Music As A Language | Page 4

become smaller, an advantage for the more detailed work.
It is important to note that the best results in ear-training will only be obtained if the classes do not exceed twenty-five pupils in number.
2. Voice Production and Songs.
These classes can be larger without prejudice to the work, but the above classification as to age is desirable. Children between four and seven years of age will probably learn songs connected with their kindergarten work, so it is difficult to say exactly the amount of time to be spent in song lessons, as the work will overlap. Those between eight and twelve should have one song and voice production lesson a week, of not less than twenty minutes. Those over thirteen will probably be working at more difficult songs, and will need not less than thirty minutes once a week.
3. Instrumental Work.
It is very desirable that all children up to the age of eight who are learning an instrument should do so in a class for the first year, rather than in individual lessons. Much of the fundamental work at an instrument can become wearisome to a young child unless taken in company with others of the same age.
A practical consideration involved is that this makes it possible to charge a smaller fee for each pupil, and this fact may influence a parent to let a child begin an instrument earlier than would otherwise be the case.
It has been found that children started in this way develop much more rapidly than if they had individual lessons. The stimulus of class work for the average child cannot be over-estimated.
When this preliminary year's work is over, the child can go on either to three twenty-minute lessons a week by itself, or two half-hours. If ear-training is being done at the same time, it is possible to shorten the amount of instrumental practice each day. In few cases should it be allowed to exceed half an hour up to the age of thirteen, and in many cases twenty minutes is found sufficient.
After the age of thirteen it is again possible, as was the case with the ear-training work, to distinguish between the musical children and the others. The former should increase the amount of practising each day; the latter, if they continue to learn, should not exceed half an hour. The piano lessons will in most cases consist of two half-hours a week.
4. _Concerts, Music Clubs, &c._
It is a good plan to arrange for a short recital to be given every term, at which not only the more advanced pupils will play, but children at all stages of development. It is wise to insist on all music being played by heart, as in this way an invaluable training will be given from the very first.
In the case of a prize-giving or large school function it is of course necessary to show only the best work.
A music club is a great stimulus to the musical life of a school. A good plan is to arrange a series of short lectures on such subjects as the origins of harmony, acoustics, the chief difference between music of different schools and periods, &c., and to follow these by accounts of the lives and works of the great composers. Children are delighted to come to such meetings, especially if their aid be asked in illustrating the lectures by playing specimens of the music referred to.
In the organization of musical work in a school it is of the utmost importance that there should be a central musical authority, responsible for bringing all those engaged in the teaching into touch with each other. If this be done, not only will overlapping of work in the various classes and lessons be avoided, but a driving force of musical comradeship will be initiated which will produce a genuine musical atmosphere.


CHAPTER III
THE TEACHING OF VOICE PRODUCTION AND SONGS
It is perhaps more rare to find a successful teacher of songs than of any other subject in the school curriculum. There are many reasons for this. In many cases a visiting teacher takes the work, who finds it difficult to learn the names of all the children in one lesson a week, and who therefore starts at a disadvantage. Then the size of the class for songs is always larger than that of classes in other subjects, and there is therefore more inducement to inattention on the part of the children.
Nothing is more pitiful than to see a young, inexperienced mistress grappling with a large class of healthy, restless children, who know from experience that the weekly song lesson may be turned to good account for their own little games!
There is, of course, the born teacher, who sends an electric shock through the room directly she enters it, and who, without asking for it, secures instant silence and