children. Experience has proved that when a class is ready for anything
beyond the very simplest time values it can leave the Sol-fa notation
altogether, and keep entirely to the staff notation. This is, of course,
an advantage, and is what is being aimed at.

The other point is connected with the use of what are called
'bridge-notes'. When a modulation is introduced which entails a fairly
long reference to a new key, the note leading directly to it is of
course accidental in the first key and diatonic in the second. This is
called a bridge-note, and must be thought of in two ways, first in the
old key, then in the new. Thus its name must be changed, as a prelude to
using the new pivot.

Now, in teaching staff notation it is neither wise nor necessary to
introduce extended modulations very early. The aim is to make it
possible for children to sing fairly easy melodies in all keys, major
and minor, with incidental modulations, as soon as possible--then to
revise the work, introducing more difficult modulations. This end will
be attained by deferring the use of bridge-notes until the children are
ready to sing melodies in the minor keys which modulate to the relative
major. If the above-mentioned plan for the treatment of the minor key
be adopted, bridge-notes will be essential at this stage, and the
melodies, at any rate at first, cannot be sung without their aid. A
further reference to this matter is given in the chapter on the teaching
of sight-singing.




CHAPTER V