tes from the crotchet to the
whole note of twelve beats have, with all their details, become a habit,
the pupil need only make them mentally, contenting himself with one step
forward. This step will have the exact length of the whole note, which
will be mentally analysed into its various elements. Although these
elements are not individually performed by the body, their images and
the innervations suggested by those images take the place of the
movements.

The process is similar to that of the child learning to read; at first
it reads aloud, then to itself, still, however, moving its lips, i.e.,
still making all the innervations necessary for the pronunciation of the
words. Only after much practice does the process become sufficiently
automatic for these lip and tongue innervations to be dropped. Indeed,
many adults show traces of them when they read. To what degree our power
to read is based upon such innervations is shown by the fact that old
people, as their inhibitory powers become weaker, often revert to making
these lip movements. From this we may conclude that such innervations,
although they do not find their natural expression, still exist and
have effect, i.e., they are necessary. The Jaques-Dalcroze method aims
at nothing more or less than the training of rhythmic innervations.

The whole training aims at developing the power of rapid physical
reaction to mental impressions. These latter are more commonly obtained
through the ear, chiefly from the music played; naturally, however, the
teacher needs at times to give commands during an exercise. For this
purpose he invariably uses the word _hopp_, a word chosen for its clear
incisiveness.

Before each exercise it is clearly stated what the word is to represent
in that particular case, e.g., omit one beat, omit one bar, beat time
twice as fast with the arms, etc.; often the word will be used in series
in an exercise, each _hopp_ meaning some additional change. As the
command generally falls on the second half of the beat preceding the one
in which the change is to be made, very rapid mental and physical
response is necessary, especially if the music be at all quick.
Exercises of this class soon give the power of rapid muscular
innervation and inhibition, and are of extraordinary value in education,
quite apart from their purely rhythmic side.

We will now consider the exercises in some detail, taking, as a matter
of convenience, the order and grouping genera