<html> ...The client told me that thier piano didn't stay in tune for very long and that the previous tuner had told her that it was probably because she didn't have it tuned regularly when she first got it. (This piano had not been tuned for over a year after they first got it.) Their tuner said that it hadn't been "trained" properly, and it would never hold a tune very well... ==========================================      My own experience is that the more regularly a piano is tuned, the more stable the tuning remains between service appointments.  It is as though the instrument has formed it's tuning the same way a pair of shoes forms to our feet.  How this happens exactly, I do not know but we do know that there are tremendous forces occurring within a piano, even when it is at rest.  The tension of the strings against the bridges and soundboard, the forces between the soundboard edges and case rim, and the influences of changes in temperature and humidity all combine (somehow) to affect the piano's anatomy and physiology. It seems to me that when we add our own influence to the string tensions when tuning, this has the effect of "training" or molding the instrument to stabilize more readily to its correct tuning.  I have not found the right choice of words to use to explain this to my clients.    I have used the analogy that a neglected piano is like an ill-mannered child with a strong will.  It takes repeated corrective measures to get it to stay on the right path.     May I suggest that the above tuner's explanation may not have been too much B.S. after all, but just his own effort to illustrate the necessity of regular tunings. Carman Gentile RPT Redwood Chapter</html>