Music As A Language | Page 5

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 eager attention. Such people are rare, and it
must be our task now to give a few practical suggestions to those less
fortunate people who do not possess the innate gift, but who are willing
to learn.
To begin with, the teacher of songs must have real personality; and if
she does not possess this by nature, she must do her best to develop
what she has. She must be full of vitality, she must understand children,
and, above all, she must be genuinely fond of music, in such a way that
she cannot do without it. The last qualification often implies a certain
sensitiveness, which finds a difficulty in accommodating itself to a
workaday world, where people have little time, or inclination, to study
the 'moods' of others. Very artistic people are a well-known difficulty
to the authorities of schools. In order to excel in their art, they must not
only have a 'capacity for taking pains', but a reserve store of emotional
force, on which they draw for self-expression through their art. Now
the possession of such a reserve store does not always imply a power of

keeping it in reserve! During the course of training the attention of such
people should be directed to the high ideals underlying all true
educational work; they should realize the real function of music in
education--that it is not to be taken as a mere accomplishment, or
technical art, but as a means of self-expression.
We will now consider a special case. Let us suppose that a new
mistress is taking a song lesson with a large class of children, who have
the reputation of being troublesome to manage. On entering the
classroom it is a good plan to go straight to the platform, without
speaking a word to the children on the way, whatever they may be
doing. From this vantage ground the teacher should look the class over
for a few seconds, still without speaking. There is nothing more
impressive to a restless class than the sight of a mistress not in the least
disturbed by their doings, yet taking everything in. If the mistress has
cultivated a sense of repose and self-confidence this action on her part
will produce the feeling of a centre of force in the room--and the force
will radiate from her. The children, without knowing exactly what has
happened, will feel different, and will be pliant and easy to manage.
Directly the mistress is conscious of this change of atmosphere she can
start the lesson. But she must now gradually merge her personality into
that of the class--she must work with them, not outside them. It is
difficult to put this idea into words, but all real teachers will see the
meaning. There is no driving force to equal that which works from
within a community--not from without.
Now for the lesson itself.
It should start with a few simple exercises in voice production.
Excellent suggestions for these will be found in a little book called
Class Singing for Schools, with a preface by Sir Charles Stanford,
published by Stainer & Bell, also in the Board of Education
Memorandum on Music. A special point must be dwelt on. Children
should never be allowed to use the chest register. Their voices should
be trained downwards. In the singing of scales there should be a leap to,
or a start on, a note high enough to be out of the chest register--such as
the high E[b]. The descending scale should then be sung. Breathing

exercises should be taken at the beginning of the lesson. A good
exercise is to exhale on the sound 'sh'. The children will stand in easy
positions for this, the hands on the ribs, so that they can feel the ribs
expanding and contracting during inhalation and exhalation. The
shoulders should be kept down. The advantage in using the sound 'sh' is
that the teacher can thereby tell how long each child makes its breath
last.
When these exercises are finished, and a few scales and passages have
been sung, the class should sit down while the teacher speaks about the
new song to be sung. In schools where sight-singing is taken as part of
the