to adjust the tone up or down to find the perfect match of "Zero" on Octove C3 is quite the challenge...but once you get the hang of it, the rest of the job is fairlyeasy, if you are patient and willing to put in the time. Good luck and know that you'll appreciate your well tuned instrument much more after you've learned to keep it in tune yourself. A one time investment in tools and training will more than pay off with musical pleasure down the road.Be intrepid. It isn't brain surgery!

This is a good book that gives basics for piano tuning, the diagrams are clear and simple to understand, but if you really want to get into the mechanisms I suggest leaving it to the pros!

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This probably was a good book in 1907, but too much has changed for it to be valuable now. The author's repeated references to square pianos, "international" vs. "concert" tuning frequencies, and tuning to C-517.3 are comically antiquated.I appreciate a mathematical approach to tuning, but the discussions in chapters 8-14 are a clumsy attempt to explain concepts that someone with a decent mathematics and music background can easily calculate -- that the ratio between adjacent notes is the 12th root of 2; and that chord, interval, and beat relationships can be derived from that ratio. A modern calculator makes much of this book completely pointless.The author's math sequences are cumbersome, and his conclusions are sometimes wrong. His beat frequency calculations are not always correct. The beat frequency of his C-128 to G-191.78 combination should be .44 Hz., not .66 as he calculates. A simpler and more correct way to calculate the beat frequency of a 5th interval is to subtract the 2nd harmonic (2 X 191.78) of the higher string from the 3rd harmonic of the lower (3 X 128).The discussion on where/how to place mutes is helpful, as are the points about taking proper steps to ensure the validity of piano hardware before tuning. Also, the method of setting temperament by 5th and octave steps is useful.In summary, if you have enough math and music experience to see through the dated material, the cumbersome derivations, and the false conclusions, this book gives a few helpful tips. I would not recommend it to most tuning amateurs, however.

Book is in a good condition. In the review was says like it’s easy to fix and tune the piano when you read a book. But it’s not. To do so it has to be more pictures with diagrams and explanation how to do it. Book do not meet my expectation. I do not recommend it to amateurs.

I was fortunate to be given a free piano! And, fortune smiled upon me again when I found this (FREE) book on Amazon! I also borrowed several piano tuning books from the library, and found the information on piano tuning consistent from writer to writer or master tuner to master tuner. I have yet to commit to tuning the piano myself, but it has added to my knowledge on this subject matter, and a new found appreciation for the master tuner. Thank you J. Cree Fischer and Amazon.

Read the book. For more advanced tuner wannabes; has a lot of theory. I eventually downloaded a free app on my ipad and used it to calculate the tuning solution. But this book will help instruct you how to make the adjustments to actually physically tune your piano.

Mi aspettavo di più. Un testo semplice (in inglese, ovviamente)e con poche indicazioni operative. Pochissimi schemi e quasi nessuna immagine. Non lo ricomprerei.

There aren't many books on piano tuning about. This one was written in 1907 but the edition I purchased was printed in 1975 and the publisher had removed some of the truly out-of-date chapters such as fees, setting up a business etc., and what remains is largely relevant today, although it has been a while since I saw a Square piano or played with old-type High Pitch instruments. I have been tuning my own piano off and on for some years now and this book will certainly help me refine my hit-and-miss technique. The sections on basic repairs are also potentially useful. However, one DOES need a certain amount of musical knowledge and of course a good ear - despite the sub-title, the method is not quite as simple as most maintenance tasks in this computerised age - but for a reasonably competent musician, amateur or pro, and for those of us who still love the traditional instrument technology, this book is a very useful instructor.

La théorie y est clairement expliquée, mais les croquis pourraient être rajeunis. Si vous souhaitez accorder votre piano, et que vous êtes novice, peut-être qu'un appareil électronique serait plus simple.

Piano tuning is a dying art and, as others who wish to learn it have by now realised, it is not easy to find a good tuner's book. This book is a copy of an older book and, although it will help, is not a good copy. Illustrations and diagrams are not included but rather a bracketed title, [Illustration] followed by the key to the illustration or photo which was not provided. The piano is a complex mechanism and any handbook should have a visual guide in my opinion. The fact that these highly desirable illustrations and/or photos were left out, means that I can only give two stars to represent better than no book at all.

I found this book really useful when I wanted to tune my own piano and to understand how to go about it. I formerly had little music knowledge and found the book useful in understanding the piano tuning process which has not dated except in a few details. The book was written over a hundred years ago and in addition to giving a thorough grounding in tuning principles it also gives an account of some of the maintenance and repair problems arising with domestic pianos of that era and the issues raised in a professional tuners life at that time. These aspects of the book were particularly interesting to me as my own piano is now a hundred years old and so is from the era that the author was working on pianos. The expressions and language used in the United States of that time is of course recorded in the text and the mildly archaic nature of the prose adds a quite interesting and historical colour to the book.