Music As A Language | Page 6

extent that the effect of their singing was electrical; and it was all due to the few words he said before the song was sung, not to any corrections he made later. It is not necessary for a teacher to conduct the songs all the time during the lesson, or the fact that the class is expected to watch the baton tends to make them rigid in their attitudes, and therefore, to a certain extent, in their singing. The best results are obtained when a class stands to sing. Some well-meaning teachers forget that the children have probably been sitting in their classrooms for the greater part of the morning, and are only too glad to stand for a change. They can sit between the songs, when finding their places, and so on.
Songs should be chosen in which the pitch is not too low. Many people have the mistaken idea that young children cannot sing high. Listen to their shouts in the playground, to the notes they use when calling to each other, and this idea will soon be corrected. The lowest note in the voice of a young child is generally E, and it can take the high F or G quite easily.
Droners should not be allowed to sing with the rest of the class, or the pitch will be lost at once, to say nothing of the spoiling of the general effect.
Flat singing is often due to bad ventilation of the room, more often still to boredom. A good plan in this case is to raise the pitch a semitone; it is often just as easy for singing, and invariably produces a sense of cheerfulness.
Children should never be allowed to sing loudly, especially when very young. It is most difficult to cure the habit when once formed. Attention should be paid to articulation from the very first. A useful lesson is taught the class if, from time to time, half of them go to the end of the room, and, with closed books, listen to their companions singing a verse of a song which is new to them. The difficulty they experience in following the words will not soon be forgotten.
Attacks should be absolutely precise. The two-and three-part contrapuntal singing which is done in the sight-singing classes is admirable for this, as the whole effect is blurred or entirely spoilt in such clear-cut work by a false entry.
For all large school functions, such as a prize-giving, the songs should be sung by heart. This is not necessary in ordinary class work, as the aim there is to teach as many good songs as possible, in order to form a standard of real musical literature. But at the set performance nothing is more delightful than to see children rise, and, without any flapping of pages, or uncomfortable attitudes for seeing the words in a book, sing straight from their hearts. However simple the music or the words, the effect will be well worth the little additional trouble.
Our last consideration is that of the songs to be chosen to learn. Little children should rarely sing anything but unison songs. Folk-songs, such as those edited by Cecil Sharp and others, and, for the very little ones, traditional nursery rhymes and game songs are the best. From the ages of ten to fourteen years such books as Boosey's National Songs or Songs of Britain should be the staple work, while for older children the great classical songs may be added. A good book for these is the Golden Treasury, published by Boosey.
Songs by living composers should be strictly limited in number, though not excluded. These have not stood the test of time. We teach Shakespeare in our literature classes, not a modern poet--the essays of Bacon, not those of a modern essayist. And our reason is that the only way to create a standard of taste is to take our children to the classical fountains of prose and poetry. We must do the same in music.


CHAPTER IV
THE SOL-FA METHOD
To those who are not accustomed to the Sol-fa notation it appears at first sight a useless encumbrance. Excellent arguments are produced for this view. Many musical people can scarcely remember when they could not sing at sight and write melodies from dictation. They picked up this knowledge instinctively, and cannot see why others should not do the same. Unfortunately everybody has not proved able to do so, hence a multitude of 'methods' for teaching them.
The most familiar of these consisted in trying to teach the pupil to sing intervals, as intervals, at sight. Thirds, fifths, sixths, &c. were diligently practised. But pupils did not always find it easy to sing these intervals from all notes of the scale, unless in sequence. The major third from doh to me seemed easier than that from