should now go in turn to the piano, and each play a
phrase of the melody, first in C major, then in G.

It is important to emphasize the fact that the tune must be well known
to them, or an extra difficulty will be introduced.

As the children learn more and more keys, these tunes should be
transposed into them.

Provided the class does not consist of picked musical children, there
will always be a few in it who do not learn the piano. This work will
be one of their opportunities for learning a little about it.
Interesting results have been obtained from such children, if the
teacher is enthusiastic and ready to help.

By the time that the class has begun the study of three-part chords the
transposition will become more and more interesting, as sequences of
chords can now be transposed. When the first steps in extemporizing on
the piano are begun, the transposition advances by leaps and bounds. The
children will be delighted to play their little tonic and dominant
accompaniments in every key--to change from major to tonic minor by
flattening the third and sometimes the sixth of the scale.

There is a sense of freedom and power in such work, to which the class
will readily respond. They soon realize that certain melodies 'only
sound nice' in such and such a key, and in this way the foundation of a
'colour sense' will be laid. Also, apart from the question of the key in
which a melody sounds best to a child, another point comes into notice.
The child cannot sing certain notes in certain melodies unless it keeps
within a certain range of keys. This teaches them something. The point
has been referred to in the preceding chapter.

Altogether it will be seen that the study of transposition is opening a
new window for them into the fairyland of music.

Later on, when a child can compose short harmonized tunes of its own, it
is well to hold up the ideal of being able to transpose them into any
key, and in certain cases, where the melody lends itself to the
treatment, from major to minor, and vice versa. This work must of course
be voluntary, but a child is well rewarded when it finds that it is only
the first step which costs, and that the second of such tunes is so much
easier to transpose than the first!

And the time comes when a child will sit down to the piano, and will
extemporize quite happily either in F major or in F[#] major, whichever
is suggested. Such work is well worth any initial trouble taken--it is a
c