Music As A Language | Page 9

the staff notation. The first of these is invaluable in the early stages, as
it absolutely precludes guessing. In singing from the modulator this is
possible to a certain extent, as the relation of each note to the key-note
is shown roughly in distance by the dots between the notes. There is no
such help given in the horizontal notation.
In beginning the work in staff notation the notes of the scale will be
thought of as steps in a ladder. In all keys, when doh is on a line, me
and soh are also on lines, and high doh is on a space; but when doh is
on a space, me and soh are on spaces, and high doh is on a line. These
are very simple matters, but children are simple people, and will not
despise such hints.
The next notes of the scale to be taken are ray and te, then fah and lah.
The last two are the most difficult. A good pattern to fix in the
children's minds is:
_d f m l s t, d--_
which splits up into:

_d f m--; d l s--_
If these are really known, no trouble will be found with the notes f and
l.
Plenty of exercises should be given in which the notes of the scale are
taken in relation to the high doh. Possible notes should also be taken
above high doh (such as high ray, high me, high fah in the scale of C)
and below doh. With regard to the latter, the key may be changed from
time to time when taking Sol-fa work from hand signs or the modulator,
or from Sol-fa notation, in order to get a wider range for the notes
above mentioned. Thus, if the class be given the doh of G major, they
can sing low te, low lah, low soh, and low fah, or, as these notes are
written in Sol-fa notation, _t,_ _l,_ _s,_ _f,_. These points are
sometimes overlooked by mistresses, and the early training loses in
thoroughness.
Directly the children are sure of the diatonic notes of the key of C
major they should take the sharpened fourth (_fe_), the flattened
seventh (_taw_). and the sharpened fifth (_se_). Later on they will learn
that these notes often introduce modulations to the dominant,
subdominant, and relative minor keys respectively.
Extemporizing with the voice may now begin, along the lines
suggested in
Chapter IX.
An extra interest will thus be added to the lesson, and the child will
have its first initiation into 'self-expression' through the art of music.


CHAPTER VI
THE TEACHING OF SIGHT-SINGING

Instruction in sight-singing should begin by teaching the staff notation
through the Tonic Sol-fa method. Objections to this are sometimes
raised by very musical people, who have no recollection of any
'method' by means of which they themselves learnt to sing at sight, and
who therefore think their pupils can pick up the knowledge in the same
instinctive fashion. Experience proves that this is very rarely the case.
With very little children it is well to keep entirely to hand signs and ear
tests until all the notes of the scale are known, through their 'mental
effect'. One reason for this is that such children cannot read or write, so
no musical work can be done with them which implies this knowledge.
Care must be taken to vary the lessons as much as possible.
At one lesson the teacher can give the hand signs and ear tests herself.
At the next, one of the class can give the hand signs for the rest of the
class, and the teacher the ear tests. At the next, a child can give the ear
tests, and so on. An experienced teacher will find plenty of similar
ways for producing new interest in the lessons, even though the actual
amount of work done be necessarily small. Nothing is gained by
hurrying over the initial stages of ear-training. The foundation must be
securely laid, or trouble will come later. Those who have had
experience of class work in kindergartens know the special difficulties
to be met--the irregularity of attendance, the constant stream of new
pupils coming in, and so on. Unless plenty of opportunity is given for
revision the work will suffer in thoroughness.
For children who take this work between the ages of eight and twelve,
no better scheme for sight-singing can be found than that contained in
Somervell's _Fifty Steps in Sight-singing_, supplemented by the
children's books, A Thousand Exercises, published by Curwen. It is
essential to read carefully the appendices to this work, especially that
concerned with the minor keys. Another book of sight-singing
exercises which follows the same sequence is the Rational Sight
Reader, by Everett, published by Boosey.
In teaching the