there will be no cause to regret their vitality.




CHAPTER XIII

THE TEACHING OF THE PIANO


It is impossible, within the limits of a chapter, to do more than dwell
on a few practical points connected with the teaching and organization
of this work in a school. As was said in the preceding chapter, the
ideal for all young children who are about to learn the piano is that
they should first go through a short course of ear-training. If this be
done, the progress in the first year's work will be about three times
what it would otherwise be. If the ear-training be done along the lines
suggested in earlier chapters, the child will have been taught to sing
easy melodies at sight, she will have approached the question of time by
means of the French time names, she will have learned to beat time with
the proper conductor's beat, to find notes on the piano, and, what is
more important, to know these notes by sound, in relation to fixed
notes.

In this way some of the processes which a child goes through in
beginning to learn the piano are taken one at a time, in company with
other children, and are therefore not hurried.

When the time has come to begin the piano, the child should join a
_class_ for this for one year. Such a class should not exceed six in