he
very little ones, traditional nursery rhymes and game songs are the
best. From the ages of ten to fourteen years such books as Boosey's
_National Songs_ or _Songs of Britain_ should be the staple work, while
for older children the great classical songs may be added. A good book
for these is the _Golden Treasury_, published by Boosey.

Songs by living composers should be strictly limited in number, though
not excluded. These have not stood the test of time. We teach
Shakespeare in our literature classes, not a modern poet--the essays of
Bacon, not those of a modern essayist. And our reason is that the only
way to create a standard of taste is to take our children to the
classical fountains of prose and poetry. We must do the same in music.

CHAPTER IV

THE SOL-FA METHOD

To those who are not accustomed to the Sol-fa notation it appears at
first sight a useless encumbrance. Excellent arguments are produced for
this view. Many musical people can scarcely remember when they could not
sing at sight and write melodies from dictation. They picked up this
knowledge instinctively, and cannot see why others should not do the
same. Unfortunately everybody has not proved able to do so, hence a
multitude of 'methods' for teaching them.

The most familiar of these consisted in trying to teach the pupil to
sing intervals, _as_ intervals, at sight. Thirds, fifths, sixths, &c.
were diligently practised. But pupils did not always find it easy to
sing these intervals from all notes of the scale, unless in sequence.
The major third from _doh_ to _me_ seemed easier than that from _fah_ to
_lah_, and so on. Thus in the majority of cases sight-singing in classes
resolved itself into the musical children leading, and the others
following. It is rare to find a large class in which there is not one
musical child, and the only sure test of progress is to make the less
musical children sing at sight alone from time to time.

Now, if those who have 'picked up' the knowledge of sight-singing
without knowing how they did it be asked to explain how they arrive at
their intervals, it will be found that _tonality_ plays a large part in
their consciousness. In other words, they are perfectly certain of their
key-note, and at any moment could sing it, even after complicated
passages.

This fact is the root of the Sol-fa system. The child is taught to think
of all the notes of the scale in relation to the key-note. A very
sensible objec