touch, which alone can produce a good execution, will come of itself,
through the practice of études and scales. Even with masters, it is
unusual to meet with a sound, fine, unexceptionable touch, like that of
Field and Moscheles, and among the more recent that of Thalberg, Chopin,
Mendelssohn, and Henselt.

I will speak now of the selection of pieces. Our ladies are not
contented to play simple music, which presents few difficulties and
requires no involved fingering; and from which they might gradually
advance by correct and persevering study to more difficult pieces. They
at once seize upon grand compositions by Beethoven, C.M. von Weber,
Mendelssohn, Chopin, and others, and select also, for the sake of
variety, the bravoura pieces of Liszt, Thalberg, Henselt, &c. How can
they expect to obtain a command of such pieces, when their early
education was insufficient for our exalted demands in mechanical skill,
and their subsequent instruction has also been faulty and without
method?

If you were to request me to supply in some degree your own
deficiencies, before I proceed to the further education of your
daughter, I should not begin with the wisdom of our friend Mr. Buffalo:
"Madam, you must every day practise the major and minor scales, in all
the keys, with both hands at once, and also in thirds and in sixths; and
you must work three or four hours daily at études of Clementi, Cramer,
and Moscheles; otherwise, your playing will never amount to any thing."

Such advice has frequently been given by teachers like Mr. Buffalo, and
is still daily insisted on; but we will, for the present, set such
nonsense aside. I shall, in the first place, endeavor to improve your
touch, which is too thin, feeble, and incorrect; which makes too much