MUSIC TEACHING.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 2578, 19 January 1889, Page 1 (Supplement)

MUSIC TEACHING.

F.N" order to ;itr.:iiii (he object, of musical education the choice of a teacher is highly important. tv> many parent.-, know not how fu help themselves in this regard, being swayed by juiKoiiiil feelings towiirds professed teachers, jtnd in oonaeqiKMic.e so many scholars have been led astray or ruined, in u music 1 sense, that wo oou-ider if our dntv to give a few hints to parents on (.his subject. Parents slionld weigh well, in lire choice of a teacher, what power ho must meessarily have over tin; nn'iirl of the child, if any real progress is to bo marlo. Ihe first requisite of n teacher is therefore that ho should love music for iln own sake, and endeavour to draw out, the innate, faculties of the pupil by judicious and gradual development. Thn next qualification which a. teacher requires ia the faculty of working with decision and effect, on the mind and disposition of his pupil. The mere capability of pbivinir himself a piece with effect is comparatively nothing. It may induce the scholar to a successful imitation, hut will give him no independent, feeling-, which constitutes the essenco of music as an art. It. dues not, suffice that the teacher should enabl" the scholar to pl-iy compositions as ho dees himself, but to draw out and expand the pupils own idem of the composer's moaning. A teacher must know mud: more than he is required to teach, in order to be able to answer ever}' question and supply every di-iiciency. We require from a good teacher the knowledge of composition (harmony, etc.), a knowledge of the masterpieces of tlie musical art, both of elder and modern times, besides an accurate knowledge, of time, rhythm, phrasing, and other requisites tu a really artistic [icrfonnanec. We must here notice another fatally erroneous idea concerning instruction. It is the deceptive notion, that for the beginning an inferior teacher is sufficient. This persuasion tends more to increase the difficulties of genuine teaching than almost any other misconception. Art is not mere technicality, but is the expression of the whole being. Only such a method of instruction works beyond the mere circle of lessons received. If the scholar has seized the essence of the matter, he will seize it equally when Ihe master is absent, In short, a good teacher endeavours to originate or unravel the musical faculty in the pupil himself, and will lose heart only in the case of 'olid indifference or absolute incapacity. Co sum up. 1. The unskilled master lays a bad foundation. He delays the nuuiissary instruction on whioh nil future pro'.m>s must depend. Tlio succeeding better master meets with only false or imperfect preparation, and finds extreme, difficulty in exciting- attention and

activity in tlic scholar for the attainment of an object which the scholar imagines himself already to possess. (2). Mo-t books of instruction, however good, give no application at all to the special needs of any special pupil. Heuco any teacher who .■-imply drives a pupil through iin. instruction book must fail .absolutely. (3). The best criterion, and the only one upeii to parents as a rule, is the result obtained, if there is no progress, tlie fault must lie either in the capacity of the. teacher or in the ab>oli'te incapacity of the scholar, in the fir.-t c:ise it is the duty of the parents to change the instructor of their children for ;i hotter, :md in the second. i;a>e, to cease the instruction altogether, •intl devote tlie necessary time to seine .iiher |mr-uit more suited to the capacity ■,f the child.— By Dr. Adolf Marx, i'rotessorof Music, Berlin.