do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si, do.
In the semi-tone spaces black counters are to be placed. At a later stage of this exercise the staff is represented by a wooden board similar to the one described above, but without the indentures. The child has at his disposal a great many disks with the notes written out in full on one face. He can arrange thirty or forty of these disks at random on the board, keeping them, however, in their places according to the names of the notes; but each time the surface showing the name of the note should be placed downward on the board, so that on the line only disks without names are visible. When a child has finished this exercise, he is to turn the disks over without disarranging them and so determine from their names whether he has placed them properly. All the disks on a given line or in a given space should have the same names. Should any doubt arise as to the proper place of a note, the other board with the numbered indentures can be used as a check.
When a child has reached this stage of development, he can practice reading the musical script, ringing the bells according to the notes he is interpreting. The musical staffs are prepared on oblong cards about seventeen centimeters broad. The notes are about two centimeters in diameter. The cards are variously colored—blue, violet, yellow, red.
The next step is for the children to write notes themselves. For this purpose we have prepared little sheets which can be bound together into a book or album.
We offer also a few songs employing two or three notes so simple in character that the child can make them out by ear on his bells. When, after some practise, he is certain he can copy the song, he writes the notes on his staff and so becomes the editor of his own music.
Treble and Bass Clefs
Arrangement of the notes in the form of a rhombus: All the exercises thus far have been in reference to the higher clef. However, no representation of this key has as yet been given the child. His first task is to learn the relative position of the notes on the two staffs. To supply this want, following the system of the Musical Conservatory of Milan, we have adopted the double staff.
