neglected.

"Of course I advise comprehensive scale practise; scales in all keys and
in various rhythms and touches. There is an almost endless variety of
ways to play scales. 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