musical children sing at sight alone from time to time.

Now, if those who have 'picked up' the knowledge of sight-singing
without knowing how they did it be asked to explain how they arrive at
their intervals, it will be found that _tonality_ plays a large part in
their consciousness. In other words, they are perfectly certain of their
key-note, and at any moment could sing it, even after complicated
passages.

This fact is the root of the Sol-fa system. The child is taught to think
of all the notes of the scale in relation to the key-note. A very
sensible objection is sometimes raised to this, i.e. that it must surely
entail a great deal of detachment from the matter in hand if the mind
has to grope for the key-note between every two consecutive notes of a
melody. But this process becomes automatic very quickly. We are not
conscious of references to the multiplication tables every time we do a
sum, yet we could not do the sum without these. And it is the same with
the Sol-fa system. The child need very rarely actually _sing_ the
key-note when considering another note, she refers the latter to it
unconsciously.

There is one curious anomaly in the orthodox Sol-fa system, which has
caused a good deal of amusement to its critics, and has ended by causing
a cleavage on the part of many who are otherwise in cordial agreement
with the broad lines of the method. This is concerned with the treatment
of the minor key. The orthodox Sol-fa teacher relates the notes of the
minor scale, not to the key-note, but to the third of the scale, i.e. to
the key-note of the relative major. The confusion which this plan
produces in the sense of tonality can readily be imagined. When singing
in major keys the pupils are told to refer all notes to the key-note for