The first lessons in form should consist of the analysis of simple
tunes, preferably of the Folk Song type. The forms known as AB, ABA, and
the variants derived from these will be explained, and the class will
write examples of each, at first not harmonizing the melodies, but
afterwards doing so. The old dance forms will then be taken. At this
stage it is absolutely necessary for those of the class who are musical,
and who wish to give a little extra time to music, to go through a
course of strict harmony and counterpoint; endless time will be wasted
if they do not do so. The work will be very much lightened because of
the foundation already laid, for, without knowing it, the children have
been doing a little free counterpoint for some time, when they added
vocal parts to a given melody, and their knowledge of practical harmony
will make it possible for them to take many a short cut in the formal
work.

The dance forms, together with very simple fugues and contrapuntal
studies, and a few 'free' exercises in songs and short pieces, will be
as far as the majority of children will get in the study of composition.
But there will always be a few in each class who will be eager and able
to go farther, and to begin the study of sonata form. For such children,
and certainly for all teachers of music, there can be no better
text-book than Hadow's _Sonata Form_, published in the Novello Primer
Series. This book is often described as 'more exciting than a novel'!
Somervell's Charts for Harmony and Counterpoint are also most valuable,
and will save the necessity of a text-book in these subjects--at any
rate for the beginner, who works under guidance.

There is one curious fact about all but the most musical children when
they begin to _write down_ tunes of their own composition. They make
mistakes which they have never made when _extemporizing_ the same type