ou have none of your own, and proceed
to set a temperament.

The following instructions will suffice for your first experiments,
and by them you may be able to get fairly good results; however, the
theory of temperament, which is more thoroughly entered into in Lesson
XII, must be studied before you can have a thorough understanding of
the causes and effects.

After deciding, as per instructions on pitch which C you will tune
first, place the tuning hammer (using the star head if pins are
square) on the pin with the handle extending upwards or inclined
slightly to the right. (The star head, which will fit the pin at eight
different angles, enables the tuner to select the most favorable
position.) To raise the pitch, you will, of course, pull the hammer to
the right. In order to make a string stand in tune, it is well to draw
it very slightly above the pitch at which it is to remain, and settle
it back by striking the key repeatedly and strongly, and at the same
time bearing gently to the left on the tuning hammer. The exact amount
of over-tension must be learned by practice; but it should be so
slight as to be barely perceptible. Aim to get the string tuned with
the least possible turning of the hammer. The tension of the string
should be evenly distributed over its entire length; that is, over its
vibrating middle and its "dead ends" beyond the bridges. Therefore it
is necessary to strike the key strongly while tuning so as to make the
string draw through the bridges. By practice, you will gain control of
the hammer and become so expert that you can feel the strings draw
through the bridges and the pins turn in the block.

Having now tuned your three Cs, you will take 1C as a starting point,
and by it, tune 1G a perfect fifth above. Tune it perfect by drawing
it gradually up or down until all pulsations disappear. Now after
making sure you have it perfect, flatten it until you can hear slow,
almost imperceptible waves; less rapid than one per second. This
flattening of the fifth is called tempering, and from it comes the
word "temperament." The fact that the fifth must always be tuned a
little flatter than perfect, is a matter which always causes some
astonishment when first learned. It seems, to the uninitiated, that
every interval should be made perfect; but it is impossible to make
them so, and get a correct scale, as we shall see later on.

Now tune 2G by the 1G just tuned, to a perfect octave. Remember that
a