n all children should have the
advantage of a course in ear-training. This should not be training for
pitch alone, but for quality of tone as well. It may be supplemented
with exercises in musical dictation until the pupil is able to write
down short phrases with ease after he has heard them once. A pupil who
has had such a training would make ideal material for the advanced
teacher, and because of the greatly developed powers of the pupil would
be able to memorize quicker and make much better progress. In fact,
ear-training and harmony lead to great economy of time. For instance,
let us suppose that the pupil has a chord like the following in a
sonata:

[Illustration]

If the same chord appeared again in the piece it would probably be found
in the key of the dominant, thus:

[Illustration]

It seems very obvious that if the pupil could perceive the harmonic
relationship between these two chords he would be spared the trouble of
identifying an entirely different chord when he finds the repetition of
it merely in another key. This is only one of scores of instances where
a knowledge of the harmonic structure proves to be of constant
importance to the student.

A CAREFUL ANALYSIS OF TOUCH EFFECTS

"Here again we find an interminable subject. Although there are only a
few principal divisions into which the subject of touch might be
divided, the number of different subdivisions of these best known
methods of striking the keys to produce artistic effects is very
considerable. The artist working day in and day out at the keyboard will
discover some subtle touch effects which he will always associate with a
certain passage. He may have no logical reason for doing this other than
that it appeals to his artistic sense. He is in all probability
following no law but that of his own musical taste and sense of hearing.

It is this more than anything else which gives individuality to the
playing of the different virtuosos and makes their efforts so different
from the playing of machines. Time and time again mechanical efforts
have been made to preserve all these infinite subtilities and some truly
wonderful machines have been invented, but not until the sculptor's
marble can be made to glow with the vitality of real flesh can this be
accomplished. Wonderful as the mechanical inventions are there is always
something lacking.

"Here, again, ear-training will benefit the pupil who is studying with a
virtuoso teacher. It is