quickly. When not printed in the score, it will often be a saving of
time for the conductor to insert such letters or numbers in his own
copy of the music in advance of the first rehearsal, asking the
members to insert the marks in their music as he dictates their
location by page and score, or by counting measures in the case of
orchestra music. These letters or numbers are best inserted with soft
red or blue pencil.

[Sidenote: THE "WHOLE METHOD" OF LEARNING]

When a new composition is to be taken up, go through it as a whole a
few times, so as to give everyone a general idea of its content and of
the connection and relation of its parts. After this, begin to work at
the difficult spots that you have found, then when it begins to go
fairly well, work definitely for expressive rendition. You will of
course not expect ordinary performers to go through the composition
the first time in a very artistic fashion. If they keep going and do
not make too many mistakes, they will have done all that
non-professionals should be expected to do. Psychologists have found
as the result of careful investigation that the "whole method" of
study is much to be preferred to what might be termed the "part
method," because of the fact that a much clearer and closer
association between parts is thus formed, and there is no doubt but
that this point applies very forcibly to the study of music. In an
interview published in the _New York World_ in June, 1916, Harold
Bauer writes as follows about this matter as related to piano music:

Now, in taking up a new work for the piano, the child could
and should play right through every page from beginning to
end for the purpose of obtaining a definite first impression
of the whole. A mess would probably be made of it
technically, but no matter. He would gradually discover just
where the places were that required technical smoothing, and
then by playing them over slowly these spots would be
technically strengthened. By the time the composition was
thoroughly learned the technique would be thoroughly
acquired, too. Obtaining first a perfect mental picture of
the whole, and afterward working out the details, is better
than learning a work by starting with the details before
gaining a broad impression of the composition as a whole.

This method of studying musical compositions is especially important
from the standpoint of _expression