There are lots of different opinions on how often a piano should be tuned. There are however some key factors to consider:
Often enough that you don't hear it is out of tune: every 6 months
Hearing that your piano is out of tune can ruin your playing experience and stop you from enjoying your instrument. The optimal time to tune your piano is before you as a customer and pianist can hear that it is out of tune. All being well a piano should hold it's tune for 6 months before noticeably slipping.
Your local piano tuner will tune your piano and be able to hear the finite differences and tweak them back in to place, but you will be none the wiser. This ensures you continue to enjoy your playing experience.
Every 6-12 months for piano maintenance
As we have discussed before it can be bad for the health and maintenance of your piano not to get it tuned regularly. Problems will not be caught early, wear and tear may become excessive and structural issues could arise. It is generally recommended to tune your piano ever 6-12 months to ensure the optimal health for your piano.
Once 3 and then 6 months after it has moved location
Moving a piano from one location to another can really jolt it around. Even with the best piano movers a certain amount of movement in the tuning is to be expected. The environment in which your piano has moved to will not be identical to the one that it has left. Minute changes will be noticeable such as temperature, humidity and drafts and your piano will feel these and take time to settle in much as you will!
We recommend getting your piano tuned once within 3 months of moving your piano and then again within 6 months. Your local piano tuner should be able to maintain tuning stability on a regular schedule after this although your piano will not truly be settled for up to a year.
Three or four times the first year after it has been restrung
Pianos which have been restrung can be notorious for going out of tune if not maintained properly during the first year. During the restringing process a competent piano restorer will evenly stretch the strings and give multiple 'chip up' and piano tunings to help stabilise the strings before it is returned to you.
Usually your piano will be deliberately returned to you above the standard pitch (A=440Hz) by between 2-5Hz so that as the strings settle and the piano becomes comfortable in it's new environment, the pitch naturally 'drops' to approximately concert pitch (also known as standard pitch).
It is important to tune your piano more frequently in the first year after restringing to help it settle in to it's new environment and drop to the correct pitch evenly. Your local piano tuner will be able to advise you on this but we expect three or four piano tunings in the first year to be adequate depending on the quality of restringing and maintenance of the piano thereafter.
Regularly enough that your children aren't asking for the piano to be tuned
If your children have noticed the piano has gone out of tune, you have probably left it a little late. It is unlikely to damage your piano at this point however the enjoyment of your children playing the piano and therefore learning will decrease dramatically as this worsens. Children can be very resilient but can also be susceptible to finding changes difficult and not being able to ignore them in the same way that adults do.
To make sure your children continue to enjoy their piano lessons and practice sessions, ensure your piano is tuned regularly, probably once every 6 months.
We hope this post on How Often Should I Tune My Piano has helped in understanding some of the things to consider when having your piano tuned.

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