r time at will. I
believe the principles governing certain touches can be so thoroughly
learned and assimilated that _when the player sees a certain passage, he
knows at once what touch is required to express it._ A great actor
illustrates what I mean--he knows how to employ his features and body to
express the thought of his lines. When you go to the Theatre Francais in
Paris, you know every member of the company is thoroughly trained in
every phase of his art. You are aware that each actor has studied
expression to such an extent that the features naturally fall into the
required lines and curves whenever a certain emotion comes up for
expression. So with the pianist--he should have the various touches at
his finger-tips. The step beyond is to express himself, which he will do
easily and naturally, when his has such a preparation as I have referred
to.

MEMORIZING

"I am often questioned on the subject of memorizing. Some pupils think
if they play the piece a sufficient number of times they will know it;
then are troubled because they cannot at all times remember the notes.
Such players must know every note of the piece away from the piano, and
be able to recite them. I have students who are able to learn their
music away from the instrument, and can play it to me without having
tried it on the piano. I require the piece so thoroughly memorized that
if I correct a measure or phrase, the pupil can go right on from that
point, without being obliged to start farther back, or at the beginning.
In some cases, however, if the pupil has her own method of committing to
memory, and it is successful, I have no desire to change it.

OCTAVE STUDIES

"For octave study, form the hand with the 'octave grimace,'--that is
with arched hand, the unemployed fingers slightly curved. In staccato
touch of course use light wrist. Begin with one beat in sixteenths and
finish with the 'wiping off' touch. Build up more and more beats in
notes of the same value, always ending the passage with the same touch,
as above mentioned. This exercise can be played the full length of the
keyboard, in all keys, and also chromatically. It can be played in the
same fashion, using four-voiced chords instead of octaves. When such an
exercise can be prolonged for twenty minutes at a time, octave passages
in pieces have no terrors for the pianist. For the octaves in Chopin's
Polonaise Op. 53, he would merely have to learn the notes, which can be
done aw