se 580 exercises took just three days to go
through. Everything must be played in all keys, and with every possible
variety of touch--legato, staccato, half-staccato, and so on; also, with
all kinds of shading."

(Think of such a drill in pure technic, O ye teachers and students, who
give little or no time to such matters outside of etudes and pieces!)

"Part of my training consisted in being shown how to criticize myself. I
learned to listen, to be critical, to judge my own work; for if it was
not up to the mark I must see what was the matter and correct it myself.
The earlier this can be learned the better. I attribute much of my
subsequent success to this ability. I still carry out this plan, for
there on the piano you will find all the notes for my coming recitals,
which I work over and take with me everywhere. This method of study I
always try to instill into my pupils. I tell them any one can make a
lot of _noise_ on the piano, but I want them, to make the piano _speak_!
I can do only a certain amount for them; the rest they must do for
themselves.

VALUE OF TRANSPOSING

"Another item my zealous teacher insisted upon was transposing. I
absorbed this idea almost unconsciously, and hardly know when I learned
to transpose, so natural did it seem to me. My father was a tactful
teacher; he never commanded, but would merely say, 'You can play this in
the key of C, but I doubt if you can play it in the key of D.' This
doubt was the spur to fire my ambition and pride: I would show him I
could play it in the key of D, or in any other key; and I did!

"With all the technic exercises, I had many etudes also; a great deal of
Czerny. Each etude must also be transposed, for it would never do to
play an etude twice in the same key for my father. So I may say that
whatever I could perform at all, I was able to play in any key.

"For one year I did nothing but technic, and then I had my first piece,
which was nothing less than the Capriccio of Mendelssohn, Op. 22. So you
see I had been well grounded; indeed I have been grateful all my life
for the thorough foundation which was laid for me. In these days we hear
of so many 'short cuts,' so many new methods, mechanical and otherwise,
of studying the piano; but I fail to see that they arrive at the goal
any quicker, or make any more thorough musicians than those who come by
the royal road of intelligent, well-directed hard work."

Asked how she obtained great power with the