Piano and Song | Page 5

a fine touch on
the piano; that is, to make the tones sound as beautiful as possible. I
shall show you how to sit at the piano and how to hold your hands. You
will learn the names of the black keys and the scale of C, with the
half-step from the 3d to the 4th and also that from the 7th to the 8th,
which latter is called the leading note, which leads into C. (This is quite
important for my method, for in this way the different keys can be
clearly explained.) You will learn to find the chord of C in the bass and
the treble, and to strike them with both hands together. And then in the
third or fourth lesson, after you know quite perfectly all that I have
already taught you, I will teach you to play a little piece that will please
you, and then you will really be a player, a pianist.
FRIEND. From whom have you learned all this? It goes like the
lightning-train.
DOMINIE. A great many people can learn what is to be taught; but
how it is to be taught I have only found out by devoting my whole mind,
with real love and constant thought, to the musical improvement and
general mental development of my pupils. The advancement will
unquestionably be rapid, for it proceeds step by step, and one thing is
founded upon another; the pupil learns every thing quietly, thoughtfully,
and surely, without going roundabout, without any hindrances and
mistakes to be unlearned. I never try to teach too much or too little; and,
in teaching each thing, I try to prepare and lay the foundation for other

things to be afterwards learned. I consider it very important not to try to
cram the child's memory with the teacher's wisdom (as is often done in
a crude and harsh way); but I endeavor to excite the pupil's mind, to
interest it, and to let it develop itself, and not to degrade it to a mere
machine. I do not require the practice of a vague, dreary, time and mind
killing piano-jingling, in which way, as I see, your little Susie was
obliged to learn; but I observe a musical method, and in doing this
always keep strictly in view the individuality and gradual development
of the pupil. In more advanced instruction, I even take an interest in the
general culture and disposition of the pupil, and improve every
opportunity to call forth the sense of beauty, and continually to aid in
the intellectual development.
FRIEND. But where are the notes all this time?
DOMINIE. Before that, we have a great deal to do that is interesting
and agreeable. I keep constantly in view the formation of a good
technique; but I do not make piano-playing distasteful to the pupil by
urging her to a useless and senseless mechanical "practising." I may
perhaps teach the treble notes after the first six months or after sixty or
eighty lessons, but I teach them in my own peculiar way, so that the
pupil's mind may be kept constantly active. With my own daughters I
did not teach the treble notes till the end of the first year's instruction,
the bass notes several months later.
FRIEND. But what did you do meanwhile?
DOMINIE. You really ought to be able to answer that question for
yourself after hearing this lesson, and what I have said about it. I have
cultivated a musical taste in my pupils, and almost taught them to be
skilful, good players, without knowing a note. I have taught a correct,
light touch of the keys from the fingers, and of whole chords from the
wrist; to this I have added the scales in all the keys; but these should
not be taught at first, with both hands together. The pupil may
gradually acquire the habit of practising them together later; but it is
not desirable to insist on this too early, for in playing the scales with
both hands together the weakness of the fourth finger is concealed, and
the attention distracted from the feeble tones, and the result is an

unequal and poor scale.
At the same time, I have in every way cultivated the sense of time, and
taught the division of the bars. I have helped the pupils to invent little
cadences with the dominant and sub-dominant and even little exercises,
to their great delight and advantage; and I have, of course, at the same
time insisted on the use of the correct fingering. You see that, in order
to become practical, I begin with the theory. So, for instance, I teach
the pupil to find the triad and the dominant chord of the seventh, with
their transpositions in every key, and to practise them