piano,
which shall not be wearisome to the pupil, and in the improved
performance of which he will take pleasure. But, if you still find that
he falls into the old, faulty manner of playing, and that the recently
acquired technique, which has not yet become habitual, is endangered by
it, lay this too aside, and take instead some appropriate etude, or
perhaps a little prelude by Bach. If, in the place of these, you choose
for instruction a ponderous sonata, in which the music would distract
the attention of the pupil from the improved technique, you give up the
most important aim of your instruction, and occupy yourself with
secondary matters; you will censure and instruct in vain, and will never
attain success. You must consider, reflect, and give your mind to the
peculiar needs of the pupil, and you must teach in accordance with the
laws of psychology. You will succeed after a while, but precipitation,
compulsion, and disputes are useless. The improvement of a soprano
voice, ruined by over-screaming, requires prudence, patience, calmness,
and modesty, and a character of a high type generally. It is also a very
thankless task, and success is rare; while on the piano a fair result
may always be accomplished.

* * * * *

I return once more to the subject so frequently discussed, that I may
try to relieve the universal difficulty of our lady pianists. I have
heard much playing of late, in parties both small and large, on
well-tuned and on ill-tuned pianos, on those with which the performer
was familiar, and on those to which she was unaccustomed; from the timid
and the self-possessed; from ladies of various ages, possessed of more
or of less talent, and in various cities: the result was always the
same.

We hear from the ladies that they could play their pieces at home before
their parents or their teachers; but this is never sufficient to enable
them to save their hearers from weariness, anxiety, and all sorts of
embarrassment. My honored ladies, you play over and over again two
mazourkas, two waltzes, two nocturnes, and the Funeral March of Chopin,
the Mazourka and other pieces by Schulhoff, the Trill-Etude, and the
Tremolo by Carl Meyer, &c.: "it makes no difference to you which." You
might be able to master these pieces pretty well, but, instead of this,
you yourselves are mastered. You become embarrassed, and your hearers
still more so: the affair ends with apologies on both sides, wi