Piano Tuning
With Lachlan Brown
Lachlan is an accomplished composer, singer and pianist. Having studied composition at the University of Melbourne, you can be confident that Lachlan's classically-trained ear is one of the best in the business.
Client Reviews
Lachlan did a fantastic job tuning our piano. Not only did he get it beautifully in tune, but he also made a couple of adjustments that genuinely transformed the sound — it’s warmer, clearer, and so much more balanced than before.
— Bron CLachlan completely transformed our humble student model piano. Not only does it sound light years better (richer, warmer, less harsh, more nuanced, more dynamic), but it feels significantly better under your fingers - as though your fingers are more magnetically drawn towards playing it. It's so lovely.
– Scott Lewis
Highly recommend Lachlan for piano tuning. He comes from mountains of knowledge and wisdom, especially understands how to care and refurbish our 130 year old piano!
Greatly appreciate your time Lachlan! Thank you
– S T
Big thanks to Lachlan for the amazing job tuning and enhancing the tone of our Bluthner with such care, consideration, and attention to detail! His expertise is unmatched and we are very pleased with the results.
– Sebastian El-Khoury
High recommended! My 30 year old piano has been 'reborn' after Lachlan's meticulous way of tuning using the traditional technique. Not only my piano now sound amazing and in tune, Lachlan has helped brought back its original 'touch'. I now enjoy and love playing my piano more than ever before.
— Ann ChuaLachlan's work has transformed my piano into a beautiful sounding instrument that has reignited my joy and motivation to practice. The difference is remarkable and must be heard to be fully appreciated.
– Joe Trantino
Book Tuning | Book Appraisal | Book Repair Work |
Book Tuning | Book Appraisal | Book Repair Work |
Truly musical tuning done by ear
Lachlan uses traditional tuning methods to give a truly musical tuning, fit for any concert or the most discerning musician. He tunes by ear, listening to the beats as the notes in various intervals interact with each other. This is the only way to do an accurate and musical tuning in which all the notes are properly related to one another. If your piano has not been tuned for a long time, or you have acquired a piano that is below pitch Lachlan can bring the piano back to stable tuning at concert pitch.
Lachlan can tune your piano in standard equal temperament or one of the well temperaments. The price is the same and he can help you decide which way you would like your piano tuned. Equal temperament is a versatile tuning that works for all styles of music. Well temperaments are beautiful sounding temperaments that work for most styles of music except jazz and some modern or late Romantic music. There's some more detail below, under the heading Well Temperament.
Regulation and voicing
Lachlan can regulate your piano to ensure your piano feels easy and even to play and produces its best tone. There are many aspects of the piano action and keys that can be adjusted in pianos and they must relate to each other in the correct ways to allow the piano to play to its full potential. Many customers have been amazed at the transformation of their piano after regulation, tuning and voicing of hammers.
Well temperaments
Temperament is the tuning of the notes of a scale, for Western music this means 12 notes within the octave. Equal temperament has been the universal tuning system since the late 19th century. In this system, the octave is divided into twelve equal semitones, which allows complete freedom in modulation, but makes all chords sound similar and compromises the tuning of all intervals except the octave. This gives equal temperament a restless and dissonant quality.
Early temperaments, from the Renaissance period, featured beautiful pure intervals, including major thirds, but did not allow modulation to all keys. This problem was addressed in the baroque period with the development of well temperaments, which Bach celebrated in his Das wohltemperierte Klavier work (The Well-Tempered Keyboard). New variants evolved in the classical period (i.e. Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert) and these were the most commonly used type of temperament during the Classical period. Well temperaments continued to be used into the Romantic period, alongside equal temperament (i.e. Chopin, Liszt, Brahms, Schumann).
Well temperaments feature a large number of pure intervals, particularly fifths, fourths, and sometimes major thirds. The other intervals are tempered, in some cases more than the equivalent intervals in equal temperament, and in some cases less. This means the temperaments are a mixture of pure, mildly tempered, and more strongly tempered intervals.
This creates variety in the tuning colour of chords within a key, and between different keys. The pure intervals create a wonderful beauty and repose, and the variety of colour in the chords adds meaning and interest to the music. This explains why composers of the classical and romantic periods chose particular keys for particular compositions. Experiencing these temperaments is a revelation for a modern musician! The beauty and the singing quality is a joy to behold! Music from the classical period sparkles, as does Baroque, much of the Romantic repertoire, and most modern pop music. (Modern Classical and jazz sounds better on equal temperament.) The difference in the tuning is small enough that you can still play with other instruments and recordings.
Reading about temperaments, or listening to examples on the internet, it might seem that the difference is minute or academic, but when you play a piano tuned this way you immediately feel how the instrument is more harmonious within itself, and you can hear the beautiful singing quality of the sound!
My favoured temperaments are Kirnberger III and Kellner, which I tune by ear in the traditional way.
Our Services
$80
Inspections/Appraisals
$250
Standard Tuning
$80/hr
Repairs
Piano tuning on the Peninsula, Eastern and Northern Suburbs, Gippsland and other areas in Melbourne and Country Victoria
Book Tuning | Book Appraisal | Book Repair Work |
Book Tuning | Book Appraisal | Book Repair Work |
Come Visit Our
Workshop
36 Denham Road
Tyabb, Vicotria 3913