Music in education
- The major mode is not the only one. The pupil should be familiar
with all modes (Church mode, modern major and minor modes,
the chromatic scale and the whole tone scale). - The teaching of music should be analogous to an object lesson.
The pupil must feel deeply the reality, whether physical or spiritual,
of what he is doing. One of the means adopted in applying this
principle is ‘singing with the hands’, which co-ordinates hearing,
action and sight. - It is necessary to start with solmization in order to end up naturally
with the notes whose names are borrowed from the alphabet (in
English, German and Dutch). - It should not be forgotten that music and movement are closely
connected. - We must not lay upon the child a useless musical burden. The dif-
ficulties should be analysed and spaced out so as to arrive methodi-
cally and gradually at a knowledge of the whole subject. Nothing
is gained by confronting the pupil straight away with two staves
of five lines each, in two different keys. - Music education should be directed towards life as a whole.
[Translated from the French]