piano teaching and study, is as much the fault of the teacher as the
pupil. The latter is usually willing to be shown and anxious to learn.
It is for the teacher to correctly diagnose the case and administer the
most efficient remedy.

[Illustration: To Miss Harriett Brower with the kindest of remembrances,
Sigismond Stojowski New York, April 1913]


NATURAL TECHNIC

"There is a certain amount of what I might call 'natural technic'
possessed by every one--some one point which is easy for him. It Is
often the trill. It has frequently come under my notice that players
with little facility in other ways, can make a good trill. Some singers
have this gift; Mme. Melba is one who never had to study a trill, for
she was born with a nightingale in her throat. I knew a young man in
London who was evidently born with an aptitude for octaves. He had
wonderful wrists, and could make countless repetitions of the octave
without the least fatigue. He never had to practise octaves, they came
to him naturally.

"The teacher's work is both corrective and constructive. He must see
what is wrong and be able to correct it. Like a physician, he should
find the weak and deficient parts and build them up. He should have some
remedy at his command that will fit the needs of each pupil.

"I give very few études, and those I administer in homeopathic doses. It
is not necessary to play through a mass of études to become a good
pianist. Much of the necessary technic may be learned from the pieces