Music As A Language | Page 8

complicated time notation of all but
the first sets of exercises. Directly subdivisions of the beat are
introduced the notation becomes difficult to read without putting a
strain on the eyes. The little dots, dashes, commas, &c., worry children.
Experience has proved that when a class is ready for anything beyond
the very simplest time values it can leave the Sol-fa notation altogether,
and keep entirely to the staff notation. This is, of course, an advantage,
and is what is being aimed at.
The other point is connected with the use of what are called
'bridge-notes'. When a modulation is introduced which entails a fairly
long reference to a new key, the note leading directly to it is of course
accidental in the first key and diatonic in the second. This is called a
bridge-note, and must be thought of in two ways, first in the old key,
then in the new. Thus its name must be changed, as a prelude to using
the new pivot.
Now, in teaching staff notation it is neither wise nor necessary to
introduce extended modulations very early. The aim is to make it
possible for children to sing fairly easy melodies in all keys, major and
minor, with incidental modulations, as soon as possible--then to revise
the work, introducing more difficult modulations. This end will be

attained by deferring the use of bridge-notes until the children are ready
to sing melodies in the minor keys which modulate to the relative major.
If the above-mentioned plan for the treatment of the minor key be
adopted, bridge-notes will be essential at this stage, and the melodies,
at any rate at first, cannot be sung without their aid. A further reference
to this matter is given in the chapter on the teaching of sight-singing.


CHAPTER V
FIRST LESSONS TO BEGINNERS IN EAR-TRAINING
The form of these lessons will vary slightly according to the ages of the
children. We will suppose these to lie between seven and nine years,
when the children can read and write.
At the first lesson the scale of C major should be played, from middle
C to high C, ascending only. Then repeat middle C, and stop on it a
little. Do this three or four times, telling the children to count the notes
as you play up the scale. When they are all sure that eight notes have
been played, ask them why they think you repeated the middle C at the
end. They will probably say: 'To make it sound finished.' In other
words, they have grasped the 'mental effect' of the key-note in every
key, the pivot round which the other notes revolve. Give the hand sign
for this note, according to the Sol-fa plan, and tell the children that the
note is called doh. Now repeat the scale, but this time play it from high
C to middle C, repeating the high C at the end. The children will see at
once what has happened, and that the high C now 'finishes' the passage.
Thus it will be called 'high _doh_', and the hand sign will be repeated,
but at a higher level. Be careful not to bend the hand at the wrist when
giving this sign, or the effect of finality and repose will be lost.
At the second lesson, repeat this work, the children telling you what to
do. Then make eight large dots on the blackboard, and against the first
and eighth of these write doh and _doh'_. Now play the first five notes

of the scale, and repeat the first as before. Ask how many notes were
played. Then play them again, but starting from the fifth downwards,
and repeat the fifth at the end. Ask the children why they think you did
this. At first they will not be able to express what they feel, but
gradually the idea will emerge that you want to call attention to
something of interest. People often call to each other by singing up a
fifth. The new note is sharp and bright in sound when related to the
key-note. Hence the hand sign. Give the name soh, and write it against
the fifth dot on the board. The children should now sing from the three
hand signs known, also from the notes on the board. They should also
identify the notes when played in groups of two and three on the piano.
When they can do all this easily, the next note, the third of the scale, is
taken in the same way. The 'mental effect' is calm and soothing, hence
the hand sign. In addition to singing from the hand signs, and from the
Sol-fa 'modulator' which is gradually being constructed on the board,
the children can now sing from the horizontal Sol-fa notation, and from