tion is sometimes raised to this, i.e. that it must surely
entail a great deal of detachment from the matter in hand if the mind
has to grope for the key-note between every two consecutive notes of a
melody. But this process becomes automatic very quickly. We are not
conscious of references to the multiplication tables every time we do a
sum, yet we could not do the sum without these. And it is the same with
the Sol-fa system. The child need very rarely actually _sing_ the
key-note when considering another note, she refers the latter to it
unconsciously.

There is one curious anomaly in the orthodox Sol-fa system, which has
caused a good deal of amusement to its critics, and has ended by causing
a cleavage on the part of many who are otherwise in cordial agreement
with the broad lines of the method. This is concerned with the treatment
of the minor key. The orthodox Sol-fa teacher relates the notes of the
minor scale, not to the key-note, but to the third of the scale, i.e. to
the key-note of the relative major. The confusion which this plan
produces in the sense of tonality can readily be imagined. When singing
in major keys the pupils are told to refer all notes to the key-note for
'mental effect', but in the minor key this is strictly forbidden. To
take an instance. In the scale of C major the child has been trained to
feel the sharp, bright effect of the note G, the fifth from the key-note
C. It would naturally feel the same effect for the note E in the key of
A minor, when related to the key-note A. But the orthodox Sol-fa teacher
says: 'No. You must feel the calm, soothing effect of E in relation to
C!' Can the child be _really_ trained in this way? If it were merely a
difference in detail of the treatment of the two modes this error could
be forgiven, but it is a difference in fundamental principle.

One of the many difficulties caused occurs in transposition on the
piano. When transposing from, say, C minor to F minor, the child must
first think in E[b] major, so as to get the pivot of reference, then in
A[b] major for the new pivot A[b]. Yet all the time its real sense of
pivot, which, be it noted, has been admirably trained by the Sol-fa
treatment of the major scale, is in favour of C and F respectively.

The method evolved for the minor key by those who wish to uphold the
fundamental principle of the key-note being the pivot of reference for
_all_ keys, major and minor, is a very simple one. It consists in g