McClure's Piano Shop

1)  Make sure you are not placing the piano over a heat register, whether grand or vertical.  The dry air moving constantly under the piano will ruin it in less than 10 years.

2)  Don't place it in front of a window or door that lets direct sunlight in.  The sun will bleach the cabinet out completely and the heat will also ruin that end of the piano.

3)  Don't place a grand "caddy-corner" in a corner because the tuner will need to move the bench up and down the length of the keyboard to do his/her job and the bench will end up banging into the walls.  Also, the action of a grand needs a lot of room to be pulled out and this type of placement doesn't allow that to be done without damage to the walls.

4)  Don't put a piano in an unfinished basement area because your pianist, especially a beginner, just won't want to go down there to play and practice.  Besides, basements are usually too cold in the winter and therefore the keys will also be too cold to play.  This contributes to a young pianist failing to maintain interest.

5)  Basements are bad choices as a rule anyhow because they are too damp in the summer and too dry in the winter.  This will also shorten your piano's life considerably.

6)  A vertical piano should have at least one foot of space off to both sides for tuning purposes.  Mr. McClure happens to be right handed and if the piano is nestled in a corner on the right side of the piano, he doesn't have enough room to tune the upper octave properly.  Same goes for the left side if the tuner is left handed.

7)  A vertical piano should be placed about 2" away from the wall so that when the lid is lifted for tuning, it will stay up out of the way and not fall down at an unexpected moment.

8)  Make sure there is adequate light around the piano not only for your pianist, but also for the person you've chosen to perform tuning and technical work.  Some living rooms are like dark caves.  Could you do your line of work, or perhaps cooking, in a dark cave environment?  Doubtful.   Mr. McClure has worked in some living rooms that were so dark he actually had to use a flashlight to see in his tool box!  But those were the old days.  Not now.  Adequate light must be provided or the piano cannot be serviced.  :)