The Responsibilities of the Teacher
"The more one contemplates this subject the more one realizes the responsibilities of the teacher in the first years of music study. Of all the pupils who commence in the art there are but few who make it a part of their lives; many of those who do continue find themselves handicapped when they reach the more advanced stages of the journey, owing to inefficient early training. At the period when their time is the most valuable to them they have to take up studies which should have been mastered eight or ten years before. The elementary teachers all over the world have a big responsibility. If they belittle their work with children and pine for the kind of teaching which the virtuosos attempt to do, let them realize that they are in a sense the foundation of the structure, and although perhaps not as conspicuous as the spire which towers up into the skies, they are certainly of equal importance."
Questions in Style, Interpretation, Expression
and Technic of Pianoforte Playing
SERIES IX
katharine goodson
| 1. | Is analysis natural to children? |
| 2. | When should the first steps in analysis be made? |
| 3. | Why is a knowledge of the different dance forms desirable? |
| 4. | What may be said of the poetic idea of the piece? |
| 5. | What indicates a finely balanced musician? |
| 6. | Should phrase analysis be taught at an early age? |
| 7. | Is the ability to identify a chord by hearing more important than the ability to identify it by sight? |
| 8. | Does a trained ear help in the acquisition of touch? |
| 9. | What may the pupil learn from concerts? |
| 10. | When is the teacher's responsibility greatest? |