ales. Those in double thirds and sixths I use later,
after the others are under control. Arpeggios are also included in this
scale practise.

"I have said that Concentration is the keynote of piano mastery. Another
principle which goes hand in hand with it is Relaxation. Unless this
condition is present in arms, wrist and shoulders, the tone will be hard
and the whole performance constrained and unmusical. There is no need
of having tired muscles or those that feel strained or painful. If this
condition arises it is proof that there is stiffness, that relaxation
has not taken place. I can sit at the piano and play _forte_ for three
hours at a time and not feel the least fatigue in hands and arms.
Furthermore, the playing of one who is relaxed, who knows how to use his
anatomy, will not injure the piano. We must remember the piano is a
thing of joints; the action is so delicately adjusted that it moves with
absolute freedom and ease. The player but adds another joint, which
should equal in ease and adjustment the ones already there. On the other
hand a person with stiff joints and rigid muscles, thumping ragtime on a
good piano, can ruin it in a week; whereas under the fingers of a player
who understands the laws of relaxation, it would last for many years.

"This principle of relaxation is exemplified in the athlete, baseball
player, and others. They have poise and easy adjustment in every part of
the body: they never seem to fall into strained or stiff attitudes, nor
make angular or stiff movements. Arms, shoulders, wrists and fingers are
all relaxed and easy. The pianist needs to study these principles as
well as the athlete, I believe in physical exercises to a certain
extent. Light-weight dumb-bells can be used; it is surprising how light
a weight is sufficient to accomplish the result. But it must be one
movement at a time, exercising one muscle at a time, and not various
muscles at once.

"For memorizing piano music I can say I have no method whatever. When I
know the piece technically or mechanically, I know it by heart. I really
do not know when the memorizing takes place. The music is before me on
the piano; I forget to turn the pages, and thus find I know the piece.
In playing with orchestra I know the parts of all instruments, unless it
be just a simple chord accompaniment; it would not interest me to play
with orchestra and not know the music in this way. On one occasion I was
engaged to play the Sgambatti