ns of notes. For example, a note on the second space indicates
that the player must strike the key known as "A." But "A" may occur with
any of the other notes, it may precede them or it may follow them. We
must therefore have practice in striking "A" in all these situations. To
have skill at the piano, we must mechanize many performances. We must be
able to read the notes with accuracy and ease. We must practice so much
that the instant we see a certain combination of notes on the staff, our
hands immediately execute the proper strokes. Not only must we learn
what keys on the piano correspond to the various notes of the music, but
the notes have a temporal value which we must learn. Some are to be
sounded for a short time, others for a longer time. We have eighth
notes, quarter notes, half notes, etc. Moreover, the signature of the
music as indicated by the sharps or flats changes the whole situation.
If the music is written in "A sharp" then when "A" is indicated on the
staff, we must not strike the white key known as "A," but the black key
just above, known as "A sharp."

Briefly, in piano playing, the stimulus comes from the characters
printed on the staff. The movements which these characters direct are
very complicated and require months and years of practice. We must
emphasize the fact that practice alone gives facility, years of
practice. But after these years of practice, one can play a piece of
music at sight; that is, the first stimulus sets off perfectly a very
complicated response. This sort of performance is one of the highest
feats of skill that man accomplishes.

To get skill, then, one must practice. But mere repetition is not
sufficient. For practice to be most effective, one must put his whole
mind on what he is doing. If he divides his attention between the acts
which he is practicing and something else, the effect of the practice in
fixing and perfecting the habit is slight. It seems that when we are
building up a new nerve-path which is to be the basis of a new habit,
the nervous energies should not be divided; that the whole available
nervous energy should be devoted to the acts which we are repeating.
This is only another way of saying that when we are practicing to
establish a habit, we should attend to what we are doing and to nothing
else. But after the habit-connection is once firmly established, we can
attend to other things while performing the habitual act. The habitual
action will go on o