Grade school music teaching; for superintendents, music supervisors, and grade teachers

GRADE SCHOOL
MUSIC TEACHING

FOR SUPERINTENDENTS,

MUSIC SUPERVISORS,
AND GRADE TEACHERS

BY

ifl^GIDDINGS

SUPERVISOR OF MUSIC, PUBLIC SCHOOLS, MINNEAPOLIS

PUBLISHED BY

C. H. CONGDON

200 FIFTH AVE., NEW YORK

Copyright, 1919

BY T. P. GIDDINGS

MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.

93o

TO MY FORMER SUPERINTENDENT

W. H. HATCH,

WHO SO PATIENTLY AND HELPFULLY
GUIDED MY EARLY TEACHING, THIS
BOOK IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. EFFICIENCY 1

II. SINGING 9

III. ROTE SINGING 24

IV. RHYTHM 34

V. READING Music 51

VI. INDIVIDUAL SINGING .... 72

VII. BEGINNING SIGHT SINGING . . 97

VIII. EAR TRAINING .... .121

IX. THEORY 146

X. VOICE TESTING 156

XI. VOICE TRAINING 181

XII. MATERIAL 198

XIII. CONCERTS AND ENTERTAINMENTS 207

XIV. CONDUCTING 220

XV. GRADE SCHOOL ORCHESTRAS AND

BANDS 229

XVI. INSTRUMENTAL CLASSES . , . 244

XVII. APPRECIATION. MRS. FRYBERGER . 247

INTRODUCTION

Mr. Giddings is one of those teachers who
insist on making sight-singing a necessary part
of music education. Those who cannot read
words are classed as "illiterates," and Mr. Gid-
dings makes the same classification in music.

Wherever music is taught, either in private
or public schools, much time is spent in doing
something with the notation. Mr. Giddings
believes that instead of surrounding it with
a veil of mystery and wasting time on stunts
this part of the music period should be em-
ployed in the most effective way possible in
teaching the children to read, and that all
vagueness as to the meaning of the symbols
of music bhould be removed from the minds
of the pupils. Mr. Giddings lets the class drive
ahead and "learn to read by reading." He
cuts out all unnecessary effort and focuses the
attention of the pupils on the work they are
expected to do, whether it be singing by note,
learning a rote song, "finishing off a piece" or
vii

viii INTRODUCTION

anything else that legitimately belongs to music
teaching.

In doing this, Mr. Giddings uses pure song
material as a medium, believing that the best
way to inspire soulful singing is to bring the
soul of the child in contact with the soul of
the composer without obtruding too much
soul-less talk about soul.

There is a great deal of soulful singing in
the Minneapolis schools, but it is not without
a foundation of good sense coupled with hard
work which gives joy to all concerned.

C. H. CONGDON.

GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC
TEACHING

CHAPTER I

EFFICIENCY

EFFICIENCY means using the easiest, short-
est, and most effectual way of doing any-
thing, either mental or physical, whether it
be calculating the transit of Venus or making
change for a dollar, building a battleship or
washing a dish. It means watching every
movement to see that it counts and that the
most work is -accomplished with the least
expenditure of time and energy.

This applies to all work, both mental and
physical, done in the schoolroom, and it should
be the study of every teacher to turn the atten-
tion of every pupil to the way he does his
work as well as to the correctness of the result.
The pupil should be developing good life
habits rather than merely finding correct an-
1

2 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

swers to problems. A teacher who allows a
pupil to work in awkward, ineffectual ways,
no matter how good the result, is doing the
pupil a lasting injury.

INITIATIVE

One of the best ways to secure efficiency is
to develop the initiative of the child as early
as possible. Teachers seldom do this. They
do altogether too much directing. Indeed,
they are so apt to direct every move the pupil
makes that the average class would be wholly
unable to leave the building at all unless some
teacher stood near and said "turn, stand, pass"
at them. This is especially true of the lower
grades. It has its logical result in the upper
grades and is the principal reason for all the
criticism directed toward the inefficiency of
children after they leave school.

It is not the course of study that is so
much at fault (although that may be open to
criticism), as it is the manner in which the
subjects are handled. The pupil is so seldom
allowed to use and develop his own initiative
that he has none to show when he leaves school

EFFICIENCY 3

and has constantly to be directed in doing the
simplest operations.

EFFICIENCY IS NOW THE WATCHWORD

Of many schools and it is high time that
this watchword became universal. The chil-
dren have been permitted to come to school
and to learn to dawdle instead of work. The
first thing the schools should teach children
is how to work. We can make the child do
anything, but that is not the point. We must
make him want to work by giving him a mo-
tive and then showing him the best and
easiest method of accomplishment. But as the
motive cannot always be made plain at first,
we should not weakly wait until the pupil
wants to do a thing before requiring him to
do it. We should see that the children work
faithfully at whatever they are doing and they
will soon see that it is worth while. The
following incident well illustrates this point:

Some years ago a freshman in a high school
would not have his voice tested. He was
stubborn, so I took him to the principal, who
was one of the most gentle of men. ^He was

4 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

also a good psychologist, and his amazing
exhibition of this faculty fairly took my
breath away. Without a word as to why we
were there, he leaped from his chair and
shouted at the trembling youth: "What are
you doing in my office? Go straight back to
your class and do whatever any teacher tells
you to do and never show your face in this
office again." We turned and went. When
we arrived at a secluded place, I stopped and
tested his voice. He offered no objection.
He returned to his class and the teacher put
him on the front seat. Later, he gravitated
to the back seat. His teacher soon reported
him to be the most interested one in the class
and he became one of the head pushers in the
High School chorus. All he needed was a
jolt. When he got that, he found that music
was a fascinating subject and one that well
repaid hard work.

Efficiency is a study that taxes the keenest
minds and conversely it is a study that will
make all minds keen. Teachers should not
only study the subject matter but should also
study how to teach it in the shortest and best

EFFICIENCY 5

way and at the same time teach the children
to think out the easiest and the best way of
doing their work.

There is the story of the man who never
laid a brick in his life, but after watching an
old bricklayer work, he taught the old hand
how to lay bricks four times as fast with half
the labor. Children need the same kind of
supervision and training.

Some years ago I had the good fortune to
teach with a red-headed teacher who knew how
to teach efficiency. She got her work done
with less fuss and feathers and less wasted
time than any other teacher I ever saw. On
the blackboard was the program for the day.
When the clock pointed to the time indicated
for the beginning of a lesson, she simply
tapped once with her pencil to turn one lesson
off and the next one on. The pupils hated her
the first day or two, but at the end of a week
they all liked her. At the end of the first
month they adored her and at the end of the
year every pupil passed. In addition to their
book knowledge, the pupils had learned some-
thing infinitely better— they knew how to

6 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

work. They also knew the value of time.
These pupils usually finished the work of
their grade a couple of months ahead of time.
This teacher's method was very simple. She
studied "efficiency," but it was before the day
this word was invented. Her first task with
a new set of pupils was to teach them to elimi-
nate all false motions and to waste no time. I
owe her a deep debt of gratitude, for she taught
me a lesson.

MUSIC AN EFFICIENCY STUDY

It may strike many people, especially mu-
sicians, as a great surprise to learn that music
is the best ' 'efficiency study" in the curriculum.

One of the reasons why music furnishes
excellent mental training is the fact that to
be a good musician, or reader of vocal music,
a pupil must do several things at once. This
is plainly brought out in the chapter on individ-
ual work and in several other places. The
great reason music is valuable is the fact that
the pupil must think in time. He must train
his mind to think rhythmically and rapidly.
In every other study the pupil may go as

EFFICIENCY 7

rapidly or as slowly as he pleases, but in music
the time is set and his mind must keep up.

MUSIC, THE GAUGE OF A TEACHER

Not only is music a fine efficiency study for
the children, but it is one of the best tests of a
teacher's ability to handle a school. If the
teacher is weak in discipline, or slow mentally,
the music lesson is the first to show it. Every
weakness in the management of the class will
stick out like a sore thumb when the music
supervisor arrives.

Efficiency must, of course, begin with the
teacher. A stream rises no higher than its
source and if the teacher is inefficient, it is
hopeless to expect anything else from the
pupils.

I know a high school teacher who is so effi-
cient that she teaches her six classes daily and
never has a paper left over to correct after
school. She does this while she is hearing
recitations. I have seen her listen to a French
class with one ear, a German class with the
other, and correct papers at the same time and
never miss a mistake. It seems impossible,

8 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

but she says it is simple, and it looks simple
when you see her do it. She says it is only
using your brain as it was intended to be
used. One of her secrets is that the pupil
and not the teacher does the reciting.

There are "efficiency hints" all through this
book, and the music teacher who wishes to
make her teaching efficient should make a care-
ful study of the way these suggestions may
be carried out.

CHAPTER II

SINGING

ONE of the main essentials of school music
work is the proper use of the singing voice.
It is the first thing the pupil must learn. If
he does not sing with a smooth, pleasant tone,
the so-called music he makes will not only
sound unpleasant, but he will be unable to
correctly hear the tones he is making; his ear
will not develop as it should, nor will he learn
to read music accurately or rapidly.

Since it is very important that pupils should
habitually use a smooth, pleasant tone, let us
find out what is required to produce such tones.

While establishing smooth singing, or at any
other time, it is perfect folly to give the pupils
any breathing exercises. These usually make
the trouble worse, as they call attention to
taking in the breath. It is not inhaling that
the pupil needs to practice ; he can do that well
enough already. He must learn to send out
9

10 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

the breath slowly and evenly. Teach him this
by allowing him to practice singing long,
smooth phrases in songs.

If nothing is said about inhalation, but much
attention is given to singing long, smooth
tones and phrases, the pupil will soon learn
to take just enough breath and no more, and
all his attention will be centered on the thing
he must learn — the ability to exhale properly.
In order that the pupil may know that he is
doing this, let him put the ends of the fingers
of the left hand on the middle of the front of
the waist line, with the thumb of the same hand
on the fifth or sixth rib as far back as it will
reach without moving the fingers from their
position. Now let the pupil hold a tone as
long as he can easily with one breath and no-
tice what his rib and waist muscles are doing.
The smallest child will observe that the ribs
and waist muscles are sinking in, steadily.
The next step is to teach the pupil to sing a
song and make these muscles sink in exactly
the same way on each phrase. This must be
practiced until the choppy singing disappears
and the use of the long, smooth tone becomes

SINGING

11

12 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

a habit. The teacher will often have to re-
sort to little helps to get the child to do this
habitually. If necessary the teacher should
take the young children, one by one, and by
putting her fingers on the child's ribs and her
thumb on the front middle of the waist line,
exert a gentle pressure as he sings, thus teach-
ing him how to move the muscles steadily.
As soon as one child learns this, let him teach
another in turn and so on until all have learned
it.

PHRASING

Phrasing is the habit of singing all the
words of the same phrase with one breath,
thus bringing out the meaning of the words
and music. The method of breathing, already
described, makes perfect phrasing possible. It
applies to language reading as well as singing
and it should be taught in language reading
the same as in singing. It will often be found
that the waist muscles jerk at each syllable.
This must be eliminated and the child taught
to move his muscles steadily, no matter how
many words he sings to each breath.

SINGING 13

In all dictation exercises, make it a rule
that the pupil must hold the tone called for
until the teacher says "stop" or tells him to
do something else. This device can be used
in many ways and will be spoken of later.

Do not be afraid to teach even the smallest
child how to breathe properly. The kinder-
garten child can learn this as well and as
quickly as the high school student. Care
must be taken that pupils do not raise and
lower their chests in singing. Placing one
hand on the chest will soon obviate any motion
of this kind.

IMPORTANCE OF SMOOTH SINGING

The success of school singing depends more
on smooth tones than on anything else. Good
expression is impossible without it.

Smooth tone is as important in teaching the
reading of music as it is in teaching expression,
as the following incident will show, which hap-
pened while I was visiting schools in a city
far from home. I discovered on this journey
that many supervisors do not work. They
watch the teachers do it. It struck me as a

14 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

fine thing for the supervisor but not very good
for the grade teacher or the pupils. Super-
visors are supposed to be experts in their line,
and to see from them a little expert music
teaching occasionally might be good for both
grade teachers and pupils.

The grade teacher blushingly took the class
as we filed in. The supervisor walked to the
back of the room and eyed her stonily. The
lesson was a song in two parts and the pupils
(sixth grade) were exceptionally bright. In
the alto was a passage that had "sol," "sharp
sol," and "la" in succession. Instead of go-
ing up from "sol" to "sharp sol" they went
down and sang "sharp fa." The pupils joy-
ously yelled or barked the song correctly in all
but this place. It was enough to deafen one.
The teacher blushed still more as she explained
that the pupils had made the same mistake the
day before while they were learning the song
and she had been unable to get them to change
it. Then she commenced to drill them on
their mistake. They sang "sol," "la," and
"sharp sol" correctly when she called for them
in that order, but when she called for them in

SINGING 15

the order in which they occurred in the song,
they invariably went down and sang "sharp fa"
instead of "sharp sol." She had them yell
these notes over and over for several minutes
and then gave it up. The supervisor then
took the class and drilled them in exactly the
same way for several minutes more with ex-
actly the same result. Neither of them had
found the trouble. The supervisor then
asked me to take the class. I refused at first,
as I did not wish to make myself obnoxious,
but finally consented.

The first thing I asked the pupils to do
was to sing softly and to hold the tone
asked for until I either called for another
or said "stop." I then called for "sol." They
gave one bark and stopped. I reminded them
that I had not said "stop." They tried again
and held the tone as long and as loudly as they
could with one breath. I reminded them
again that I had not said "stop." One of the
pupils remarked that his breath was all gone.
I said, "Can't you take another?" They saw
the point. Then I explained to them that not
only must they sing until I said "stop" but

16 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

they must be careful to leave no gap between
the tones called for, also they should sing
softly. I then called for "sol," "la," "sharp
sol," "la." Then very slowly: "sol," "sharp
sol," "la" and they got it right. Then I told
the altos to sing the same thing from the book
very slowly and smoothly. They did so. The
soprano was then added and the song was cor-
rectly sung. Hardly a minute was consumed.
The trouble was that the children's tones were
so disconnected that they could not make the
necessary comparison.

The habit of singing smoothly and with
connected tones should be well established as
early as the kindergarten. It will remain a
habit if the pupils are watched carefully all
through their school life. In any grade the.
pupils should often test their singing both by
ear and by placing the hand as already ex-
plained. This is especially necessary in read-
ing new music as pupils are very prone to sing
jerkily on a new song.

If the pupil can once get the idea that the
rib and abdominal muscles set going an end-
less stream of tone that flows steadily and un-

SINGING 17

interruptedly as long as the breath lasts and
that this stream of tone simply takes the
syllables and words that are thrown into it
by the lips and tongue, the "bel Canto" habit
will be a reality. It is similar to the stream
that flows smoothly by as one, sitting on the
bank, sprinkles flowers upon its bosom. The
stream does not stop nor hesitate but picks up
whatever is cast upon its surface and carries
it along. The stream is the tone and the words
and syllables are the flowers and leaves the
singer throws upon it.

READING NEW MUSIC IS HARD WORK

Reading music is hard mental work and a
child needs to be thoroughly awake and under
perfect self control, both mental and physical,
to be able to do it well. The deep, steady
breathing necessary to smooth, good tone in-
duces exactly this state of mind. When a
pupil is in this state, he can read music rapidly
and well because both mind and body are
working harmoniously. Unsteady tones indi-
cate unsteady muscles and unsteady muscles
indicate an unsteady mind. One reacts upon

18 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

the other. One cannot hope to get good read-
ing until this calm mental and physical state is
attained and the sign of it is always the smooth,
steady, beautiful tone. This cannot be too
thoroughly emphasized.

SECOND GRADE

Smooth singing and singing to the end of
the phrase with one breath is especially im-
portant when beginning the reading of music
in the second grade. I have seen a class of
second grade pupils read page after page of
simple music at sight with rarely a mistake,
the sixth week of music reading. Other sec-
ond grade classes floundered and were able to
accomplish but little at the end of six months.
The difference was due entirely to the smooth-
ness of tone. With smooth tone there is al-
ways attention. Without it, there never is.

CAN CHILDREN SING

An eminent physician says that a child can-
not sing: he only chirps. Another says that
a child should not try to sing when too young
as his larynx is too small and unsteady. If

SINGING 19

either of these eminent authorities had been
a voice teacher of the right kind and had taken
a few young children and shown them how to
use their rib and abdominal muscles, they
would have changed their minds at once and
would have known that the smallest child can
learn to sing smoothly. The one who said
that a child's larynx is too weak to stand the
strain of quiet singing must have lived a singu-
larly sheltered life if he never heard a baby
squall, or a child yell. The singing a child
does in school, when the work is properly
carried on, requires but a tithe of the number
of pounds pressure a child puts on his vocal
chords in yelling or crying.

BEL CANTO

Bel Canto is a magic term that singers often
use and a quality they seldom show. It is
nothing more or less than smooth, quiet sing-
ing, brought to its logical development. Every
child that goes to the public schools should
learn it and use it all his life. Any kinder-
garten or first grade child can learn it and if
he does not it is the fault of his teacher. If

20 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

this smooth use of the voice becomes habitual
in childhood, the good voices will develop and
the world will have more fine singers than at
present. It is quite probable that much of
Adelina Patti's wonderful success lay in the
fact that she had the proper early training. To
be sure, she came from a family of singers,
but it is also true that she was taught to use
her voice correctly as soon as she was able to
talk plainly. The school should do the same
for every child.

SINGING AND MOTION SONGS

If the habit of smooth singing is formed on
slow songs, the same habit can be applied to
rapid ones and the tone will still remain smooth.
Smooth singing cannot be maintained with
motion songs because the breath cannot be ex-
haled slowly and steadily while the singer is
making motions. He needs to breathe more
rapidly to sustain life when in motion and as
this spoils the steady, slow breathing, the
smooth singing tone disappears. Teachers
sometimes toil to establish a smooth tone and
a few minutes later let the pupils dance and

SINGING 21

sing at the same time and wonder why the
singing does not sound well. This trouble is
very widespread and should be stopped. I do
not mean to stop the motion songs or the folk
dances if they are done in a sane manner.
They are very interesting to children, but as
usually done ruin the singing tone. It is easy
enough to supply the music with the piano or
when that is not available, let half the pupils
sing and the rest motion. In this way all will
be happy and the singing will not be spoiled.

BEATING TIME VOCALLY

Another villainous misuse of the voice is
sometimes perpetrated. At the risk of be-
coming known as an old he-gossip, I will il-
lustrate this by telling of another visit I made
to a distant city some time ago. This super-
visor recognized but one element of vocal mu-
sic arid that was rhythm. The uncanny part
of it was that although this man was a fine
singer himself, he made his pupils beat time
with their voices, the beats being induced by
abdominal convulsions. The singing sounded
like a series of vocal explosions. This

22 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

teacher believed in ear-training, so of
course he wanted the children to hear the
rhythm. All heard it but the "stone deaf" and
they must have felt the vibrations.

This supervisor did not believe in beating
time with the hand or doing it in any other
way. I have forgotten his reason. He con-
fided to me that the tone might have been bet-
ter. He had a perfect ear himself and he
was worried because the pupils did not sing
in tune. How could they have been expected
to sing in tune when they never had sung in
their school lives and had never heard two
tones long enough or near enough together
to compare them to see if they were in tune.

It is amazing how little mechanical sense a
supervisor must possess when he allows such
work in his schools, since a little reasoning
would show that good tone is impossible when
the pupils beat time with their voices. We
are all apt to exaggerate the importance of one
of the things of which music is composed and
spoil the rest. Symmetrical development
should be our constant aim.

Necessary as smooth singing is in the lower

SINGING 23

grades, where only one part music is sung, it
is even more important when taking up two,
three, and four-part music. If there is trouble
here, and there usually is, it is due to lack of
proper singing habits on the part of the pupils.
If they can make smooth, long tones and have
learned to listen well, they will have very little
trouble learning part singing, if the music is
suitable.

CHAPTER III

ROTE SINGING

WHEN a child first comes to school he has
a vocabulary sufficient to carry on an intelli-
gent conversation, and he is ready to begin at
once to learn to read. But since he knows
little or nothing about music, he must first
learn to sing a good many songs by rote and
thus acquire what might be called a musical
vocabulary, and also have the opportunity of
listening to good music, both vocal and instru-
mental, before he is ready to begin to learn
to read music.

With the child's music sense thoroughly
awakened (the music sense includes rhythm),
he can enjoy hearing good music and will
readily learn to express himself in song.
The child's first experience in singing should
be with simple songs and when he begins to
sing by notation, easy song material should
be the basis of his work.
24

ROTE SINGING 25

Marching, dancing, and other physical ex-
pressions of rhythm may be used to advantage
by the children, but they should never be a
part of the singing lesson unless such exer-
cises are performed by a part of the class that
is not singing.

The young child should be taught the cor-
rect use of the singing voice and it will be
found that it is much easier to teach this at
the age of six than it is at the age of sixteen.
Any grade teacher can train the child voice
properly if she will follow the plan explained
in the chapter on singing.

Until the singing habit is well established
teach only rote songs that are short and simple,
slow and sustained. There should be some
wide intervals and many holds. The wide
intervals will be heard more readily than the
small ones and the holds will help teach the
children the singing tone as well as to sing
in tune. The following song meets these re-
quirements and is an excellent one to begin
with.

26 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

CALLING MARY

"WILL EARHART

if irrrirrri

Ma - ry! Hark, I am call-ing you!

ir r r ir i

Ma - ry! Where can she be?

Prom Congdon Music Primer Number One

The rhythm may be changed without appre-
ciable harm and the jumps of an octave are ex-
cellent for ear training.

PRESENTING A ROTE SONG

The teacher should sing a new song through
once to the class. Sing it very smoothly and
enunciate the words very distinctly. Do not
talk about it, let the song speak for itself. If
the song is suitable and you have sung it
properly, the pupils will know all about it.
After you have sung the song through once
sing phrase by phrase and have them repeat
each phrase. The children should learn to
do this without being told each time. Self

ROTE SINGING 27

direction should be learned early by the pupils.

In singing phrases of a rote song, require the
pupils to repeat them correctly after hearing
them once. The habit of attention is the first
thing a pupil should acquire in school and the
attention a teacher requires while teaching rote
songs is a sure indication of her teaching
ability.

If the pupils do not repeat the phrase cor-
rectly after hearing it once, look for the cause.
Usually it is the fault of the teacher.

There are a number of reasons why the
phrases are not repeated correctly after once
hearing. The phrase may have been too long.
You may not have been clear in your singing
or articulation. You may have sung too
rapidly. The pupils may not have been pay-
ing attention.

Teach the first song phrase by phrase —
until the class can sing it as a whole. The
teacher should never sing with her pupils and
the piano should not be played until they have
learned the song. It is a great mistake to sing
with the children while they are learning to
memorize.

28 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

WHY TEACH SINGING?

As soon as the class as a whole can sing
this first song correctly, let individuals try it.
When you have found a few who can get
through this song, take them one by one and
teach them how to sing, as explained in the
chapter on singing. I am well aware that
many will rise up and yell that this plan will
make the child self-conscious and will so
ruffle the pinfeathers of his spirit that his soul
will be unable to soar to the realms of song.
Turn a deaf ear to all such. Teach the child
how- to sing and keep him at it until it be-
comes a habit. Then he will be able to express
his emotions in song because he will have a
singing machine that will respond to his emo-
tions. Until he has such a machine at his com-
mand he will be unable to express anything.

POSITION IN SINGING

Let the pupils stand a part of the time when
they are singing. When sitting, the pupils
should sit erect with elbows far apart resting
on the desk and the hands lightly folded in
front. This brings them into a position that

ROTE SINGING 29

favors the correct use of the breathing muscles.
It will be noticed that some of the girls raise
the chest when taking breath. ( See chapter on
singing.)

When the proper use of the voice is estab-
lished on the first song, a number of other songs
of like character should be taught. Great care
should be taken that the phrasing is perfect
and the tone smooth the first time the pupils
sing the song.

When the smooth singing habit is well estab-
lished on the slow songs the teacher may in-
crease the speed of the songs and select more
rapid ones. Great care must be taken that the
pupils continue to use the smooth tone no mat-
ter how rapidly they sing.

ARTICULATION

Nothing has been said so far about articula-
tion and very likely it will be found that the
words are already spoken plainly. Good ar-
ticulation can easily be obtained if the tone is
smooth and steady. If the words are not
plain, simply tell the pupils to move their lips
so that the teacher can see what they are say-

30 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

ing. Do not tell the children, however, to say
the words so that you can hear them, since
that will bring out a stronger tone. You are
working for distinctness, which means more
marked and rapid movements of the articulat-
ing muscles and not a louder tone. Be very
careful also when pupils are trying to articu-
late well that they do not commence to jerk
their rib and waist muscles, as this will destroy
their singing tone and will also destroy the
effect of good articulation. No matter how
well the words may be articulated, they will
not be clearly heard unless they have a smooth,
pure tone to travel on. If teachers would
apply this principle to the reading of language
and especially to phonic drills the reading of
the pupils would sound infinitely better and
they would learn to read in a very much shorter
time.

MONOTONES

More will be said about monotones and out
of tunes in another place, but it will be found
that as soon as all the children have learned to
carry a smooth tone, most of these unfortunate

ROTE SINGING 31

pupils will be reclaimed. This means that the
slow, smooth tone they have used has educated
their ears and singing muscles so that most of
them sing in tune.

COMPASS OF SONGS

This is a sore subject, for few composers
seem to know that children of the kindergarten
or first grade should never sing below "E"
(first line) or "F." They may safely sing to
the "G" above the staff.

A child voice has two registers — the chest
and head. They might also be called the sing-
ing and howling registers. Between these two
registers there is a movable break and if the
child is permitted to sing loudly he will push
his chest register up as far as the song goes.
If he is taught to sing softly the song, com-
mencing on "E" or "F" (first line or first
space) will be sung in the head register and
there will be no trouble. With the head tone
properly used, the children can sing safely
from "E" (first line) to "G" (space above).

All teachers should read that excellent book
by F. E. Howard, "The Child Voice in Song"

32 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

(published by Novello). Adopt the principles
he so well explains, but do not use the exer-
cises he advocates. They are not needed.

The number of songs taught in the first
grade varies greatly. Teachers sometimes say
that it depends upon the children they happen
to have, but it depends almost entirely upon
the habits the teacher has allowed them to form.
If the pupils learned attention and smooth tone
the first thing upon entering school, they will
have no difficulty in memorizing at least fifty
songs the first year. Of kindergartens I can-
not speak with much authority, as I have had
little experience with them, but the same prin-
ciple should hold good there. After two
months in school the pupils should be able to
learn a short song after hearing it once.

Teachers should not be discouraged by the
fact that a class may sing a song perfectly at
the first lesson and then partially forget it the
next day. This habit will soon pass. Sev-
eral new songs should be started at the same
time. Do not attempt to finish one song per-
fectly before beginning another; this will

ROTE SINGING 33

make the pupils slow. They can learn sev-
eral at a time as rapidly as one.

The singing teacher and the kindergarten
and first grade teachers often clash over mo-
tion songs and rhythm games. This is
brought out in the chapter on singing. In
order to sing \vell the child must exhale
smoothly and very slowly. He can do this
if he is standing or sitting still. He will be
able to take breath enough to sustain life and
sing, if he has nothing else to do. Let him
make a few motions and his heart beats faster,
his breath must come more quickly to aerate
his blood and the singing is impossible.

But the teachers say the pupils like motion
songs. Of course they do. They like to play
leap frog but they should not sing while they
are doing it. If we are to have motion songs,
let half of the class do the motions and the
other half sing.

CHAPTER IV

RHYTHM

RHYTHM is a most important part of music
and is the part that is most often misunder-
stood and mistaught. It is the second element
to be considered in teaching the reading of
vocal music.

Music is made up of time and tune. Time is
the framework upon which the tune hangs.

All teachers wish their pupils to develop
rapid, accurate thinking habits. Rhythm will
do this if correctly taught. Music is the only
study in which rapid, rhythmic thinking is re-
quired. When a class or a pupil sings a pas-
sage, be sure that the time goes on steadily, no
matter how many notes are miscalled.

Many supervisors and teachers do not agree
upon this. They are apt to think the tone is
the important thing. The frame of a build-
ing is always firmly in place before the orna-
mentation is applied. It is the same with
34

RHYTHM 35

music. The time is the frame and the tones
are the ornamentation. No matter how lovely
the coloring, the painted picture will be a
failure if the drawing is faulty.

A listener does not easily detect mistakes in
tone. A mistake in time is noted by the dullest
ear. A missing shingle is seen by few, but if
the roof is caved in or the frame of a house
is out of plumb, even a casual observer will no-
tice it. The musical frame (time) must be
built before you can lay on the tones.

The pupil sings many slow, smooth songs in
the kindergarten and first grade to awaken his
ear and establish the singing tone. Many of
the later songs in these grades should be faster
and of more pronounced rhythm. Children
should hear many faster and more intricate
rhythms than the ones they are able to sing.
Let these be given on the piano or other in-
struments.

Teachers often allow pupils to wave their
hands, dance and prance, and go through many
elaborate motions as music is played. Such
rhythm exercises are fine as plays, dances, and
other physical exercises, but if one thinks that

36 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

these performances are going to help the pupils
read rhythm later, they will be disappointed.

Do not have the children clap their hands
while they are singing, hoping it will help
them later in trying to read rhythm. It will
not do it. Do not teach children to beat time
while they are singing rote songs, thinking it
will help them later in reading. It will not.
In the first grade, do no time work in the sing-
ing lesson, except to have the pupils sing their
rote songs with a smooth, pleasant tone in
perfect time and tune.

SECOND GRADE

When pupils begin note reading in the second
grade, they should point to the notes with the
extended first finger of the right hand. The
wrist should lie flat on the desk and the hand
should move down and up from the wrist
joint, the first finger pointing once to each one
beat note and twice to each two beat note, etc.
The three other fingers should be closed and
the extended thumb pressed against the middle
joint of the extended first finger and against
the side of the closed second finger. This will

RHYTHM

37

compel the pupil to move the hand from the
wrist joint. If he moves but the extended
first finger, the rhythm will probably be uneven.
If his whole forearm moves, he will be unable
to place the finger under the notes with ac-
curacy.

Beating time should be very accurately done
and the habit should be established once and
for all. With the wrist lying on the desk,
the hand should take the two positions alter-

38 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

nately as shown in the accompanying pic-
tures, the finger making an arc of not more
than three inches at each beat. The forearm

should lie easily on the desk or desk and book.
The hand should move down and up with
a quick, snappy movement and the pauses at
the bottom and top should be well marked.
The movements should be exactly equal in time.
Many of the pupils will put the hand down and
let it bounce up instantly like the motion of a

RHYTHM 39

chicken picking up a grain of corn. This
should not be allowed.

The steady motion should become a habit
as soon as possible, and the teacher should
watch carefully to see that it never flags, no
matter if the music the pupil is reading is easy
or hard.

The teacher should bear in mind that the
pupil is not learning any particular piece but
is establishing a habit and she should see that
every hand moves in time, no matter how many
mistakes the pupil makes in miscalling notes
or singing wrong tones. This is a very vital
matter, and the teacher who allows a pupil to
read new music while beating time in a vague
way or not at all, and who allows the time to
be jerky and uneven, as the pupil stops to
think out the notes, will never get good re-
sults. Her pupils will never read music well.
Worst of all, the pupils are developing shift-
less mental habits. If pupils stop or vary
the time to get the notes right, they lose the
best and most valuable part of the music les-
son. We are trying to teach the child to do
steady, rapid thinking. We are trying to train

40 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

his mind to work when he wants it to. Music
is the only subject where thinking in carefully
regulated rhythm is required. To lose this
training is not only to lose the best part of the
music lesson, but the music itself will be poor.
I cannot repeat this too often nor emphasize
this point too strongly.

Does it ever occur to the teacher that when
she uses the oft-heard expression, "Stop and
think," she is telling the child to do a very
foolish thing? The child should learn to skip
right along and think as he goes. Two sisters,
one good and the other practical, left their
front door just as the bell rang for school.

"Oh! There is the school bell," said the
good one. "We better kneel right down and
pray that we won't be late."

"Huh !" said the practical one. "We better
skip right along and pray as we go."

Moral : Make your pupils "skip along" in
time, thinking notes and tones as they go, and
they will arrive at the happy land of music
reading with better mental habits and be there
far sooner than if they stopped to "think."

RHYTHM 41

VALUE OF BEATING TIME

Beating time, as outlined above, does a num-
ber of things for the pupil. It is also valuable
to the teacher. As the child beats time, the
teacher will have a good idea of what he is
thinking as she watches his pointing finger.
If the finger has a vague way of moving down
and up, the teacher may be perfectly sure that
the child has a very hazy idea of the time, and
beating time should be drilled upon until the
child's hand goes down and up from the
wrist at every beat, and the movement is a
distinct and snappy one. The finger should
point directly under the notes or rests. In
this way the teacher may be sure that the child
knows what he is doing and is not guessing or
following the other pupils or remembering the
tune.

I once visited the music work in a large city
where the pupils had never pointed to the notes
and had done very little individual work.
They beat time down, left, right, up, in the
good old-fashioned way and their reading and
rhythm were both very poor. The supervisor

42 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

asked me what was the matter and I suggested
that we find out what the children really knew
about their music by asking them to point to
the notes as they read some new work. It was
a horrible exhibition of what they didn't know.
Even in the upper grades, few of the pupils
knew what they were doing. This supervisor
contended that pupils could not be expected to
point correctly. I contended that they would
point all right as soon as they really knew
what notes they were singing, but not until
then. Later this supervisor wrote me that his
pupils had learned to point correctly, to the
great improvement of their rhythm and music
reading. If these pupils had been required to
point to the notes in all the new music they
sang, the teacher would have noticed their lack
of knowledge, even if they did no individual
singing, and would have corrected the weak-
ness.

READING WORDS

When pupils are singing the words of a new
song for the first time, pointing is still more
important, as the teacher can then tell whether

RHYTHM 43

the pupils are thinking the syllable names of
the notes as they sing the words or are merely
trying to remember the tune. In putting
words to the tune, the pupil must say the syl-
lable names mentally as he sings the words.
If this is not done, he merely guesses, remem-
bers the tune, or copies the other pupils. It is
not reading music when he does any of these
things. The position of the hand should be
changed when the pupil sings words. The
outside edge of the right hand should be laid
on the book above the music, the extended first
finger pointed toward the body, and the rhythm
of the song given by rolling the hand. This
will give a down and up motion to the ex-
tended first finger, showing the rhythm of the
song and also showing unfailingly whether the
pupil is thinking the syllable name of the note
or not.

The words of a song are usually printed be-
low the notes so the pupil should point above
the notes. It is the note we want him to see
before he sees the word, so that he will have to
think the tone he is to sing before singing the
word. The way his finger points is a sure

44 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

index to his mental habit. If the end of the
finger falls a quarter or an eighth of an inch
exactly above the note, it is a sure sign that
the pupil has the note in mind and he will be
apt to sing the tone correctly. If the finger
falls on or below the note and covers it up, the
teacher may be very sure that the pupil is not
thinking what that note is. He is either trying
to remember the tune, guess at the note, or fol-
low his neighbor by ear. Teachers often fail
in these little points that sound so small and
unimportant. They fail to notice whether the
pupil's finger falls where it should or is an
eighth of an inch out of the way. It sounds
foolish to say that the variation of an eighth
of an inch in the falling of the end of a child's
finger makes any difference in his ability to
read music, but the fact remains that if the
finger does fall an eighth of an inch out of
the way, the child will not learn to read music
quickly or accurately. To the attentive
teacher, this eighth of an inch shows the
pupil's mental habit in music reading as plainly
as though she lifted the cover off his brain
and looked in. Perfection in anything is made

RHYTHM 45

up of many small exactnesses. The maker of
any machine has to be very exact in small de-
tails. The makers of mental machines should
be much more exact, but, alas, how many of
us are?

THIRD GRADE

The pupils in the third grade should point,
the same as in the second grade. Be sure that
the hand moves steadily, with a snappy motion,
down and up, pauses at the top and bottom of
the beats of equal length and that these two
motions are of exactly equal speed. If this
habit is perfectly established, the divided beat
will cause little trouble.

For years I have tried every new kind of
time beating I could hear of or devise, but
after trying them all, I still continue to use the
one invented by F. E. Howard. It is the
one outlined above and one of the best phases
is its application to the divided beat.

DIVIDED BEAT

The divided beat should not come too early;
the last half of the third grade is early enough.

46 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

The first half of the fourth grade is better.
The teacher should still bear in mind that she
is not trying to teach rhythm. The pupil
knows rhythm already. He is trying to learn
to read rhythm and that is quite another mat-
ter. Pupils will have little trouble in reading
the more rapid rhythms if they can sing the
notes fast enough at sight.

To return to our text of teaching the divided
beat, select some simple song that contains ex-
amples of two notes to a beat and have the
pupils learn it by ear as a pattern song. Let
them point to the notes as you sing the song
for them. They will soon see that two half-
beat notes go to one beat. Now is the time to
show them that when they point to a one-beat
note, they make two motions of the hand, a
down and an up. These motions have been
going on before their eyes for a year or two,
but they have not seen them.

When the fact is well established that the
finger makes both a down and an up motion
to each beat while pointing to the notes, then
show the pupils that the hand goes down while
they sing the first note to the beat and comes

RHYTHM 47

up while they sing the second note to the beat.
If they see this plainly, the pupils will have no
trouble with divided beats. When they make
mistakes in the rhythm, they should try to
rectify the mistakes by singing the song again.
If this fails, the offending measure or meas-
ures may be placed on the blackboard and
practiced until the pupils can do them cor-
rectly. Many teachers pick out the hard
measures and practice them beforehand, but
this is poor teaching. Pupils should learn to
do by doing and not by getting ready to do.

It will be found at this stage that most of
the pupils look only at the heads of the notes
and do not see the stems at all. In introduc-
ing the divided beat, it is necessary, of course,
to explain the significance of the stems and
their relative time value.

A steady and rapid tempo should be main-
tained while the pupils are reading new music,
otherwise the rhythm will be abnormal. The
pointing finger should touch the page for each
beat as before. When there are two notes to
the beat, it should touch under and between the
two.

48 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

THE BEAT AND A HALF NOTE

When the beat and a half note (a dotted
quarter followed by an eighth) appears, it will
only be necessary to show the pupils that the
hand goes down and up while they sing the
quarter, down on the dot and up on the eighth
note. In singing the dotted eighth followed
by a sixteenth to one beat, the hand should go
down on the eighth and up on the dot as they
would beat a quarter note except that the six-
teenth note is "thrown in" before the hand goes
down again. When the smaller divisions of
time occur, like the triplet and four notes to
the beat, the pupils should be so well advanced
in reading rhythm that these groups will give
no trouble.

A new rhythmic problem should be taught
by ear and eye at the same time. That is,
when the pupils take up a new rhythm for the
first time the teacher should sing it for them
and at the same time show them how to beat
the time while they are looking at the notes.
This carries out the idea of teaching new prob-
lems by the pattern method,

RHYTHM 49

MEASURE

The measure need not be taught further than
to let the pupil know that the space between
the two bars represents the measure and the
finger points as many times in each space as
the measure calls for. Before this, he has
thought of the individual notes and he has kept
his time by giving the time of each note. It
will now be well to have the pupil learn meas-
ures a little more plainly because in the more
rapid reading now encountered, they will need
this check to know where they are.

ACCENT

Accent takes care of itself if the voices are
smooth and steady. Accent should never be
mentioned as such. When the tone is smooth
and the music sung in perfect time, the accent
will appear. When accent is taught sepa-
rately, it is apt to spoil the singing.

When the song begins on the second or up
half of the beat, the pupils should be drilled
to begin in different ways. First, they may
put the finger on the book under the note and

50 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

bring it up when the teacher says "sing."
Second, they may beat time before singing and
the teacher may say "sing" as the hand goes
down and the pupils may sing as the hand
comes up. This makes for mental alertness
on the part of both teacher and pupil. It is
well to drill on both ways. The teacher should
never beat time when the class is sight-singing.
They must keep their time unaided.

CHAPTER V

READING MUSIC

WHY do we learn to read music? For the
same reason we learn to read books; namely,
to know the content. Every one likes music
more or less, though in this age of mechani-
cally reproduced music, it is said that the mind
is becoming lazy and music reading is on the
wane. Nevertheless, there is in every one a
desire to do things for himself that no mechan-
ical device can ever overcome.

REASON FOR READING MUSIC

President Eliot said that there should be
more of the practical subjects taught like music
and drawing, and less grammar and arithmetic
and that music rightly taught is the best "mind
trainer" on the whole list. He might have
added that music is used more in after life
than anything else the pupil learns in school
except reading and writing.
51 .

52 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

We hear a great deal nowadays (it is right
that we should) about music appreciation. In
some places the reading of music has been
either eliminated or put off until late in school
life and the time is devoted to listening to
good music. In other schools a little reading
of music is done in the lower grades but most
of the time is taken up with rote songs because
the supervisor is afraid that if the pupils do
too much reading their musical natures will
not expand properly. A glance at the sister
study, language reading, will show to any
thinking person that this is all "piffle." We
teach the child to read as soon as he enters
school and we make him read as early and as
well as possible, so that he may know and ap-
preciate literature. A person who cannot read
has a very limited knowledge of literature, and
we take great pains to make books for even
the blind to read. The same principles apply
to the reading of music.

ELEMENTS OF READING MUSIC

The smooth, connected tone, explained in
the chapter on singing, and referred to in many

READING MUSIC 53

other places, must be used with every effort
the child makes to sing by note and should
always be the first consideration when he is
reading a new piece of music.

As rhythm is the framework of melody, so
it is the first element of music the child should
attempt to interpret from the printed page.
Rhythm should never be sacrificed for the cor-
rect reading of the notes.

The smooth singing tone, the rhythm and
the production of the correct pitch of the
tones represented by the notes must all be estab-
lished and maintained while applying words
to new music.

All this is meaningless, however, without
expression, which is the crowning feature of
good singing.

LOGICAL SEQUENCE

The foregoing considerations make clear thtf
logical sequence of the processes employed in
reading music, which are as follows : The
pupil should first learn to sing with perfectly
smooth, connected tones; second, he should
read the rhythm of the piece he is attempting

54 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

to sing by note; third, he should read the
notes accurately and sing the tones in correct
pitch; fourth, he should add the words; fifth,
he should interpret the meaning of the piece
and sing with expression.

This logical sequence may be expressed
briefly as follows: tone, time, notes, words,
expression.

When the pupil reads a new piece of music
perfectly, he carries on all five of these proc-
esses simultaneously. If he does not read
music well, the teacher may be sure that some
of these processes are either being overlooked
or developed in the wrong order. If the pupil
can do only one of them at a time, he must
make a smooth tone, no matter what he makes
it on. If he can do only two of them at a
time, he must make a smooth tone and read the
time correctly. If he can do three, it must
be smooth tone, correct time, and correct pitch.
Then come words and expression, as already
explained.

The question may arise in the mind of the
reader, How can a pupil keep on singing when
he cannot interpret the symbols rapidly

READING MUSIC 55

enough to produce a correct melody? This
may be answered by calling attention to the
teaching of writing by the arm movement. Of
course the pupil learning to write in this way
cannot form the letters accurately at first but
he is learning a freedom and speed of motion
that will enable him to write rapidly and with
a degree of accuracy and legibility that those
afflicted with the cramped finger habit cannot
attain. So in singing new music, the first
thing to be established is smooth, connected
tones. The pupil may aim at accuracy, but
this smoothness and continuity of tone should
not be interrupted.

ALWAYS MAKE MUSIC

It must not be forgotten that it is vocal music
we are teaching and in order to be interesting
to the child all his singing must be musical.
This should be true of new music as well as
the music he already knows. Even though he
makes many mistakes in the reading of new
music, it will have a pleasant sound if his voice
flows on in a smooth, connected singing tone.

Montessori and common sense tell us that

56 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

the time to teach a child is when he is ready to
learn. If he is not ready, it is very difficult
to make him learn anything. The average
child seems to possess a very effective, im-
pervious, and instantaneous curtain that he is
able to drop between himself and his teacher
whenever she tries to teach him anything that
is unnecessary. That is why the teacher
should study the child as well as the lesson
to find out what will make him open this cur-
tain as well as what makes him close it. She
must try to discover a way to make him want to
keep it open all the time.

SONG VS. SCALE

Years ago, in teaching children to read, they
were required to learn the alphabet first.
This took a long time and was very weari-
some. By and by some one had sense enough
to teach the child to read first and let him
learn his letters as he needed them. The great
pedagogical law that "children learn to do by
doing" was then applied to reading. The
child doesn't care about the letters, he only
wants to know what the book says. In find-

READING MUSIC 57

ing out what the book says, he learns his letters.

To read music the singer must have a knowl-
edge of the intervals of the diatonic scale. We
used to teach these intervals as the first ap-
proach to music reading. This was an exact
parallel to the old alphabet method of teach-
ing language reading. Finally, some bright
mind thought of applying to music reading
the same principle that had been discovered for
language reading and a great change appeared
in the speed and interest with which the chil-
dren learned to read music. This called for
better song material, and to-day the best songs
in existence, adaptable for school singing, are
available. In many cities and towns the an-
cient scale method still survives, and the pupils
are required to toil through pages of dreary
exercises, but in most schools excellent song
material is in use.

The pupil now learns to read music by read-
ing it and he becomes familiar with the nota-
tion by using it. This makes the work far
more interesting and every lesson is a real
music lesson. The product of the child's labor
is always available, for many of the songs lie

58 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

learns to read are memorized and added to his
repertoire. The manual training teachers
worked out the same thing years ago when they
quit teaching the use of tools first and let the
pupil learn to use tools by making something
Useful to take home and keep.

USE OF SYLLABLES

As there are tones and intervals to be learned
and notes to be read, the question naturally
arises, What shall we call them? Everything
the child uses has a name so each tone of the
scale must have a name. The Italian syllable
names for the tones of the scale are now used
almost universally. When properly used,
these syllable names are a great help and when
improperly used they are a great hindrance.
This fact gave rise to a bitter discussion that
has now nearly died out, as to whether the
syllable names should be used or not. This
discussion usually arose when some instru-
mentalist strayed into the field of vocal music
and tried to teach sight singing. Never hav-
ing used syllable names himself (he learned to
read music on some instrument and so did not

READING MUSIC 59

need them), he said they were of no use. He
forgot that when the voice is the only instru-
ment that is being used, the teacher and the
pupils alike need a set of names in order to
designate the tones. Teachers of sight singing
generally are accepting the syllable names as
almost indispensable.

Some teachers advocate the use of a common
syllable, others say that the pupils must learn
the intervals, so they begin by teaching the
minor second, the major second, etc. Some
say teach chords and others say let there be a
fixed "do" and sing everything from that.
How anyone has the patient cruelty to make
children swallow all these things I cannot
imagine. Why do they not look at history and
see who has taught people to read vocal music
most readily with the least effort? It was the
tonic sol-fa-ists. Apply the good points of
the tonic sol-fa system to the staff notation and
you have what experience has proved to be
the easiest and best way.

SINGING WORDS

As the pupil acquires skill in "singing by

60 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

note" it becomes unnecessary for him to give
audible expression to the syllable names;
nevertheless, if he thinks them subconsciously
and at all times, he is more certain of the
tones. Singing the words to new music adds
another mental process which the pupils must
carry on without dropping the ones already
established. If any of the processes already
learned are discarded to give place to new ones
added, the work will have to be done over again
•or the pupils will lapse into carelessness and
eventually go back to singing by ear. Many
teachers allow the pupils to sing the syllables
over and over until the tune is memorized and
then apply the words to the tune. Pupils will
never learn to apply words to music at sight
in this way. It is the failure of the teacher
to recognize this that gives rise to all doubt
as to the usefulness of syllables.

To test whether the pupil is doing this work,
look at his pointing finger as he is singing
words to new music (see page 42). Another
test is to say "note" suddenly. "Note" is the
signal for holding the tone with the syllable
name instead of the word. If the syllable does

READING MUSIC 61

not come instantly, it means that the singer is
guessing.

Carrying on several mental processes at the
same time is difficult and the pupil is prone to
get around it by recalling the tune and guess-
ing or listening to the other pupils.

Sight-reading by syllables should be done in
all the grades. The practice of singing old
songs by syllable is entirely useless except at
the beginning of sight singing (see page 102).

One of the most pitiable exhibitions of what
remembering the tune will do to musical chil-
dren occurred during one of my visits to a
distant city. In one of the seventh grades
the pupils sang a number of three-part songs
by syllable. Their voices were pleasant and
the parts were well balanced and clear. After
some time I asked the teacher to allow the
pupils to sing the words to the last song and
received the following amazing reply: "We
have only worked on this song two weeks and
I fear they are not ready for the words yet.
However, I will let them try." They did try
and made a very poor showing. I then asked
that the pupils sing something they had never

62 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

seen, words first. The teacher was "game"
though she told me she had never heard of
such a thing. She picked out a new song in
three parts and threw the pupils at it several
times, but they could not get beyond the first
chord. The trouble was they had always mem-
orized their tunes before putting the words to
them.

The next day we went back to the same
school and the supervisor was there. The
principal called the pupils from several of the
upper grade rooms to the assembly hall and
had them sing for an hour. During that hour
not a word was sung. All they did was to
sing old songs by syllable. This, of course,
only made the pupils more dependent on the
syllables. In either the song or scale method,
the use of syllables must be tempered with
wisdom.

TWO-PART SINGING

When two-part work is taken up, new prob-
lems are introduced and it is often discourag-
ing to find that some of the best pupils are
unable to sing the lower part. But if the in-

READING MUSIC 63

dividual work has been well done and the
pupils are ready readers, this trouble will soon
disappear.

When a pupil begins reading two-part music,
he is confronted with a number of new prob-
lems and for this reason the music must be
very simple at first. Each pupil must sing his
own part correctly and at the same time read
and listen to another part wholly different.
There is not enough simple material in any of
the books now on the market to allow the pupils
to do this successfully without much loss of
time. Beginning two-part work with rounds
and canons is of doubtful value, as in both
these forms of composition the tune is the same
for all parts and pupils are still "following the
tune" when singing them. Rounds are very
pleasing, however, and it is well to use them
but as an aid to two-part singing they are apt
to be a disappointment.

Equally futile are the exercises often given
with the two pointers from the blackboard or
from the modulator. They look well and the
teacher presents the impressive picture of do-
ing something, but the time could be spent to

64 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

better advantage in practicing two-part music,
using songs that are worth adding to the pupils'
repertoire.

Do not introduce two-part work too early.
The last half of the fourth grade is early
enough and the beginning of the fifth would
be even better. Most of the books and courses
of study call for it earlier, but it is not prac-
tical to force this work in the lower grades.
In beginning two-part work select a good,
simple song with slow rhythm and easy skips;
make two divisions of the class and assign the
parts accordingly. When the school has sung
the song correctly by syllable, let the pupils
take it by twos as outlined in the chapter on
individual work. All who are able to sing the
alto correctly in a duet should be seated in the
back seats.

It will be found that many of the pupils can
sing the alto correctly if they are helped in get-
ting started. Do not put such pupils in the
rear seats. Only those who are quick and
musical enough to take the tone as outlined in
the chapter on individual work should sit in

READING MUSIC 63

the back seats. In front of them put the ones
that can carry the alto with help.

After the school has been thoroughly tested
on several songs and seated as explained, they
are ready to advance. A great deal of duet
singing should be practiced. Maintain the
perfect singing tone at all times. This is
especially essential in part singing. The tones
must be long enough and smooth enough to
make a clear impression and insure good
intonation.

TUNING

When singing two or more parts it is not
sufficient to blow the pitch pipe and let the
school start as in one-part singing. The
added element of tuning must be recognized.
When the teacher blows the pitch pipe let that
be a signal for the school to find the chord
and hold it until the parts are in tune. Then
she may tap twice or say "sing" as a signal
to go ahead.

When pupils are singing new music in con-
cert, it is a good plan for the teacher to tap

66 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

once when the harmony sounds "muddy."
This tap means to stop beating time and
point to the note on which the tap oc-
curred; hold the tone steadily and look
at the teacher for a criticism. The teacher
may ask, "Is the chord wrong? Is the tone
unsteady? Do you hear all the parts?" If
one part is wrong the teacher may say, "Listen
and see which part is wrong." If this does
not bring the offending part into line, she may
signal the other parts to stop (palm toward the
pupils). This will leave the offending part
still sounding and the pupils can then more
easily hear and rectify their mistakes. When
this part is right, the teacher may then beckon
the other parts to come in, one at a time, until
all the parts are sounding again. Then she
may tap twice and send them on their way.
The pointing finger still under the note will
enable each pupil to find the place instantly.
This exercise, properly used, will do wonders
for the pupils in helping them to hear and see
all the parts of the composition at the same
time. It will also do wonders for the teacher,
who may be vague herself. Whenever the

READING MUSIC 67

teacher is not sure that the music is sung cor-
rectly, she should use this device. It will make
her a better musician. This plan should be
followed until both the teacher and pupils are
able to hear and read all the parts at once.
Then it may be laid aside. Over use is the
danger of all devices. This exercise will not
only improve the reading greatly but it will im-
prove the music because every chord can be
worked out until the intonation is perfect.
Orchestras, glee clubs, and choirs should use
this device a great deal for the improvement
of their work.

PART READING

Many supervisors and teachers resort to the
foolish practice of allowing a chorus to learn
one part at a time before the parts are sung
together. A little reflection will show the
futility of this plan. What is the pupil trying
to learn ? He is trying to learn to sing against
another part or parts. He is trying to learn
to read several parts at once. Remembering
music is not reading it. When one part at a
time is learned, it then becomes a memory proc-

68 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

ess. The parts must all be learned together,
allowing the pupils to pause occasionally, so
that all the parts can be heard clearly. It will
take longer to teach the first few pieces in this
way, but it will give the pupils power to read,
and in the long run more music can be learned
and learned better.

MATERIAL

These methods and devices will enable
pupils to read music readily and accurately if
there is plenty of material for them to read.
Here is the rub. In many places only one mu-
sic series is adopted and four or five books
furnish all the material the pupils use from
the first grade to the high school. Children
cannot learn to read music without an abun-
dance of good, well graded material. The
Israelites left Egypt because they had no mate-
rial with which to work. Modern civilization
should not require the unhappy music super-
visor to "make bricks without straw." In
language reading they deserted the one book
idea years ago.

It is bad to hammer on one piece until it is

READING MUSIC 69

learned by rote. Have several in the works at
once. It would be ideal, of course, if the
pupils could read each song once and get out
of it all there is in it — music, words, and ex-
pression— and then memorize the best songs.:
This is for the future, but it will be attained
some time. The music work should be done
artistically and the songs should be sung with
expression, but the pupils should learn to inter-
pret the expression and the artistry of the songs
as a part of sight singing.

Another plan that helps the reading of music
is to encourage the pupils to take their music
books home and learn to play their songs on the
piano. Many a child has taught himself to
play the piano without lessons by taking his
school music books home. With a little en-
couragement many will do this, to the infinite
betterment of the music in the schools. The
piano teacher will be benefited by this practice,
for after playing the tunes the school music
books afford, the pupil will want to take music
that is more distinctively for the piano and
the cause of music generally will be greatly
strengthened. The piano teacher will reap the

70 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

harvest of the added pupils and become a
booster for the school music instead of, as is
often the case, an enemy of the music super-
visor.

TIME TOO SHORT

The fifteen minutes a day usually doled out
for music by a superintendent who has never
been able to see the value of music in the
schools, does not give time enough to make the
music work what it should be, and every influ-
ence possible should be brought to bear on the
pupils to induce them to do work out of school.

Pupils leaving the eighth grade should be
able to read at sight four-part work like the
simpler choruses from the Messiah. Nothing
less should be accepted as reading ability from
eighth grade pupils. If there were half an
hour daily, the material ample, and the teach-
ing what it should be, this could be accom-
plished.

Not only would the music be excellent if the
pupils could do this, but the voices would be
ready for the voice teacher. The pupils' minds
would be far quicker than at present. They

READING MUSIC 71

would have initiative and self-possession, for
if a pupil can stand before others and read
new music well, he will never have the self-
conscious period we hear so much about and
which comes only because we have not given
him power.

CHAPTER VI

INDIVIDUAL SINGING

WE are trying to do a number of things in
school music work and one of the most im-
portant is that of teaching the pupils to read
music. The musical effect of the singing of
young children is usually best when they
are singing in concert and for this reason much
concert singing should be done. But few
pupils learn to read music while singing in con-
cert. That can only be learned individually.
After pupils can read music individually, they
may practice reading in concert with profit, but
even then the slow ones have little chance to
improve. The swift pupil will sing the tone
before the slow one has had time to think it
out and the tone of the good reader will go in
the poor one's ear and out his mouth and never
touch his brain at all.

Years ago pupils clasped hands, swayed back
imd forth, and recited their lessons in unison.'
72

INDIVIDUAL SINGING 73

This plan allowed a few leaders to do all the
work and kept the slow ones from learning
anything. This variety of poor teaching has
been largely laid aside, but it still survives in
school music and its survival explains the poor
results so often apparent in our public schools.

The necessity for individual work in music
has long been recognized and many schemes
have been tried to meet this demand.

When pupils do too much individual work,
they will not sing well together and when they
do too little, they will not read music well. In
this, as in all other things, there is the happy
medium to be sought.

DIFFICULTIES OF INDIVIDUAL WORK

It is sometimes difficult to get children to
sing alone. This depends, however, on the
way individual singing is presented. Children
realize the importance of doing things for
themselves and they will gladly sing alone if
individual work is put before them in the right
way and they are given time and practice
enough to do it well, for there is nothing in
the whole range of school work that children

74 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

like better than to display musical ability.
An old teacher once said, "It is an easy
thing to make a pupil stand up and do a thing.
It is far harder to make him stand up and
want to do it." This last is true discipline
and true discipline is what we are concerned
with in all our school work, especially in music.

MOTIVE

So let us look for the motive which will
make the pupil stand up and want to sing
alone. Then let us find the easiest and quick-
est way for him to do it. Of course, there is
the love of music and the love of singing and
all that, but let us look further and see if
there are not other things that also appeal to
the child.

In all his work the child instinctively wants
to do something worth while. He wants a
definite result to come and to come soon and
this result must be something that will appeal
to him. In the history of manual training we
have a fine parallel. Many of us can remem-
ber the time when all the wood that was issued
to the manual training pupil was a piece of

INDIVIDUAL SINGING 75

inch Hoard about a foot square and he was ex-
pected to learn to use tools by reducing this
board to sawdust in various ways. To him
the result of all this hard work was nothing
but sawdust. No wonder he had to be
scourged to his class. Now he makes some-
thing useful that he can take home and keep
and there is a motive that brings him gladly to
his work.

To the child, one of the strongest incentives
to work in the music class is to have the music
he makes heard by some one. That is one
thing music is for. In looking back over my
own childhood, I will have to admit that the
desire to "show off" was one of the motives
that drove me to the piano (and the rest of
the family to the neighbors). Now this may
not be the highest motive to appeal to, but as
long as it is there, we may as well use it to
get the pupils started.

METHODS

A number of methods of doing individual
work have been devised. One which has at-
tained great popularity consists of small slips

76 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

of paper each containing a few measures of
music, which are distributed to the pupils, each
taking one and singing it when his turn comes.
This plan is futile for several reasons. It
takes precious time to distribute the slips and
each pupil sees only the few measures he holds
in his hand. When a pupil has sung his in-
dividual slip, he has nothing to do but to listen,
which is a waste of time. Teachers who use
this method forget that pupils learn a great
deal about reading music by listening to others
while they themselves are following the music
the other pupil is singing. It is the same thing
that makes class reading in language so effec-
tive. Pupils profit by the mistakes of others.
Only the regular book should be used for in-
dividual singing so that all the pupils can work
all the time, whether they are singing or not.

It is very important that individual singing,
as well as all other school work, should be
carried on without loss of time. Schoolroom
efficiency is a study in itself and deserves the
most serious and painstaking consideration.

A great deal of individual singing should be
done in the first grade and in the kindergarten.

INDIVIDUAL SINGING 77

The following way is good because it does the
work without loss of time and develops not
only musical ability, but individual initiative.

The children should be seated according to
their ability, the most tuneful in the back seats
of each row. This is very important.

At a signal, let two pupils in the two rear
seats of the same row stand. The first one
should sing the song or phrase through once.
The second should take it up instantly when
the first has finished. When the second one
has sung he sits, but the first remains standing,
as the first one is to be the teacher for the poor
pupils in his row. While the second child is
singing, the third rises and is ready to sing as
soon as the second one finishes, and so on down
the row. The pattern singer in the back seat
sings with those who need help. He should
always stand behind the pupil he is helping,
otherwise he himself may be disturbed by the
bad ton^s of the poor singer.

All individual work, even in the kinder-
garten, should start at some signal and pro-
ceed without help or prompting from the
teacher. The best signal is simply to give the

78 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

name of the song and blow the first tone of the
song on the pitch pipe.

INITIATIVE

The primary teacher usually fails in develop-
ing initiative. She is apt to feel that the chil-
dren are only babies and cannot be allowed to
do anything. She will tell each child when to
stand and when to sit, when to breathe and
when to eat, and when to do everything, so
that when a child reaches the second grade, in-
stead of having a single working habit, he is
a well-drilled baby, who insists on having
everything done for him. Montessori, for one,
is showing us the error of our ways.

The individual singing in the kindergarten
and first grade should go swiftly down one row
after another without prompting from the
teacher. The teacher should remember that
it is not the particular song the pupils are sing-
ing but it is the habit of work they are form-
ing that is of greatest importance.

SECOND GRADE

In the second grade the pupils should not

INDIVIDUAL SINGING 79

stand when they do individual singing from
the books, as their hands are too small to hold
the book in one hand and beat time with the
other.

In the second grade, as well as the first, the
pupil in the rear seat should be the teacher for
his row. It is the ready reader with the good
ear who should go to the rear seat, rather than
the ready reader with the poor ear.

When a pupil sings a passage correctly, the
school should approve it by singing it over
after him without being told. Insist that the
pupil sings the whole phrase with a perfectly
smooth tone and with one breath before it is
called correct. If a pupil stumbles the pupil
teacher, who follows down the row, takes up
the passage in strict time and helps the stum-
bling pupil through. The stumbling pupil
should immediately repeat the passage once
without help or prompting. The school should
not call it "correct'* unless the pupil gets it
the first time without help. It is surprising
how discriminating these young pupils soon
become as they develop the habit of observing
critically as another sings.

CO GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

When all the phrases have been sung cor-
rectly, individually, and have been verified by
the school, the school should sing the whole
piece by syllable. Next the words should be
sung, a phrase at a time and verified in the
same way. The pupils should then sing the
song through with the words; then, without
prompting, hold their books in the singing posi-
tion and sing it again. Next close the books,
with thumb in place so as to be able to open
the book instantly, and sing the song from
memory. With proper expression developed,
another song is added to the repertoire of the
school.

Individual work, as outlined above, is valu-
able to the child in many ways. First, the
teacher folds her hands and tongue and lets
him work. The pupil is assured of a chance
to practice without fear of ridicule. He will
be helped when he shows his need for it and
not before. His perfect work will be rewarded
by a better place in the room and the approval
of his classmates. His mistakes will be cor-
rected without embarrassment. Feeling free
in every way, his mental energy can all be ap-

INDIVIDUAL SINGING 81

plied to the work in hand, and the mistakes
will become fewer and farther between.

The teacher is often so fussy that the pupil
is afraid to make mistakes and this feeling
makes him all the more prone to make them.
This is the nub of the whole matter. Individ-
ual singing is not something the pupil feels that
he is obliged to do, but it is an opportunity to
practice what appeals to him as something
worth while. There is nothing in school work
a child would rather do than to sing correctly
before his classmates.

THIRD GRADE

Individual work should be done in the third
and succeeding grades as outlined above, with
the addition that the pupils will stand while
singing.

In this grade and higher grades, it is ques-
tionable how much the teacher pupil should
help the weak ones. It is better not to do so
much helping as in the second grade, but to
establish the rule that the pupil who cannot
get started when he gets his chance and the
one who breaks down for any cause will lose

82 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

his chance and the next one takes his chance
instantly. This plan has many advantages, as
it compels the pupil to prepare himself during
his study time and it makes him quicker to
seize an opportunity when it comes his way.

It has the following disadvantages : In
each class there will be a few who are too
indolent to work or who think it not worth
while or impossible for them to learn to read
music, so they simply stand up and lose their
turn. The clever teacher will soon spot these
and deal with them in various ways. The
teacher pupil may help them as in the second
grade, or better yet, the teacher pupil may drill
them out of school. This is something that
pupils like to do very much and a clever
teacher will have the poor ones kept up to
grade in music as well as in other things by
enlisting the aid of the better pupils. This is
good for all concerned. The teacher is free
to do other work, the good pupil improves by
helping another, and the poor one gets the
needed help. The great lesson of cooperation
is learned by all three.

INDIVIDUAL SINGING 83

TWO-PART WORK

When the school is singing two-part work
individually four pupils should stand at once.
The two in the rear should sing and the two
in front be ready to start when the first two
have finished. The element of team work is
now added to the individual work, and this
complicates matters. Each pupil has tp learn
to carry his part against another and, to do
this successfully, he must not only read both
parts but he must listen to two parts while he
sings his own. There should be a great deal
of simple material available, for this purpose.
None of the music books now on the market
have enough simple material in two parts.

TUNING

In one-part work, blowing the pitch pipe is
a sufficient signal for starting. In two-part
work the two tones must be brought into har-
mony before the pupils start. In two-part
work, the teacher should blow the keynote with
the pitch pipe and the whole school should

84 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

sound the first tone in each part, having pre-
viously been told which side of the room is to
sing the soprano and which side the alto. At
the sound of the pitch pipe, all sing their re-
spective first tones and hold them until the
teacher taps twice. This signal means that the
two pupils in the rear of the two selected rows
start to sing the passage while the rest listen
and study. If the first two pupils sing the
passage correctly, the whole school will then
sing it over after them to give it their approval.
If the passage is sung incorrectly, the next two
pupils take it up and so on until it is sung cor-
rectly. It will sometimes happen that when
only one part is sung correctly, the other pupils
belonging to that part will start to repeat the
passage as if both parts were right. This will
bring out the fact that the pupils who are not
singing are reading and listening to but one
part instead of reading and listening to both
parts. The teacher should stop them at once
as the school must not sing unless both parts
are correctly sung.

Two-part individual work is often very dis-
couraging at first, and teachers are tempted to

INDIVIDUAL SINGING 85

slight it and conclude that it is impossible. It
will often be found that the readiest readers
are slow to sing the lower part correctly, and
also that two pupils, singing, will not keep to-
gether well. Let the teacher remember that
the pupils are suddenly called upon to do twice
as many things as before and to do them in a
different manner and therefore they must have
time to practice and learn how.

When two pupils do not keep together when
singing two-part work individually, it will be
for one or more of several reasons. The
principal one is that they do not pay any atten-
tion to each other. The teacher will be
strongly tempted to beat time loudly or have
the studying pupils beat for them. Neither
should be done. Let the pupils stand in adja-
cent aisles and require them to listen to each
other.

LISTENING TO EACH OTHER

When pupils stand in adjacent aisles, it will
be necessary for them to walk about the room
to get into their places but this will give a
chance for them to learn another very valuable

86 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

lesson. Let them learn to walk around the
room so quietly that no one hears them. Let
the singing pupils stand in the middle of the
room and the two pupils who are waiting stand
behind them so as to step into their places as
soon as the first two have finished. The first
two singers should then go to their seats with-
out passing the next two in the aisles. Do not
have the singing pupils stand in front of the
class. You want the other pupils to listen to
them and not to look at them.

The pitch pipe should not be blown for any
of the singers except the first two. Neither
must the teacher tell any of them, except the
first two, when to commence. If she does
either of these things, the pupils will lose the
best part of the exercise. Pupils must learn
to remember their starting tone. They must
learn to catch it correctly by listening to the
other part when they have forgotten their own
starting tone. When neither of the two pupils
can remember the correct pitch, the class or
the teacher may give it.

Two pupils must start when it comes their

INDIVIDUAL SINGING 87

turn without looking at each other. They
must do it by ear. This is the best kind of
ear training. A singer must learn to keep
with other singers by ear, and no child is too
young to do it.

When pupils get more expert in hearing
each other, they may stand at their own desks
and not in adjacent aisles. It is a mistake to
have them stand in the same aisle, as it brings
them too near together.

When all the passages in the piece have been
worked out correctly, individually, and have
been verified by the school, the school should
sing the whole piece in concert.

The words may now be taken up individ-
ually. When they have been learned in the
same manner as the notes were learned, all
the pupils may sing the piece through, point-
ing to the notes. They then stop pointing,
hold the books up and sing it again. Then
close the books and sing from memory with ex-
pression.

It is well to have all the pupils learn to sing
both parts, but it is hardly wise to let them sing

88 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

both parts of the same piece. They may al-
ternate on different pieces.

KEEP GOING

The class should keep going without prompt-
ing in the two-part individual work the same
as in one-part. When one song is finished, the
pupils should take the next without being told.
If the teacher wishes to speak to pupils, the
individual work should go on just the same
unless she says "stop" or taps three times.
It is very valuable training for the pupils to
learn to go on with their work, no matter what
is happening around them. It also gives them
practice in keeping track of more than one
thing at a time. The old saw that speaks of
doing one thing at a time is but a half truth.
A child must learn to concentrate on several
things at the same time. It is the time that it
takes the average person to stop concentrat-
ing on one thing and focus his mind on an-
other that wastes his life and makes him in-
efficient. He should practice concentration on
several things while he is young, and the mu-
sic lesson is a fine opportunity for doing it.

INDIVIDUAL SINGING 89

THREE AND FOUR PARTS

Individual work in three or four parts
should be done as outlined for two. Three
and four stand to sing and three and four
stand to wait. At first, pupils should stand
in adjacent aisles, as it is even harder to hear
three and four parts than it is to hear two
parts.

The school should sound the chord to start
the first group only and this group should start
singing when the teacher taps twice. This is
the signal for the first group to start singing
and the rest of the school to stop. The other
groups should sing without signal when their
turn comes. The school should respond only
when all parts are sung correctly. It is not
well to have the same passage sung too
many times, since the pupils will lose in-
terest and will get dull and slow in their read-
ing. The teacher must use her judgment in
this. If the pupils sing the same passage one
after the other and make the same mistake they
should be stopped and drilled on the trouble-
some passage, as it means that the later singers

90 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

are simply copying the first singer by ear.
When each pupil makes a different mistake it
is well to let them work it out if it does not
take too long. A good rule is to allow groups
of pupils to try a passage and then if it is not
correctly sung at the third trial, let the school
sing it for them. It is difficult to make a rule
that will fit this, and each teacher must use
her own judgment.

In three and four-part work the question of
material is again a difficult one. No book on
the market gives enough simple material to
start either three or four-part singing.

A great deal of individual work should be
done in the seventh and eighth grades, in three
and four parts.

LOSE NO TIME

In all individual singing not only must the
different individuals and groups start without
being told, but they must also start in exact
rhythm with the preceding individual or group,
but they must do this without losing a beat.
To miss this point is to miss one of the best
and most vital things in individual singing.

INDIVIDUAL SINGING 91

In the whole range of school work there is
not a thing that approaches individual singing
in four parts as a mind trainer. Think of the
number of things a pupil must do when sing-
ing new music in a quartette. He must read
four parts; he must listen to four parts; he
must sing one part and do all this in time; he
must keep track of words, meaning and ex-
pression. The pupils who are not singing have
nearly as much to do and have the added re-
sponsibility of determining whether the music
is sung correctly or not. Of course, it de-
pends on the teacher whether individual work
has all these values or not, but when it is
rightly conducted it is of the greatest value.
When educators really see the value of this
work there will be much more time placed at
the disposal of the supervisor of music, and
the superintendent of schools will also see
that the supervisor of music uses his time in a
way that counts.

DICTATION

There is another form of individual work
that should be done in every grade from the

92 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

second to the sixth inclusive. It is a writ-
ten exercise like the following:

The teacher should place a staff on the board
before the class is called. This staff should
be about three feet long, the lines very heavy
and at least three inches apart. The pupils
should be supplied with staff-ruled paper.
The teacher writes on her staff the signature
of the key the pupils are to use in the lesson.
The pupils do the same. The teacher then
blows the pitch pipe as a signal for two pupils
to rise and be ready to sing. Then she begins
to write groups of notes on the staff and the
first child sings them as fast as she writes.
He should sing them smoothly and hold the
last one until the teacher writes another group
or says "next." This means that the next
child sings, the first one sits, and another one
rises. The class looks at the board and listens
to the singer. Continue this exercise for half
a minute. The teacher should now dictate
groups of tones by syllable for the class to
write. Let some pupil sing the dictated notes
while the pupils in the rear seats go along the
aisles and see that the pupils write the notes

INDIVIDUAL SINGING 93

correctly. Continue this exercise for half a
minute, and then start the lesson in the books.
The last tone dictated should be the first one
in the piece to be sung. The individual work
just outlined is to encourage rapid visualiza-
tion.

SING WORDS FIRST

In doing individual work, as well as concert
work, pupils should sing the words first to their
songs in every grade as much as possible.

MOTIVE

A good motive for individual singing is to
limit the progress in the book to what the pu-
pils can do individually. Another is to give
concerts. In preparing for concerts, select the
program from the book that is being used and
teach the pieces as a part of the regular music
work. To qualify for a chorus, each pupil
should be able to carry his part in a duet, trio
or quartette, alone, against the other voices,
with a smooth, pleasant tone and come out on
the key without the aid of an instrument.
The pupils and teachers should unite in select-

94 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

ing pupils for these quartettes. The pupils
are often more difficult to satisfy than the
teachers.

One most amusing and instructive incident
occurred shortly before my first Minneapo-
lis concert. In one room I casually asked
how many were to be in the concert. Per-
fect silence. Some looked grieved and more
looked "huffy." The row of basses looked
sheepish. I asked again and a small girl
snapped out, "Nobody." I said, "That is
too bad ; what is the trouble ?" With a wither-
ing glance at the row of big boys, she ex-
claimed: "None of the basses can sing."
There it was. None of the pupils could sing
in the concert, as they had to go by quartettes
and there were no basses available. I said,
"That is too bad. Your teacher and I haven't
time to do it. Why don't some of you pick
out the likeliest voices among the basses and
teach them to sing?" Their faces lighted up.
I said no more and went my way. Three
weeks after, I visited that building and at the
piano in the lower hall was a tableau : A big,
perspiring youth surrounded by three girls.

INDIVIDUAL SINGING 95

They were all so interested that they didn't
notice me and I heard this Parthian arrow,
from the small feminine leader, light in the
quivering soul of the toiling bass. "You great
big Ike, don't you know that's 'do' ?"

There were other similar groups about the
building and, to make a long story short, that
room sent four quartettes. The boys had
learned several things besides how to sing the
test piece. They had had a small lesson in
public spirit, team work, and cooperation.

We had three general rehearsals of one hour
each, and the concert was a great success.
The chorus was a good one to handle, as each
member of it was an independent singer and
they quickly learned to follow the baton.
They sang in perfect tune, as each voice was
singing the part that was easiest for it. They
sang two verses of "Sweet and Low" unac-
companied and came out on the key. There
was no one absent from rehearsals or from
the concert, as each one knew that it meant a
whole quartette dropping out if one pupil
stayed away. The chorus was perfectly bal-
anced, as there was the same number on each

96 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

part. There was no inattention or disturbance
at any of the rehearsals, as it was distinctly
understood that if there was, the one making it
would have to pick out the rest of his quartette
and take them home with him. They could
easily figure out what it would mean if the
disturbing one were left alone with the other
three members of his quartette and so there
was no whispering or other trouble of any kind
at the concert or rehearsals.

The effect on the district was immediate and
final. The people of that district were much
pleasec! and the pupils got a new idea of the
dignity of music. Later we gave a number
of concerts in the different parts of the city,
and all the choruses were chosen in a similar
manner.

The pupils are now so used to individual
work that they take their turns as in other
subjects. They do not always sing correctly
and probably never will. But the fact that
they realize the value of individual work and
take that way to learn is sufficient guarantee
that they will get something permanent as the
years go by.

CHAPTER VII

BEGINNING SIGHT SINGING

WHERE to commence the reading of music
is a mooted question. Some say early, some
say late. Judging from results, some do not
seem to believe in it at all. Taking everything
into consideration, it seems that the beginning
of the second grade is the proper time to start
sight singing.

We used to begin teaching the scale the mo-
ment the child was safely in our clutches, but
we know better now and realize that he must
have a musical experience before he learns
to read music, the same as he must have a
language experience before he learns to read
language. The child should know a number of
rote songs, and be able to use his ear and
voice intelligently before he begins to read mu-
sic. I have seen most excellent reading done
by pupils in the first grade who commenced
note reading at the end of four months of rote
9X

98 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

work. This was under a very exceptional
primary teacher who believed in letting chil-
dren work. All children like to work until
they have become discouraged by the teacher,
who thinks it is her duty to keep her pupils
from working as long as possible.

PATTERN SONGS

Ten or fifteen of the rote songs taught in
the first grade should be used as pattern songs
for beginning music reading. These pattern
songs should be slow, short, and simple, with
well marked phrases and no divided beats.
There are a number of systems of music books
that commence the reading of music by the
use of pattern songs, but the pattern songs are
usually too long, too difficult, and too rapid.
They should be as simple as the songs to be
read by note later. It is from these pattern
songs that the children observe the process of
music reading.

The pattern songs should be very carefully
chosen and very carefully taught in the first
grade. The syllable names should never be
taught in advance as an extra verse in a rote

BEGINNING SIGHT SINGING 99

song, as is almost universally done. They can
be taught much more quickly and far more
effectively while the children are looking at
the notes.

The pattern songs should be in several keys.
Four or five in the first key, two or three in
the second, and one each in the rest of the
keys. Each phrase in the book first used
should be on a line by itself so that the
phrasing will be clear and the notes should be
very large and plain.

Great care must be taken to have the pattern
songs properly sung. If the pupils have
learned to sing well and can- sing each phrase
with a perfectly smooth, steady tone, they will
have little or no trouble in learning to read
music. This point cannot be too strongly em-
phasized. If second grade pupils do not sing
with a smooth tone, it will be of no use to try
to teach music reading until the smooth sing-
ing habit is established.

The pupils begin learning the intervals of
the scale by singing the pattern songs from
the notation. The tones should be sustained in
order to make clear and vivid impressions. If

100 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

the tone is choppy, it is an indication of poor
attention. The attention is always poor when
the tone is jumpy and is always good when the
tone is smooth. The very fact that the tone
is smooth and sustained means that the chil-
dren have learned the self-control that is neces-
sary for the close application required in read-
ing music. When the tone is smooth, the
pupils will not only be abie to hear and see the
various elements that make up the songs but
they will be in that calm, alert mental state
necessary for learning anything.

FIRST LESSONS IN MUSIC READING

Send to the fourth or fifth grades for as
many good readers of music as there are pupils
in the second grade class. Let these children
sit with the second grade pupils and teach them.
Much depends on the success of the first few
lessons. If a child understands a problem the
first time he looks at it, he has it to keep, and
a fine mental habit is formed. If he merely
looks toward it he gets duller instead of
brighter. Observation of this fact is one of

BEGINNING SIGHT SINGING 101

the secrets of the success of the Montessori
method.

READING PATTERN SONGS

Lay the books flat and square in the middle
of the desk. Open the books to the first pat-
tern song and have all the children sing the
words. The young children do not, of course,
know the syllable names, but the older chil-
dren can read them. The younger children,
knowing the words and the tune perfectly, will
be greatly interested in seeing the picture of
the song they already know. The older chil-
dren should sit at the right of the younger
ones and sing the pattern songs by syllable, at
the same time showing the young children how
to point to the notes.

HOW TO POINT

The last three fingers of the pointing hand
should be doubled against the palm. The
thumb should be held firmly against the middle
joint of the first finger. This will keep the
first finger stiff and make the down and up

102 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

movement of the hand come from the wrist
joint as the first finger, extended straight,
points just underneath the notes, one point to
each beat. This little trick of using the hand
correctly in beating time is very important. If
the child moves his whole forearm, he will not
be able to point accurately under the notes and
if he uses his finger only, it will be apt to go
too fast and destroy the regularity of the
rhythm. Regularity in the down and up move-
ment of the pointing hand must grow into a
fixed habit as soon as possible. The necessity
of this will be seen later. The children have
one habit already established, the steady move-
ment of the rib and waist muscles as outlined
in the chapter on singing. Care must be taken
that this first habit is not impaired while ac-
quiring the second. Without the first habit,
the second would be futile.

Let the older children teach the younger ones
this movement of the hand as they sing the
syllables of the pattern songs. Let the pupils
go over the pattern songs a number oi times,
pointing to the notes as already explained.
Do not dwell too long on the first song, which

BEGINNING SIGHT SINGING 103

should be in the key of E or E flat, so that
"doh" comes on the first line. After going
over the first pattern song four or five times,
the older children should stop singing and let
the younger ones try it alone. The older chil-
dren may help when the younger ones stumble.
Be sure that the hands move steadily, no mat-
ter how many notes the pupils miscall. The
tone should go on smoothly, no matter
whether the children sing anything correctly or
not; in short, preserve the logical sequence of
sing first, time second, and notes third. The
older children will not be needed after the first
four or five lessons, although it may be well to
have one retained for each row for a week or
two longer, so that the younger pupils will not
go astray.

INDIVIDUAL WORK

Just as soon as the second grade pupils, as
a class, can sing the first pattern song correctly,
let individuals try it. In doing individual
work, start with the pupil in the back seat and
let each one try it down the row, the teacher-
pupil going down the aisle and helping each one

104 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

as needed. Let each child try a phrase and if
it is right, let the whole school sing it after
him without being told. If not, let the next
pupil do it without being told, as they were in
the habit of doing in the first grade. You are
trying to develop initiative, so begin early.

Individual work, if skillfully done, will in-
terest the children very greatly and they will
soon ask permission to take their books home.
Let them do this, for it is by the constant sing-
ing of the pattern songs that children learn
tones and rhythm and become familiar with the
staff notation, knowledge that will soon be used
in reading new songs.

USE OF CHART

Prepare a chart that is a facsimile of the
first pattern song. As soon as the second
grade children can sing this song from the
books and a few of them can sing it individ-
ually, the teacher should point to the notes of
the same song on the chart and require the
pupils to hold each note until she points to an-
other or says "stop." The pupils should go
from one tone to another without making a

BEGINNING SIGHT SINGING 105

pause between. This will enable them to com-
pare tones more accurately and learn intervals
with much greater facility. It will also em-
phasize the habit of singing the "smooth, sus-
tained tone/' In pointing to the notes as they
occur in the song, the teacher should require
the pupils to hold some of the tones longer than
the rhythm requires, in order to contemplate
the relationship to other tones. A slight varia-
tion from the melody will help the children to
image the tones more independently. The
pupils now begin to see, hear, and recognize the
different tones that go to make up the tune.
Much of the chart work should be done individ-
ually.

STAFF CHART

So far, the children have seen principally the
notes and very vaguely the places of the notes
on the staff. The next step is to make them
see the lines and spaces of the staff more
clearly.

Prepare a chart, consisting of a bare staff
with heavy black lines about three inches apart,
without clef or signature.

106 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

The teacher points to the lines and spaces as
the children sing. The pupils hold each tone
until the teacher points to another line or space
or until she says "stop." The voices should
not stop when passing from one tone to an-
other. The teacher who neglects this point
will never teach second grade music well. The
school that sings with a perfectly smooth tone
will do ten times as much music reading as
the one that sings with a choppy tone. The
reason is this : the pupils are comparing tones
all the time and if the tones are short and far
apart tfiey will forget one before the next is
heard. The slow tones compel deep breathing,
which in turn aerates the blood more rapidly
and makes the mind more active and retentive
of impressions.

The teacher may vary this exercise by calling
for the tones by naming the lines and spaces
thus : "Sing the note in the first line, on the
second line, on the second space," etc. The
pupils should be looking at the staff when they
do this. If each one had a large staff on a
piece of paper while doing this, it might also
help a little.

BEGINNING SIGHT SINGING 107

The children should have a great deal of
practice in recognizing the various elements
that go to make up the notation of music. A
number of little helps are here appended and
the children should do them as "seat work."

The best one to use is to let the children take
unruled paper and draw the staff and copy the
notes of the songs on the staff and write the
syllable names underneath. This can be done
with the pattern songs and the new reading
songs as they are learned.

Another device is to have small desk charts
with bare staves and allow the pupils to re-
produce the notes with lentils or small
disks.

This copying of the songs should begin as
soon as the pupils have learned the first pat-
tern song. The teacher will not have time to
correct all this seat work, but should allow
some of the quicker children to help the poorer
ones.

READING NEW SONGS

As soon as the pupils can sing the pattern
songs in the first key correctly, individually

103 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

(the teacher must use her judgment as to how
long to wait for the slow, the lame, and the
lazy), the reading of songs that have not been
learned by rote should begin. The class should
be ready for this at the end of the third week
— sooner, rather than later. Care must be
taken not to be in too much of a hurry, but
there is greater danger of going too slow.

Now let the pupils turn to a song they have
not learned by rote. It must be very simple
and in the same key as the group of pattern
songs they have been studying. In the work
already done with the pattern songs the signal
for starting has been merely the blowing of
the pitch pipe. This is sufficient for the new
songs. Sound the pitch pipe and see what they
v/ill do. If they are well prepared and the
teacher has not talked at them all the time dur-
ing the preparatory work, they v/ill sing the
new song right off the first time. If they do
not do this, let them try again, in concert of
course. If, at the third trial, they do not do
this, go back to a pattern song in the same key
and repeat the preliminary drills already de-
scribed and then try again.

BEGINNING SIGHT SINGING 109

PHRASING

In all the pattern song work the teacher
should insist on proper phrasing. The book
should have one phrase to a line and the pupils
must be watched very closely to see that they
take breath only at the end of each phrase.
If this habit is well established the pupils will
phrase new songs properly. If they do not,
they must be made to do it at once. There
should be no poor phrasing with the new read-
ing. Not only must the pupils sing the phrases
correctly the first time, as to length, but they
must carry a perfectly smooth tone through
the phrase the first time they go through it.
Also the rhythm must be slow and even, no
matter how many notes they miscall or how
many tones they get wrong.

The logical sequence of reading music must
be observed: Tone, Time, Notes, and then
Words and Expression* Permitting the pupils
to stop the rhythm to get the name of the note
is very objectionable. Let them use any syl-
lable if they cannot think of the right one at
the right time. It matters not what mistakes

110 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

they make in pitch or syllable names so long
as the tone is smooth and the rhythm steady.
If permitted, the pupils will quickly form habits
of uneven tone and rhythm that will be very
difficult to overcome.

Strict adherence to this rule of teaching the
elements of music in their logical sequence
will do much for the child's mind as well as
much for his music reading ability. The same
problem is found in the writing lesson. Speed
first and accuracy next. Teachers are apt to
think the tone or letter is the important thing.
The important thing is the habit the child is
forming. Get the big things right first.

INDIVIDUAL WORK

When the pupils can sing the new song cor-
rectly as a class, let individuals try. Let the
pupil in the rear seat sing the first phrase. If
he sings it correctly the whole school may sing
it after him to tell the teacher it is right If it
is incorrect, the next pupil takes it up and so
on down the row until some one sings it cor-
rectly. The pupils are supposed to be seated
according to ear and reading ability, placing

BEGINNING SIGHT SINGING 111

best singers in the back seats. If a pupil names
the notes correctly and gets the tones wrong,
he must not be put in the rear. It is not a
good plan to have children with poor ears in
the rear seats, even if they do read well.

As this individual work goes on down the
row, the pupil in the rear seat should rise and
follow down the row to be ready to help the
pupils who stumble. This helping must be
cleverly done and the rhythm must not stop.
The helping child must help only when help is
needed and then help by taking up the tune
where the child stumbled and carrying it along
in time. The pupils must not call it right when
a child has to be helped. Allowing the pupils
to teach each other is a fine thing for the pupils
and leaves the teacher free to direct and teach
others who need it.

It is a good plan to allow the child who has
been helped to immediately try it alone once
or perhaps twice before the next pupil takes
it up. It will not do to allow him to try it
too many times, as the lesson must proceed. It
t$ a poor plan to allow too many children to
try the same passage, as this will make slow

112 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

readers of the class. A good plan is to allow
only three or four pupils to try the same pas-
sage and then if it is still sung incorrectly, the
whole class may sing it. The teacher must
use her judgment in this as in everything else
and fit her methods to her pupils.

SINGING WORDS

As soon as the class and a number of in-
dividuals can sing the notes of the new song
correctly, the words should be applied. The
application of words to notes must be skillfully
done if the pupils are to learn to read music.
What the children will want to do is to remem-
ber the tune. What they must do is to read
the tune as they are applying the words. In
other words, if the word comes on "do" the
child must think "do" as he sings the word.
This is where the teacher must watch the work-
ing of the child's mind very closely.

Instead of allowing the pupils to point to
the words while they are singing them, they
must point to the notes instead, to keep the
tones in mind. To help the teacher follow the
child's mind and to see whether he is thinking

BEGINNING SIGHT SINGING 113

tones through the notes or merely remember-
ing the tune, let the pupils point above the
notes so that the notes will come between the
end of the pointing finger and the words. The
pupil should lay the fist on the book above the
notes and turn the pointing finger towards him-
self. By leaving the outside edge of the hand
on the book or desk and rolling the hand there
will be about two inches down and up motion
to the extended first finger which will keep
the time steady and enable the pupil to bring
the end of the first finger just above the note
as he sings the word. This little point can not
be too closely watched by both pupil and
teacher. It is a perfect index to what the child
is thinking about. If he is thinking of the
syllable name of the note, the finger will come
down exactly above the note. If he is thinking
of the words only and trying to remember the
tune, his finger will come down anywhere. He
may cover the note and point to the word.
This means that he is not thinking of the note
at all but is trying to remember the tune. Here
is where teachers fail very often. The differ-
ence of an eighth of an inch in the placing of

114 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

the tip of the first finger when pupils are sing-
ing the words of a new song spells either suc-
cess or failure. This seems so small and
trifling a point that teachers often fail to grasp
it at all, and their music is a failure as a con-
sequence. I have often been criticized for
having pupils beat time too much, but beating
time and pointing to notes is not all for the
child — it is partly to help the teacher to know
what the child is doing and the teacher who
does not watch closely the working of the
child's mind all the time he is in school had
better change her occupation.

When the pupils are reading the syllable
names of a new song, the time must go on cor-
rectly. In the reading of words, this is true
also but there are a few exceptions. When the
pupils are applying the words to a tune, let
them go through it in absolute rhythm the
first time. When they are sure of the rhythm
and the tone is perfectly smooth and there are
still some mistakes, the teacher may risk a
little help in the following way: If the pupils
are thinking the syllable names of the notes as
they are singing the words, there will be no

BEGINNING SIGHT SINGING 115

mistakes if they are thinking the tones cor-
rectly. To test this the teacher may tap once
(as outlined elsewhere) or say "note" when
the pupils are singing a word to a wrong tune.
At this the pupils should put the pointing finger
down on the book above the note and hold it
there while they hold the tone. If the pupils
respond instantly with the syllable name, it is
proof that they are thinking the syllable name.
If they hesitate and have to think before re-
sponding, it is proof that they have been guess-
ing and they should be trained not to guess but
to think. If they respond instantly with the
syllable name and have the tone wrong, the
teacher may tell them it is wrong but they
must find it themselves. If they do not get it,
the teacher may say it is higher or lower until
they find it. The tone must not stop during
all this and as soon as the correct tone is found,
the word should be sung, and at two taps the
rhythm taken up and the song continued.

FINISHING A SONG

As soon as the pupils can sing the words of
the song through correctly, while pointing, let

116 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

them hold the book up in both hands with the
elbows on the desk as far apart as is comfort-
able, the chest held high and the top of the
book about on a level with the eye. Let them
sing the song through once, looking at the
book. Then let them close the book, keeping
the thumb in place, and sing the song from
memory. If they know the words of the song
and have read the meaning, they will sing it
with good expression, but if the expression
does not suit the teacher, she should ask the
pupils to tell her what the words mean and thus
bring out the meaning of the song with its
proper expression. It is not teaching expres-
sion for the teacher to stand up and beat time
before the class to show them how to do it.
The pupils must be left to express their own
ideas instead of the teacher's. As soon as
the proper expression is obtained and the song
memorized, the pupils have a new song added
to their repertoire.

Holding up the book and singing and then
closing and remembering and then starting
along on the next piece should be made a habit

BEGINNING SIGHT SINGING 117

as soon as possible and the children should
learn to know when a song is finished as well
as the teacher, without being told. The ma-
chine should be a "self starter" in all school
work and especially in the music.

THE SECOND KEY

When all the songs in the first key have been
learned, turn to the pattern songs in the sec-
ond key. The older children will not be needed
here and you will very likely find that if you
tell these children where "do" is in the new
key, they will sing the syllables correctly. If
they do not, the teacher may sing the syllable
names to the children until they know them,
the pupils pointing to the notes on the page as
before. A drill on the bare-staff chart will
help. If needed, a chart of the first pattern
song in the second key may be made and used.
This all depends on the way the pupils have
learned to use their eyes and ears in the first
key. Many teachers say that pupils should
change keys frequently, but this need is ex-
aggerated. They must stay on the first one

118 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

long enough to learn it. Remember too that
in this first key they are also learning the in-
tervals of the scale as well. The third key will
go easily and after that it will make but little
difference where "do" is, so long as the pupils
know where to find it. Teach them at once
this rule, that the right hand sharp is "ti" and
the right hand flat is "fa."

ADVANCE INDIVIDUAL WORK

So far, concert work has preceded the
individual work. After two months in the
second grade this should be changed. The
new work should be taken individually first, or
at least a part of it.

A good proportion would be to have one
piece in advance sung individually first and two
in concert. The ideal way is to have all the
advance work sung individually, but this would
not allow enough practice in reading for all.
If there is too much individual work done, the
love of singing languishes. If there is not
enough individual work done, the pupils will
not know anything. The teacher must find the
happy medium.

BEGINNING .SIGHT SINGING 119

MATERIAL

The second grade should read at least four
or five of the primers now on the market. If
the children are confined to any one primer
they will never learn to read music any more
than they would learn to read words if they
used only one language primer. The great
need of school music is enough simple material
for this grade. The books all get hard too
soon.

COMPASS OF THE SONGS

Pupils in the second grade should not sing
below D. G above the staff will not strain
their voices, if they sing softly. Transpose all
music into this compass.

WRITING MUSIC

When second grade pupils have been reading
music about two months, they should begin
writing music to dictation as outlined in the
chapter on individual work (page 49).

It will be noticed that little has been said
about drills on intervals from the bare staff.

120 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

The teacher should remember that reading new
songs is the best interval drill and she should
use her judgment as to how much special drill-
ing to do.

CHAPTER VIII

EAR-TRAINING

To be a good singer, a person must not only
have a good voice but a correct ear that will
keep him in time as well as in tune. Teachers
have invented numerous schemes for training
the ear. So numerous and so queer are the
devices used for this purpose that "ear-train-
ing" has fallen into disrepute among many
thinking teachers. It is true that the pupil
must have a great deal of ear-training before
he can do concerted or even solo work success-
fully, but it must be done in a sane and sensible
manner.

There are numerous "ear-training" stunts
that are worse than a waste of time. All of
those in which the teacher or pupil sings tones
for others to name belong in this category. I
recently met the principal of one of the grade
schools of a certain city and asked her how
she liked her new supervisor. She was very
121

122 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

enthusiastic over the new arrival — called her a
hustler and told how she had given the fifth
and sixth grades a new set of ear-training ex-
ercises that took ten minutes daily to perform.
As she had previously told me that the daily
music lesson was but fifteen minutes, I asked
her when the pupils were to sing. Her reply
was somewhat vague.

The usual ear-training stunts are bad be-
cause they prepare the pupil for the future
rather than the present. This makes them of
no educational value. To be useful, interest-
ing, and valuable, all drills and exercises should
have a direct bearing on the work in hand.
The need of drill should be made very apparent
to the pupil or there will be a lack of interest
and consequent waste of time and energy.
This widespread educational weakness is not
wholly confined to music. It pervades nearly
everything done in the schoolroom.

The best ear-training comes from singing
songs, either individually or in concert. Let
the pupil do enough of this in a proper manner
and his ear will be well trained without waste
of time, interest, or energy.

EAR-TRAINING 123

The ear performs several very complicated
and important functions. It tells the singer
whether or not his voice is in time and tune
with other voices or instruments; it enables
him to recognize the power, quality, and rela-
tive pitch of sounds and to hear all the tones
that are sounding.

Keeping the voice in tune with other voices
or instruments cannot be learned too early. If
it is not learned at home, it must be taught as
soon as the child enters the kindergarten or
first grade. This is very closely connected
with smooth singing, and the teacher should
not forget that it is impossible to begin ear-
training of the proper sort before the child
has learned to make a smooth, steady tone, for
it is the pupil's own voice sounding with ethers
that trains his ear. Nothing else will do it so
easily or effectively. He may listen to musical
sounds, but he will not sing in tune until he
has had plenty of practice in making his own
voice blend with others.

When children begin to sing in school a
few of them will sing the tunes correctly the
first time they try. These are naturally tune-

124 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

ful ones or, as it is usually expressed, these
have "natural musical ears," and will not have
to be taught to sing in tune. These should
be placed in the rear seats. A number of
others will be able to follow the tune somewhat
closely but will not be able to sing perfectly
in tune. These should sit in front of those
who sing perfectly. Yet others will be found
who have no idea of singing in tune and these
will sit in the front seats of each row.

The latter two classes must receive special
attention in order to bring their voices into
perfect unison with the other voices. Later
they will learn to follow the tune alone. These
children must be tuned or taught to tune them-
selves in much the same way a piano tuner
tunes the piano.

The following exercise is exceedingly valu-
able for improving the ear of the teacher and
making her more critical in detecting imperfect
intonation. Often teachers with a perfect ear
overlook these imperfections because they do
not know exactly what to listen for.

EAR-TRAINING 125

Strike, very loudly, one at a time, a number
of keys near the middle of the keyboard, hold-
ing down each key until the sound has entirely
died away. If the piano is slightly out of tune
(it is better to use one that is a little out of
tune) the sound of each tone will waver or
will have "beats" or will "whine," as the piano
tuners express it. Some of the tones will
waver rapidly, some slowly, some not at all.
Three wires are struck by each hammer at the
same time in the middle of the modern piano.
When these three wires are exactly in unison,
the tone is perfectly steady. When they differ
in pitch, the tone is unsteady as already de-
scribed. The only thing the teacher need learn
in this exercise is to hear the wavers or
"whines" and a little practice will enable her
to do so. If the wavering is rapid, it means
that the tone is badly out of tune. If the
wavering is slow, it means that the tone is
more nearly in tune. If the tone is perfectly
steady, it means that the three wires are in
perfect unison.

The teacher must learn to hear the wavers
and "whines" in the singing of the pupils and

126 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

tune the class as the piano tuner tunes the
piano. The pupils themselves should be taught
to listen for these wavers and to eliminate them
by sliding their voices up or down until the
wavers disappear and they are in perfect har-
mony with the rest of the class.

TUNING A CLASS

In the kindergarten and first grade perfect
intonation may be developed in the following
way : As soon as the school has learned a slow,
smooth song, teach the pupils to hold the
last tone in the song or a phrase as you signal
for it (as explained in the chapter on reading
music, page 35) by tapping once. If the tone
is not smooth (it will not be at first), stop
the poorer singers and allow only the better
ones to hold the tone until it is perfect. Then
bring the rest of them in one by one, stopping
those who make the tone waver as they enter.
This exercise may be used for a minute or
two at each lesson and all will soon learn to
make perfect unisons.

Do not construe this exercise to mean that
the pupils who make wavers should not sing at

EAR-TRAINING 127

all the rest of the time. It is only on the tests
that they should be dropped out and they should
have practice in coming in at every lesson until
they can take up the tone of the school without
interfering with its smoothness. The smallest
child will soon learn to listen for, hear, and
eliminate the wavers on long tones and after-
wards be able to apply the principle to more
rapid passages.

PART TUNING

When the music has more than one part,
the ear-training problems will be somewhat dif-
ferent, since the opportunity for discordant
singing is greater. Not only must the pupil
keep in tune with the other voices on the same
part, but the different parts must be in tune
with each other. To give the pupil a chance
to learn to do this, the teacher may use
the exercise outlined in "part singing" where
the teacher taps once and the pupils hold the
tone or tones they are singing. Let us sup-
pose the pupils are singing a three-part song
and the teacher wishes to test a certain chord.
When the pupils reach it, she taps once and

128 GRAPE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

they hold the chord. If the chord is perfectly
smooth, she may tap twice and send them on.
The chord will waver if the tones of the chord
are not the right distance apart, even though
each tone is perfectly smooth when sung alone.
At this age, pupils should be able to hear
"beats or wavers," but suppose they do not.
The teacher may say, "Make it sound smooth."
If this does not remedy the trouble, practice
each tone of the chord separately until it is
perfectly smooth. After each tone of the
chord has been verified separately, combine
them one at a time, being sure that each added
tone does not make the combination waver.
As soon as the chord is steady, send the pupils
along by tapping twice.

SLIDING VOICES

In testing one-part music in the intermediate
grades tell the pupils to slide their voices up
or down a very little until the sound becomes
steady. Do this also when testing one of the
parts in part music. Put the parts together as
a violinist tunes his strings. Tell the pupils

EAR-TRAINING 129

to slide their part up or down a very little until
the combination sounds smooth.

Singing in perfect tune can be learned by
any school if the habit of smooth singing is first
established and pupils are given practice in
smoothing up their chords. Part singing in
the upper grades can be and should be in as
perfect tune as a good string quartet.

Nothing in the whole range of music is love-
lier than young voices singing suitable music in
perfect tune. Tuning appeals 'o young people.
They are very quick to learn to sing in per-
fect tune if their attention is called to the beats
or wavers that arise from singing out of tune.

When the teacher is testing chords for
smoothness, let her stay away from the piano.
The temptation will be to step to the piano and
sound the chord for the school. If the teacher
does this, the pupils will get a bad example.
A piano is always out of tune on the chords,
even when an excellent tuner has just left it,
though the unisons and octaves are smooth.
An explanation of the reason for this is too
long to be put in here. Suffice to say, your

130 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

pupils can sing in better tune than the piano
can because they can make smooth chords and
the piano cannot.

The following is another ear-training de-
vice for pupils who are singing part songs.
The teacher may call the words or syllables of
the song one by one and the pupils may respond
by singing each word or syllable called for.
They must not let the tone stop and must not
leave gaps between the tones. The teacher
should see that each chord is held until it be-
comes perfectly steady before she calls for the
next. Going through a piece that is badly
sung in the manner just described will im-
prove it wonderfully. This exercise, like any
other, is only to be used when needed. When
the pupils can sing in tune, its usefulness is
ended. It is but a device to establish the
tuning habit and when a habit is established,
pupils should use the habit and not the device.

REMEMBERING INTERVALS

After learning to recognize unisons, the ear
must acquire the ability to remember intervals.
Some ears will be able to do this at once and

EAR-TRAINING 131

their owners will sing a tune correctly. With
these we are not concerned just now; our
work is with those who cannot do this. There
are no exercises to be given to develop the
ability of the ear to recognize intervals in tunes,
other than to let these pupils sing songs very
slowly in unison with other voices at first, and
then let them try to sing the same songs alone.
If they do not get the tune straight when sing-
ing alone, they should sing with a good singer
until the ear verifies and remembers the in-
tervals and keeps the singer in the right tune-
track.

VOICE QUALITY

A singer may be able to tell when he is sing-
ing in tune and also how much power he is
using, but it is always difficult for him to
judge the quality of his own voice. He must
be constantly reminded to listen carefully to
the quality of his tone. Almost all singers are
very sensitive about the quality of their
voices and bitterly resent criticism. This
is very foolish and teachers should be
very careful not to allow pupils to grow

132 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

up with such sensitiveness. A singer needs
help on this point more than any other
because he cannot hear the quality of his voice,
and must be told again and again if it is bad.
He should be told this plainly and kindly by the
teacher, and pupils should be taught to tell
each other how their voices sound. The pupil
himself should be encouraged to ask how his
voice sounds.

If a voice does not sound well, there are a
number of things the pupil may do to make it
sound better. First, sing softly; second, send
the breath out more smoothly; third, hold the
chin out a little farther and open the mouth
a trifle wider. This subject is fully explained
in the chapter on voice training.

HEARING PARTS

The singer must learn to hear all the parts
that are sounding. This can best be learned
by tapping exercises, already given, where the
teacher taps once and the pupils hold a chord
in the song they are singing. This is a most
valuable kind of ear-training and a great deal

EAR-TRAINING 133

of it should be done until the pupils are able
to hear all the parts distinctly.

Holding chords to allow the singers to get
in tune and to hear all the parts is not only
a most valuable exercise for singers in school
but also for church choirs and all other mu-
sicians doing concerted work, either vocal or
instrumental. Choruses and orchestras espe-
cially do a great deal of it. It is most valuable
for newly organized bands and orchestras.
The first thing the leader usually pays atten-
tion to is the time and spirit of the piece.
Intonation should receive the first and the most
attention. Wounds in the intonation are usu-
ally left to time and chance to heal. It would
be far better to stop the players on chords as
outlined above at the very beginning and let
them learn early to keep in tune with the other
instruments.

HEARING RHYTHM

The singer must also acquire the faculty of
hearing how fast or slow, how loud or soft the
others are singing, and learn to accommodate

134 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

his voice to the others in both speed and power.
This is very important and should be drilled
upon from the beginning of school music to
the end. A good quartette choir learns to do
this after singing together for some time.
Some singers have this faculty naturally but
most of them have to learn it. It is a faculty
that children acquire very easily if given the
chance to practice it enough.

The teacher should never beat time when
her pupils are learning new songs or singing
old songs in concert. If a person cannot har-
monize with other voices and instruments both
in tune and time, he must be given the chance
to learn. If the teacher beats time in any way
the pupils will follow her and neglect to listen
to and neglect to hear the other singers and
players. If the piano is used a great deal the
pupil will follow that and not listen to the
others. He will not sing in tune as well with
the piano, as the smooth tone of the voices will
be drowned in the piano's roar, as it is often
played. Even when the teacher wants the
song sung faster, she should not show the
pupils how much faster nor should she in any

EAR-TRAINING 135

way set the time. She should simply say
"faster" and let them get it. This will result
in pandemonium at first and the teacher will
be tempted to help. Help should not be given
because the pupils are simply trying to learn
to keep together by ear and they should be
allowed the chance. This is another place
where the teacher should fold her hands and
tongue and let the pupils work it out.

It should not be understood from the preced-
ing paragraph that the piano should never be
used in the schoolroom. Far from it. The
ideal schoolroom will always have a piano in it
and the piano will be used a great deal. It
should never be used until the pupils can sing
a song perfectly without it and then it should
be used as an accompaniment and not as a
"coverer." The piano covers a multitude of
vocal sins, but it sounds better with vocalists
who do not sin.

Choruses of three or four hundred should
learn to keep together by ear and not by eye at
first. When they are getting ready for a pub-
lic appearance, that is another matter, and then
they should learn to follow the baton so that

136 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

the expression desired by the leader can be
brought out. When the pupils have been
trained to listen to all the parts at once and
keep together by ear, it is a simple matter to
train them to follow the baton.

MONOTONES

There are very few real monotones, but it
is the term usually applied when people sing
out of tune. The first remedy for the mono-
tone is to teach him to carry a perfectly
smooth tone. This will not always cure him
but it is effectual in most cases. To prevent
the monotone from spoiling the ears of other
pupils, he should be seated in the front row
where he cannot be heard by the pupils back
of him. The foolish practice of making the
monotone keep still takes away his only chance
of ever learning to sing in tune. He must
learn to make his own voice go first, and how
can he do this if he keeps still? It is his own
voice, in combination with other voices, that
he needs to hear; no amount of listening with-
out singing is going to help him. One might
as well try to teach a child to walk by holding

EAR-TRAINING 137

him in the window to watch the neighbors go
by, as to set a monotone to listening. Let the
monotone sing softly and smoothly with others
and he will soon be able to adjust his voice to
correct pitch.

If a pupil has learned to sing with a sus-
tained tone and has not learned to sing in tune,
a simple exercise like the following will help
him to hear and make unisons with other
voices. Let the whole school sing a tone sev-
eral steps higher than the one the monotone
usually sings. While they are holding this
tone steadily, tell the monotone to slide his
voice up and he will always stop when he
reaches the pitch the others are holding. I
have never seen this fail and it is especially
effective with older pupils who have never
studied music.

Once in a great while a pupil will be found
who cannot slide his voice at the first attempt.
He does not know what you mean. Let this
pupil put his hands on his ribs to be sure that
he makes a smooth, long tone. Then let him
start his tone and while the other pupils sound
a higher one, let the teacher commence on the

138 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

tone the monotone is sounding and slide up,
telling the monotone to follow her. The
teacher should slide away above the other
voices, as it is the wide interval the child hears
first. The monotone will usually do this after
one or two trials and will invariably stop when
he reaches the tone the other pupils are sound-
ing. He has now heard a unison and knows
how to bring his voice into tune with the other
voices. With a little help now and then he will
be able to work out his own salvation.

If, following the teacher's voice does not
make the pupil raise his voice, tell him to yell
at some one in the next room or out in the yard
and his voice will at once run up to a higher
pitch. Let him keep doing that until he knows
what is meant by sliding up and then let him
try sliding into unison with the other voices.

Sometimes it helps a child who cannot raise
his voice to ask him to "trill" to someone at a
distance. Every child will be able to do this,
and from this higher tone he can work out the
unison with other voices and from the unison
the rest of the tune. This work should be
done after school, as there is hardly time to do

EAR-TRAINING 139

all the individual work necessary to rescue
these unfortunates in the regular lesson time.
Other pupils are glad to stay after school to
help, if they are asked in the right way.

CLEAR PART-SINGING

When pupils start part singing, there are
always a few who drop from the pitch and
have to be tuned over again. This is especially
true in beginning three and four-part work.
The altos will be inclined to sing the soprano
an octave lower, and the basses will try to do
the same two octaves lower. Here is where
the teacher's ear needs to be trained as well as
the pupil's and the tapping exercises will train
the ears of all concerned and the teacher will
know, as well as the pupils, when the pitch is
correct.

When seating the pupils in a school where
singing bass has just been begun, it is well to
put the basses in front of the second altos so
that the second alto boys will not be so apt to
go down and try to sing bass. They will want
to do it long before it is time and they must
be watched or they will be trying it in the class.

140 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

When requested to sing their own part, they
will usually try to convince you that the part is
too high, but "be from Missouri" in such cases.

MOVE QUIETLY

Another very important form of ear-train-
ing is teaching a child to move without noise.
Children should be taught early in life that they
must not annoy others, especially in the school-
room where everyone is trying to hear what
is going on. Pupils who are allowed to go
"clumping" around are not only learning to be
very selfish, but are destroying the efficiency
of the class.

Young people who annoy others carelessly
should not be excused but should be taught that
carelessness is but a bad form of selfishness.
Noisiness is particularly heinous because it
steals from others their time and their nerves.
It is not sufficient to simply tell a child to be
quiet, he must be taught how to do it. Ear-
training on this subject should commence in the
home, but as it seldom does, the kindergarten
and first grade teacher must begin it. The

EAR-TRAINING 141

solution of the noisy child problem is very
simple. He must be taught to listen to every
move he makes. As soon as he does this, he
will become expert in moving quietly.

It is foolish for a teacher to tell a room full
of children of any age to "sit still," because it
is impossible for them to do it. So why
weaken your hold on them by asking for some-
thing that cannot be done? There is a much
better and more sensible way. Let the teacher
ask how many can sit perfectly still for five
minutes. Nearly every hand will go up. The
teacher may say, "I am sure it cannot be done,
but if you think you are able to do it, just try
it."

Of course, some one will move in a few sec-
onds and that will prove her point. The effort
to sit perfectly still will be most tiring to all
and the teacher may then remark, "Of course,
you cannot sit still five minutes and nobody
wants you to try, because it is not a good thing
to do."

Everyone will relax and the noise will re-
commence.

142 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

Now the teacher may ask, "Can you hear
well ?" Of course they will say yes.

"Now listen and hear how many noises are
going on."

It will become as still as death and the clock
will tick with terrific loudness.

'That is the way it should be in the school
room, so that we can concentrate our minds on
our work. Now as we cannot sit still and as
it must be quiet so that we can work, what are
we going to do?"

The answer will usually be, "Keep as quiet
as we can."

"That will not do, as we must be perfectly
quiet." The solution is simple. The teacher
may say, "Just use your ear every time you
move and it will be quiet. Move all you like,
provided no one hears you." This will put
into the pupil's hand the exact tool he needs
and then let him work out quietness for him-
self. When a child forgets and moves noisily,
he may be told, "Return to your seat, you have
left something behind you." He will return,
look, and find nothing. He will very likely
ask what it is he has left and the teacher may

EAR-TRAINING 143

smile and point to her ear. The joke will be
on him and he will appreciate it and listen the
next time.

Moving quietly is extremely important when
individual singing is going on. Pupils must
learn to rise and move into their places so as
not to disturb the singers. This last form of
ear-training not only belongs in the music les-
son to increase the efficiency of the work and
to make the ears keen, but it will make the
pupil more observant in every way. The par-
ent or teacher who neglects to give the child
this ear-training is depriving him of one of the
best forms of culture that can be devised and
is sending him out into the world handicapped
with a pair of unobservant ears, besides allow-
ing him to make a nuisance of himself in many
ways. Nothing so makes for selfishness in
anyone as to feel free to disturb, or worse yet
to be unconscious of the fact that he is disturb-
ing others.

Now please do not gather from the preced-
ing statements that I am such an old granny
that I want children to be like graven images
all the time. Far from it. No one appre-

144 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

ciates more than I do the value of noisy play
and freedom in activities. Discrimination is
what the child needs to learn and when he
learns the proper way and the proper places
to make noises, he will be more untrammeled
than ever because he will not disturb anyone
and will not have to be "said don't at" as often
as before.

Such training as outlined in the preceding
paragraphs would be of great value to audi-
ences of every kind. In any audience room
there is always the rustle of programs and
wearing apparel and other human sounds that
are wholly unnecessary. If the people who
make these sounds had been taught to listen,
not only to the music, but also had been taught
to listen for and to eliminate other sounds, they
would enjoy the entertainment far better — so
would their neighbors. As a step toward this,
the music teacher should eliminate every sound
except the music from her music lesson. Even
the turning of leaves should not be heard. If
the pupil makes a noise, there are many things,
besides scolding, the teacher can quietly do to
remind him that he ,is disturbing others. The

EAR-TRAINING 145

teacher may ask the pupil privately if his ear is
a little dim. Always lay it to dim hearing.
That will bring home to the pupil the cause
of the trouble and will show him just what
organ to use. Above all, do not say "sit still"
to your pupils. It is futile and every child
knows it and he stamps you as an unreasonable
being the minute you say "sit still."

One of the very best ear-training devices in
the whole list is the quiet teacher. I have
heard many a teacher mourn over the noisy
pupils she was caged with and every time
the teacher walked across the room her heels
beat a tattoo on the floor that would make a
snare drum rattle with envy. How could
pupils be quiet with such an example to en-
dure? A fine ear-trainer is a pair of rubber
heels on teacher's shoes. (I am not advertis-
ing any particular brand. ) They will not only
rest the teacher but will quiet the pupils won-
derfully.

CHAPTER IX

THEORY

THE theory of music is the knowledge a
person has about its construction, notation, etc.
Practice is what a person can do with music
either with voice or instrument.

Theory is sometimes a stumbling block to
the teacher, and the more he knows about mu^
sic, the more trouble he often has in teaching
it. The old pedagogical maxim, "A child
learns to do by doing," kept well in mind, will
smooth out the wrinkles in many a course of
study.

A most enlightening parallel on this point
is to be found in the teaching of languages in
high schools. Instead of learning how to
speak and write a foreign language, pupils in
the average high school acquire only the ability
to make vague and wavering translations. If
our teachers of modern languages would study
the way a child learns his mother tongue and
146

THEORY 147

use the same method in teaching, the pupils
would get something tangible in a fraction of
the time they now spend getting practically
nothing.

Instead of remembering the great peda-
gogical truth stated above, the teacher of mod-
ern languages often commences the study in
the wrong way by smothering the pupil with
a mass of knowledge about the language so
that instead of being able to use the language
in a natural way, he has to spend his time
mulling over a mass of mental rubbish.

This same trouble often befalls the music
pupil for the same reason. There are number-
less facts he might know about music if there
were time to teach them; but comparatively
few of these facts are needed to enable him
to read and interpret vocal music intelli-
gently.

Let us see how much theory a child in the
grades needs to know and, in the light of the
pedagogical rule above stated, decide the order
of presentation to be observed.

Since we use only rote songs in the first
grade, there is no theory to teach in that grade.

148 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

Many attempt to teach phrases, measures, ac-
cents, rhythm, and other things in the first
grade that are not needed. "Children learn
to do by doing," but it is the teacher's business
to see that they do the right thing at the right
time.

Children should commence to learn to read
music in the second grade and the first printed
page of music presented should be a pattern
song of simple structure, very plainly printed,
with each phrase on a line by itself. There
should be no divided beats and the notes should
be large and plain. The song should be slow
with simple rhythm and easy intervals. The
children should already know this song from
memory and be able to sing it correctly with
proper phrasing and a smooth, pleasant tone.
The teacher should first show the pupils how
to point to the notes as they sing the pattern
song. As each phrase is on a line by itself,
this process will be easy and the children will
soon learn that each note stands for a sepa-
rate tone of the song and that the proper place
to breathe is at the end of each line or phrase.

THEORY 149

Measure and accent do not require attention at
this stage.

The pupil learns the value of the notes and
rests by experience in singing the pattern songs.
Here we encounter one of the worst incon-
sistencies in music notation. Instead of a
standard one-beat note, we have several.
How fine and how simple it would be to have
the quarter note the only one-beat note used.
It would make the path of the young music
student far easier, as there would be no need
of the mystifying fraction at the beginning
of the piece. Only one figure would be
needed to tell how many beats in a measure.
But as measure is not to be taught at the be-
ginning, it is only necessary to tell the child
that when the lower figure is four, the quarter
note gets a beat and when it is eight, an eighth
note gets a beat, etc. Later he can learn what
the upper figure means. At present he should
be taught only the note values; and let meas-
ure and accent teach themselves.

The children will learn the lines and spaces
of the staff by using them in singing the

150 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

pattern songs by note and by singing new
songs by note. In designating the lines and
spaces of the staff, they should be numbered
from the bottom.

The pupils will learn the syllable names of
the notes as they go along and they will soon
begin to discover scale relations in the songs.
No time should be spent in teaching intervals
as such. The child's mind becomes adjusted
to the tones of the scale naturally and the
sounds soon become fixed in his memory.
This is one of the places where pupils and
teachers have wasted much time by not apply-
ing the great maxim that underlies all ped-
agogy. Instead of allowing the child to learn
the intervals by using them in reading both old
and new songs, teachers are very apt to spend
time in drilling on intervals apart from the
song.

Teaching the treble clef is of no importance
until the base clef is introduced, which is usu-
ally in the eighth grade. Then the pupils may
learn both the bass and treble in order to tell
which one they are singing from.

The signature may be used simply to teach

THEORY 151

the position of "do." Teach the pupil that
when there are no sharps or flats, "do" is on
the line below. The right hand sharp is "ti"
and the right hand flat is "fa." When he
begins to write music, he may learn the posi-
tion of the sharps and flats by copying them
from the board or book.

In the latter part of the third grade or the
beginning of the fourth, the divided beat is
taught. It is well, though not positively neces-
sary, to teach the measure at this time. To
do this requires the teaching of bars and
double bars.

Chromatics are often found in third grade
music.

CHROMATICS

If chromatics are introduced as they should
be in the books, they will be learned by sing-
ing them in songs, the same as the tones of
the common scale were learned. The first
few chromatics that appear should be sung by
the teacher and the school should learn them
by ear. The same ones should then be used
in various songs in different keys. Give the

152 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

pupils the following rule: First think what
the note would be without the chromatic, and
remember that a sharp before a note means a
half step up, and the vowel of the syllable
name is changed to e. A flat before a note
means a half step down and the vowel is
changed to a. A natural before a note al-
ready flatted is the same as a sharp and a
natural before a note already sharped is the
same as a flat.

The following diagrams should be put on
the board when teaching this rule:

*!>"#

a

The double sharp and the double flat follow
the rule for a sharp and a flat respectively.

THEORY 153

Chromatics are easily learned in this way. On
no account have the pupils attempt the hope-
less task of writing the chromatic scales in
the different keys.

The plan of going to some other key to
teach chromatics is foolish. For instance,
many teachers teach "sol, fi, sol" by calling it
"do, ti, do" first. This is not only a waste of
time but it teaches the wrong thing, as it
makes the pupil think of another key when
he should be thinking of an accidental in the
same key. The best way to teach a chromatic
tone is to sing it to him until he knows it.

Never, under any circumstances, teach the
chromatic scale as a whole. It is never used.
The same may be said of the minor scales.
When a song in a minor key has been learned,
the teacher may simply call attention to the
sound of it, and if she wishes, she may ex-
plain to the class how to tell whether it is a
minor or not. If it is a minor, it often begins
and always ends on "la."

If the pupil can read in the major keys and
recognizes chromatics as they occur, he will
have no trouble with minors. There are

154 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

teachers who say we must teach minor songs
by calling the first tone of the minor scale
"do" instead of "la," but how anyone in his
senses can stand for such an unnecessary bur-
den of foolish work is beyond comprehension,
unless he wants to make it hard instead of
easy and to keep the child from learning to
read music as long as possible. The same may
be said of the "fixed do" method.

Some systems of reading music compel the
child to figure out whether it is a minor third
or a* major third before singing it. It does not
seem possible that such back-handed work
could be found anywhere in the world, but
veracious returned travelers assure us that it is
attempted in some remote centers of civiliza-
tion.

What is the use of teaching chords to chil-
dren who are reading one-part music? It
might be well to do a little of it when they begin
to sing three-part music, for then they have a
chance to hear chords. The study of musical
facts not necessary to the work, in hand is a
hindrance rather than a help. It might be
well to know the chemical ingredients of the

THEORY 155

food we eat, but certainly the average child
will flourish quite well even if he does not
know that his food contains proteids, starches,
and other things. His digestive apparatus will
find that out without burdening his brain with
useless information. We are altogether too
apt to stuff a child's head with unrelated facts
and then wonder why his brain does not func-
tion better. It is a mercy that he has the
faculty of forgetting some of the things he
has learned.

When teaching theory be careful to follow
the rule that heads this chapter and see that
every item of theory you teach is necessary
and that the children themselves see the neces-
sity for it.

CHAPTER X

VOICE TESTING

VOICE testing is one of the most difficult, as
well as one of the most important subjects
that confront the music supervisor. It takes
time and experience to do it well and even
when it is well done, it never "stays put."
Like tuning the piano, it has to be done over
and over again. It is so big a task and re-
quires so much time that it is often left to
the pupils themselves, with disastrous results.
Another reason why it is not well done is the
fact that many supervisors of music are not
well prepared for this part of their work. It
is little short of criminal for a supervisor of
music to take charge of a system of schools
unless he knows how to test voices.

REASONS

If the voices are tested often and each voice
is assigned to the proper part and not forced,
156

VOICE TESTING 157

they will develop naturally and satisfactorily.
Each voice should be watched especially dur-
ing the changing period, for the same voice
will often cover the range of all the different
parts before settling on the part for which
nature designed it. The supervisor and
teacher must exercise eternal vigilance and
move the voice when nature says it should be
done. Voices should be tested also for mu-
sical effect in ensemble singing. We are teach-
ing music and if the voices of the children are
not on the proper parts, there will be no music.
There is nothing lovelier in music than a chorus
of young voices, singing beautiful and appro-
priate songs when each voice is on the right
part, singing easily, pleasantly, and in tune.
There is nothing so unmusical as a chorus with
a number of voices on the wrong part. When
a voice is on the wrong part, there is little use
in trying to get its possessor to sing in tune.
It cannot be done, for a strained voice is seldom
able to keep the pitch for any length of time.
Even if the pupil does succeed in keeping the
pitch, the part he is singing will not sound
right because it will have the wrong quality.

158 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

WHEN TO TEST VOICES

Voices should be tested for part singing
as soon as they show signs of changing. This
usually occurs about the beginning of the sixth
grade. In the two preceding grades, where
two-part music is sung, the pupils should al-
ternate. In the fifth grade, the low voices
should be put in the middle of the room and
be required to sing alto with the side of the
room which is singing the alto part. In the
sixth grade much three-part music should be
used. The voices begin to change here, and
during the changing period it is particularly
important, for musical and for educational
reasons, as well as for vocal reasons, that the
voices sing in a limited compass. From the
beginning of the sixth grade to the end of the
senior year in the high school, each voice
should be tested often. The voices are con-
stantly changing and each pupil should be in-
structed to ask for a test whenever he feels
that the part he is singing is getting hard for
him. In the individual work the voices can be

VOICE TESTING 159

watched easily and tests given when the need
is indicated.

STAY ON SAME PART

The question often arises whether it is best
to place a young voice on a certain part and
keep it there until it changes. The answer
is "yes" for the following reasons. The voice,
during the changing period, usually has a short
compass. By this is meant that, though the
pupil may be able to sing both high and low,
the easy compass of his voice is usually pretty
short, and to develop the voice properly he
should use only the easy compass. Many con-
tend that the voice will develop better if a
wide compass is used, but my experience has
been to the contrary. I have always kept a
voice, from the sixth grade through the high
school, rigidly to one part until a test showed
that another part should be taken. Long ex-
perience has convinced me that the voice that
sings lightly and easily, in a limited compass
during the changing period, will have a wider
compass, more power, and a better quality in

160 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

the end than the voice that has tried to culti-
vate a wider compass during the same period.
If there were no other reason than voice pres-
ervation, the limited compass of the changing
voice makes part singing in the upper grades
and the high school a necessity.

Whenever the bass part is represented, four-
part music for mixed voices is required in or-
der to furnish an easy compass for all the
voices. Three-part music, arranged for
soprano, alto, and bass, should never be used
in the grades mentioned, because it does not
accommodate all the voices.

SYSTEM

Testing voices, like everything else, should
follow the best system that can be devised for
doing it quickly and effectively. The same
plan should be followed in every grade and in
the high school. Each pupil should be taught
to do the same exercise as rapidly and as
loudly as he can and keep at it until he is told
what part he is to sing. Two should stand at
once and as soon as one is tested, the next
should start instantly and sing his exercise

VOICE TESTING 161

without being told. The rest of the class must
watch the singing pupil and see that he starts
on the right key. The pupil must try first and
if he does not start on the right pitch, the class
must give it. If the class has forgotten it, the
teacher will give it from the pitch pipe. The
exercise must be kept going at high speed and
no pupil should be allowed to stop to make
excuses.

The best exercise for testing voices I have
ever tried is the following: Let each pupil
begin on G, the second line of the treble staff
(if a changed boy voice, an octave below), and
sing the scale up through one octave and then
down two octaves, returning over the same
ground and going up and down until told to
stop. The boys should start this exercise in
the opposite direction because the boy voice
often shows during the first octave what it is
and it saves time to let the boys start down-
ward.

The pupils should all be required to go
through this exercise to the full extent, even if
they cannot reach the extreme tones easily.
Pupils often stop and declare they can go no

162 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

farther long before the limit of vocal compass
is reached. So it is well to insist upon the
limit of "G" at each end. Tell the pupil
plainly that it is the bad spots of the voice
that you are looking for this time, and that he
must show all the voice he has. This explana-
tion will remove the timidity that every one
has when he shows the poor and hard parts of
his voice.

CLASSIFICATION OF VOICES

The unchanged boy voices and the girl voices
in the grades should be divided into four parts ;
first and second soprano, and first and second
alto. The changed boy voices will almost al-
ways sing bass in the grades. Few, if any,
tenors are found below the high school.

Voices in the high school should be divided
into eight parts : first and second soprano, first
and second alto, first and second tenor, first
and second bass. The first tenor is a rare
voice, even in the high school. The teacher
can determine how good the work has been
in the grades by the number of high sopranos

VOICE TESTING 163

and tenors that develop in the high school. If
there are a number of high, easy voices in the
high school, the work in the grades has been
good. These are the two voices that are most
apt to be spoiled in the making.

A quick and effective way to tell the pupil
what part to sing is to hold the fingers up
when you have determined what the voice is.
Use the fingers of the left hand for the girls
and unchanged boy voices. First soprano,
one finger; second soprano, two; first alto,
three; and second alto, four. Take the right
hand for the changed boy voices. First tenor,
one finger ; second tenor, two ; first bass, three ;
and second bass, four. This is merely a little
trick to save time and the teacher's voice. If
you say what part the pupil is to sing you
will have to wait until he stops singing or he
will have trouble in hearing you. If you tell
him on your fingers, he will know instantly.
The attention he must give to these signals
will make him less self-conscious while sing-
ing and his voice will be more free. No mat-
ter how many times the voices are tested or

164 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

how much individual work has been done, there
is always a little timidity about exhibiting the
bad spots of the voice.

CHOIR BOYS AND VOICE PUPILS

It is well to tell the pupils who are singing
in a boy choir to sing whatever part the choir
leader wishes them to sing. Even if the super-
visor does not agree with the choir leader, it
is well to defer to his judgment and avoid fric-
tion. It is the same with voice pupils. The
voice teacher should have the freedom to say
whether the pupil should sing in school or not
and what part he should sing. This is only
giving these people a fair chance. If your
views do not agree with theirs, talk it over
with them. Even musicians are reasonable
beings and it is a good idea for the supervisor
of music to be on friendly terms with the pri-
vate musicians of his community. Their sup-
port is a fine thing to have.

In testing voices, remember that it is the
quality and not the compass that decides what
the voice is.

VOICE TESTING 165

SOPRANO

The soprano voice varies in power, heavi-
ness, or thickness of quality from the little girl
in the sixth grade to the young lady senior

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VOICE TESTING 167

sopranos must stay between C (line below)
and E (fourth space).

Test the alto voice in the same way the
soprano voice is tested. (The alto quality is
more easily recognized when contrasted with
the soprano.) If it is determined that the
quality is alto, then class it either as first or
second alto. If the voice broadens as it de-
scends the scale and can give a full easy tone
on G (third space below), it is a second alto.
Any alto voice that cannot do this should be
placed on the first alto. If the supervisor is
careful to put all the doubtful soprano voices
on the second soprano part and all the doubtful
alto voices on the first alto and is sparing of
the number he places on the first soprano and
second alto, he cannot go far wrong in his
classification.

REGISTERS

As the voice descends the scale from G (sec-
ond line), a change will be noticed at D (space
below) or C (line below). These lower tones
constitute the chest register. The pupils
should be cautioned not to carry the chest regis-

168 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

ter higher than C (line below). If they sing
softly and easily, the chest register will take
care of itself. If they sing loudly, the chest
tone will go too high, and there is no vocal
sin that has quite the serious consequences of
an 'over-developed chest register. A peculiarly
vicious "blat" is the result.

There are many little pitfalls into which the
supervisor may fall in testing voices, which
experience will remedy. An alto will some-
times be found to have better high tones than
many of the sopranos, but if the quality is alto,
the. voice should be placed on one of the alto
parts. Quality first is always the test. The
dramatic soprano voice may sound like an alto,
but it is a rare voice among school pupils and
it will come to no harm on one of the middle-
parts.

In testing a girl's voice, one need not be sur-
prised at anything it does. The boy voice is
sure to go down, but you cannot foretell with
any certainty what the girl voice is going to
do. It is just like herself. The girl voice may
change over night from a thin, wiry soprano to

VOICE TESTING 169

a big, heavy alto. The deep tones may stay
with her the rest of her life or they may be
gone in a week. The girl voice is more difficult
to classify than the boy voice and therefore
must be watched closely.

THE BOY VOICE

Before changing, the boy voice comes under
the same rules as the girl voice and should be
tested in the same way. Most unchanged boy
voices show exactly what they are, but some
are deceptive. Immediately previous to the
change, the boy voice sometimes has a very
large upper tone that seems to be free and
easy. If these large, free upper tones c.re ac-
companied by large, free lower tones, as they
almost always are, never let the boy sing
soprano. This voice is going down and it is
well to let it sing low rather than high. It is
here that choir leaders spoil many voices.
They often allow the boy to sing soprano long
after his voice begins to change. It is during
this time that the boy is most useful both on
account of the power of his voice and the train-

170 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

ing he has received, and it is a great tempta-
tion to the choir master to keep him on the
soprano part far too long.

All teachers who work with boys' voices
should realize the fact that when a boy's voice
begins to thicken, it means that his larynx is
growing and his voice will descend an octave,
more or less, during the changing period. If
the boy sings lower and lower as his voice
changes, his voice will never "break" but will
gradually deepen and will sound well and be
useful all the time, if he sings in a light and
sensible way. The reason a boy has trouble
with his voice when it is changing is because
he has overworked it. There is a brilliance
in the boy voice just as it begins to change that
is sometimes very attractive. He likes to use
it and his parents, his teacher, and his choir
leader also like to have him use it. A voice
that has been used too long and too hard as a
boy soprano seldom amounts to much after-
ward. There are a few exceptions. I am
heartily in favor of the boy choir. It is good
for the boy. I keep the choirs of my city as
full as I can, for it is the best kind of training

VOICE TESTING 171

for the boy both musically and morally, to be
in a good choir. I am not in favor, however,
of letting the boys sing soprano as long as most
leaders think it wise.

If the boy voice breaks, it means that his
training has been faulty in some way. Instead
of mourning when a boy has to leave the choir,
the wise choir leader lets him stop singing
soprano a little earlier and puts him on the alto
part. The alto part in the average boy choir
is painfully weak and thin. These ex-sopranos
make excellent altos for a while, because they
have all the training of their soprano days.
A little later, when their voices are somewhat
lower, they can help out the tenor. Some of
them will stay there and be tenors for the rest
of their lives. The same road will lead the
majority of the boys to the bass.

I was much amused a number of years ago
at a choir leader who came to me in great ex-
citement, saying he had a boy in his choir
whose voice had never "broken." This voice
had simply filled up and become a tenor after
the boy had been singing alto for some time.
This choir leader never knew the full history

172 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

of that particular boy, as I had told the urchin
privately to insist upon singing alto instead of
soprano when he was twelve years old. He
had been a fine soprano and the leader hated
to lose him, but the boy insisted and sang alto
just as he did in school. When I gave the
word, the boy asked to sing tenor in the choir
and, lo and behold, there he remained and his
voice was beautiful and had shown no signs
of breaking. I told the leader to come down
to the high school and he would see a dozen
boys who had passed through a similar ex-
perience. He had never treated a voice in that
way before and so he had never seen nature
do her perfect work.

The boy may just as well stay in the choir
from the age of eight to eighty as to be trained
for a few years and then be cast out. Telling
a boy to stop singing while his voice changes,
is a good deal like telling him to stop all ex-
ercise while he is growing up. If there is need
of his stopping, it will be due to careless train-
ing and, of course, that is the fault of his
teacher. The universal desire of the boy to
sing bass is but an instinctive knowledge of

VOICE TESTING 173

what is good for him. Every normal boy
hates to sing high after he is twelve. He
would far rather sing bass or as near to it as
he can. This desire is on account of the
natural longing to be a man as soon as possible
and also because of the natural trend of the
voice. Boys should be warned against yelling
during voice mutation. It will do little good,
of course, but may deter some of the more mu-
sical ones and these are the ones that are most
worth saving.

Every supervisor of music and every choir
leader should read a little book called, "The
Voice of the Boy," by John J. Dawson.* Fol-
low the principles laid down in this book, but
do not do the exercises called for, as they are
unnecessary.

CHANGED VOICES

In the three upper grades and in the high
school, the boys will be found in all stages of
development. In testing changed boy voices,
start the pupils at G (fourth space, bass staff)

* Published by A. S. Barnes Company, New York.

174 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

and let them sing down and up through the
two octaves as already explained. Insist that
they attempt the whole range of the two oc-
taves, for boys should learn to sing through
the break into the falsetto or the mixed
register, as the case may be. This means that
the older boys should be taught to keep the
remains of the lower tones in the alto voice as
long as possible, as this is the foundation of
the higher tones in the man's voice. It is not
well to use the higher tones very much until
they are well developed and can be produced
correctly. The change from one register to
another should occur as low as possible.

In classifying the changed boy voices, fol-
low the rule of "quality first and then com-
pass." Decide first whether a voice is a tenor
or bass and then classify as first or second.

TENOR VOICE

The tenor voice is recognized by its light
quality. The lower tones are sometimes thin
and weak. Voice quality is very hard to de-
scribe on paper and the best way to train your

VOICE TESTING 175

ear for this is to listen to well-known local
tenors and get their voice quality in mind and
then, allowing for differences in age, test your
pupils' voices accordingly. The tenor voice
may be divided into two classes as to compass.
The first tenor should be able to sing the high
G with a clear, easy tone, without any constric-
tion of the throat muscles and with well defined
change in the voice quality at about D (sec-
ond space above). The others, of course, are
second tenors.

BASS VOICE

The bass voice is recognized by its thick,
heavy quality, especially in the lower tones.
The bass voices may be divided into first and
second bass. The second bass should be able
to sing a good low G (first line). The others
should be placed on the first or higher bass.
It is well to be conservative in the number of
pupils placed on the first tenor and the second
bass, as these are the two dangerous parts.

Each and every boy with a changed voice
should be told how low and how high to sing

176 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

and be required to remain within the pre-
scribed compass, even when most excited about
the music. Each pupil should know that when
a tone is difficult, it should be skipped, for his
voice is more important than the music. There
will be other voices that can carry the tones he
is unable to give, and it is better to have poor
spots in the music for a little while than to
have a poor spot in the voice for life.

WHAT MUSIC TO SING

A great deal of three-part music for soprano,
second soprano, and alto is used in the sixth
and seventh grades. The voices are tested fdr
four parts. The first sopranos will sing the
soprano. The second sopranos and first altos
will sing the middle part and the second altos
will sing the alto part. When there are but
two parts, the first sopranos will sing the
soprano and all the rest will sing the alto. The
second sopranos are the sopranos whose upper
tones are not good. When a tone is not good,
do not use it. It is folly for any voice student
to practice his bad tones. They will never get

VOICE TESTING 177

to be good that way. Bad tones mean bad
habits. Do not, practice bad habits; practice
good ones and they will grow and cure the bad
ones. When bad tones become good tones by
the triumph of good habits, then use the tones
that have reformed, not before. So let the sec-
ond soprano sing the lower part in two-part
music in the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades,
but do not let them sing lower than C (line
below), even if the part runs lower. Be spar-
ing of unison songs in these grades, as they are
apt to strain some of the voices.

In four-part music in the eighth grade and
high school, let the first sopranos sing the
soprano, the second sopranos and first altos
sing the alto, telling the second sopranos to
stop at C (line below) and first altos at B
flat, no matter where the part goes. The sec-
ond altos, both boys and girls, may sing tenor
with the tenors, telling them, on pain of instant
vocal death, not to sing below G ( fourth space
of the bass staff). First and second tenors
will sing tenor as high as their voices permit.
The basses will sing bass and when there arc

178 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

two parts in the bass, there will be the voices
to sing them. All the other parts can be
divided when the music calls for it.

BALANCE OF PARTS

The parts may not balance when the voices
are tested in this way, but it is the individual
voice we must look out for and if anything
is to suffer, it should be the music and not the
voices. If the number on a part is small, they
need not sing louder, as will be the temptation,
but the larger parts should sing with less force.
This will make the music balance and teach
the valuable lesson of singing within the vocal
limits spoken of in the chapter on ear-train-
ing.

SEATING PARTS

When singing three-part music, the pupils
should be seated in the order in which the
parts come, from upper to lower. It makes no
difference whether the first sopranos are on the
left or on the right of the teacher. This
should be decided by the room and the occa-
sion. There is no iron clad rule for this.

VOICE TESTING 179

In four-part work, the sopranos should come
first, then on down to the bass at the other end
of the chorus. When there are second alto
boys singing tenor, it is well to put them behind
the basses where they will not hear the bass
part so plainly. In this way they will be less
likely to sing too low, either from choice or
carelessness. If the pupils are good readers,
this makes no difference, but the bass and tenor
parts are harder than the others because the
pupils singing these two parts have changed
staves and voices, both at the same time, and
they must have time to get used to these new
things.

In the high school chorus and in all large
choruses, the room and its acoustics must be
studied in seating the parts. The logical way
is to seat the chorus with the sopranos on one
end and the basses on the other, but in many
rooms and on many large stages, this is not
feasible, as the pupils must be able to hear the
other parts and they must be arranged so as
to make this possible. Where the men are in
the minority, they are seated in front and in
the middle, with a sea of femininity surround-

180 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

ing them. Where the choruses balance as they
should in high schools (and do when chorus
singing is obligatory), the best plan is to have
the sopranos and basses in the middle, next to
each other, and the tenors and second altos,
both boys and girls, on the end next to the
basses, the second sopranos and first altos on
the end next to the sopranos. This will give
the two leading parts the best positions and if
those on the ends can hear but three parts, they
will be the most important ones from the har-
monic standpoint. The basses and sopranos
being next to each other will be able to keep
together as they should.

CHAPTER XI

VOICE TRAINING

THE voice training necessary in the public
schools is very simple and easy if done in the
right way. There is little training to be done
except to see that each child sings in an easy
compass and does not strain his voice. This
will insure correct vocal growth, and later on
it will not be necessary for the voice teacher
to run up an enormous bill correcting bad
habits.

To make this clear, let us study the physi-
ology of the vocal machine and see just what
we are concerned with, as to its use in singing.

The vocal machine has four parts :

The motor or lungs.

The vibrator or vocal cords.

The resonator, comprising the cavities of
the lungs, larynx, throat, head, mouth, nose,
etc.

181

182 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

The articulator, comprising the tongue,
teeth, and lips.

MOTOR

The use of the motor or lungs in singing
should be taught to every child, as outlined in
the chapter on singing, as soon as he enters
school or kindergarten. This should be taught
first, for the success of vocal music in the
grades and in the high school depends on the
skill with which breathing is taught. Breath-
ing should be taught so well in the schoolroom
that the voice teacher has little or nothing to
add to it later. Breathing exercises that are
not employed directly in singing are a waste of
time. The very best breathing exercise pos-
sible is to have the pupils sing long phrases
smoothly, as outlined in the chapter on rote
songs and also in the chapter on singing. If
the physical culture teacher wishes to give
breathing exercises for the development of the
lungs, there is no objection, but they are seldom
much help to the singer. Such exercises tend
to overdevelop the movement of the upper part
of the chest, encourage the pupil to take too

VOICE TRAINING 183

much breath and send it out too fast, or hold
it at the throat, all of which lead to the forma-
tion of bad vocal habits. Children should
learn to take breath quickly through the mouth
and nose at once, without noise and without
allowing the chest to rise and fall. There is
little else to teach them about breathing. Girls
and boys should breathe exactly the same.
The position that the children should habitually
use in singing, and definite directions for
breathing are outlined in the chapter on sing-
ing.

Position has a great deal to do with the
success of the breathing and consequently with
the use of the voice. The old Italians said
truthfully, "He who knows how to breathe,
knows well how to sing." This is very true
and the pupils should always stand erect while
singing or sit erect with the back away from
the back of the seat, so that the muscles in the
sides of the back, under the shoulder blades,
can work freely. Leaning against the back
of the seat induces chest breathing. When the
pupil sways forward while singing, he will
breathe correctly. Placing the elbows far

184 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

apart on the desk, if it is the right height, and
raising the chest, will bring the correct posi-
tion and induce proper breathing. This is very
important at every age, but especially with the
younger children. "As the twig is bent, the
tree is inclined," so if the child has held him-
self in the proper position while growing up,
he will be symmetrically developed, his lungs
will be strong and usable, and his voice will be
developed naturally.

In classrooms furnished with chairs or opera
chairs the breathing problem is harder. To
obviate this trouble, the pupils may stand a
part of the time and at other times may put
their hands on the chair back ahead of them,
holding the book in both hands. With this
position, the chest will not rise and fall and
the lower rib muscles, which are seldom prop-
erly developed, will be left free.

Voice teachers give breathing exercises of
various descriptions, but a breathing exercise,
unaccompanied by singing, is not only unneces-
sary but is frequently injurious. The thing a
pupil needs to know is how to send the breath
out slowly enough to make a good tone and not

VOICE TRAINING 185

to hold it at the throat. Most of the breath-
ing exercises reverse this process.

VIBRATOR

The second part of the vocal machine is the
vibrator or the vocal cords. They are located
in the larynx, which is the enlargement felt at
the top of the wind-pipe. It is called the
Adam's apple. The story of the origin of this
name is that Eve was able to swallow the
apple she ate, but Adam had at least the rudi-
ments of a conscience and his apple stuck in
his throat.

It is unnecessary to go into details concern-
ing the vocal cords. It is sufficient to say that
they are automatic in their work and if the
voice is always used easily and pleasantly, the
vocal cords will grow and function properly.

REGISTERS

There have been many disagreements about
the registers of the human voice. I will not
attempt any argument, except to say that there
are registers in the human voice -and any one
with a fair ear can hear them. It is especially

186 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

important that the grade teacher and supervisor
be able to hear them.

A "register/' so called, is a series of tones
made by using the vocal cords in a certain way.
For instance, in the woman's voice the lower
tones up to D (space below) are made in a cer-
tain way. For an octave above this tone the
vocal cords vibrate in a different way. At
about D (fourth line) still another change
takes place. These natural divisions of the
voice are called registers. If the reader is in-
terested in learning more about the way the
vocal cords perform, he may refer to any
standard work on the voice. Better read a
number of them and then use your common
sense. You will need it by that time.

All the supervisor of music or grade teacher
needs to know of this matter is how to tell
one register from another. Keep in mind,
when the upper tones of any register are being
carried too high, the voice is louder and sounds
strained. When the low tones of a register are
carried lower, the tone will be softer but pleas-
anter and the voice is not being strained.

It takes time to develop the vocal cords

VOICE TRAINING 187

properly and the pupil should sing softly all
the time during school life so that the vocal
cords may grow naturally and function cor-
rectly. When, at the age of sixteen, the pupil
goes to the voice teacher, the long and difficult
part of voice training will have been done, be-
cause the vocal cords are healthy and strong
as a result of proper development.

The child voice, before the change, is
divided into two registers — the chest register
and the head register. The difference can be
detected in the following way :

Take a number of children about eight years
old, who are strong and healthy, and let them
sing "America" with the vigorous tone many
misguided teachers think a patriotic song de-
mands. Pitch the song in "D," so that the
first tone is on the space below. It will sound
harsh and blatant. Try it again in "E" (first
line) and it will be worse. Try it again in
"G," where it is written, and if sung loudly it
will sound worse than ever. Then pitch it in
"A" and let the children sing softly and it will
sound very sweet and pretty, as children's sing-
ing should sound. The first three times the

188 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

singing was in the chest register, which the
children should never use, and the last time it
was all in the head register, which is the regis-
ter young children should always use. The
ear of the listener will detect the difference at
once. This is the essential thing the teacher
of young children needs to know about regis-
ters. It is often said that if the pupil uses only
the head register, he will be all right, no mat-
ter what he does, but that is not true. He
must use even the head register properly and
not yell in it, for the head voice, used improp-
erly, will sound very bad and the quality of
the voice will be ruined.

When, in the sixth grade or thereabout, the
voice begins to fill up and deepen, the chest
register may be used, if used softly and easily,
and the vocal cords will develop as they should.

About this time the three registers will ap-
pear in the voices of the girls. The "chest"
register, which should never be used above "C"
sharp (line below) ; and the "middle" register,
which is safe up to "D" (fourth line) ; and the
"head" register, above that.

If the pupil sings softly, with a smooth,

VOICE TRAINING 189

pleasant tone, the registers will take care of
themselves, though it is well for the teacher to
know what is going on, in order to be able to
help the few who will not do it correctly and
who are straining their voices by carrying the
registers too high.

The boys will usually show two registers
(sometimes three) just before the change.
After the change of voice, the boys will usu-
ally show two for a while, the chest and the
falsetto. They should use the falsetto as low
as it will work, since this will insure an easy
use of the throat and will be the foundation
for the mixed voice that will later come to the
baritones and tenors. It should come to basses
also, but seldom does, because they are more
apt to strain their voices.

NO VOCAL EXERCISES

There are no exercises that need be given to
develop the vocal cords in the schoolroom, as
the singing of the songs in the regular music
lessons, if properly done, with a smooth, soft,
easy tone, will do all the needed work. Here
again is a wise provision of nature that will

190 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

save us much time if we have sense enough to
heed it. The voice will grow by use as nature
intended it to do, if we do not transgress any
of her vocal laws. The music lesson should be
devoted, not to vocal exercises, but to expres-
sive singing. But expression is often the bit-
terest foe of the growing voice. The expres-
sion must be adapted to the power of the voice
and not the power of the voice to the expres-
sion. It is not expression, but its misapplica-
tion, that so often spoils young voices.

If the voice has been used properly during
the growing period, pupils of the eighth grade
and high school ages should show a wide range
of easy tones. But they should not use a very
wide range of voice until later, even if the tones
are easy. The louder the voice is used during
the growing period, the shorter will be its com-
pass and life, and the poorer will be its quality.
The narrower the range used in the changing
period, the wider the range later.

RESONATOR

The third part of the vocal machine is the
resonator. This department of the voice has

VOICE TRAINING 191

no place in the schools and it should be ignored,
or rather be left alone by the public school
music teacher.

The resonator is the series of cavities in the
lungs, throat, mouth, nose, cheeks, and head of
the singer. On their size, shape, and propor-
tion depend the power and beauty of the voice.
Many of these cavities are walled by bones and
cartilages, and are not changeable in shape or
size. Many of them are surrounded by
muscles and cartilages that can be moved at
will. If the rigid resonance cavities are ill-
shaped by nature, the tone will be poor and
little can be done to make it better, though a
surgeon can sometimes remedy such defects.
If the other cavities are ill-shaped by bad
usage of the muscles surrounding them, the
tone will be poor, and the voice teacher must
teach the pupil how to use these muscles prop-
erly in order to restore the natural tone quality.
We should see to it that the pupil grows up
with little or no bad usage of his muscles.

ADENOIDS AND ENLARGED TONSILS

The early removal of adenoids and enlarged

192 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

tonsils is very essential to the proper growth
of the voice, both from the standpoint of health
and the standpoint of the use of the resonance
cavities. The voice will not sound properly if
these cavities contain foreign or diseased
growths and the child will be apt to force his
tone and thus endanger the whole vocal ma-
chine, unless these growths are removed.
School physicians should look after this.

The resonating part of the vocal tract is the
one that gives trouble to the voice teacher, and
it is well for the public school supervisor to
keep out of it altogether, as the development of
vocal resonance should be left until the age of
sixteen or later and then it should be carefully
done by one who knows how. "One should
wait until his voice is developed before having
it cultivated" is an old saying that has a grain
of truth in it, like all old sayings. This is true
in a way, because, to many people, cultivation
of the voice means cultivation of the resonance
only.

Proper voice cultivation means the develop-
ment of the other three parts of the vocal ma-
chine also — the motor, vibrator, and articula-

VOICE TRAINING 193

tor. The development of these should come
first and these should be developed in youth,
before the age of sixteen. The development
of these three parts of the voice should com-
mence with earliest infancy and be continued
right through the school life. It should be the
care of the public school music supervisor and
of all teachers that every child in the school
system should develop these parts of the voice
naturally and systematically. When the pupil
reaches the age of sixteen, and is handed over
to the voice teacher to be finished off (or up,
as the case often is), the voice teacher will find
that the three things that take the time are al-
ready done. It takes years of work to develop
the lungs, vocal cords, and articulation. With
this done and with all the muscles involved in
the production of the voice free and easy, it
is a simple matter for the voice teacher who
knows his business to take these pupils when
they reach the proper age and teach them the
correct use of their resonance cavities. In-
deed, the teaching is so simple that it is wholly
unnecessary to send a papil trained as above
to a voice teacher and pay the customary price

194 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

for private lessons. A clever voice teacher,
who knows his business, can teach thirty pupils
in a class, as other high school subjects are
taught. The time will soon come when compe-
tent voice teachers will be among the teaching
corps of every high school.

It might be said also, in passing, that piano
playing and all other instrumental music will be
taught in the same way when people awake to
the value of a musical education and to the in-
expensiveness and utility of cooperation in mu-
sic, such as they now have in other branches of
education.

In leaving the subject of resonance, let me
again say, keep out of it in the public schools
until the pupils are in the high school and stay
out of it then, unless the pupils are in a small
class of thirty or less under a competent in-
structor. The voices will be spoiled for all
future time if they are allowed to use much
resonance in the grades and high school chorus,
until they are taught to use it properly.

As a sample of what loud singing will do,
put your finger under your chin in the middle,
half-way between the point of the chin and the

VOICE TRAINING 195

neck, and see if the muscles harden as you sing.
If they do, it is a sign that your voice does
not sound as well as it should. This muscle is
a swallowing muscle and if you use it when you
sing, you will swallow your voice. The hard-
ening of this muscle pulls the resonance cavi-
ties out of shape, and, consequently, the qual-
ity of the voice suffers.

ARTICULATOR

The fourth and last part of the voice is the
articulator or the means we use to shape the
tone into intelligible speech. The articulator
is the tongue, lips, and teeth and, to a limited
extent, the roof of the mouth and the palate.

In order to articulate well, the rest of the
vocal machine must be used easily and all the
muscles must be loose so that they can move
easily and quickly.

Many people articulate too far back in the
mouth. This makes the articulation indistinct
or the tone suffers in some way, as the walls
of the resonance cavities are pulled out of
shape and the voice sounds bad. The articulat-
ing should be done as near the front of the

196 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

mouth as possible. Quick and snappy move-
ments of the tongue and lips will make the
words distinct.

One of the difficulties in teaching singing to
the members of the English-speaking race
comes from the fact that they do not move their
lips and the tip of the tongue enough.

There are no exercises in articulation to be
given in the singing lesson further than to tell
the pupils to use a smooth, pleasant tone and
to say the words so they can be seen. A small
looking-glass, in which the pupil may watch his
mouth as he sings, will teach him more about
articulation in five minutes than he will learn
by listening to himself and others in half a
day. This little device will make the words
plain in the songs with a magical speed and
the pupils will see and remedy any trouble at
once.

Occasionally allow the • pupils to read the
words of a song over two or three times
silently, as fast as the words can be pro-
nounced, moving the mouth as much as pos-
sible. This will make the articulation very
plain at the next singing.

VOICE TRAINING 197

It is not well to have any exercises in articu-
lation other than the ones mentioned above.
They take time, and you may as well use the
songs the pupils are working on for the pur-
pose as to invent useless exercises. When do-
ing exercises in articulation, teachers and
pupils are apt to think of nothing but distinct-
ness and the tone is usually left to take care of
itself, with the result that the gain in distinct-
ness is more than offset by the loss in tone.
Both can be made to work well together if the
teacher is careful to do the work easily and not
too loudly. To many pupils and teachers, dis-
tinctness always means loudness. Distinctness
means moving the tip of the tongue and lips
farther and with a quicker, snappier move-
ment.

All these things apply to the voice at all
periods of its development. The changing
voice presents no problems to the teacher who
keeps the development of the voice in mind, as
outlined above.

CHAPTER XII

MATERIAL

THE material for use in teaching school
music is a very important question. How to
get it is often a still more important one, as
school managements vary in their ideas of what
is necessary for music work. However, I
have always contended that it is the super-
visor's fault if there is not enough material,
for if the right kind of results had been
attained in the past, school authorities would
appreciate school music and provide ade-
quate time and material to do the work
properly.

When a child has sung through a book once,
its reading value is gone, though certain songs
may be sung over and over again for the pleas-
ure they give. Reading new music and singing
old songs should be carried on side by side.
This has been done for years but the trouble
has always been that the two were not in pro-
198

MATERIAL 199

portion and the singing for mere pleasure was
given the preference. This is not so bad for
younger children because they will sing, no
matter whether they can read or not. But
later in the school life the evil effects of sing-
ing solely for pleasure begin to appear and if
the pupils cannot read music, they refuse to
sing by ear, even for pleasure, for the songs
they can learn by ear are too childish to suit
them.

The wise supervisor sees to it that the pupils
learn to read so accurately and so rapidly thc.t
they get the most pleasure, as well as profit,
from singing new music. Being able to read
readily, they will get all, or nearly all there is
in the songs, at the first reading. The parallel
is in the reading of stories. If the music stu-
dent has the same power in music that he has in
literature, there will never be any trouble in
getting the pupils interested in their music in
the upper grades and high school.

No one set, or even two sets of books now
on the market, are sufficient, though the
friendly vender of music books would have
you believe otherwise.

200 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

KINDERGARTEN AND FIRST GRADE

There are many books on the market for
rote work in these grades, but none of them
seems to recognize the fact that the singing
voice must be developed first before other work
is done. This requires songs that are slow,
easy and of limited compass, and to find them
one must look far and wide. Later, more
rapid songs may be used that will develop the
pupil's sense of rhythm. A pupil in the first
grade or kindergarten should never be allowed
to sing below the first line "E" under any cir-
cumstances, but this fact is very often ignored
by composers and renders the transposition of
many songs necessary before they are safe to
use.

SECOND GRADE

There is a wealth of material for use in this
grade, but much of the music on the market
is not well classified. Many of the books ask
for two-part singing from these small chil-
dren. Others ask for divided beats. Both of
these things are impossible if the children are

MATERIAL 201

to read them. Both are possible if the pupils
are to learn them by ear.

A book containing exercises without words
should never be allowed in any schoolroom.
Pupils should sing songs. Why waste time on
exercises? The pupil reasons that it is all
right to let the violin play songs without words,
as it has no tongue, but why should he sing
songs without words, when he has a tongue in
good running order ? The pupil must learn to
read the words and the music at the same time.
It is not real music reading until he can do
this ; it is only getting ready to read music. It
stands to reason that children should have
time, opportunity and song material appro-
priate and sufficient. Then let us not waste
time on the book that has in it exercises with-
out words.

INTERMEDIATE GRADES

In the middle grades, all that has already
been said about material applies with added
force. "No exercises, but plenty of good
songs," is the modern slogan. The grading
of material should be on a time basis. This

202 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

means that the divided beat should not be at-
tempted until the pupils can read music rap-
idly enough to give the rapid rhythm demanded
by the divided beat. It is not the rhythm that
bothers, it is the pupil's inability to read fast
enough.

Pupils should not try to read divided beats
before the last half of the third year of school.
The beginning of the fourth year would be
better. The argument brought against this is
that it does not give the pupils sufficient
rhythmical development. This is a very doubt-
ful argument, but its baleful influence, if there
is any, can be nullified by the use of the piano
and rote songs.

When the divided beat is introduced ma-
terial should be used which would present the
same problem enough times for the pupil to
practice that particular problem so that he
would not forget it. In most of the books
the problems are so mixed up and presented
so few times in succession that the pupil gets
but a smattering of knowledge instead of prac-
tice enough to drive the problem home to stay.

MATERIAL 203

This is a weakness shared by nearly all the
music books on the market.

PART SINGING

None of the present music books furnish
enough simple, plain music to begin part sing-
ing in either two, three, or four-part work.
In changing from unison to two-part music,
the pupil suddenly finds his work doubled, for,
if he is to read music in two parts success-
fully, he must read and sing his own part and
in addition read and hear the other part.
Every time a, new part is added a number of
new and disquieting things are introduced into
the pupil's work and he must sing enough
simple material to allow him to adjust himself
to the new conditions. Much more simple
material in two, three, and four parts should
be on the market than is now available, so
that when a pupil takes up part work of any
kind he will have enough easy material that
he may work on exclusively until he masters
part reading and singing. Then, when he has
learned to sing one part and listen to and read

204 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

the others on easy material, he will be able
to do the same on more difficult selections.

STORIES

All children love stories. They never get
too old for them. There are many stories set
to music in the form of cantatas and operas.
Pupils love them, and there should be many
of them used as a part of the regular cur-
riculum.

There are many three-part cantatas for
women's voices which, from their appropriate-
ness, seem to have been composed expressly
for use in the sixth and seventh grades of the
public schools. There is a fascination in these
cantatas that appeals very strongly to children.
We little realize the effect of fascinating ma-
terial on the reading ability of children. If
the material is of the right kind, the reading
will be phenomenal. It is the teacher's busi-
ness to get this material before the class in
profusion.

There are many cantatas for mixed voices
that are excellent for use in the eighth grade,
and a number of them should be used.

MATERIAL 205

GRADING MATERIAL

In grading the material for the different
grades, it is not well to be too rigid nor to
insist that all schools or districts do the same
amount of work. The supervisor must re-
member that, though pupils are much alike the
world over, teachers vary greatly in their abil-
ity to handle the music efficiently and the speed
with which they can get their pupils through
a music book. Let there be enough material
to keep the swift ones busy and let the others
do as much as they can. Of all courses in the
schools the music course must be the most
flexible.

There should be much material for special
occasions. Thanksgiving, Christmas, Arbor
Day, Washington's and Lincoln's birthdays,
and many other occasions should be recog-
nized. Much material for these occasions is
found in the regular school music books.
Then there is the material for the various and
numerous concerts that should be given.

The supervisor should not fear to use diffi-
cult material in the upper grades. Many of

206 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

the high school music books are good for the
eighth grades where there are basses.

HOW TO GET MATERIAL

This is a difficult question in many places
and the only answer is to get it some way.
Where the free textbook plan is in force, it is
easy, as then plenty of material may usually
be secured. Where the pupils buy their own
books, it would not be feasible to ask them to
buy as many as needed, and the School Board
should provide supplementary material.

CHAPTER XIII

CONCERTS AND ENTERTAINMENTS

CONCERTS and entertainments are a very im-
portant feature of public school music and
they furnish a splendid motive for hard work
on the part of the pupils. The money thus
made can go to assist school projects, and the
pupil will learn to help pay for his raising and
education. Free education is apt to breed
selfishness because the pupils are seldom called
upon to contribute anything toward the up-
building of the school itself. The idea is con-
stantly held before the pupil that he must work
in school for the good that it will do him. In
music it can be brought home to him that he
should work also for the common good.

Concerts are fine for popularizing school
music. The supervisor may work for years
in the classroom, but unless his work is adver-
tised his people will fail to notice the results.
207

208 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

Some may see that Johnny or Jennie can read
music, but it takes a concert or a musical en-
tertainment of some kind to bring home to the
community the fact that music is in the schools
and that the results are worth the money spent
upon it. This is especially true where music
is just being introduced.

Children love to appear in public, and some
adults will admit that it was not wholly the
love of music that drove them to playing the
piano and practicing vocal exercises, but the
fact that they were going to be asked to ap-
pear in public. Since this desire is so strong
in the normal child, the clever supervisor will
take advantage of it and use it to further the
musical education of the pupil.

As music in the schools is largely chorus
work, the entertainments should include much
chorus singing. This will bring more pupils
into it and the more people interested the bet-
ter, from the artistic, educational, and box-
office points of view. The music to be sung
can be made a part of the daily music lesson
and little extra time will be needed for re-
hearsals. In every series of music books there

CONCERTS 209

will be found an ample supply of lovely music
for children's voices, which will furnish ex-
cellent program numbers for the chorus. It is
well to have all the pupils in the classes learn
the music that is to be sung at the concert.
When the entertainment is given, the chorus
should consist of the best singers only. There
will be some heart burnings, because some will
be left out who would dearly love to sing.
This feeling may be reduced to the minimum
by allowing the pupils to assist in the selection
of those who are to make up the picked chorus.
Children are very honest, and in selecting
singers they are often more particular than the
teachers. They are very quick to see that some
sing better than others and are satisfied with
the justice of the selection. Then the audience
is to be considered. They are paying for a
good entertainment and the school should make
the entertainment of as high an order as pos-
sible, and if some can make the show better
by staying out of it, they will quickly see the
justice of it and will even suggest it them-
selves. A clever teacher will not only be able
to reduce the disappointment to a minimum by

210 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

allowing the pupils to assist in the selection of
the chorus, but will do a little toward a far
greater work, which is the raising of a race
of singers not afflicted with jealousy. Many
of those not selected to sing may be used as
ushers, ticket-takers, or employed in many
other capacities.

SELECTING THE CHORUS

Beautiful musical effects can be made with
choruses selected as outlined in the chapter
on individual work, page 93. Three and four-
part singing by good choruses from the sixth,
seventh, and eighth grades is one of the best
forms of music and is one that appeals to every
type of listener. A program made up of a
few selections by a fine chorus interspersed
with solos and instrumental numbers is very
enjoyable. A chorus selected as suggested is
a very easy one to handle, as each member is
an independent singer.

Several weeks before the date set for the
concert a bulletin something like the follow-
ing should be sent to the teachers :

"On May i8th a concert will be given by

CONCERTS 211

the pupils of the eighth grades. The follow-
ing songs will be sung by the chorus. Each
room may send as many quartettes as it can
muster. Each pupil must be able to sing his
part alone in a quartette against the three other
voices. He must be able to sing with a smooth,
pleasant tone and come out on the key of the
test song without the aid of an instrument.
Select only those who can and will attend three
rehearsals and the concert."

Then give the dates of the rehearsals and
where they will be held; also the names of
the pieces the chorus will sing. The test piece
should also be designated.

Selecting the members of the chorus in this
way furnishes an incentive that keeps all the
pupils working at extra speed for some time,
as the final selection does not take place until
the week of the first rehearsal. It is also un-
derstood that if one member of a quartette
fails, the rest of the quartette must drop out
if there is no one to take the place of the fail-
ing member. This makes each one selected
feel his responsibility. Each pupil also knows
that if there is any nonsense at the general

212 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

rehearsals or concert, the offending party will
take the other members of his quartette and
start for home. What will happen to him on
the way needs no comment, for each pupil is
smart enough to figure this out in advance.
As the personal responsibility of the pupils
and public opinion are both active in the right
direction, the order at the rehearsals and at
the concert will be fine. As each member of
the chorus is an independent singer and knows
his music, it is an easy matter to weld this
body of singers into a perfect instrument in
three rehearsals.

Nothing in the whole realm of music is love-
lier than unaccompanied part singing by a
chorus of young voices, when it is well done.

"AT HOME"

An "At Home" with the music lesson as
the entertainment is a very sensible program
to give. The pupils of a class invite their
parents to come on a certain day and hear
them sing for an hour. The entertainment
may take any form, but the best and most in-
teresting one will be a regular music lesson

CONCERTS 213

in all its phases, ending with a number of well
finished, expressive songs. Very few parents
and patrons of the school have a clear idea
of the school music work until they see an
actual lesson. The parents get a correct idea
of the work and the pupils will afterwards re-
flect the opinion of the parents in their school
work. When the parent thinks music is worth
while, the pupil will respect it all the more.
This form of entertainment cannot be recom-
mended too highly and it can be given without
extra time or expense.

An enlargement of this plan may be used
by several rooms uniting to give a program
of regular lessons to an audience. The stage
should be fitted with desks and made to look
like a schoolroom as much as possible. Give
a number of music lessons illustrating the work
from the kindergarten to the high school. In-
vite people in the audience to ask questions
on things they do not understand. A discus-
sion will bring out many points that the su-
pervisor may have forgotten and will prove in-
teresting and helpful to all concerned.

A room that sings well may visit other rooms

214 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

or buildings and give short programs. Some-
times a lazy room is spurred into action by
hearing another room of the same grade sing
well what they themselves have not mastered.
A clever supervisor or teacher will see many
possibilities in these public exhibitions.

CONTESTS

A competitive festival is one of the best
forms of entertainment that can be devised,
but there are comparatively few of them held
in this country. Choirs may be selected from
each building, each room, or each grade, and
may compete with choirs from other buildings,
rooms, or grades. There are many ways of
doing this. One of the best is to leave each
school free to select its own choir and music,
though the kind of music should be settled
upon in advance and the choir limited as to
numbers. When the contest is held, there will
be a good program of sufficient variety to be
pleasing to the audience. The different choirs
may be marked by the judges as to beauty of
tone, balance of parts, clearness of articula-
tion, expression, appropriateness of selection,

CONCERTS 215

and other points determined upon in advance.

Some extra numbers should be given while
the judges are out, and these may consist of
solos or combined choruses. The audience
may unite with the children in singing well-
known selections. This is a very pleasing fea-
ture to introduce into the program of any con-
cert and may be done in several ways. Where
there is proper equipment, the words of the
song may be thrown upon a screen. The
words may also be printed on the programs.

At some contests all the choirs sing the same
selection, but this makes it very monotonous
for the audience.

When sight reading contests are arranged,
they would better be carried on in private be-
fore the judges only, because there is the added
nervousness that makes a fair judgment im-
possible when the contest is public, and the
work is not usually good enough to be inter-
esting to an audience. These private contests
are most beneficial and cannot be commended
too highly, as they inspire the pupils to greater
effort. The teacher's most important task is
to teach the pupils t3 work joyfully at any-

216 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

thing. Music requires more work than any-
thing else in school, but the motive is easy and
pleasant to apply.

PAGEANTS

Pageantry furnishes a good motive as well
as an outlet for the activities of many depart-
ments at the same time. For instance, the
pupils of an eighth grade class decided in the
fall that they would give a pageant of United
States history the following spring. They
learned the history better because there was
immediate need of deciding what to use and
what to reject. When they had selected the
incidents to be used, the English class wrote
the speeches, the manual training class made
the scenery, the drawing class painted it, the
sewing class designed and made the costumes,
the arithmetic class computed the cost and at-
tended to the business part of the production,
the physical training class staged it. Last, but
not least, the music class found, adapted,
played, and sang the music that went with the
pageant. That grade had a living, vital motive
for their history and other lessons. When the

CONCERTS 217

pageant was given there was a fine entertain-
ment, a goodly sum of money was added to
the school exchequer, and United States his-
tory lived forever in the memories of those
pupils. Of course there was work and plenty
of it, but that was the best and most interesting
part of the whole thing.

OUT-DOOR CONCERTS

In the spring and fall outdoor concerts may
be made one of the greatest outlets for school
music. A plan that will prove very attractive
is to find a hillside with a flat at the bottom,
where the audience can sit on the hillside and
the singers on the flat. Arranged in this way,
every one in the audience will be able to see
and hear well. The acoustics depend on the
steepness of the hill. If it is shaped like an
amphitheatre, so much the better. The audi-
ence should be invited to join in singing a
number of familiar songs. This is called com-
munity singing, and the school children should
be accustomed to leading the crowd whenever
possible. A band or orchestra should be used
if available. A piaco or organ will do if there

218 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

is no band or orchestra. A good plan, when
it is possible, is to have the words of the songs
thrown upon the screen and let the leader hold
his hand in the strong light next to the curtain
and beat time. The people will follow him
perfectly. Another way is for the leader to
have a pole with a ball on the end of it and
point to the words in time as the people sing.
Community "sings," under the management of
the supervisor of music, are excellent means
for popularizing his work.

There are numbers of entertainments that
can be given out of doors. The ingenuity of
teachers and pupils will suggest many more
than are outlined above.

There are a number of cantatas for women's
voices, like "The Lady of Shalott" by Ben-
dall, "Summer" by Abt, "King Rene's Daugh-
ter" by Smart, and many others that are per-
fectly suited for use in the seventh grades and
which make fine numbers for a part of a pro-
gram or for a whole evening. There are also
a number of cantatas written expressly for
children, such as "Hiawatha's Childhood" by
Whiteley. Everyone likes a story, and these

CONCERTS 219

cantatas are wonderfully attractive. In the
eighth grade some of the cantatas for mixed
voices can be used with good effect.

Then there is that most fascinating thing,
the operetta, that is given with costume and
action. There are many of these for children
of all ages. There is one objection to them,
however; they employ comparatively few
pupils. In the cantata given as a concert num-
ber, a large chorus can take part. In the one
given with costume and action, comparatively
few can sing. However, the latter is useful
in its way and should be used.

CHAPTER XIV

CONDUCTING

THIS chapter is devoted to the subject of
conducting school orchestras, bands, and
choruses.

Conducting is for the purpose of giving
some selection in public so that the leader's
idea of the music will be interpreted by the
players or singers. This chapter does not ven-
ture into the realm of artistry. It only gives
a few hints as to how the artistry of the leader
may be most easily and definitely expressed
to the audience through the medium of the
body of musicians he is conducting.

TWO KINDS OF CONDUCTING

We are often called upon to observe two

kinds of conducting. One is the spectacular,

where the leader is the whole show; and the

other is the one where the leader uses the

220

CONDUCTING 221

baton as it should be used, as the power to
weld the whole body of musicians into a con-
sistent whole. This quiet style of leading,
with a firm hold of the musicians, was won-
derfully exemplified by the late Theodore
Thomas. His beat was as definite as clock-
work and there was no mistaking it, even by
a novice.

The pupils should know their music so well
that they can play or sing it perfectly, without
cues. The leader shows the speed and dynam-
ics of the selection, but the singers and play-
ers count their own measures and know ex-
actly when they are to come in. This kind
of conducting is the best to use with amateur
orchestras and choruses. It keeps them alive
and makes them more self-dependent. For
the leader to do too much of the thinking for
the musicians is as bad as to sing and play
with them when they are learning new pieces.

In public performances, of course, cues
should be given, but the players should be so
well trained that the piece will not be spoiled
if the leader slips up on a few cues, as the
average amateur leader is very apt to do. The

222 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

fact is, a good teacher of orchestra or chorus
work is seldom a good leader, while a fine
leader of an orchestra, band, or chorus is
seldom a good teacher. The two things are
diametrically opposed to each other and it is
very difficult to do both. A teacher must
keep still and let his pupils learn by experi-
ence. The leader does just the opposite. He
must keep everything going and preclude the
possibility of mistakes. This is good leading,
but very poor teaching, as the player or singer
should learn to lead himself first and then he
is ' ready to be led. This is one of the diffi-
culties for the average supervisor of music, for
he must be both a teacher and a conductor. In
learning new selections, singers and players
should keep together by ear, even in bodies of
several hundred. This gives them a most val-
uable ear training which they will not get if
the conductor beats time either visibly or
audibly. They should also sing with their own
expression first, after which the leader should
take hold and mould them according to his
own ideas.

CONDUCTING 223

SYSTEM OF CONDUCTING

It is well for the supervisor of music to read
many books on conducting and use the good
points of all, but he must adopt some system
and stick to it so that his pupils may know
what to do. In any event, when he is con-
ducting, he must be the real leader and insist
that his musicians follow him perfectly, and
the more plainly and simply he beats, the bet-
ter they will follow.

The system of conducting here outlined is
simple and it is so generally used that no one
will have trouble in following it.

Any set of signals that will tell the players
or singers how the leader wants the piece to
go will do. Of course, the leader has made
an exhaustive study of the piece and if he
knows it by heart, all the better, because he
will then have his eyes free to see what his
forces are doing. As to the proper interpre-
tation, the leader is free to do as he pleases.
It all rests with him, and the players and
singers should do as he wishes.

224 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

In beating time, the baton should move as
follows, in the different measures : In two-
part measures, the beat should be straight
down for the first beat and straight up for
the second beat. This will give a perfect
representation of the measure. In three-part,
the baton should go straight down, straight to
the left, and then on the oblique to the start-
ing point. In four-part, it should go straight
down, straight left, straight right, and then
straight up to the starting point. In six-part
measure, it either goes down and up, as in
two-part measure, three eighth notes to a beat,
or it goes down, left, left, right, up, up to the
starting point. The other divisions of time
are usually done as three and four-beat
measures.

HOLD BATON HIGH

The criticism is sometimes made that bring-
ing the baton straight down is apt to bring
it too low to be seen. The answer is that it
should go straight down so that down means
down, instead of some vague oblique direc-
tion, as it does so often. The leader should

CONDUCTING 225

stand high enough to be visible to all, hold
his baton high and then move it but a short
distance. There is no reason for waving the
stick in wide sweeps, as the conductor often
does, unless the chorus is extremely large.

The length of the movement tells the power
of the tone to be employed, and the speed of
the baton, of course, gives the speed of the
piece. The fingers of the left hand may be
used to indicate power also. One finger ex-
tended may mean pp ; two p ; three m ; four f ;
four and thumb ff. The side of the baton
should be visible to the singers or players and
it should be of a very distinct color. White
is best. Some contrasting color should be
used by lady leaders. A small electric light
on the end of the baton is often used where
the footlights are bright.

VARY THE BEAT

When conducting rehearsals, the leader
should vary the time a great deal and never
vary it the same way. It is better to have the
chorus or orchestra alive and in a state of ex-
pectancy than to have them know in advance

226 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

how fast or how slow, how loud or how soft
they are going to sing or play. If they are
too sure of what the leader is going to do,
they will not watch closely. This will make
the performance dull and soggy and will cause
the leader to tear his hair over the stupidity
of choruses in general and this one in particu-
lar, when it is his own fault. If the conductor
has his chorus and orchestra well in hand at
the rehearsal, and drills them, not so much
on the piece as in following the beat, he will
have the power to play upon his forces at will.
The leader seldom feels the same at concerts
as he does at rehearsals, and the feeling he has
for the music at the concert may be a far bet-
ter one than the one he felt at the rehearsal,
and the instrument, no matter whether it be
chorus or orchestra, should respond to his
needs. To be able to do this, the group must
be drilled beforehand, not on his moods, but
on responding to them.

The left hand is free to turn the music, give
the cues, and supplement the work of the right
hand. A gesture with the palm toward the

CONDUCTING 227

chorus may mean softer, if they have not fol-
lowed the baton correctly as to power. A
beckoning with the left hand will bring out a
certain part louder. On holds the power may
be varied by moving the two hands nearer to-
gether or farther apart, for diminishes and
swells.

Successful conducting hinges on the move-
ments of the baton, which should be so defi-
nite that the dullest musician will be able to
see and follow them. Poor following on the
part of a chorus or orchestra is always the
fault of the leader. Obscure beats or gestures
do not compel close attention. It takes back-
bone to make people obey and the leader must
be firm, unyielding, and definite.

I am quite aware that the above system of
leading is opposed to the accepted systems in
many ways, but I have endeavored to put in
only the plainest necessities, eliminating use-
less pyrotechnics that make the leader con-
spicuous but ineffective. Better look like a
basswood image and be easily followed than
to be a picture of willowy grace and beauty

228 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

with vague meaning. The concert will sound
better, and after all, the concert is to be heard
and not seen.

CHAPTER XV

GRADE SCHOOL ORCHESTRAS AND BANDS

IT is assumed that all the pupils in the grades
learn to sing and also to appreciate music by
listening to it. A number of them will want
to go farther and learn to play an instrument.
For this reason, orchestras should be organ-
ized in every grade school. Such orchestras
will be crude from a musical standpoint, but
pupils who are going to be musicians should
begin early and the school orchestra will give
them a splendid opportunity.

The wholesome effect of school orchestras
on the music of the school and community
can hardly be overestimated. The orchestra
is the best known means of producing pure
music. The grades will train players for the
high school orchestra which will in turn con-
tribute musicians to the symphony orchestra.
This is what should happen and what is hap-
pening in places where the supervisor of music
229

230 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

has been working at it for a long enough time
in the right way. Richmond, Indiana, has had
grade school orchestras for years. The work
was pioneered by Mr. Will Earhart. These
orchestras are graded as to the ability of the
players and when a player is able to get into a
better orchestra, he is allowed to do so. There
are two orchestras in the Richmond high
school, one more advanced than the other, and
in the town there is a symphony orchestra that
gives a number of concerts yearly. The latter
is made up almost entirely of players trained
in the school orchestras. This is a wonderful
record, but it is one that can be duplicated
wherever there is a supervisor of music who
is a musician and is also able to inspire his
pupils with a love for music.

MOTIVE

There must be a motive back of everything
that we do in this world and there must be a
strong motive back of the music pupil to in-
spire him to do the hard work necessary to
become a musician. He who would become an
expert player on any instrument must be pre-

ORCHESTRAS AND BANDS 231

pared to spend many hours in grinding toil.
The best motive is love of music, which every-
one has to some degree, but mere yearning
will not accomplish anything. Those who
play only the piano are not as apt to practice
as those who play in the orchestra. This is
because there is not the incentive of competing
with others, and the joy of being a part of a
great instrument. The grade school orchestra
furnishes such incentive. The public perform-
ance is the goal that will furnish a motive for
much hard work. It is like the baseball nine.
It is fun to play ball, but it is inspiring to play
before people.

It takes musicianship and leadership of a
peculiar kind to make a grade school orchestra
a success. The leader must be an enthusiastic
musician and one who is able to endure dis-
cords. He must be a good disciplinarian, for
there is a chance for a fearful lot of unneces-
sary noise in an orchestra that is not well disci-
plined. In this chapter I will not venture into
the musical part of orchestra playing nor intc
an exhaustive treatise on conducting, as there
are already many books on the subject. The

232 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

names of several standard books will be found
at the bottom of this page. Experience is the
best teacher, but the experience of others
should not be overlooked.

The organization of a grade school orchestra
presents some difficulties. Pupils almost in-
variably choose the violin. It is cheap and
easily carried; it is the best solo instrument
and — "everybody plays it." The usual grade
school orchestra consists of a number of vio-
lins and a piano. This should not be.

It takes a good deal of tact and persuasion
to get the pupils to play other instruments.
They should be shown other instruments and
hear them played by some accomplished player.
They should be told that if violin players ever

'The Orchestral Instruments and What They Do."
Daniel Gregory Mason. Novello & Co.

"Instrumentation." Ebenezer Prout. Novello. (Small
edition.)

"Instruments of the Modern Symphony Orchestra."
A. E. Johnstone. Carl Fischer.

"The Band Teacher's Assistant." Arthur Clappe.
Fischer.

"The Practical Band Arranger." L. P. Laurendeau.
Fischer.

"The Amateur Band Guide." Goldman. Fischer.

ORCHESTRAS AND BANDS 233

want to play professionally, they have great
competition, because so many others play the
instrument; but if they learn some other in-
strument, there will be little competition. If
the schools buy the less popular instruments
and lend them to the pupils, a better balance
can be maintained.

MINNEAPOLIS PLAN

The plan used in Minneapolis may be of in-
terest. We have had grade school orchestras
for years, but they usually consisted of violins
and piano, the pupils paying their instruction.
Last year a new plan was tried with great
success.

The Board of Education supplied a pro-
fessional leader for each grade school orches-
tra once in two weeks and furnished ten dol-
lars* worth of music yearly to each orchestra,
under the following conditions :

There must be six or more different instru-
ments of the symphony orchestra represented,
drums, traps, and the piano not counting. Vio-
lins restrung as violas will be counted at first.
A beginner on any instrument may enter the

234 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

orchestra, provided he is studying the instru-
ment and that instrument is not already rep-
resented in the orchestra. This permission is
only granted when the orchestra is being or-
ganized in the school for the first time.

A grade teacher must take charge of the
orchestra. She must be present while the pro-
fessional leader is giving the work and conduct
the orchestra practice when the professional
leader is not there.

The pupils must play in public whenever
called upon by the leader or other school au-
thorities.

This set of rules resulted in thirty of the
schools qualifying the first year. We have
over eighty schools and most of the others
are preparing to organize orchestras under
these rules. Many of them have an orchestra
already and have regular rehearsals, but lack-
ing one or two instruments, they are not able
to qualify. These rules add a great deal of
force to the plea that pupils play other instru-
ments than the violin. It created great interest
throughout the city, and Mr. Oberhoffer, direc-
tor of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra,

ORCHESTRAS AND BANDS 235

himself kindly consented to be advisory head
of the movement.

This is having a beneficial effect on the com-
munity and is making orchestra playing popu-
lar. Furthermore, those who are playing in a
school orchestra are much interested in hear-
ing the great orchestra of the city, and thus
the musical appreciation of the whole place
is being improved.

TWO LEADERS

The plan of having both a professional
leader and a grade teacher in charge of a grade
school orchestra works well in two ways.
First, when the orchestra is needed to play in
the school exercises or for pupils to march in
the building or for any other purpose, the grade
teacher is always on hand to conduct it. Sec-
ond, good leaders are being developed among
the teachers. Many of the teachers who have
charge of orchestras are buying instruments
and learning to play, taking their places in the
orchestra when the professional leader is in
charge.

There should be no age limit for entrance

236 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

to the grade school orchestra. Children
should be encouraged to enter as young as
they can. A child learns to play best when
he is growing up. A pupil's eligibility to an
orchestra should be conditioned on his ability
to play. In Minneapolis we waived this point
while we were organizing in order to get
started. Later we hope to have two orchestras
in each school, one for beginners and one for
those farther advanced.

Pupils who play well do not like to play
with beginners. The best players should be
taught to help the poorer ones, but the good
ones will be held back more or less. A good
plan is to divide the orchestra into two sec-
tions— advanced and less advanced — and let
them practice together a part of the time and
separately part of the time. Then both classes
of pupils will be accommodated.

MATERIAL

The old adage, "Cut the garment according
to the cloth," is particularly applicable when
selecting music for school orchestras. How-
ever, get enough material and have it good.

ORCHESTRAS AND BANDS 237

An orchestra player must be able to read music
rapidly and accurately. This necessitates a
great amount of material. The library of
every orchestra should be divided into two
parts. One part should consist of a great
number of selections that are to be played once
and then laid aside. This is to enable the
players to learn to do ensemble sight reading.
The other part should consist of the selections
that are to remain in their permanent reper-
toire. These should be rehearsed often and
thoroughly until every point is perfectly
brought out.

We have solved the problem very econom-
ically in Minneapolis by keeping the music for
all the grade school orchestras in a central
library and buying few duplicates. We thus
have a great variety of material at the same
price we would otherwise have had to pay for
a smaller variety. In a large city this plan
works well. A number of smaller towns might
club together and buy their music in common,
with the same advantage.

When a new piece is taken up, the orchestra
leader often lets the pupils take it home and

238 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

learn it before it is played by the whole or-
chestra. This, to my mind, is losing the most
valuable part of the work. The better way
is to have it played at once at the regular speed
and let the players get as much out of it as
they can by playing it over, not more than two
or three times. Orchestra players must learn
to read new music rapidly, and no opportunity
to do this should be lost.

The leader may select the piece or pieces to
be learned perfectly and let the pupils take
them home and learn them thoroughly. At
the next rehearsal these pieces should be played
very carefully as to intonation, expression, fol-
lowing the conductor and everything that goes
to make artistic ensemble playing. Only the
pieces that are to go into the permanent reper-
toire should be finished in this way. The play-
ers are trying to become such ready readers
that they can interpret a piece the first time
they look at it. To do this requires much
practice at rehearsals. The player who reads
well when he is playing alone may not do as
well in ensemble sight reading. Pupils should
play new music the first time through at the

ORCHESTRAS AND BANDS 239

regular speed and keep the time perfectly, no
matter how many mistakes they make in tones.
All that is said in the chapter on vocal music
reading applies with added force to the reading
of music by the orchestra. The player who
does not think time before he does notes will
never make an orchestra player. The leader
must be very insistent on this point.

INTONATION

The weakness of all school orchestra playing
is lack of smoothness of tone, which results in
imperfect intonation. This is even more true
of young orchestra players than of young
singers. The players must be taught early to
make tones long enough and smooth enough
to be heard clearly. The development of his
ear and reading ability both depend upon this
point, which affects the other players as well
as himself. The proper development of a
school orchestra depends largely upon a rigid
adherence to the logical sequence of reading
music which is "tone, time, notes, expression."

Ear-training in the average orchestra is a
much neglected art and one that should receive

240 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

early and unremitting attention. The first
thing a player should learn is to tune his in-
strument. If a pupil is old enough to learn
to play an instrument, he is old enough to
learn to tune it. If he has not ear enough to
tune it, the very effort of trying to tune it will
develop his ear. Take all the time that is nec-
essary for this before beginning to play.

To many orchestra leaders, the rhythm of
the piece comes first. When they are teaching
young children to play, they work for the
rhythm and let the intonation take care of it-
self. Pupils must learn to hold the tone of
their instrument steady enough and long
enough to compare it with the tones of the
other instruments, and they must also learn to
hear all the other tones that are sounding.
There must be much material of a slow, smooth
variety with many places where the players
may hold the chords and learn to hear the
harmony. When they can do this, they may
begin to play selections with more rapid
rhythm.

The instruments of an orchestra may be in
perfect tune when all the players sound the

ORCHESTRAS AND BANDS 241

same tone, but the music sounds disagreeable
when they begin to play. This is because the
players are listening only to their own instru-
ments and are not listening for perfect har-
mony. The leader should use the tapping sig-
nal, explained in the chapter on ear-training,
and have the players hold the chord until they
can hear all the tones that make up the chord.
This will teach the pupils to listen to the har-
mony while they are playing with other in-
struments.

The piano should not be used with the or-
chestra until the players can play a piece per-
fectly without it, because it covers up so much
of the tone of the orchestra that the players
cannot hear the different instruments. When
the players know their pieces well, the piano
will be an addition, especially when there are
not enough instruments to balance the parts.
I realize how bad the average orchestra sounds
without the piano, but it sounds just as bad
with it, only the bad sounds are covered up.

Another excellent ear-training device is to
divide the orchestra into sections with one in-
strument on a part, and let one section play a

242 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

passage while the other players listen for dis-
cords. Then bring in the other sections, one
at a time, all listening carefully to the har-
mony. The instruments will not balance, of
course, and one player may have to be a mem-
ber of several sections, but that is a detail
easily worked out. A great deal of this kind
of work should be done.

There are many different exercises the leader
may use to train the ears of the players, but
the preceding ones are the most effective.
They will give the pupils the ability to recog-
nize unisons and chords. All the playing then
becomes excellent ear-training, as soon as the
pupils have acquired the habit of listening.

Conducting an orchestra is a simple process.
All that has been said in the chapter on con-
ducting applies to the orchestra as well as to
the chorus. A great deal of music, both new
and old, should be played without a leader,
the pupils keeping together by ear. There
should also be a great deal of music played
with the leader, and he should vary the time
often, as the pupils must learn to read the
baton, as well as the music. The leader should

ORCHESTRAS AND BANDS 243

give the cues a part of the time and leave them
out a part of the time, because the pupils must
learn to play both ways.

BANDS

A band is an excellent musical organization
for pupils in the grade schools. There is a
fascination about playing in a band that is pro-
nounced in boys of any age and especially in
boys of the grades. A good band is an in-
spiration, and every school should have one.
All that has been written about the orchestra
applies to the band.

CHAPTER XVI

INSTRUMENTAL CLASSES

CLOSELY connected with the orchestras and
bands in the grade schools are the classes in
instrumental music. Some time ago a wave
of interest in these classes swept over the coun-
try. Violin classes were formed at first, be-
cause the violin was the cheapest and most
available instrument. Emphasizing the violin
in this way makes trouble for the orchestra
later on, as already explained.

Teaching violin in classes has proved that
it is a waste of time and money to teach music
in private lessons, the same as it is a waste
of time and money to have a private tutor
for one child. A child gets along better in a
class, for there is the added incentive of the
other pupils doing the same thing. The
rivalry of class work is lacking in private les-
sons. The class sets the pace. With the class
plan there is always a widespread interest in
244

INSTRUMENTAL CLASSES 245

instrumental music, and enough players are
developed to fill the orchestras. ' Every grade
school should have classes in instrumental
music.

It may be interesting to know how this plan
worked out in Minneapolis after one year's
trial under the following rules :

Any school may organize classes in instru-
mental music, to be taught after school. Sev-
eral neighboring schools may unite if there
are not enough pupils to form a class in each
school.

The number in a class must not exceed
twenty and each pupil must pay ten cents a
lesson. If a smaller number wish to form a
class, they may do so by paying more propor-
tionally. The teacher will receive two dollars
per hour lesson. The money will be collected
by the principal and paid to the teacher.

Only beginners will be taken into any of
these classes. No one who has ever studied
with a private teacher will be received into
these classes.

This plan was placed before the private
teachers of the city and met with their enthu-

246 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

siastic approval. Some of the best teachers
in the city expressed their willingness to take
some of these classes for the good of the cause,
even though the pay was far less than they
received for private lessons. The clause that
forbade the taking of pupils who had studied
privately made the teachers feel that this was
not a move that would result in taking their
pupils from them, but was rather a move to
give them more pupils later on. The private
teachers are much interested in anything that
helps the cause of music in general.

•For further information on this subject, the reader
is referred to "Gidding's Public School Piano Class
Method," published by Oliver Ditson Company, Boston.

CHAPTER XVII

MUSIC APPRECIATION IN THE
SCHOOL CURRICULUM

BY AGNES MOORE FRYBERGER

THERE are two distinct phases to every art;
the technical and the esthetic. Music, as re-
lated to the school curriculum through text-
books, has emphasized the former. The sub-
ject has been considered almost entirely from
the standpoint of the performer — thus ignor-
ing both composer and listener. A plan con-
ceived along broader lines would more nearly
approach the ideal. It is therefore with sat-
isfaction that one notes increasing tendencies
to expand the treatment of the subject in the
school room.

The term "Music Appreciation" means the
sensing of esthetic values in the art; of get-
ting a definite impression of the artistic and
beautiful. It is this phase that justifies the
claim of music to universality. Only a few
247

248 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

members of society can compose music; a
larger number may perform ; but all may enjoy
and understand the appeal of the emotional art.

In his thoughtful little monograph, "The
Basis of Practical Teaching," Dr. Bryan says,
"Impression is the first consideration in child
development, — this to be followed by reflec-
tion, organization and finally expression."
Applied to music one might say that this dis-
tinctive subject should impress the child so
definitely that he will think about it and can
tell about it. Children associate music with
earliest experiences. Little girls sing to their
dollies; little boys march with toy drum and
whistle; there is the street band and the circus
parade with the steam organ. Music is a nat-
ural part of young life. Its earliest appeal is
to the emotional nature. Alas that so many
should pass through life without getting more
than primitive response from so enriching an
influence.

In common school custom, music may be
added to the child's experience through text-
books, phonograph records, piano pieces, and
perhaps small orchestra. Music appreciation

MUSIC APPRECIATION 249

dependent upon school text-books is restricted
to songs. Text-book literature is a fertile
subject for discussion, but sufficient at present
is the admission that in every "Series" the
songs might be classified as "regular, irregu-
lar and defective" ; or "good, bad and indiffer-
ent." Compilers of music books have found it
necessary, in the scheme of teaching essentials,
to include songs which have no farther in-
terest than to illustrate problems of rhythm,
tone and theory. This is not a matter of re-
gret if the class gets the purpose of such songs.
Upon this point depends the vital principle of
teaching Music Appreciation. Does a child
think of the music he sings or hears; if so,
what does he think of it? Pursuing this
thought, a teacher should require some sort
of comment upon every sort of song sung in
the class. This is merely an application of
the idea stated elsewhere in this chapter, that
a clear impression must be gained in order to
secure a definite expression. It is indeed
gratifying to discover in each new series of
text-books a finer discrimination in the selec-
tion of song material. Each book should

250 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

have a supplementary syllabus through which
the teacher might wisely direct thought along
most profitable lines. It is not intended to
present in this chapter an outline for such
syllabus. Sufficient to say that points of a
good song as well as common errors in song-
making should be understood by the class to
aid them in forming judgments upon songs in
general. As a final observation of every song
the class should notice in the upper right-hand
corner of the page the name of the composer
or the source of the music, and in the upper
left-hand corner the author of the words. It
is only due honor to have the class impressed
with the names of those who have created
music which endures.

The great movement to raise the common
people to an understanding of general esthetics
began in 1857, in Manchester, when John
Ruskin delivered his memorable lecture upon
the "Political Economy of Art." He advo-
cated the elevation of public taste by educating
the common people to understand the principle
of truth and beauty in art that they might ac-
quire a sense of discrimination and apprecia-

MUSIC APPRECIATION 251

tion. It is an old and familiar story, but of
abounding interest because elect and exclusive
members of society opposed the idea of artis-
tic things being for the laboring classes. They
argued that the reproduction of great works
of art in cheap media was sacrilege, and the
application of artistic design to cheap wall
paper, carpets, furniture, etc., a social crime.
The fact that the movement grew until art
was introduced into the school curriculum
justified the abuse which John Ruskin endured
in the beginning. It is now possible to get
a copy of every great work of art in a penny
picture, and esthetic designs are so universally
applied to common and useful things in life
that one can scarcely believe that it was not
always so.

Closely related to the movement of good
pictures and artistic design for all is one of
the present day in behalf of good music for
all through the use of the player piano and
the phonograph. As in the earlier movement,
so now there are a few objectors who cry
out against "canned music" and the inartistic
idea of grinding out music from a machine.

252 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

The number of such, however, grows steadily
less. The phonograph has been a strong
agent in bringing music closer to the general
public. It has become almost a necessary part
of school equipment. That it is used so often
as an entertaining diversion rather than an
educational instrument lies in the fact that
teachers have not yet worked out a definite
and simple plan of presenting phonograph les-
sons. It is with much satisfaction that those
most interested in this educational medium note
the constantly increasing number of phono-
graph records being made for school purposes.
Already there are hundreds of selections suit-
able for the elementary grades. Furthermore,
these bear such close relationship to standard
subjects as to seem a necessary factor in teach-
ing such subjects. There are phases of his-
tory, geography, literature and art which seem
to have little real interest to children until
vitalized by suitable music.

The psychology underlying the presenta-
tion of lessons through phonograph records is
sound and no different from that used with

MUSIC APPRECIATION 253

other subjects. It requires of the teacher,
first, musical judgment and an understanding
of child interest; and, second, old-fashioned
common sense in relating the music to the
child — proceeding of course from the mew-
point of the child. It may not be irrelevant to
say at this point that generally speaking there
has been a contrary method of presenting the
subject of music appreciation whereby proce-
dure from the teacher's viewpoint imposed
upon children a mass of facts from musical
history and biography. This sort of knowl-
edge is not of prime interest since it bears no
relation to the child's experience. A demand
for such knowledge will follow if interest in
the music itself be first awakened. In the
words of Hamlet, "The play's the thing."

In the desire to relate the school room to
the child's common experience outside of
school an occasional lesson on appreciation may
be based upon the musical knowledge of a
class regardless of text-books. The follow-
ing method of starting a lesson has been found
effective,

254 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

Teacher: "Name a piece of music you
think is good."

Pupil : "Humoresque."

Teacher: "Spell it." (The word is writ-
ten on the board.)

"How many know it ?"

"How does the tune go?" (Someone may
start it and the class follow by singing with
"la" or whistling.)

"Who wrote it?" (The name of the com-
poser, Dvorak, is obtained from the class and
spelled, if possible.)

"Who was he?" (Greatest Bohemian
composer. )

"How many can play this piece on the piano
or violin?" (The teacher may arrange to
have it played for the class.)

Teacher: "Name another composition that
is old, or that you think will live a long time."

This trend may be continued ad libitum and
will impress upon the class the fact that music
is a subject worthy of thought and discussion.

When children march to music through the
school halls the music should be good. A
teacher or advanced pupil in each building

MUSIC APPRECIATION 255

should be responsible for marches and select
those which are worth hearing. For many of
the children it is the most impressive music
heard in school. There is a certain distinc-
tion attached to those who play for marching
and any pupil should recognize this fact and
aspire to play good marches in the best pos-
sible manner. In this connection it is sug-
gested that piano pupils select several marches
for study with their respective teachers. In
each grade room above the third, let there be
one pupil responsible for placing the name of
the daily march upon the board ; as, played
to-day, "March of American Patriotic Airs"
— Sousa; or, Triumphal March from the
grand opera, "Aida" (pronounced Ah-eed-ah).
(If possible, publications of good school
marches should be provided by the music de-
partment for each school.)

Finally, teachers should require comment
upon every kind of music which children hear,
since only through hearing their opinions is it
possible for them to advance toward the goal
which they do not see. Intelligent comment
upon music is the result of a thoughtful atti-

256 GRADE SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING

tude toward the subject. We cannot criticize
that which we do not understand — or at least
we should not. After singing or listening to
a piece, ask sound and relevant questions as:
What can you say about it? Could you talk
about it at home? Does the piece make you
think of any other? Do you hear good music
often? Where? Name some pieces. What
is the most impressive thing in this piece?
Describe the tune. How many of you sing
about the house? or whistle? Name a tune
you sing. Does it make the home better?
Did you ever know a grouch to sing?

In developing this thoughtful consideration
for music it is well to begin with that which
is familiar — as popular and folk songs, and
about which a class would most readily talk,
then lead on to unfamiliar compositions. Be-
gin early in child life. Musical appreciation
can be most effectively taught at an early and
impressionable age. This seems worthy of
remark since until recently the thought of dis-
cussing music was reserved solely for high
school students.

In conclusion, present all lessons in the

MUSIC APPRECIATION 257

schoolroom on music primarily from the
standpoint of the educator rather than from
the musician. The child is to be taught and
not the subject. He will wish to learn the
subject if the method of the teacher be correct.
If the teacher of public school music must
depend for endorsement upon one class solely,
let it be from educators. Later, if need be,
let him strive for approbation of the musical
fraternity through his musicianship. In the
two he will have builded upon a rock that will
not crumble.

For further study of music appreciation the reader
is referred to "Listening Lessons in Music," by Agnes
Moore Fryberger. (Silver, Burdett & Co.)

MT Giddings, Thaddeus Philander
930 Grade school music teaching

Vlusic

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