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356              THE DISCOVERY OF THE CHILD

It is a great help to be able to * handle * the notes (that is, the
objects which produce them), all alike in every respect (except in
sound), separating them, mixing them up and putting them together
again, because it represents the notes in material form, in the same
way as for the other objects used in the education of the senses.
The next thing to do is to attach its name to the note, as the children
did in similar exercises. The names do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si, are
incised on separate wooden discs (representing the signs of the
notes) and the children place one at the foot of each bell, according
to its sound. In this way the child, by the repetition of the exercise*
learns with certainty the names pertaining to the sounds. The
discs which bear the names of the notes are thus not only signs to
be arranged on the musical scale, but first of all are signs which
signify a sound. When the children begin to study the notes on
the scale, they will therefore do it as a written exercise based on
musical facts already known.

In order that the child may be able to work alone, helped by
his love of touching objects and moving them about, we have
prepared for him a wooden board, on which are hollowed out
circular spaces, corresponding to the places occupied by the notes
do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si, do. Into these spaces there can be inserted
the discs corresponding to the notes which bear the names of them
written on the upper face. To get the placing correct there is a
corresponding number (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8) in every space and on
the under face of every disc. In this way the child, by placing
the objects according to the numbers, finds that he has set out on
the scale all the notes of an octave.

For another exercise there exists another board of wood like
the first but without the hollows and their numbers; accompanying
this board there is a box of unnumbered discs, each of which has
the name of a note inscribed on its upper face. The same name
is repeated on several discs. The exercise tests the child's memory
for the positions of the notes and proceeds thus. The discs are
put into position as they chance to come to hand, each in its place
on the stave, but as they are made to rest on the face which bears