The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1896-06-12

this hard work, with all the interest and
countless thousands of hours of faith
full practicing, there has been through
every bit Of 1t one very serious fault.
1t Is not an error that could be called
fault merely from difference of opin.
ion, such as might easily arise about the
position of the hands, the rendering OF
sone given work or any one of the many
musical questions that admit argument;
when once pointed out the fault stands
out so clearly that any reasonable diff
ference of opinion is impossible. 1t can
be proved by plain and easily under
stood figures that even with the sys-
tematic workers the development of
the most important part of the hands
has been left undone.
The strength Of a chain is only the
resisting power of its weakest link;
and the power Of any set of fingers for
even and uniform execution is entirely
dependent on the development of the
weaker and universally neglected fourth
and fifth fingers. There is, to use
phrase employed in speaking of uneven
action in the members of boat crew,
"break" between three and four. In
a boat, this would mean that the man
rowing in seat No. 3 was too quick
for No. 4, or vice versa. Using the
same phrase in the case Of the fingers
it means that the first, second and third
fingers are in 90 out of 100 hands de-
veloped far and away beyond the
power of the fourth and fifth fingers to
keep up with them. Hours and hours
of the hardest work have been put in by
conscientious students to even up the
work of the fingers, and yet the very
exercises used have often made the mat
ter worse. Why? Simply because the
strong fingers of the hand are not only
used very largely in general playing, but
are actually given from two-thirds to
three-quarters of all the work in techni-
cal exercises. There can be but one re-
suit; the strong fingers get stronger
and stronger and the gap between them
and the neglected members becomes
wider and wider.
This is not an article on degenera-
ton. 1t is written with the fullest be-
lief in the conscientiousness and earn
estness of those who have taught and
studied. Yet those who are sincere in
their desire to get at the real truth can
take no offense at plain straightfor-
ward mathematical proofs of serious
faults in practically all our regular
technical exercises; for these exercises
should be the very foundation of all
good playing. Let us get at the figures
in the case:
First, look at Table No. 1, which con-
tains the regular major scale in the key
of C, beginning at middle C with the
right hand and extending two octaves
to the C on the second line above the
treble clef.
The number of the finger used is
printed above each note; and counting
the times each finger strikes a note
we get the following result: The fifth
finger is used once, the fourth twice,
and the first, second and third four
times each.
| This is fair sample of the way the
developing work is piled on the strong
fingers and kept away from those that
really need it. The table shows that in
the regular scale the three strongest
fingers have twice the work of the
weakest and four times the work Of the
next weaker fingers.
/ Yet scales are the very foundation of
all general playing and arpeggios are
equally important. Table No. 2 shows
the lingering of the arpeggios Of the
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