You may be a little surprised at what we are about to tell you, but it is a fact, gleaned from long experience in traveling and observation, that many, verily, the majority of pretending tuners have not so much practical knowledge of a piano as you should now have.  We have no doubt that you, if you have a musical ear, could, without further instruction, improve an instrument that was extremely out of tune.  You could detect and improve a tone which you should find extremely sharp or flat; you could detect and improve a unison that might be badly out, and you might produce an entire scale in which none of the chords would be unbearably rasping.  But this is not enough.  You should aspire to perfection, and not stop short of it.

It may seem to us who are musicians with thorough knowledge of the simpler laws of music, that a scale of eight tones is a simple affair; simply a natural consequence; the inevitable arrangement; but a historical investigation will prove our mistake.  We will not go into the complexities of musical history; suffice it to say that the wisest philosophers who lived prior to the fourteenth century had no idea of a scale like that we have at the present day.

In piano tuning, as in other arts, many theories and conjectures have been advanced regarding the end to be sought and the means by which to gain it.  There must be a plan—­a system by which to work.  The question is:  What plan will insure the most perfect results with the least amount of labor?  In Piano Tuning, this plan is called the Temperament.

Webster defines the word thus:  “A system of compromises in the tuning of pianofortes, organs,” etc.  Later on we will discuss fully what these compromises are, and why they exist; for it is in them that the tuner demonstrates his greatest skill, and to them that the piano owes its surpassing excellence as a musical instrument, and, consequently, its immense popularity.  For the present, the term “temperament” may be considered as meaning the plan or pattern from which the tuner works.

No subject of so great importance in the whole realm of musical science has been so strangely neglected as the method of setting a temperament.  Even musicians of high learning, in other respects, give little attention to scale building, and hence they differ widely on this topic.  There can be but one “best way” of doing a thing, and that best way should be known and followed by the profession; but, strange to say, there are a half dozen systems of setting the temperament in vogue at the present time.  The author has, in his library, a book on “Temperament” which, if followed, would result in the production of a scale in which every chord would be unbalanced, harsh and unbearable.  This is mentioned merely to call attention to the fact that great differences of opinion exist among scientific men regarding this important subject.

In the author’s practice, he was curious to try the different methods, and has tuned by all the systems of temperament in vogue at the present, or that have ever been used extensively.  His experience has proved that all but one is hampered with uncertainty, difficulty of execution or imperfection in some respect.