ATION

Parents make a great mistake in not insuring the general education of
the child who is destined to become a concert performer. I can imagine
nothing more stultifying or more likely to result in artistic disaster
than the course that some parents take in neglecting the child's school
work with an idea that if he is to become a professional musician he
need only devote himself to music. This one-sided cultivation should be
reserved for idiots who can do nothing else. The child-wonder is often
the victim of some mental disturbance.

I remember once seeing a remarkable child mathematician in Hungary. He
was only twelve years of age and yet the most complicated mathematical
problems were solved in a few seconds without recourse to paper. The
child had water on the brain and lived but a few years. His usefulness
to the world of mathematics was limited solely to show purposes. It is
precisely the same with the so-called musical precocities. They are
rarely successful in after life, and unless trained by some very wise
and careful teacher, they soon become objects for pity.

The child who is designed to become a concert pianist should have the
broadest possible culture. He must live in the world of art and letters
and become a naturalized citizen. The wider the range of his
information, experience and sympathies, the larger will be the audience
he will reach when he comes to talk to them from the concert platform.
It is the same as with a public speaker. No one wants to hear a speaker
who has led a narrow, crabbed intellectual existence, but the man who
has seen and known the world, who has become acquainted with the great
masterpieces of art and the wonderful achievements of science, has
little difficulty in securing an audience providing he has mastered the
means of expressing his ideas.

CLEAN PLAYING VS. SLOVENLY PLAYING

In the matter of technical preparation there is, perhaps, too little
attention being given to-day to the necessity for clean playing. Of
course, each individual requires a different treatment. The pupil who
has a tendency to play with stiffness and rigidity may be given studies
which will develop a more fluent style. For these pupils' studies, like
those of Heller, are desirable in the cases of students with only
moderate technical ability, while the splendid "etudes" of Chopin are
excellent remedies for advanced pupils with tendencies toward hard,
rigid playing. The difficulty one ordinarily