at the fundamental training in music must be
given through the use of the voice. The first step will consist in
learning how to sing at sight and how to take down easy melodies from
dictation. Parallel with this work the child should be taught to
extemporize melodies, and to sing them.

Quite little children will take pleasure in completing a musical phrase
of which the first few bars have been given them. The procedure will be
as follows:

1. The teacher writes two bars in C major, [2/4] time, on the
blackboard.

2. The class sings it through twice, first using the Sol-fa names for
the notes, then singing to _lah_.

3. Volunteers are then asked for to complete the phrase by adding
another two bars. The more musical children in the class will at once
respond, and their efforts will stir the ambition of the others. It will
soon be a question of taking the children in turn, a few at each
lesson--so eager will they be to 'express themselves' in melody.

It is important not to be too critical of these early efforts. The
great thing is to get the children un-self-conscious--variety of melodic
outline and of rhythm will follow quickly enough.

The next step will be for two children in the class to extemporize the
whole phrase between them, one taking the first two bars and the other
the last two. The key and time should be varied as much as
possible--keys a fourth or fifth apart should be used in succession, or
the children will assume that any melody can be sung by them in any key,
which is obviously not the case. A melody sung in C major, which uses
middle C and high F, cannot be sung in the key of G major with the child
voice.

The class will now find it quite easy to extemporize the whole of a
four-bar phrase. Suggestions can be made by the teacher, such as:

'Begin on the third beat of the bar.'

'Introduce two triplets in the course of the phrase,' and so on.

When this becomes easy to them they will be ready to begin eight-bar
melodies. At first the teacher will give the first four bars, and
different members of the class will finish the tune. Modulations should
now be introduced. The same procedure as before should be followed,
until any child in the class can give the whole of a tune, in any given
key and time, and with a given modulation.

Next comes the sixteen-bar tune, in which at least one modulation should
be introduced. A good plan is to begin with the well-known simple form:

1. Four bars to th