call it brilliant; when the hammers are soft and produce what a trained ear would accept as a soft, sweet, musical tone, some persons will say that the instrument lacks brilliancy.  Persons of a different taste, and, we would say, a more cultured ear, call the tone harsh when the hammers are hard, and they usually desire the tuner to soften the tone, which he does by softening the hammer ends as has been described in Lesson VII.  This operation, which we call voicing, is a very delicate piece of work, and the tuner should exercise care and pains in doing it; so we will deviate from the trend of the discourse and offer a few directions here, as the previous instructions are hardly complete.

Insert the felt pick (which should contain only one point, and not three or four, as they usually do) in the point of the hammer and give it a rotary motion, so to speak, loosening up the felt and giving it its original elasticity.  Do not pick up the felt at the point.  This method, which is resorted to by many tuners, is injurious to the hammers and really does no permanent good.  Another method which is very good, and a very easy one, is to take your parallel pliers and squeeze the felt slightly at the point.  Apply the pliers at right angles with the hammer (if the action of the upright, your pliers will be in an upright position) and catch the hammer at a depth of about three-quarters of the thickness of the felt.  If the hammers are very hard it may be well to use both the pliers and the pick; but care must always be taken not to get the hammers too soft, and extreme care must be taken not to get some softer than others.  Some hammers are always used more than others and, of course, these will need more softening.  Usually those at the extreme ends of the instrument will need no softening at all, but sometimes the bass will bear considerable softening.  After going over them in the above way, try them by playing the chromatic scale and you will invariably find some that need additional attention.  Be sure that no hard tone is left, as such a condition is a great annoyance to a delicate ear.

Singing.—­When a damper is out of order and does not do its work properly, they often say the tone sings.  They say the same thing about the reed organ when a pallet sticks or a key stays down.  Sometimes this term is used to express the grating vibration which has been treated under the head of sympathetic rattle.

Tin-panny.—­This term is often used and generally means that the instrument is out of tune, and especially that the unisons are out.  Sometimes it is used to express a hollow quality of tone; but you will rarely, if ever, hear a piano spoken of in this way if it is in correct tune.  Any piano out of tune badly may be said to sound tin-panny.

Bass-ey.—­This term expresses a very harsh bass.  Imperfect octaves or unisons in the bass of a piano give rise to the use of this term.  If the bass of the instrument is decidedly flat, the same term is sometimes used to express the condition.