c surroundings, he
lives and works, dividing his time between teaching and concert playing.
As a pianist Mr. Hughes has met with gratifying success in the most
important cities of Germany, while as a teacher he has been sought by
students from almost every State in America, from Maine to Texas, and
also from Canada. What has given him special satisfaction is that during
the past year a number of pupils have come to him from the Conservatory
here in Munich. They have been greatly pleased with their progress, only
regretting they had not come to him before.

As to whether he uses the Leschetizky method in its entirety, Mr. Hughes
testified in the affirmative.

"If you were to ask Leschetizky about the 'Leschetizky Method,' he would
probably laugh and tell you he has no method, or he would tell you his
'method' consists of only two things--firm fingers and pliable wrist.

"These are the principles upon which I base the technical training of my
pupils. I first establish an arched hand position, and then test the
firmness of the fingers and knuckle joints by tapping them. At first the
joints, particularly the nail joints, are very apt to sink in when
tapped by a lead pencil; but by having the pupil continue the tapping
process at home, it is not long before he acquires the feeling of
conscious firmness in his fingers.

"Along with this exercise it is most important to begin at once with
wrist exercises, as otherwise, from the effort to acquire firmness of
finger, the wrist may become stiff and unwieldy. The wrist exercises
consist in raising and lowering this joint, with the hand and arm
supported first on each finger separately, then on two, three, four and
five fingers. The wrist should not be so limp as to be incapable of
resistance; but rather it should be like a fine steel spring--a
'spring-wrist,' I call it--capable of every degree of resistance or
non-resistance the quality of tone demands.

"High finger action is not so necessary for beginners as most piano
teachers imagine. It is much easier to teach pupils to raise their
fingers high, than it is to teach them the acquisition of the _legato_
touch at the piano, which is only to be attained by playing close to the
keys, without raising the fingers. It is difficult to get pupils to play
a perfect _legato_ who have had years of training with high finger
action, something which should be taken up for _non-legato_ and
_staccato_ finger work _after_ the more difficul