Piano tuning is vital if you want to keep your instrument performing and sounding its best, but not a lot of piano owners realize how important it is to make sure their investment is properly tuned and cared for as the years progress. The average person who buys a piano actually purchases a used one, not new, since it's such a big investment to make. And piano tuning is even more important for older, used instruments, since they can get severely out-of-tune as they age.

The average tuning session will usually cost around a hundred dollars, but that price can go up if your piano is also in need of professional cleaning, refinishing or other repairs. Professional piano tuners are almost always experienced in a wide variety of repairs, as well, especially if they've been offering services for many years.

Interestingly enough, the average tuner regularly works on pianos that are much older than he is, since the instruments can last many decades if cared for properly. Most of us have heard what piano keys can sound like if it hasn't been tuned in many years; that tinny, dissonant sound that can really ruin good music even if you're an accomplished pianist.

If you do plan on paying someone to tune your piano, then you should expect it to take anywhere from an hour to three hours to do properly. This may sound like a long time, but you have to keep in mind that each key needs to be individually tuned and attended to. Additionally, the tuning professional will also probably want to offer an internal cleaning and limited refurbishing (all older pianos have dings and dents that can be fixed up with minimal effort by a professional).

The most frequent way that people find a piano tuning professional is through word-of-mouth recommendations from their friends and neighbors, who are always likely to refer someone who does a good job on their instrument. If you have friends with pianos of their own, be sure to ask them who tuned theirs before you look online or in the phone book.