e her realize this, and the new piece of work is hurriedly
left--suspended in mid-air, as it were--and is not referred to again
until an accident recalls it to her mind. Such teaching certainly has
the charm of novelty to a class, but we must remember that one of the
faults of childhood is an undue readiness to pass on quickly to learn
'something new' before the previous work is secure.

In taking a lesson the teacher should aim at speaking in her ordinary
voice. Inexperienced people sometimes imagine that it is necessary to
shout when speaking in a fairly large room. But provided the voice is
clear, and the articulation good, a low voice carries just as well as a
loud one, and certainly produces a greater sense of repose.

Another fault to avoid is monotony of tone--we need 'modulations' in
speaking just as much as in music, and a class is keenly, though often
unconsciously, susceptible to this. A change of position is helpful. The
voice of the mistress will brighten at once if she comes down from the
platform and walks about a little. But she must never turn her back on a
class when actually telling them something. Musical people, who have not
the same experience in such matters as the ordinary teacher, constantly
do this, and will even hide the greater part of a blackboard when
pointing to notes of a tune.

In beginning a lesson the maximum effort will be gained if communal work
be taken before individual, i.e. sight-singing before dictation,
extemporizing, &c. The reason for this is obvious, a certain momentum is
thus generated, which is impossible later, when the force has been
diffused.

Before a tune is sung at sight the class should analyse it, giving the
key, time signature, starting note, modulations, sequences, general
construction, &c. Remind the children from time to time that the last
sharp in a signature gives the _te_ in a key, the last flat the _fah_;
that when modulating to the dominant key the _fe_ of the first key
becomes the _te_ of the second, in going from a key to its subdominant
_taw_ becomes _fah_, for the relative minor _se_ becomes _te_, and for
the relative major _taw_ becomes _soh_. Also that if in a minor key
_taw_ occurs in an ascending scale passage, or is taken or left by leap,
it is a sign of a modulation to the relative major.

In starting the tune the tonic chord is played, and the teacher beats a
whole bar, together with a fraction of the next if the tune begins on an
off-beat,