Putnam County herald. (Cookeville, Tenn.) 1903-1922, 1920-08-12
TrainingL Little Children
ARTICLE XLVlI
By Mrs. Jean N. Barrett


power of music will, 1 know, tell you
more than the mehe advancement of
theories.
A title girl who was very miser-
able and managed to make mother
or nurse most unhappy all through
the process of hairdressing and get
ting into bothersome clothes, woull
submit most graciously if mother
sang
My mother bills me bind my hair
With knot of fairest hue;
Tie up my sleeves with ribbon rare,
And lace my bodice blue;
For why, she says, sit still and weep
While others are at play?
an adaptation of Hayden's beautiful
air.
Another mother learned to help her
little boy work off some of his tormy
fits of temper by going to the piano
and playing some stormy, impetuous
bit like Schumann's "Wild Rider"
The boy did not know why this was
done, but he felt the mood of the mu
sic because it exactly fitted his own,
and he would career around the
room like a veritable wild pony, I'M
til his emotion, which might have
worked harm to himself and others,
had spent itself in this harmless way
My sister remembers that even as
child she recognized this power of
music to bring sweetness out of tenn
per She was very angry one day
with sense of some injustice done
her and in this mood started to play
she realized that if she played she
would soon cease to be angry, and
not being ready to give UP her resent
full mood she rejected the gentle
ministry of music and went to her
room to nurse her unhappiness.
a san Indictment to bravery music
has often been used in the home. A
little boy much afraid of the dark
would go upstairs to dark room for
mother when she played strong
march for him as he went
If mothers could realize how many
IlluCo III VI WOulu Uc VI
greater service than even the kindest
remonstrance, they would have
crushing chords ready for the angry
boy, nonsense song to drive scowls
from the face of little daughter and
jolly jig to set tagging feet and droop-
ing spirits dancing; while a gay lit
tie tune improvised or adapted for the
occasion, would often bring cheerful |
obedience in response to the request |
to pick up playthings or perform |
some other unwelcome task, where |
a stern command would start an
unhappy time for all concerned.
One of my childhood memories is
of visiting in country home where
the mother would often get up from
the breakfast table and ay, Come
let u ing a Titles before we do the
work"
Bad housekeeping, perhaps. but
good hOmemaking, for l have since
learned that this method was always
resOrted to when the morning at
Oft he homa threatened
to be gloomy or quarrelsome; and the
singing never failed to drive away
the clouds. OF course the use of
music is NOSE effective with a child
who is either endowed by nature
with the ability to respond to musical
influence or has been trained in ear
and heart to feel it's effects.
A child who has always heard good
music and has early learned to love
and produce it, has great advantage
over one to whom it comes as later
and more foreign achievement. Re-
sponsiveness to the atmosphere or
music is not, however, dependent up
IN the ability to create It,, although
If course, made stronger by it. A
title 4-year-old child who had no nat
lral ability for either singing or play
ng, being deficient in both rhyth-
mic sense and sense of pitch, never
heless was so sensitive to musical
that she 6ecribed the
unes which were played to her as
icing pink and red and blue like the
ky, and one which had strong chords
With staccato melody above them
IS the green tune with red berries
These interpretations of music in
erms Of color wore later explained
" the development of an UNUSUAL de-
,ree of talent with pencil and brush.
Another memory of my childhood
$ of visit to dear auntie who, on
sunday afternoons, took her little
-isitor to the west pasture and amid
he splendor of the sinking red sun
cad from volume of sacred poems.
The cadence of her sweet low voice
Will always echo through my memory.
1t is truly part of music's minis
ry to speak through the charm of a
veil modulated pleasar-toned voice,
ending itself freely to the various
moods of the fine nature It serves. 1t
5 truly one of the duties of the mo-
her and the Kindergarten to be a
model for her hildren in this respect
S in many others, for children are
ery sensitive to voice quality.