Connecticut western news., 1911-01-26
MUSIC IN THE SCHOOLS
 AND ITS LASTING VALUE
Continued on page 8. l

has so constantly been held up before me. that the old adage ''Time is Money" would mean more to me if it read money is time.
 School singing, as rule, may be classified into rote sougs and s1ght-sing- ing exercises. The former must be used by the teacher in the ungraded school to a greater extent than in the graded school. She must in this way make her time do double duty. She can work on the quality of the advanced grades, at the same time accomplish much in the way of uniting the voices of the little people. Rote songs, should, think. be such as can be sung by the entire school. In this way also the desire to sing is stimulated in the young child, as what child does not enjoy being in the class as he expresses it, with the "big' boys and girls: Special songs to be sung only by those who have acquired proficienc,- in quality will aid the teacher. 1 foul d upon going into a school one morning that the teacher had organized a choir in which only those who could sing the song of the day were allowed to sing = This of course must not be carried too far ill an ungraded school, where we have many birds who would sing but cannot. In the school of which am speaking 1t was the case of the bird that wouldn't and must be compelled to- A very good little device is to place four pupils, one in each corner of the room, two who sing well, two who do not. Little songs with questions and answers may be used, or each child may sing the same song, making the south corner the one desired to attain, and it can only be gained by soft, gentle tones like the south wind. The object of having two good singers is that the poor ones may initiate. Children. we know, are won- derful imitators. and no one who is not constantly in touch with them, can real ize with what fidelity they reproduce tone. It is necessary to emphasize again and again the need of good musical ex- ample everywhere.
 "But," you will ask, "What about the child who sings well-will he not suffer by this association ?'' I have never found it so; the teacher is constantly holding out inducements to sing sweetly and the child who sings with good Quality usually improves faster for the drill. I must caution you that all of these methods must be used without the child's knowledge of the motive. On no account must child be permitted to ? the others nor will it be wise to have those who sing poorly too conscious of the fact. The teacher who does this de- , feats her own purpose, as to sing we'll a child as we'll as an older person must be at ease and not self-conscious. Joy opens the throat, grief closes it, conse- quently a child to sing well. must be kept happy. Never say That is wrong" " to backward pupil. but rather say "Very good, but let us try and see if we can do better
 In the spring use great many bird songs, asking the children to listen to the birds as they come to school, and. then sing the song as sweetly As the birds. The teacher of six grades can use devices of the kind in which all , grades may participate. Rote songs should be chosen which are tuneful, appealing to the ear of the small child I.n hi fn in1V, in h hsc older, brother and should also be given in the range of from D below the staff to E flat fourth space, and the drill of the youngest children should be done between F and D. Children who are } constantly practiced in thick tones will, of course, attempt to carry them too high in singing the scale or in singing a song. In consequence those who have considerable strength of lower tones, } boys especially, think they cannot sing high, and they cannot with their thick tones unless they shout. The bulk of the work ill the lower grades should avoid the extreme limit of the voices and make constant use of the thin, medium tones.
 Our next step is the teaching of sight singing, and here the rural teacher meets greater obstacles i'll the way of
 classifying. Again the question of time
 confronts us, and ill most cases the school must be divided into two classes, three will practically obviate difficulty, but I shall consider the school from the standpoint of two classes.
 The first lesson should be in ear train ing, teaching the child to distinguish pitch. To some children it is very difficult to discriminate between high and low. We should begin with do, ti
 do. and do. re, do, the teacher singing
 the child initiating. If, as in many cases the teacher cannot sing at all, the children in the advanced class may be