STUDY

I love to read, and my favorite of all books is _The Three Musketeers_.
I have also read something of Shakespeare, Goethe, Schiller, and many
other writers. I like parts of the great Spanish novel _Don Quixote_,
but I find it hard to read as a whole. I think that music students ought
to read a great deal. It makes them think, and it gives them poetical
thoughts.

Music is, after all, only another kind of poetry, and if we get poetical
ideas from books we become more poetical, and our music becomes more
beautiful. The student who thinks only of hammering down keys at the
piano cannot play in a manner in which people will take pleasure. Piano
playing is so much more than merely pressing down keys. One has to tell
people things that cannot be told in words--that is what music is.

AT THE CONCERT

I do not know what it is to be nervous at concerts. I have played so
much and I am always so sure of what I am going to play that nervousness
is out of the question. Of course, I am anxious about the way in which
audiences will receive my playing. I want to please them so much and
don't want them to applaud me because I am a boy, but would rather have
them come as real music-lovers to enjoy the music itself. If I cannot
bring pleasure to them in that way I do not deserve to be before the
public.

My concerts are usually about one hour in length, although I sometimes
play encores for some time after the concert. I make it a practice not
to eat for a few hours before the concert, as doctors have told my
mother that my mind will be in better shape. I want to thank the many
friends I have made among the students who have come to my concerts, and
I hope that I may have told them some things which will help them in
their work.

QUESTIONS IN STYLE, INTERPRETATION, EXPRESSION
AND TECHNIC OF PIANOFORTE PLAYING

SERIES I

PEPITO ARRIOLA

1. Should the talented child be urged or pushed ahead?

2. In what period of time should a very talented child master the
elementary outlines of technic?

3. Can Liszt be regarded as a pianistic composer in the same sense as
that in which Chopin is considered pianistic?

4. How should a very talented child's practice time be divided?

5. What part does right thinking play in execution?

6. How should the child's general education be conducted?

7. Should the education be confined to the classroom?

8. Should the musical child be encouraged to read fiction?

9. Does music r