brief period of time; and before this same tone can be reproduced on
sight of it as represented by a written note, the memory of the sound
to which it answers must first be recalled; and not only so, but other
memories--indeed, memories of all the sensations associated with the
bodily mechanism used in producing it.

This applies to all movements, of whatever kind, that we at any time
execute. Without the past--_i.e._, without memories--no present. Some
of the memories associated with an act may be lost, and others,
sufficient for its performance in some fashion, remain. A man may
forget, after the lapse of months or years, how to tie his necktie in
a certain way, as he stands before a mirror; yet on turning away he
may succeed at once. In this case the visual memories, those that come
through the eyes, were lost, but others, those associated with
muscular movements, remain. The muscular sense may prove an adequate
guide when the visual is ineffective.

In the same way, one may call up a melody by moving the fingers over
the piano keys, when it cannot otherwise be recovered, or one rescues
an air from oblivion by humming a few of its tones; all of which is
explained by the revival of muscular and similar memories.

All voluntary movements are at first accomplished relatively slowly
and with difficulty. They soon weary us. A child learns to walk with
the greatest difficulty, and only after numberless failures or errors.
The first tones of the would-be pianist or violinist are produced but
slowly and with great difficulty, in spite of the most determined
effort. If the attempts to vocalize are any more successful, it is
because one has already learned to talk--a process that in the first
instance (in infancy) was even more laborious than that of walking.

The degree to which any one succeeds in his earliest efforts to sing a
scale will depend on the readiness with which he can use a variety of
neuro-muscular mechanisms--indeed, all those associated with the
respiratory, laryngeal, and resonance apparatus. Fortunately for the
voice-user, this apparatus has all been in use in ordinary speaking.
But when this latter process is analyzed, it is found that it is not
essentially different from singing. In each the same mechanism is
used, and in much the same way; but every one knows that not all who
can talk are able to sing, and it is usual to say that those who
cannot have no "ear" for music; and this expresses a part of