New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-10-15
By EVELYN FLETCHER.C OPP.

dictation as others, but do we there
lore allow them to give up and say
that they cannot be taught? By the
time he is ten or twelve any normal
child can learn to write correctly from
dlctation five hundred words or more.
Now, taking every white and black key
on the piano there are only eighty
eight. Given fair chance and
mind unmesmerized by the idea that
reading music and Positive Pitch are
olftcult and require special gift,
child may as easily see mentally the
sign for any sound as he sees tho
words that ne hears you dictate to
him in English.
That the results Of music study have
hitherto been so meagre is due TO
parental indifference and the faultiness
OF the methods of teaching music.
Teachers have insisted that the child
should not be allowed TO play the piano
by ear, claiming that this will ruin his
musical ear and make reading by sight
impossible! Fancy mother fearing
that If her child speaks English first
by ear he will never learn to read il!
AS music is primarily an art making
its first and greatest appeal through
the ear, it is unreasonable to suppress
the interest and initiative which natu-
rally appear first through the ear, and
then, later on, by laborious ear train
ing lessons to try TO get back the in
terest and power which we have ig-
nored during the most formative pc
Rod of the child's life.
Music Easily Acquired.
The requirement Of musical educa-
e ~ L. lx-
not only because of the smallness Of
the musical vocabulary consisting. as
we have said, of only eighty eight
toncs), but also because of the univer-
salty of its notation. The present sys
tenn of musical notation, though per-
haps not perfect, has this great advan-
tage, tina. it is the same all over the
civilized world, so that when one learns
il in America, the musical thoughts of
France, Spain, Germany, Italy or Rus
STA are equally accessible. A child
learns to read English easily and well
during the first six years of his school
life chat is, from the age of six TO
twelve); he might just as easily learn
during the same time to read fearlessly
and well the universal language of mu-
sic.
If you were to visit public school
and express surprise that the wash
woman's daughter reads as well as the
child of your own cultured nelghbor
you would be told that thanks to the
system" the advantages of birth are
being wonderfully counterbalanced;
that, though the effects of few gen
erations of culture may tell in other
ways, no one is dependent upon his
forefathers for ability to read, spell or
write. Scientific teaching makes these
things possible to all mankind
Exactly as normal is the ability TO
learn to read and think music.
The first conclusion, then, which ]
venture to lay before students Of
heredity is that they have, with the
material at present available, no proper
ground for drawing conclusions as to
the distribution of musical talent in
the population. because there is great
deal which is merely latent, having
been denied the possibility of express
sion. The inheritance of trait and
the expression of trait are two diff
ferent things. No student of heredity
would consciously ignore the distlnc
ton, but in the study of the inherit
ance of musical ability they have un-
consciously ignored it, and therefore
their results do not correspond with
the reality.
Time and again, as have said, / have
taken children from families where
there was apparently no musical ability
and where the child himself was sup