How to care for your piano

Marion Music Academy offers piano tuning, regulation, and repair services.
Call the Academy (377-3343) to schedule your appointment for your
piano maintenance.

Acoustic pianos are strongly preferred, but a full-sized (88 keys) electric keyboard may be substituted for beginning students. After approximately a year of lessons, arrangements should be made to buy an acoustic piano. The staff at Marion Music Academy can help you locate an appropriate instrument for your student if you would like them to. You do not need to buy a nine-foot concert grand piano for a first year beginner, but you do want to buy an instrument of good quality so the student has good equipment to learn on.

The best place for a piano is against an inside wall away from heating registers. This will help avoid temperature changes from any drafts. Also, plan to place the piano in a room with few distractions so your student will benefit from uninterrupted practice sessions.

TUNING: Regular tuning of your piano is important. It is best if your piano is tuned once in the fall and once in the spring. Pianos are made of wood, felt, and metal. The wood shrinks and expands from seasonal changes which changes the length of the strings and causes it to go out of tune. Why is it beneficial to be tuned? You want your piano to sound like the teacher's piano so the student's ear will be trained to hear what is right and learn faster. Imagine sending your child to a soccer game with flip-flops. Yes, they can still run in them, but the children with the proper shoes will perform better because their equipment is more appropriate and in good condition.

REGULATION: Pianos are like cars. They need maintenance and repairs. A regulation is like getting a good tune-up for your piano. After so many miles, your car needs new tires, new antifreeze, new transmission fluid, new spark plugs, new distributor cap, the belts checked, new brake pads, among other things to put your car back into optimal running condition so it will function more efficiently. After so many years of seasonal changes and use, the felt in the piano gets compressed, the wood can get distorted from the seasonal changes, and small parts occasionally get broken from use. A regulation will put your piano back into optimal playing condition and your student will be more satisfied with practicing because their piano functions properly. Imagine having your child practice soccer at home with a flat soccer ball. The ball will not function properly so the child quickly becomes discourages and no longer wants to practice at home. The child may love playing in soccer games but hates to practice at home. With properly maintained equipment, your child will succeed better and faster with less discouragement.