GENERAL HINTS ON TAKING A LESSON IN EAR-TRAINING
All those who teach ear-training should keep a book in which they write
on one side of the page the proposed scheme of work for each lesson, and
on the other the actual work done. All sorts of things may happen in the
course of the lesson to upset the proposed scheme. The children may find
the new work easier, or more difficult than was expected, a question
from a child may suddenly reveal a piece of ignorance which necessitates
a digression--every teacher is aware of the 'unknown quantities' in
class work. Unless the proposed scheme of work is checked by what is
done in each lesson, there will be difficulties later.
Again, each lesson must form a definite link between past and future
lessons. It is often a temptation to a teacher of initiative to draw
attention to a new aspect of the subject, in which she happens to be
specially interested at the time, when the previous work is not in a fit
state to be left, even for two or three lessons. Something happens to
make her realize this, and the new piece of work is hurriedly
left--suspended in mid-air, as it were--and is not referred to again
until an accident recalls it to her mind. Such teaching certainly has
the charm of novelty to a class, but we must remember that one of the
faults of childhood is an undue readiness to pass on quickly to learn
'something new' before the previous work is secure.
In taking a lesson the teacher should aim at speaking in her ordinary
voice. Inexperienced people sometimes imagine that it is necessary to
shout when speaking in a fairly large room. But provided the voice is
clear, and the articulation good, a low voice carries just as well as a
loud one, and certainly produces a greater sense of repose.
Another fault to avoid is monotony of tone--we need 'modulations' in
speaking just as much as in music, and a class is keenly, though often
unconsciously, susceptible to this. A change of position is helpful. The
voice of the mistress will brighten at once if she comes down from the
platform and walks about a little. But she must never turn her back on a
class when actually telling them something. Musical people, who have not
the same experience in such matters as the ordinary teacher, constantly
do this, and will even hide the greater part of a blackboard when
pointing to notes of a tune.
In beginning a lesson the maximum effort will be gained if communal work
be taken before individual, i.e. sight-singing before dictation,
extemporizing, &c. The reason for this is obvious, a certain momentum is
thus generated, which is impossible later, when the force has been
diffused.
Before a tune is sung at sight the class should analyse it, giving the
key, time signature, starting note, modulations, sequences, general
construction, &c. Remind the children from time to time that the last
sharp in a signature gives the _te_ in a key, the last flat the _fah_;
that when modulating to the dominant key the _fe_ of the first key
becomes the _te_ of the second, in going from a key to its subdominant
_taw_ becomes _fah_, for the relative minor _se_ becomes _te_, and for
the relative major _taw_ becomes _soh_. Also that if in a minor key
_taw_ occurs in an ascending scale passage, or is taken or left by leap,
it is a sign of a modulation to the relative major.
In starting the tune the tonic chord is played, and the teacher beats a
whole bar, together with a fraction of the next if the tune begins on an
off-beat, before the class takes it up.
Do not _tap_ time when beating: it cultivates a habit of inattention on
the part of a class. Nor should the teacher beat time when the class is
doing so, unless for a moment, to correct an error. One reason for this
is that if the time signature be anything but [2/4] or [6/8], the
teacher's arm moves in a different direction in certain beats from that
of the class facing her, and this is most confusing.
Never correct a mistake by singing the right note yourself. This would
be teaching by imitation--as we teach a bird to sing a tune--not
teaching by method.
Remember that we are not aiming at artistic performance in a
sight-singing class, so do not hammer away at a tune until the
performance of it has reached your ideal. If you do, your aim is
'performance'--not sight-singing.
If a child makes a mistake in dictation, do not tell it what is wrong,
unless you are very short of time. Get it to sing the phrase it has
written to Sol-fa names--in this way it will find out its own mistake.
In writing notes, either on the blackboard or on manuscript paper, it is
not necessary to fill up all the space between the lines, as is done in
printed music. If children are allowed to do this, they will spend a
long time over their exercises. Teach them to turn all tails of notes
_up_ which are written on lines or spaces below the third line, and
_down_ for those above. The direction of the tails of notes on the third
line itself will depend on the context. These directions refer, of
course, to the writing of melodies. It is often necessary to remind even
grown-up students that accidentals must be placed _before_ the note
affected, not after it; also that a dot after a note which is written on
a line must come on the space next above, not on the line itself.
Children often forget that the leading note in a minor key invariably
carries an accidental.
We must now say a little on the subject of revision. It is a fault of
the young teacher that she often entirely neglects this, with the result
that her class can only sing accurately at sight, and do dictation in,
the last key learned. During the first few lessons in a new key it is
certainly inadvisable to give exercises in the preceding ones, as the
whole attention must be concentrated on the new tonality. But other keys
should be taken at least once in three weeks. An impatient person may
say: 'But properly taught children could not forget so soon!' Yet, at
times, we are all hazy on almost any subject, but it does not follow
that we are either fools, or badly taught: we are simply human! After
all, machines get out of order, so why not the most complicated machine
of all--the human mind?
Again, it is only the inexperienced teacher who thinks her class has
been badly taught by her predecessor. Many a student in training is
inclined, after the first lesson with a new class, to come to the
distracting conclusion that the children know 'nothing'. This generally
means that, after the holidays, the former work needs a little revision
before new work is begun.
In taking a fairly advanced class a teacher is often worried because
there is not enough time in a single forty-minute lesson a week to touch
on all of such subjects as chords, cadences, extemporizing,
transposition, &c., in addition to sight-singing and dictation. It is
certainly quite impossible to do so, and this is one of the reasons for
apparently slow progress. But there is, however, a good side to the
difficulty, for such work ought not to be hurried, and it is well to
leave a little breathing space between the references to it.
Teachers are sometimes heard to speak with regret of the high spirits of
their classes, which lead to restlessness. But we should never regret
_force_ in a child, and we must realize that all pent-up force needs a
safety-valve. It must be our business to direct such force into safe
channels. Keep the children really busy, give them plenty to do, and
there will be no cause to regret their vitality.