st. You must play rhythmically before you can
play soulfully; you must first be able to keep time before you can
attempt to express color and emotion through any fluctuation of rhythm.
One depends on the other, therefore time and rhythm come first; when
these are well under control, not before, we can go further and enter
the wider field of tonal variety.

Rhythm is one of the pianist's most important assets, something he
cannot do without. It might be said that the possession of a
well-developed rhythmic sense is one point in which the artist differs
greatly from the amateur. The latter thinks nothing of breaking the
rhythm at any time and place that suits his fancy; while the artist is
usually conscientious about such matters, because his time sense is more
highly developed. A perfect time sense is often inherent in the artist,
a part of the natural gift which he has cultivated to such a high state
of achievement. It may be he has never had any difficulty with this
particular point in piano playing, while the amateur has constantly to
struggle with problems of time and rhythm.

THE METRONOME

When the subject of using such a mechanical aid as the metronome to
cultivate rhythmic sense, is broached to the executive artist, it does
not always meet with an assenting response. With such bred-in-the-bone
sense of time as the artist commands, it is little wonder he takes no
great interest in mechanical time-beating. Josef Hofmann's censure of
the metronome was probably due to his inborn rhythmic and artistic
sense; yet his words have doubtless had their effect on many students,
who, lacking his sense of rhythm, would have been greatly benefited by
its use.

Godowsky, when asked his opinion of the metronome, replied: "I
assuredly approve of its use; I have even devoted a chapter to the
metronome in the _Progressive Series_, my great work on piano playing."
Edwin Hughes remarks: "If pupils have naturally a poor sense of rhythm,
there is no remedy equal to practising with the metronome, using it
daily until results are evident, when there can be a judicious letting
up of the discipline. The mechanical sense of rhythm, the ability to
count and to group the notes of a piece correctly, can be taught to any
person, if one has the patience; but for the delicate rhythmic _nuances_
required by a Chopin Mazourka or a Viennese Valse, a special rhythmic
gift is necessary."

Artists and teachers who have come under Leschetizky's i