teacher if he is not to apply his knowledge with the
discretion that comes with experience?

Deppe's influence to this day is far more theoretical than practical.
This does not imply that Deppe did not evolve some very useful ideas in
pianoforte work. All of present technic is a common heritage from many
investigators and innovators. Pianoforte teaching, as a matter of fact,
is one of the most difficult of all tasks. It is easy to teach it along
conventional "cut and dried" method lines, but the teachers of real
importance are those who have the ability, the gift, the inclination and
the experience to make a brand new method for every pupil.

In order to develop the means to communicate one's message through one's
art with the greatest effectiveness, there must be a mastery of the
delicate balance between natural tendencies and discipline. If the
student is subjected to too much discipline, stiff, angular results may
be expected. If the student is permitted to play with the flabby
looseness which some confuse with natural relaxation, characterless
playing must invariably result. The great desideratum is the fine
equilibrium between nature and discipline. This may seem an unnecessary
observation to some, but many students never seem to be able to strike
the happy medium between marching over the keys like a regiment of
wooden soldiers, or crawling over them like a lot of spineless
caterpillars.

AVOID MACHINE-LIKE PLAYING

There is a certain "something" which defines the individuality of the
player, and it seems well nigh impossible to say just what this
something is. Let us by all means preserve it. Imagine the future of
music if every piece were to be played in the selfsame way by every
player like a series of ordinary piano playing machines. The remarkable
apparatus for recording the playing of virtuosos, and then reproducing
it through a mechanical contrivance, is somewhat of a revelation to the
pianist who tries it for the first time. In the records of the playing
of artists whose interpretations are perfectly familiar to me, there
still remain unquestioned marks of individuality. Sometimes these marks
are small shortcomings, but which, nevertheless, are so slight that they
do no more than give character. Look at a painting by Van Dyke, and then
at one upon a similar subject by Rembrandt, and you will realize how
these little characteristics influence the whole outward aspect of an
art work. Both Van Dyke and