ld then
pursue general or special studies at home. I often wish the music
student's education in this country could be arranged as it is in at
least one of the great music schools in Russia. There the mornings are
given to music, while general studies are taken up later in the day. It
is really a serious problem, here in America, this fitting in music with
other studies. Both public and private schools try to cover so much
ground that there is very little time left for music or anything else.
The music pupil also needs to know musical literature, history and
biography, to be familiar with the lives and writings of the great
composers. Take the letters and literary articles of Robert Schumann,
for instance. How interesting and inspiring they are!

"In regard to methods in piano study my principles are based wholly upon
my observations of Leschetizky's work with me personally, or with
others. What I know he has taught me; what I have achieved I owe to
him. My first eight weeks in Vienna were spent in learning, first, to
control position and condition of hands and arms according to the law of
balance; secondly, to direct each motion with the utmost accuracy and
speed. To accomplish this I began with the most elementary exercises in
five-finger position, using one finger at a time. Then came the
principles of the scale, arpeggios, chords and octaves. All these things
were continued until every principle was mastered. I practised at first
an hour a day, then increased the amount as my hands grew stronger and
the number of exercises increased.

"Next came the study of tone production in various forms, a good quality
invariably being the result of a free condition of the arm combined with
strength of fingers and hands.

"The Leschetizky principles seem to me the most perfect and correct in
every particular. Yes, there are several books of the method, by
different authors, but I teach the principles without a book. The
principles themselves are the essential things. I aim to build up the
hand, to make it strong and dependable in every part, to fill out the
weak places and equalize it. That this may be thoroughly and
successfully accomplished, I require that nothing but technical
exercises be used for the first nine, ten, or twelve weeks. We begin
with the simplest exercises, one finger at a time, then two, three and
so on through the hand. I believe in thus devoting all the practise time
to technic, for a certain period, so