These blunders begin with the preliminary course on the piano or violin,
for instance, when a child, having no previous training in the rudiments
of music, starts with one weekly lesson, and is required to practice a
prescribed period daily without supervision. To the difficulties of an
introduction to a musical instrument are added those of learning to read
notes, to locate them, to appreciate time values and much else. The
teacher, it may be, knows little of the inner life of music, still less
of child nature. Manifold perplexities arise, and faltering through
these the pupil acquires a halting use of the musical vocabulary, with
other bad habits equally hard to correct. A constant repetition of false
notes, wrong phrasing, irregular accents, faulty rhythms and a
meaningless jumble of notes dulls the outer ear and deadens the inner
tone-sense. Where there is genius, or decided talent, no obstacle can
wholly bar the way to music. Otherwise, it retreats before the
blundering approach.
Many a mother when advised to direct her child's practicing, or at least
to encourage it by her presence, has excused herself on the plea that it
would bore her to listen.
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