1) Become familiar with the piano keyboard and musical intervals
- Learn the names of the notes
- Learn the names and sizes of the basic intervals
- Be able to find any interval, upward or downward, from any key on the piano.
Resources
2) Learn the basics about sound
- What do the words frequency, cents, and beats mean?
- Where do beats come from?
- Learn to hear beats between two strings (unisons and octaves)
Resources
3) Tuning technique
- Choosing a tuning hammer
- Pros and cons of various designs
- The mechanics of the tuning pin and wire
- Twist of the top of the pin ahead of the bottom of the pin turning in the pin block.
- Lean of the pin at right angle to the tuning lever.
- Friction of the wire against bearing points.
- How to accommodate tuning hammer techniques to account for these factors
- Successfully making small and stable changes of pitch
- ETD types and their characteristics
Resources
4) Tuning ergonomics
- Body posture
- Adapt to various types and sizes of piano
- Tuning hammer technique
- Adapt to various piano designs
Resources
5) Unison tuning
- Hearing the sound of a clean unison
- Use of various mutes
- Adapting to false beats
- Use of an ETD to assist in achieving a clean unison and verify its stability
Resources
6) Partials
- How they are created by the wire
- The partial series up to the sixth partial of each note
Resources
7) Fourths and fifths
- The concept of coincident partials producing beats
- Know the coincident partials of fourths and fifths
- Use of a test note to determine if a fourth or fifth is wide, narrow, or pure
- Tune fourths and fifths so they are clean and beatless
- Verify them using aural tests
Resources
8) Major thirds and sixths
- Know the coincident partials of major thirds and sixths
- Tune major thirds and sixths so they are clean and beatless
Resources
9) Octaves
- Know the first three pairs of coincident partials for octaves
- Know the test intervals for those coincident partials
- Tune clean octaves and test them
Resources