DOMINIE.  A great many people can learn what is to be taught; but how it is to be taught I have only found out by devoting my whole mind, with real love and constant thought, to the musical improvement and general mental development of my pupils.  The advancement will unquestionably be rapid, for it proceeds step by step, and one thing is founded upon another; the pupil learns every thing quietly, thoughtfully, and surely, without going roundabout, without any hindrances and mistakes to be unlearned.  I never try to teach too much or too little; and, in teaching each thing, I try to prepare and lay the foundation for other things to be afterwards learned.  I consider it very important not to try to cram the child’s memory with the teacher’s wisdom (as is often done in a crude and harsh way); but I endeavor to excite the pupil’s mind, to interest it, and to let it develop itself, and not to degrade it to a mere machine.  I do not require the practice of a vague, dreary, time and mind killing piano-jingling, in which way, as I see, your little Susie was obliged to learn; but I observe a musical method, and in doing this always keep strictly in view the individuality and gradual development of the pupil.  In more advanced instruction, I even take an interest in the general culture and disposition of the pupil, and improve every opportunity to call forth the sense of beauty, and continually to aid in the intellectual development.

FRIEND.  But where are the notes all this time?

DOMINIE.  Before that, we have a great deal to do that is interesting and agreeable.  I keep constantly in view the formation of a good technique; but I do not make piano-playing distasteful to the pupil by urging her to a useless and senseless mechanical “practising.”  I may perhaps teach the treble notes after the first six months or after sixty or eighty lessons, but I teach them in my own peculiar way, so that the pupil’s mind may be kept constantly active.  With my own daughters I did not teach the treble notes till the end of the first year’s instruction, the bass notes several months later.

FRIEND.  But what did you do meanwhile?

DOMINIE.  You really ought to be able to answer that question for yourself after hearing this lesson, and what I have said about it.  I have cultivated a musical taste in my pupils, and almost taught them to be skilful, good players, without knowing a note.  I have taught a correct, light touch of the keys from the fingers, and of whole chords from the wrist; to this I have added the scales in all the keys; but these should not be taught at first, with both hands together.  The pupil may gradually acquire the habit of practising them together later; but it is not desirable to insist on this too early, for in playing the scales with both hands together the weakness of the fourth finger is concealed, and the attention distracted from the feeble tones, and the result is an unequal and poor scale.