UNIT OF THOUGHT.-All music has as the basis of its construction two important elements, viz., tune and time; and if we would teach it successfully we must first find the units of thought upon which these two primary ideas are based. The major scale is the unit through which we must think in training the mind in tune. It contains all intervals found in music except the augmented second in the minor scale. From the intervals in this series of sounds come all the combinations of sounds of which music is composed, and with these intervals we can unlock all difficulties found in the study of the pitch of sounds. When these facts are understood, and it is found that the regular teachers in our schools can train their pupils just as intelligently in sounds as they can in numbers or colors, and that these sounds can be more easily and successfully taught at an early age than either of the subjects mentioned, we shall find that music as an educational factor in our public schools has never been realized. To make available the teaching power of the regular teachers for music, they need to be shown how to apply the same intelligent methods in roam, Fondest af fec-tions still cling to home! Fondest af fections still cling to home! tear, But for the kind hearts still beat-ing there, But for the kind hearts still beat-ing there. training the ear to sounds as mental objects that are used in training the eye to numbers and colors. The ordinary rote or imitative work is not real education in music. The mind gains power only through its own activities, and when the unit of thought-the major scale-has been clearly established, the pupils should be required to work out all problems in the study of intervals by singing them. The teacher should only guide the pupil in thinking and practice until he gains command of the whole subject. This is a self-educating process for both teacher and pupil. Not a question should be asked by the teacher that is not immediately preceded by the sound to which it refers, and the sounds should be so named that every character used in representing the pitch of sounds should be named by teaching and naming the sound itself before the character is given. This is a very simple matter for the practical work of the school room, and when we as teachers learn how to present it the question of notation is settled, for no one would think of using any other than that of the staff after having learned to train children in this way.-H. E. Holt. |