er at issue with this view. I believe theory can be made
interesting to boys, especially if the Tonic Sol-fa system is used, and
that if they are taught sight-singing the choirmaster saves himself a
vast amount of trouble. The after musical doings of the boys should also
be considered, and whether they become tenors and basses, or take to an
instrument, the power to read music will be a happiness through their
whole lives.

The leading anthems, services, and psalters are now published in the
Tonic Sol-fa notation, so that boys who have learnt to sing from the
letters at school may quickly be put to sing their parts in the church
choir. The late Alfred Stone, of Bristol, who used the Tonic Sol-fa
notation for his choir boys, found it a great time-saver. So quickly was
the service music got through at the weekly practice that there was
nearly an hour to spare for singing glees and getting up cantatas. Mr.
Stone arranged his boys in two grades. The upper grade all held a Tonic
Sol-fa certificate, and they received higher pay than the lower grade.
The result of this arrangement was that the lower boys got the upper
ones to teach them Tonic Sol-fa in their playtime, and thus saved the
choirmaster a great deal of trouble.

A serious disadvantage of the ordinary way of learning to sing from the
staff notation is that practice usually begins in, and is for several
months confined to key C. For boys' voices this is the most trying of
all the keys--the one most likely to lead to bad habits in the use of
the registers. The keys for boys to begin in are G and F, where you can
get a cadence upon the tonic in the thin register. A German choirmaster,
whose choir is greatly celebrated, has sent me a little book of
exercises which he uses, and I find that, as in most English
publications of a similar kind, there are pages of exercises in key C,
before any other key is attempted. In Tonic Sol-fa all keys are equally
available from the first.

I have had a wide experience of boys taught on all systems, both in this
country and abroad. I have been present, by the courtesy of
choirmasters, at rehearsals in all parts of the country. And I have
noticed that boys taught by ear, or taught the staff notation by the
fixed _do_, make mistakes which boys trained by Tonic Sol-fa and singing
from it, or applying their knowledge of it to the staff notation, could
not make. The class of mistake I refer to is that which confuses the
place of the semi