Piano Tuning by Jim Selleck, Brighton, Michigan

05/27/2026

Is your piano ready for summer? Has it been missing me? If it's been a year since its last tuning, give me a call or just use the blue "Book an appointment" button on SelleckPiano.com

05/20/2026

How often should I get the piano tuned?

05/11/2026

With Michigan spring in full force, a customer last week asked, `Say, is the noise from that guy outside mowing the lawn causing a problem for you tuning the piano?`

Yes. Yes it is. LOL -- Please, if you can, when you use the blue `Book an appointment` button on www.SelleckPiano.com, try to select a time when the lawn service will not ALSO be just outside the window running their loud 2-cycle engines. If it happens, we can deal with it, but there may be times when I have to take a 5 minute break to wait for them to move to the opposite side of the house.

There is an old saw that says any time of year is good to tune your piano, but spring and fall are best because they are traditionally the more `moderate` seasons. That comes from a past time when houses were poorly insulated, central air conditioning was rare, and windows leaked temperature and humidity like sieves.

Of course, if your home is a 100 year old farm house, your piano may still face those challenges. Many of my over 1,200 great customers live in newer homes, or have updated their older homes to better keep the weather at bay and stabilize the interior environment. In that case, you can have your piano tuned just about any time of year without worrying about it being knocked back out of tune every time a weather system moves through. The ideal humidity level year round is considered to be about 45%. That is difficult to maintain in Michigan.

Now, pianos that live in churches, schools, and other public buildings are much harder to keep in tune. Often in those situations we install a humidity control system right inside the piano. It`s generally not necessary to do that in most private homes, except in extreme cases.

For more info, you are welcome to see the Videos on my website: `Why Do Pianos Go Out of Tune?` and `How Often Should I Have My Piano Tuned?`

https://selleckpiano.com/videos.htm

Jim Selleck - Providing courteous and accurate piano tuning, repair, and rebuilding services in southeast Michigan since 1977.

10/13/2025

Sharing this email that just went out today to my great piano customers.

Call now to connect with business.

10/13/2025

Greetings from your piano tuner. This week we finally gave in and fired up the boiler. Once again it`s time to pose the old question: `Is your piano ready to play Monster Mash?`

As I pointed out this time last year, in the olden days we would say that Spring and Fall were the ideal seasons to tune your piano, because they are more moderate. That is still partly true, however, today, in this brave new century and millennium, construction materials and techniques have evolved to the point where homes can remain far more stable inside, so it`s pretty much fine to schedule your annual or semi-annual piano tuning any time of year. Keeping the humidity constant year-round as close to 45% as possible is key.

Most challenging are public buildings like churches, banquet halls, and schools, or very old homes where the windows and insulation have not yet been upgraded.

In any case, no piano should ever be stored in a place that is not humidity and temperature controlled, such as a garage, barn, or sun porch. Your piano is a complex and delicate musical instrument with critical components made of wood, metals, cloth, and in some cases, plastic parts. Exposing it to the weather for more than a short time can result in permanent damage that may not be repairable at a cost less than that of total replacement.

My schedule has many openings between now and December, so give me a call at 810-360-3896 if your piano is due for a freshen up tuning to get it in its best voice for the coming holidays.

And remember, you can now look at my calendar and select a fitting date and time using the new blue `Book an appointment` button at the top of the page on SelleckPiano.com !

Call now to connect with business.

07/31/2025

I got a big laugh out of this. Even if you only read music a little, it's so true!

07/28/2025

Have you ever wondered where the phrase `dog days of summer` came from? I did, so I looked it up. Turns out it has nothing to do with dogs, which makes sense because I would never leave a poor dog outside for long on days like we`ve been having with excessive heat and humidity combined.

It comes down from the ancient Greeks, who noted that the Sirius, the dog star, rises in mid summer. Not knowing how distant the stars are, they theorized that the heat of Sirius combined with the sun to bring about the hottest days.

Meanwhile, your piano is more concerned with the high humidity side of the equation. Please try if possible to keep the humidity under control in the room where the piano lives. If you have central air conditioning, that should do it. Remember our goal is to keep the piano room about 45% humidity all year round, a feat that is near impossible here in Michigan, but please try.

During periods of very high (or low) humidity it is expected that the piano will go out of tune farther and faster because of expansion or contraction of the wooden soundboard. When your kids return to lessons soon after summer vacation, expect them to mention that the piano sounds wonky. Reassure them it`s not the fault of their playing and come to SelleckPiano.com to schedule a tune-up.

By the way, the new blue `Book an appointment` button is getting rave reviews from all who`ve used it. The only slight confusion has come from the automatic email you get from Google after you book. It has an `Accept` button. As far as I can tell, you do NOT need to push that, and if you are a Google Calendar user it may result in creating a duplicate appointment on your calendar. I have a question in to the Google team and a suggestion that they just remove the darned Accept button, but I kinda doubt they are going to drop everything for a simple piano tuner from Michigan. Fortunately it`s fine either way as the feature works brilliantly.

Stay cool! Looking forward to seeing you all soon.

Call now to connect with business.

07/16/2025

I successfully removed another large mouse nest from inside a piano yesterday. Fortunately this nest had been abandoned and did not contain any creatures.

However, mice, while cute, are incredibly destructive and can cause expensive repair issues, not to mention they leave droppings and p*e inside causing all kinds of damage and potentially spreading nasty diseases.

Please consider hiring a piano technician to perform an inspection and condition evaluation before you accept any piano you find on Facebook Marketplace or similar space. Even a "free" piano can cost around $400 to have professionally moved and it typically costs $300-$500 to get a neglected instrument tuned and regulated to a point where your kids can start lessons.

It's always a big disappointment when a see a "free" piano that turns out to have structural problems that are either unrepairable or too costly to justify. A pre-acquisition condition evaluation is a great value considering the potential money you can save.

07/01/2025

This morning I tuned a very nice year 2020 Steinway Model B grand piano for a new customer who lives out in the woods. It was a fine instrument, voiced perhaps a little softer in the bass than I prefer (and that piano is capable of producing), but exactly set to please the owner, a retired symphony trombonist.

The piano was in his well insulated garden house, a room with big windows looking out over the country greenery all around. It was a perfect weather day, and he left the glass door wall wide open, not caring if a few insects made their way inside.

The owner had a house cat, and his yard was populated with all manner of birds and woodland creatures, rabbits, racoons, squirrels, chipmunks, most with little ones.

I was nearing the end of the tuning when I heard something at my feet. Looking down, I saw a furry back and immediately assumed it was the cat come to visit. I said, "Hi there." in a friendly voice and reached down, but instinctively stopped short of touching.

It wasn't the cat. It was a young woodchuck that had wandered in from the yard. The poor thing looked up at me in terror, as though saying, "YOU'RE not my mama!" and scooted out before I could even get my phone out to try to get a photo.

I'm still chuckling about it. My client says that has never happened before. He shut that door.

06/29/2025

ANNOUNCING a new cool feature on SelleckPiano.com - a big. blue "Book an appointment" button!!

I've been saying I was going to add this for a couple of years, and today I finally got around to it.

How many times has this happened? You find yourself ready to have your piano tuned any mutually convenient time over the next month. So you send me an email asking for some available times.

Cool. I reply with a couple of openings, but they don't quite mesh with your schedule, so we begin the tango, with you replying in email, "Do you have any times the following week?" Lather, rinse, repeat...

NO MORE! Now you can peruse my schedule openings and select one that works perfectly for you the FIRST time.