Pianos drift out of tune slowly, so most owners don't notice until a teacher or a visiting pianist does. The Tune In Time health check measures your piano against concert pitch (A4 = 440 Hz) with your phone's microphone and tells you how far it has drifted, where, and what fixing it usually costs.
Signs your piano needs tuning
You can often hear it before you measure it. Common signs:
- Octaves and unisons sound wavy or sour instead of clean.
- The piano sounds wrong next to a recording, a keyboard or another instrument.
- It hasn't been tuned in more than a year, or it was moved or went through a big change in humidity.
- Some notes sound fine and others clearly don't, often in the treble.
How the health check works
The check is part of the Tune In Time: Piano Tuner app for iPhone and Android.
- Put the phone near the strings in a quiet room.
- The app asks for 8 keys spread across the keyboard, from the low bass to the high treble. Strike each one firmly and let it ring.
- It measures each key's pitch, including the stretch every piano is tuned with, and compares it to the target for your piano.
- You get a verdict, the pitch of each register, a tuning curve and a typical cost. Audio is analysed on the phone and never recorded.
What the verdict means
In tune: on average within 5 cents of pitch (a cent is a hundredth of a semitone), with the bass and treble close together. Only small adjustments are needed.
Needs a tuning: 5 cents or more off on average, or the registers have drifted apart by 8 cents or more. Chords and octaves start to sound rough, and a regular tuning fixes it.
Needs a pitch raise: 15 cents or more flat on average. The strings have lost so much tension that one tuning can't hold; the technician first brings the whole piano up to pitch, then tunes it.
Share the report with your tuner
Every check can be shared as an image or as a link to a report page on tuneintime.com, like the sample below. Your technician sees how far each register is off before the visit and can plan the time, and whether a pitch raise is needed. You can stop sharing a link at any time. In Israel, you can book a Tune In Time technician straight from the report.
A sample report
This is what a shared report looks like. The numbers are an example: an upright piano that hasn't been tuned in a while.
Piano health report
Measured on 1 October 2026 with the Tune In Time app · Upright
Needs a tuning
9 cents flat on average · bass furthest off
The piano has drifted enough to hear in chords and octaves. A regular tuning will fix it.
High confidence · 8 keys measured
By register
- Bass−14¢
- Middle−6¢
- Treble−3¢
← flatsharp →
Tuning curve
The line is the target for this piano: equal temperament, stretched in the bass and treble the way pianos are tuned. Each dot is a measured key.
Typical cost of a tuning
₪350–₪580
Estimate for Tune In Time in Israel. The technician confirms the price after seeing the piano.
For the piano technician
- Average deviation
- −9 cents
- Bass to treble spread
- 11 cents
- Keys measured
- 8
| Key | From target |
|---|---|
| C1 | −16 cents |
| A1 | −14 cents |
| A2 | −12 cents |
| C4 | −7 cents |
| A4 | −9 cents |
| E5 | −4 cents |
| A5 | −6 cents |
| C7 | −3 cents |
Deviations are from this piano's stretched target curve (A4 = 440 Hz), measured with a phone microphone. Use them to plan the visit, not as a substitute for your own measurements.
Questions
How accurate is a phone microphone?
Accurate enough to tell whether a piano needs tuning and how much: the app measures several overtones of each note and is precise to a few cents on a clear note. It isn't a replacement for a technician's own tools, and a noisy room lowers the confidence shown on the report.
How often should a piano be tuned?
Most pianos need a tuning once or twice a year. New pianos, pianos that were just moved, and pianos in rooms with large changes in humidity need it more often.
What is a pitch raise?
When a piano is far below pitch, raising all the strings in one tuning shifts the load on the soundboard and the piano drifts again within days. A pitch raise is a quick first pass that brings the piano close to pitch, followed by the fine tuning.
Does the app record my piano?
No. The sound is analysed on your phone in real time and immediately discarded. Only the results, such as the verdict and the cents per key, are kept.
Can I check my piano without the app?
Yes: the online piano tuner on this site measures single notes in your browser. The full health check, the tuning curve and the shareable report are in the app.