For the piano owner

The living room has a Yamaha U1 upright on an inside wall, and a Dampp-Chaser humidity system mounted inside the case: the pads keep the soundboard from drying out in winter heat. The board carries the piano's rules, and the first one sets the year: tuning twice a year at the seasonal humidity swings, one service, an OR of two yearly dates around April 15 and around October 15, due when either season is unpaid.

The last tuning is on the books. April 20, 2026: Lakeside Piano Service tuned the piano for $165. One sentence in ChatGPT carries the date, the shop, and the cost, and Muse writes the row, receipt included. The next day, April 21, the board read the fall tuning due October 15, 2026, 177 days out, and the spring line moved to April 15, 2027. The fall tuning stayed on the calendar.

The pads and the regulation carry their own dates. The Dampp-Chaser pads were swapped May 1, 2026, a $38 kit the family swaps themselves, and every 6 months puts the next swap on November 1, 2026. The action regulation went to Lakeside Piano Service on April 1, 2026, $480, and the rule is 2,000 practice hours or 5 years, whichever comes first, so with the practice log at 400 hours that day, the hours line sits at 2,400. Practice hours come from the family's practice log, and Muse hears the total with the work.

Before the heating season, the owner asks Muse what's due on the piano. On October 6 the piano's rows are all clear. The board names what is coming anyway: the fall tuning waits, and it comes up October 15, 2026, 8.5 days out. The pads read 25.5 days left, November 1, 2026. The regulation shows the hours runway and the clock together: 900 hours on the log on October 5, 1,500 hours left, a pace of about 2.67 hours a day, which puts the hours line around April 18, 2028, while the 5-year clock date of April 1, 2031, about 1,637 days out, sits beside it on the row. If the log hits 2,400 hours first, the regulation is due by hours that day, with April 1, 2031 still named on the row. Over the next week the board comes back empty; the next 30 days bring the fall tuning, 8.5 days out, with the pads on November 1 behind it.

The tuning row holds one season to one tuning. A tuning counts toward the season nearest to it, and it does not reach across to pay the other season too, so a spring tuning never makes the fall tuning disappear from the board. After the April tuning, the October date stays on the row with its days counting down.

The fall tuning on October 20, 2025 left the spring window open: on November 1, 2025 the board read April 15, 2026, 165 days out. A mid-summer tune on July 1, 2026 reads as late spring work, so the fall date of October 15, 2026 stays open.

Work in September pays on the other side. An early-September tune on September 20, 2026 pays the fall season: the next one reads spring, April 15, 2027, and the fall line moves to October 15, 2027. A close in January works the same way: a tuning on January 5, 2026 settles the missed fall and leaves the spring window open, April 15, 2026. And with both seasons tuned, after the fall tuning on October 20, 2026 the row reads next spring, April 15, 2027, with a 176-day countdown as of October 21, 2026.

The pitch raise is the guard for the season that slips: a 13-month clock from the last tuning date it was given. If the last tuning had been August 1, 2025, the 13-month line would sit on September 1, 2026, and on October 6, 2026 the pitch raise reads due, about 35 days past that line, a month over. Log the pitch raise with its date and the 13-month clock restarts from that day.

The pad service light is the belt-and-suspenders trigger, and it reads on its own row: the pad reading below 25%. Until a reading is told, the row waits, and the board names the 25% threshold. When Muse hears that the pads read 18% on October 5, the row is due now, 7 points under the 25% line. The 6-month clock and the light keep watch on the same pads, and either one can put the swap on the board.

The piano gets the observation habit too. A sticking key in the middle of the keyboard, a buzz on a low string, a slow pedal squeak, the pad light blinking: the observation goes to Muse in the same breath as the date. Voicing goes here as well, and voicing is as-needed: the notes carry it. Muse keeps each one as a note on that line, so the piano's history stays with the piano. The notepad on the piano bench can retire. The sticking key, mentioned when the next tuning is logged, lands as a note on that row.

Outbound, the board calls ChatGPT. One subscription and ChatGPT hears when the fall tuning lands on the due board: a signed webhook names the job and how late. An agent that speaks MCP can hear the same board. The ping arrives without anyone asking.

Every row logged stays in the service log: tunings with their receipts from Lakeside Piano Service at $165, pad swap kits at $38, and the regulation with its receipt from Lakeside Piano Service at $480. So the day the piano sells, or the house does, one word, archived, is enough. Muse archives the piano and the due board drops it that day, and the history stays: years of tuning dates, what the practice log read at each regulation, the receipts beside them. If the sale falls through, one ask puts it back on the board.

One line, said plainly: Maintenance Due is a personal due board and service log for the piano. It keeps the notes you give it. The tuner sets the pitch, and the board counts the days and the readings you tell it.

The house log on /home-maintenance-checklist shows how calendar rows look. The Muse prompt lives on /for-your-agent. Free.