ears old. At ten he
was taken to Stuttgart and placed under the educational guidance of
Pruckner and the American teacher, Percy Goetschius, who attained wide
fame abroad. Shortly thereafter he was placed for a short time under the
instruction of Leschetizky, but this was interrupted by tours through
Russia and other countries. At twelve he was taken to Basle,
Switzerland, and Hans Huber undertook to continue his already much
varied training. Here his general education received the attention which
had been much neglected. At fifteen he went to study with Barth in
Berlin, but the strain of his previous work was so great that at
seventeen he was attacked with neuritis and abandoned the career of a
virtuoso. An accidental meeting with Paderewski led to an arrangement
whereby Paderewski became his teacher for three years during which time
Paderewski had no other pupils. Since then Schelling has made numerous
tours at home and abroad.

[Illustration: ERNEST SCHELLING]

XX

LEARNING A NEW PIECE

ERNEST SCHELLING

PRELIMINARY STUDY

In studying a new musical composition experience has revealed to me that
the student can save much time and get a better general idea of the
composition by reading it over several times before going to the
instrument. While this is difficult for very young pupils to do before
they have become accustomed to mentally interpreting the notes into
sounds without the assistance of the instrument, it is, nevertheless, of
advantage from the very start. It saves the pupil from much unprofitable
blundering. To take a piece right to the keyboard without any
preliminary consideration may perhaps be good practice for those who
would cultivate ready sight reading, but it should be remembered that
even the most apt sight readers will usually take the precaution of
looking a new piece through at least once to place themselves on guard
for the more difficult or more complicated passages. By forming the
habit of reading away from the piano the pupil soon becomes able to hear
the music without making the sounds at the keyboard and this leads to a
mental conception of the piece as a whole, which invariably produces
surprisingly good results.

THE TECHNICAL DEMANDS OF THE PIECE

"The next consideration should be the execution of the right notes. A
careless prima-vista reading often leads the pupil to play notes quite
different from those actually in the piece. It is astonishing how often
some pupi