The Lebanon express. (Lebanon, Linn County, Or.) 1887-1898, 1889-04-26


the common schools, win try to an
swer the secoads How should 1t b
tanghtg
Il should occupy . place on the dali,
programme and receive as much atten
ton as amy other study in school.
Perhaps there are not five per cent
of the schools Of the q. 5. ia whicl
this IL SO ut present, but why? BE
cause that when the schools were ii
their infancy years ago people though
studies should be pursued that were o
practicalhencft IN the every day at
fairs Of life, |. g, reading, writing ant
arithmetic.
Parents knowledge ofmusic is quit,
limited in comparison withsome oftht
ether branches. Hence they do not
appreciate It's value. They did not
study il when they went to school, 50
whyshould their children,
There are four systems or methods Of
teaching music being used TO some cx-
tent at the present time, viz. Rote
singing, fixed do, nloveable do, and
tonic sol-fa.
The following statistics are taken
fram the reports Of S43 cities to the hu-
reau Of education ut Washington, d.
q. Out OF tie SiS Sreports sent in 96 re-
ort no musical instructions given. 4
report that singing spermitted. From
tile ai5 remaining, so are either teach
ing BY rote or ITO system at all, % are
asing the fixed dor the tonic sol
fl, 81 various notifications and com
hinatlone, and 100 the movable. don
system. From the above report it win
hc sesn that the preference IS given to
the movable do system over alloth-
crs ia about the ratio Of two to one.
THE "moyable do system is the
nethod that Is employed in nearly all
singing books that ever saw, and
what j know Of the others, this seems
to me to be much the best. All sys-
TENS must have symbols to represent
tone-pitchers and tone-lengths. How
can tOne-pitchers be represented in any
better way than by the lines and spac-
es OF the staff. and how can tone
lengths be represented in any better
way than by half, quarter or eighth
notes.
During my visit at the National Ed
uc:ltion Association last summer at
san francisco, ! attended the depart
ment ofmnsic regularly. There was
great deal said about tonic sol-fa, " fix
cd don and movable don One of
thedadies present said 1t was all dough
70 her, and that there was no bread
to feed upon. What we need rs teacl-
ers, / think, are directions for teaching
the commonly accepted method. Why
should children be taught to read nu-
sic? Because they will take more in
sterest in hesunject than ifonly taught
t. sing a few songs by lote. They will
lle independent and will not have to
lave others to teach them every new
song that they may wish to learn TO
sing. Ifchildren are taught tossing by
rate only, III short time the habit
Will be 30 firmly fixed that it is only
liy great effort that they can be
taught to become readers of music at
all. Learning to sing by rote is like
learning to play on an organ by ear.
Why should we fill children with
songs to be ground out like hand or
gan? Hence ] say, by all means
teach children to read music.
ANY teacher who can sing the dia-
tonic scale nicely and correctly is, !
think, prepared to commence teaching
vocal music in the common schools to
beginners. OF course great deal Of
self study and prartice would be nee
essary for them TO keep ahead OF their
classes.
The first thing ] think that we teach
ers Of Oregon should do is to send for
the series Of music readers adopted by
the state, Looms Music Lessons Nos
i, ., and 4, which, By the way, are
the best that haver seen.
Then II possible introduce one or
more of the numbers into our school,
which ones depending on the grade Of
our school. But if we can't induce
parents to buy them at first we must
leach without the book.
Buy blank books costing five cents
apiece ourselves for our pupils. Then
we can let them copy songs that we
1.s.4ss saENfftas4 ~. ft1a hlaok -lAna raj tfItn