lef the
child passes on to learn the bass with great ease.

To the staff described above can be added another similar to it,
arranged as is shown in the figure. (Fig. 32.) The child beginning
with doh, lays the discs on the board in ascending order in their
right position until the octave is reached: doh, re, mi, fah, soh,
lah, ti, doh. Then he descends the scale in the same way, returning to
_doh_, but continuing to place the discs always to the right: soh,
fah, mi, re, doh. In this way he forms an angle. At this point he
descends again to the lower staff, ti, lah, soh, fah, mi, re, doh,
then he ascends again on the other side: re, mi, fah, soh, lah, ti,
and by forming with his two lines of discs another angle in the bass,
he has completed a rhombus, "the rhombus of the notes."

After the discs have been arranged in this way, the upper staff is
separated from the lower. In the lower the notes are arranged
according to the bass clef. In this way the first elements of musical
reading are presented to the child, reading which corresponds to
_sounds_ with which the child's ear is already acquainted.

For a first practical application of this knowledge we have used in
our schools a miniature pianoforte keyboard, which reproduces the
essentials of this instrument, although in a simplified form, and so
that they are visible. Two octaves only are reproduced, and the keys,
which are small, are proportioned to the hand of a little child of
four or five years, as the keys of the common piano are proportioned
to those of the adult. All the mechanism of the key is visible. (Fig.
39.) On striking a key one sees the hammer rise, on which is written
the name of the note. The hammers are black and white, like the
notes.

With this instrument it is very easy for the child to practise alone,
finding the notes on the keyboard corresponding to some bar of written
music, and following the movements of the fingers made in playing the
piano.

The keyboard in itself is mute, but a series of resonant tubes,
resembling a set of organ-pipes, can be applied to the upper surface,
so that the hammers striking these produce musical notes corresponding
to the keys struck. The child can then pursue his exercises with the
control of the musical sounds.

DIDACTIC MATERIAL FOR MUSICAL READING.

[Illustration: FIG. 33.

On the wooden board, round spaces are cut out
corresponding to the notes. Inside each of the spaces there is a figure.
On on