and we shall be well repaid for all the trouble. Gradually we shall
become better listeners--but about listening we are to speak in our
next Talk. This, however, may be said now: Let us always be sure to
listen with special care to two tones, calling one the tonic, or
first, of the major scale and finding what degree the other is, or
near what degree it lies. This will make us better acquainted with the
scale and we shall learn that all the music we have comes out of it.

We must also listen to tones so that we can tell something about them
besides their scale names. We must learn to describe tones, tell
whether they are high or low, sweet or harsh, loud or soft, long or
short. For instance, through the window I can hear a church-bell. Some
one is ringing it slowly so that the tones are long. The tone is not a
very high one (it is G above middle C) and the quality is rich and
mellow. This describes the church-bell tone quite well, and in like
manner we may describe all the sounds we hear. We should make it a
habit often to stand or to sit perfectly still and to listen to
everything that goes on about us. Even in the country, where all seems
as quiet as possible, we shall be surprised at the great number of
sounds.

There are some other tones to which I fear we are prone not to listen.
I mean the tones which the piano makes when we play finger-exercises.
We think perhaps of the finger motion, which is not all; or we think
of nothing, which is very bad; or our thoughts begin to picture other
things even while we play, which is the worst of all, and bit by bit
we actually forget what we are doing. One of the quickest ways to
become unable to hear sounds correctly is to play the piano without
thinking fully of what we are doing. Therefore it must be a rule never
to play a tone without listening acutely to it. If in the first days