I should continue in this way with you for two weeks, but every day with some slight change.  After a short time, I would combine with this practice the study of two or three pieces, suitably arranged for the piano; for example, Mozart’s minuet in E flat, arranged by Schulhoff, and his drinking-song, or similar pieces.  We will, at present, have nothing to do with Beethoven.  You are, perhaps, afraid that all this might be tedious; but I have never been considered tedious in my lessons.  I wish you, for the present, not to practise any pieces or exercises except in my presence, until a better touch has been thoroughly established.  You must also give up entirely, for a time, playing your previous pieces; for they would give you opportunity to fall again into your faulty mode of playing.  I shall also soon put in practice one of my maxims in teaching; viz., that, merely for the acquisition of mechanical facility, all my pupils shall be in the habit of playing daily some appropriate piece, that by its perfect mastery they may gain a fearless confidence.  They must regard this piece as a companion, friend, and support.  I wish you to learn to consider it a necessity every day, before practising or studying your new piece of music, to play this piece, even if it is done quite mechanically, two or three times, first slowly, then faster; for without ready, flexible fingers, my teaching and preaching will be valueless.

MRS. SOLID.  But what pieces, for instance?

DOMINIE.  For beginners, perhaps one or two of Huenten’s Etudes Melodiques; a little later, one of Czerny’s very judicious Etudes from his opus 740; and for more advanced pupils, after they are able to stretch easily and correctly, his Toccata, opus 92,—­a piece which my three daughters never give up playing, even if they do not play it every day.  They practise pieces of this description as a remedy for mechanical deficiencies, changing them every three or four months.  In the selection of these, I aim especially at the practice of thirds, trills, stretches, scales, and passages for strengthening the fourth finger; and I choose them with reference to the particular pieces, sonatas, variations, concertos, &c., which they are at the time studying.  Likewise, in the choice of the latter, I pursue a different course from that which the teachers alluded to above and others are accustomed to follow; though I hope my management is never pedantic, but cautious, artistic, and psychologic.  It is easy to see that many teachers, by giving lessons continually, particularly to pupils without talent, are led, even with the best intentions, to fall into a mere routine.  We find them often impatient and unsympathetic, especially in the teaching of their own compositions; and again, by their one-sided opinions and capricious requirements, by devoting attention to matters of small importance, and by all sorts of whimsicalities, they contract the intellectual horizon of their pupils, and destroy their interest in the lessons.