playing. Educated
ladies of the present time make greater pretensions and greater demands
than formerly in regard to music and musical execution; and consequently
their own performances do not usually correspond with their more or less
cultivated taste for the beautiful, which has been awakened by their
careful general education. Thus they are aware that they are not able to
give satisfaction, either to themselves or to others; and from this
arises a want of that confidence in their own powers, which should
amount almost to a consciousness of infallibility, in order to produce a
satisfactory musical performance. This confidence has its foundation in
a full, firm, clear, and musical touch, the acquisition of which has
been, and is still, too much neglected by masters and teachers. A
correct mechanical facility and its advanced cultivation rest upon this
basis alone; which, moreover, requires special attention upon our softly
leathered pianos, which are much more difficult to play upon than the
old-fashioned instruments. It is a mistake to suppose that a correct
touch, which alone can produce a good execution, will come of itself,
through the practice of etudes and scales. Even with masters, it is
unusual to meet with a sound, fine, unexceptionable touch, like that of
Field and Moscheles, and among the more recent that of Thalberg, Chopin,
Mendelssohn, and Henselt.

I will speak now of the selection of pieces. Our ladies are not
contented to play simple music, which presents few difficulties and
requires no involved fingering; and from which they might gradually
advance by correct and persevering study to more difficult pieces. They
at once seize upon grand compositions by Beethoven, C.M. von Weber,
Mendelssohn, Chopin, and others, and select also, for the sake of
variety, the bravoura pieces of Liszt, Thalberg, Henselt, &c. How can
they expect to obtain a command of such pieces, when their early
education was insufficient for our exalted demands in mechanical skill,
and their subsequent instruction has also been faulty and without
method?

If you were to request me to supply in some degree your own
deficiencies, before I proceed to the further education of your
daughter, I should not begin with the wisdom of our friend Mr. Buffalo:
"Madam, you must every day practise the major and minor scales, in all
the keys, with both hands at once, and also in thirds and in sixths; and
you must work three or four hours daily at etu