"The piano is, of all instruments, the least expressive naturally, and
it is of the greatest importance that the student should realize the
nature of its resistance. The action of a piano is purely a piece of
machinery where the individual note has no meaning. When the key is once
struck and the note sounded there is a completed action and the note
cannot then be modified nor changed in the least. The only thing over
which the pianist has any control is the length of the tone, and this
again may not last any longer than the natural vibrations of the
strings, although it may be shortened by relinquishing the keys. It
makes no difference whether the individual note is struck by a child or
by Paderewski--it has in itself no expressive value. In the case of the
violin, the voice and all other instruments except the organ, the
individual note may be modified after it is emitted or struck, and in
this modification is contained the possibility of a whole world of
emotional expression.

"Our sole means of expression, then, in piano playing lies in the
relation of one note to the other notes in a series or in a chord.
Herein lies the difficulty, the resistance to perfect freedom of which I
have spoken before, the principal subject for intelligence and careful
study, and yet so few students appear to understand it. Their great
effort seems to be to make all the noise in a given series as much alike
as coins from a mint. They come to the piano as their only instrument,
and never seek to take a lesson from the voice or from the other
instruments which have expressive resources infinitely superior to those
possessed by the piano. The principal charm of the piano lies in the
command which the player has over many voices singing together. But
until the pianist has a regard for the individual voice in its relation
to the ensemble he has no means with which to make his work really
beautiful.

"There is a great need for more breadth in music study. This, as I know,
has been said very often, but it does not hurt to say it again. The more
a man knows, the more he has experienced, the wider his mental vision in
all branches of human information, the more he will have to say. We need
men in music with big minds, wide grasp and definite aims. Musicians are
far too prone to become overspecialized. They seem to have an
unquenchable thirst to master the jargon and the infinite variety of
methods which are thrust upon us in these days rather tha