they should come under the teacher's eye as frequently as possible.
Hence, it is preferable to divide the hour into two equidistant parts.
[Sidenote: _Number of Lessons Depends on Progress_]
Which plan is better for a child of eleven or twelve years: to take a
one-hour lesson or two half-hour lessons a week?
The child's age is not the determining factor in this matter; it is his
musical status.
[Sidenote: _One Lesson a Week_]
Is one lesson a week inadequate for a piano student?
It will be sufficient in the more advanced stages of piano study. In
the earlier stages, however, where the danger of forming bad habits is
greatest, it is best to bring the pupil under his teacher's eye twice a
week at the very least.
[Sidenote: _Better Not Give the Child "Modified Classics"_]
What little classics are best for a child after six months' lessons?
There are collections without number of facilitated or simplified
arrangements of classic pieces, but I do not altogether approve of them.
Let the classics wait until the child is technically--and, above all,
mentally--ripe to approach such works as they are written.
[Sidenote: _Can Music Be Studied in America?_]
Is it necessary for me to go to Europe to continue my music studies?
If you have very much money to spare, why not? You will see much, also
hear much--and some of it not quite so sublime as you anticipated--and,
last but not least, you will have "studied abroad." While this slogan
still exercises a certain charm upon some people in America, their
number is growing less year by year, because the public has begun to
understand that the United States affords just as good instruction in
music as Europe does. It has also been found out that to "study abroad"
is by no means a guarantee of a triumphant return. Many a young student
who went abroad as a lamb returned as a mutton-head. And why should
there not be excellent teachers in America by this time? Even if you
should insist upon a European teacher you can find many of the best in
America. Is it not simpler that one teacher from Europe go to America to
teach a hundred students than that a hundred students should make the
trip for the sake of one teacher? I should advise you to stay where you
are or go to Philadelphia, New York, or Boston, where you can find
excellent teachers, native, resident Americans and foreigners. To quote
a case in point, let me say that in Berlin I found Godowsky's pupils to
be almost exclusively Americans. They came from various sections of
America to study with him and with no one else. But during the eighteen
years he spent in Chicago they did not seem to want him. Perhaps he was
too near by! Why this self-deception? Without mentioning any names I
assure you that there are many teachers in America now who, if they
should go to Europe, would draw a host of students after them, and some
of these excellent men I know personally. It is high time to put an end
to the superstitious belief in "studying abroad."
MISCELLANEOUS QUESTIONS
[Sidenote: _Organizing a Musical Club_]
Please give me the name of a good book on musical history and advise me
how to organize and conduct a musical club among my pupils. Also give me
a name, please.
You will find the "History of Music," by Baltzell, a serviceable book.
As a name for your club I suggest that of the patron saint of
music--Saint Cecilia--perhaps, or that of a great composer. Ask the
secretaries of a number of musical clubs for their constitutions and
by-laws and then adapt these to your locality and circumstances. Make
your pupils feel that it is their club and act, yourself, as secretary,
if possible.
[Sidenote: _How to Get Music Published_]
Please explain how to go about publishing a piece of music, and also
give the name of some good publishing houses.
It is very easy to publish a piece of music if the publisher sees any
merit in it. Send your piece to any publishing house whose name you find
on the title pages of your sheet music. The readers or advisers of the
house will report to their chief as to the merit of your piece, and he
will then decide and negotiate with you, if his decision is favourable.
If he should not care for it he will return your manuscript and you may
try some other house. I advise you, however, to obtain the opinion of a
good musician before you send your piece to a publisher.
[Sidenote: _"Playing in Time" and "Playing in Rhythm"_]
What is the difference between playing "in time" and playing "in
rhythm"?
Playing in rhythm refers to the inner life of a composition--to its
musical pulsation. Playing in time means the prompt arrival upon those
points of repose which are conditioned by the rhythm.
[Sidenote: _The Student Who Cannot Play Fast Music_]
I find great difficulty in playing anything that goes quick, though in a
more moderate tempo I can play my pieces faultlessly. Every teacher I
had promised to develop my speed, but they all failed. Can you give me
a hint how to overcome my difficulty?
Quickness of action, of motion, even of resolution, cannot be acquired
by training alone; it must partly be inborn. I assume that your
piano-playing is one phase of a general slowness. There is but one
remedy for that. You have relied upon your teachers to develop your
speed--you should have relied upon your own will-power. Try to will it
and to will it often; you will see the ability keep step with the
exertions of your will.
[Sidenote: _"Wonder-Children" as Pianists_]
My child of five years of age shows signs of great talent for music. He
has a keen, true ear, and plays rather well for his age. Does this
justify me in hoping that something out of the ordinary will become of
him? They say that so-called "wonder-children" never amount to anything
in later life.
That "wonder-children" never amount to anything in later life is not
borne out by history. If some are disappointments it is either because
they astonished by mere executive precocity, instead of charming by
their talent, or because they were ruined by unscrupulous parents or
managers who confounded the promise of a future with its realization.
But, aside from these few, all great musicians were "wonder-children,"
whether they became composers, pianists, violinists, 'cellists, or what
not. The biographies of our great masters of the past centuries as well
as those of more recent times (Mendelssohn, Wagner, Chopin, Schumann,
Liszt, Rubinstein, and all the others), will bear me out in this
statement. If your child shows more than mere precocity--if, for
instance, he does not merely play in his fifth year what others play in
their tenth, but shows qualities of musical superiority--then you may
with a fair degree of certainty feel hopeful of a fine musical future
for him.
[Sidenote: _The Value of Going to Concerts_]
Shall I attend orchestra concerts or shall I give preference to
soloists?
By all means attend orchestra and chamber-music concerts! For these will
acquaint you with those works which are, after all, of the greatest
importance to the student. Besides, you will usually hear more correct
interpretations than from soloists. The latter, with some luminous
exceptions, overestimate their own authority and take such unseemly
liberties that in many cases you hear more Smith, Jones, or Levy than
Beethoven, Schumann, or Chopin. Individuality in a soloist is certainly
a great quality, but only if it is tempered by a proper deference to the
composer of the work in hand. If you cannot hear a soloist who is
capable of sinking his individuality in the thought, mood, and style of
the composer he is interpreting--and this is given to only the very
greatest--you do far better to prefer to the "individual" renditions of
a soloist the "collective" renditions of the orchestra or string
quartette. The synthetic nature of the orchestra forestalls the
extravagances of so-called individuality and insures, generally
speaking, a truthful interpretation. The very worst conductor imaginable
cannot do as much harm to a composition as can a mediocre soloist, for
an orchestra is a large body and, therefore, not so easily moved and
shifted from the path of musical rectitude as is a single voice or an
instrument. A really great soloist is, of course, the finest flower of
the garden of applied music, for his touch with the instrument is
immediate and he needs no middleman to express the finest shades of his
conceptions; while the conductor--and even the best--has to impart his
conception (through the baton, facial expression, and gesture) to other
people before it can become audible, and on this circuitous route much
of the original fervour and ardour may be lost. But there are more good
orchestras than great soloists, and hence you are safe in attending
orchestra and chamber-music concerts.
[Sidenote: _Books That Aid the Student Working Alone_]
Compelled to study without a teacher for two years before I can go to a
conservatory, what method should I study for my technique and what
pieces?
You fail to say whether you are a beginner or already somewhat advanced.
Still, I think it safe to recommend Mason's "Touch and Technique,"
Sternberg's Etudes, opus 66; and select your pieces from the graded
catalogues which any publisher will be glad to send you.
[Sidenote: _Music as a Profession or as an Avocation_]
Would you advise a young man with a good foundation to choose
music--that is, concertizing--as a career, or should he keep his music
as an accomplishment and avocation?
Your distinguishing between music and concertizing gives direction to my
reply; that the question was not answered by your own heart before you
asked it prompts me to advise music for you as an avocation. The
artist's career nowadays is not so simple as it appears to be. Of a
thousand capable musicians there is, perhaps, one who attains to a
general reputation and fortune. The rest of them, after spending money,
time, and toil, give up in despair, and with an embittered disposition
take up some other occupation. If you do not depend upon public
music-making for a living; if your natural endowments are not of a very
unusually high order, and if your entire personality does not imply the
exercise of authority over assemblages of people--spiritual authority, I
mean--it were better to enjoy your music in the circle of your friends.
It is less risky and will, in all probability, give you much greater
satisfaction.
[Sidenote: _How Much You Can Get From Music_]
When I hear a concert pianist I want to get more from his playing than
aesthetic ear enjoyment. Can you give me a little outline of points for
which to look that may help me in my piano study?
There is no pleasure or enjoyment from which we can derive more than we
bring with us in the way of receptiveness. As you deepen your study of
music and gain insight into its forms, contrapuntal work and harmonic
beauties you will derive more and more pleasure from listening to a good
pianist the deeper your studies go. What their playing reflects of
emotional life you will perceive in the exact measure of your own grasp
upon life. Art is a medium connecting, like a telegraph, two stations:
the sender of a message and the receiver. Both must be pitched equally
high to make the communication perfect.
[Sidenote: "_It is So Much Easier to Read Flats Than Sharps!_"]
You would confer a favour upon a teacher by solving a problem for her
that has puzzled her all her life; why do all pupils prefer flats to
sharps? I am not at all sure that I do not, in some degree, share this
preference. Is it a fault of training, or has it any other cause?
Your question is both original and well justified by frequent
observation, for it is quite true that people prefer to read flats to
sharps. But note it well that the aversion to sharps refers only to the
reading, not to the playing. If any one should find it harder to _play_
in sharps, say, after knowing the notes well, it would be a purely
subjective deception, due to a mental association of the note-picture
with the respective sounds. My personal belief is that the aversion to
the _reading_ of sharps is caused by the comparative complexity of the
sign itself, and this leads me to think that the whole matter belongs
rather to ophthalmology than to either acoustics or music.
[Sidenote: _Rubinstein or Liszt--Which the Greater?_]
As between Liszt and Rubinstein, whom do you consider the greater?
Rubinstein I knew very well (I was his pupil), and have heard him play a
great many times. Liszt, who died when I was sixteen years old and had
not appeared in public for some twenty years previously, I never met
and never heard. Still, from the descriptions which many of my friends
gave me of him, and from the study of his works, I have been able to
form a fair idea of his playing and his personality. As a virtuoso I
think Liszt stood above Rubinstein, for his playing must have possessed
amazing, dazzling qualities. Rubinstein excelled by his sincerity, by
his demoniacal, Heaven-storming power of great impassionedness,
qualities which with Liszt had passed through the sieve of a superior
education and--if you understand how I mean that term--gentlemanly
elegance. He was, in the highest meaning of the word, a man of the
world; Rubinstein, a world-stormer, with a sovereign disregard for
conventionality and for Mrs. Grundy. The principal difference lay in the
characters of the two. As musicians, with regard to their natural
endowments and ability, they were probably of the same gigantic calibre,
such as we would seek in vain at the present time.
[Sidenote: _As to One Composer--Excluding All Others_]
If I am deeply interested in Beethoven's music can I not find in him all
that there is in music, in both an aesthetic and a technical sense? Is
any one's music more profound?
You imagine yourself in an impenetrable stronghold whence, safe from all
attacks, you may look upon all composers (except Beethoven) with a
patronizing, condescending smile. But you are gravely in error. Life is
too rich in experience, too many-sided in its manifestations, to permit
any one master, however great, to exhaust its interpretation through his
art. If you base your preference for Beethoven upon your sympathies, and
if, for this reason, his music satisfies you better than that of any
other composer, you are to be complimented upon your good taste. But
that gives you no right to contest, for instance, the profoundness of
Bach, the aesthetic charm of Chopin, the wonders of Mozart's art, nor the
many and various merits of your contemporary composers. The least that
one can be charged with who finds the whole of life expressed in any
one composer is one-sidedness, not to speak of the fact that the
understanding cannot be very deep for one master if it is closed to all
others. One of the chief requirements for true connoisseurship is
catholicity of taste.
[Sidenote: _A Sensible Scheme of Playing for Pleasure_]
I am fifty-six years old, live in the mountains sixty-five miles from
any railroad, alone with my husband, and I have not taken lessons in
thirty-five years. Do you think "Pischna" would help me much to regain
my former ability to play? If not, what would you advise me to do?
Refrain from all especially technical work. Since your love of music is
strong enough to cause you to resume your playing you should take as
much pleasure in it as possible and work technically only in the pieces
you play--that is, in those places which offer you difficulties. Decide
upon a comfortable fingering first, and practise the difficult places
separately and slowly until you feel that you can venture to play them
in their appropriate speed.
[Sidenote: _First Learn to Play Simple Things Well_]
What pieces would you advise me to memorize after Rachmaninoff's Prelude
in C-sharp minor and Chopin's A-flat Ballade? These pieces do not appeal
to the majority of people, but I enjoy them.
If such a work as Chopin's Ballade in A-flat does not "appeal to the
majority"--as you say--the fault cannot lie in the composition, but must
be sought in the interpretation. Why not try a few pieces of lesser
complexity and play them so perfectly that they do appeal to the
majority. Try Chopin's Nocturne, opus 27, No. 2; Schumann's Romanza,
opus. 28, No. 2; or his "Traumerei," or some of the more pretentious
"Songs Without Words" by Mendelssohn.
[Sidenote: _About Starting on a Concert Career_]
I am twenty-four, have had four years' rigorous work in a conservatory
and a partial college training. My technique is adequate for Brahms's
Rhapsody in G minor and McDowell's Sonatas. I have good health and am
determined not to grow self-satisfied. Is there a place on the concert
stage--even if only as an accompanist--for a woman thus equipped?
Any public career must begin by earning the good opinion of others.
One's own opinion, however just, is never a criterion. My advice is that
you speak to some of the prominent concert agents, whose names and
addresses you find in every well-accredited music paper. Play for them.
They are usually not connoisseurs by actual knowledge, but they have
developed a fine instinct for that which is of use to them, and you are,
of course, aware that we must be of use to others before we can be of
use to ourselves. If the right "stuff" is in you you will make your way.
People of ability always do. That there is room for women on the concert
stage is proved by the great array of meritorious women pianists.
Especially for accompanying women are in demand--that is, for _good_
accompanying. But I would not start out with the idea of accompanying.
It seems like going to a commercial school to study be to an "assistant"
bookkeeper. Become a fine, all-round musician, a fine pianist, and see
what the tide of affairs will bring you. The proper level for your
ability is bound to disclose itself to you.
[Sidenote: _Accompanist Usually Precedes Soloist at Entering_]
Should an accompanist precede or follow the soloist on the stage in a
concert or recital, and should sex be considered in the matter?
If the soloist be a man the accompanist should precede him on the stage
in order to arrange his music, the height of his seat or whatever may be
necessary, during which time the soloist salutes the audience. For these
reasons it should be the same when the soloist is a woman, but as women
are of the feminine persuasion it will, perhaps, look better if the
accompanist yields precedence to her.
ALPHABETICAL INDEX OF
QUESTIONS
PAGE
About Starting On a Concert Career 162
Accenting a Mordent in a Sonata 70
Accompanist Usually Precedes Soloist at Entering 164
Action of a Beginner's Piano, The 87
Action of the Little Finger, The 17
Advantage of Legato over Staccato, The 22
Affected Movements at the Piano 126
"Afraid to Play Before People" 121
Age of the Student is Immaterial 139
Always Keep in Touch With Bach 81
Art of Accompanying a Soloist, The 118
Art of Playing With Feeling, The 124
As to one Composer--Excluding All Others 160
As to Playing Rubato 100
As to the Bach Fugues 88
Bach's Music Necessary to Good Technique 80
Bach's Preludes and Fugues 82
Beethoven Sonata with a Pastoral Character, The 84
Beginner in Bach Music, The 80
Best Physical Exercise for the Pianist, The 181
Best Way to Improve Sight-Reading, The 117
Best Way to Work Up a Quick Tempo, The 54
Better Not Give the Child "Modified Classics" 148
Biting the Finger-Nails Spoils the Touch 19
Books that Aid the Student Working Alone 155
Broad-Tipped Fingers Not a Disadvantage 20
C-Scale Fingering for All Scales, The 28
Can Music be Studied in America? 148
Cantabile Passages 7
Charm of Chopin's Touch, The 86
Chopin's Barcarolle 88
Chopin's Works for a Popular Concert 88
"Colour" of Various Keys, The 187
Company that One Keeps in Music, The 188
Composition Must Fit the Player, The 130
Conditions Which Dictate Speed in Playing, The 53
Counting Out Loud 50
Difference Between Conception and Rubato, The 102
Difference Between "Finger Staccato" and Other
Kinds, The 22
Difference Between Major and Minor Scales, The 109
Difference in Playing Trills, The 74
Different Conceptions May be Individually
Correct 102
Difficulty of Playing Repetition Notes, The 34
Disputed Chopin Reading, A 78
Do not Allow the Wrist to Get Stiff 10
Do not Injure the Hand by Stretching It 13
Do not Over-Use the Soft Pedal 44
Do not Raise the Piano-Stool too High 4
Do not Raise Wrist in Marking a Rest 99
Do not Stiffen the Hands in Playing Scales 9
Do not Use a Piano Extreme in "Action" 36
Double Sharp Misprinted for Double Flat 65
E Sharp and B Sharp and the Double Flat 64
Easiest Way to Memorize, The 113
Effect of Double Flats, The 65
Effect of Playing the Same Piece Often, The 122
Either Trust Your Teacher or Get a New One 146
Etudes for Advanced Players to Work At 94
Exercises for the Beginner to Practise 93
Fatiguing the Hand by Stretching 12
Few Sonatas of Beethoven, Well Played,
Are Enough, A 85
Fingering the Chromatic Scale 28
Fingers Needed to Play a Mordent, The 28
Firm and Crisp Legato Touch, The 24
First Learn to Play Simple Things Well 162
Four Ways to Study a Piano Piece 52
Fourth and Fifth Fingers, The 16
Frequent Lessons and Shorter 147
General Rule About the Pedal, A 39
Genuine Piano Hand, The 130
Give Your Teacher a Fair Trial 145
Good Finger Exercises 93
Good Intermediate Books of Etudes 94
Greatest Composers as Pianists, The 91
Hearing a Piece Before Studying It 104
Height of the Piano Seat, The 5
Horseback Riding Stiffens the Fingers 132
How a Tie and a Slur Differ 63
How Are Syncopated Notes to be Played? 71
How Best to Play the Octaves 29
How Grace Notes Are Played 61
How Long an Accidental Affects a Note 64
How Much You Can Get from Music 157
How Organ Playing Affects the Pianist 26
How Tight to Keep the Piano's Action 37
How to Get Music Published 150
How to Hold the Thumb 16
How to Improve the Technique 4
How to Play Passages Marked "Rubato" 100
How to Use the Pedal 39
How Waltz, Menuet, Mazurka and Polonaise Differ 111
Importance of Studying With the Right Teacher,
The 140
Incorrect Position of the Fingers, An 8
Individual Teacher or Conservatory? 142
In Order to Memorize Easily 115
In Playing a Sonata 75
"International" Piano Pitch, The 136
International Pitch, The 136
Is the Piano the Hardest to Master? 127
"It is So Much Easier to Read Flats Than
Sharps!" 157
Kind of Piano Upon Which to Practise, The 35
Kullak's "Method of Octaves" Still Good 34
Learning the Art of Accompanying 118
Learning to Accompany at Sight 117
Learning to Modulate 107
Let Your Ear Guide Your Pedalling 41
Loose Wrist, The 9
Masters Cannot be Studied In Order 90
Meaning and Use of "Motif," The 68
Meaning of Solfeggio, The 74
Meaning of "Toccata," The 111
Memorizing Quickly and Forgetting as Readily 115
Metronome Markings, The 57
Metronome Markings May Better be Ignored 59
Modern Piano Music 92
Mood and Tempo in the A Flat Impromptu 87
More Technique the More Practice, The 3
Morning is the Best Time to Practise 46
Morning Practice on the Piano, The 45
Music as a Profession or as an Avocation 156
Music Schools and Private Teachers 141
No Necessity to Watch the Fingers 19
Not Playing the Two Hands at Once 25
Nothing But the Best Will Do 141
Number of Lessons Depends on Progress, The 147
Old Problem of Duple Time against Triple, The 98
Omitting One Note in a Chord 89
Once More the "Soft" Pedal 44
One Lesson a Week 147
Only Kind of Practice Worth While, The 47
Order of Studying Beethoven's Sonatas 83
Organ Playing and the Piano Touch 26
Organizing a Musical Club 150
Perfect Rubato the Result of Momentary Impulse 101
Personal Element and the Metronome, The 58
Pianist Who Fails to Express Herself, The 123
Piano Study for Conductor and Composer 128
Play Chords With a Loose Arm 11
Playing Duple Time Against Triple 96
Playing from Memory is Indispensable 112
"Playing in Time" and "Playing in Rhythm" 151
Playing of Double Thirds, The 35
Playing of Slurred Notes, The 62
Playing On a Dumb Piano 38
Playing the "Melody in F" 79
Playing the "Spring Song" too Fast 77
Playing with Cold Hands 49
Point in Playing the "Moonlight Sonata," A 76
Position of Auxiliary Note in a Trill 72
Position of the Turn over a Note, The 71
Position of the Wrist, The 10
Practising Eight Hours Instead of Four 48
Practising the Two Parts Separately 52
Premature Fatigue in the Arms 33
Problem of Transposing at Sight, The 119
Proper Course for a Little Girl, The 146