Complete Melodeon Instructor - online book

A Large Collection Of Popular And Fashionable Music (1851).

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	8             GENERAL RULES FOR PLAYING fully the fingering of all the exercises in this Method. The teacher should also ringer such other music as the pupil studies; as the arrangements of symphonies, overtures, quartetts, etc., oftendemand a faulty style of fingering, injurious to the proper cultivation of the hand. IV. OF THE MEASURE. The metrical division, afforded by the bar, is the soul of music; without this advantage, its highest charms, whether conferred by nature or derived from art, would be absolutely useless. A due attention to time sustains the player in difficult pas­sages, strengthens the fingers in a remarkable degree, and gives alone the assurance necessary for a successful execution.	THE SERAPHINE OR MELODEON. The first hour should be bestowed on the exercises for th-five fingers, and the scales; the other two may be given to such pieces as the teacher deems suited to the capacity of the pupil. In attending to the studies, the young player should never cease to observe faithfully the time, the importance of which has already been enforced. In order to give each note its ex­act value, it is necessary at first to count each beat aloud and equally. Players are sometimes disposed to hurry the time in slow movements, owing to the insufficiency of the instrument in sustaining notes of a long value; but they should guard against a habit leading to the worst consequences, by not quit­ting any key till the value of the note has expired, even though the sound has ceased altogether to be heard. Above all, in music for several parts, where the same hand has at one time notes of different values, it is essential to observe this rule. In avoiding this defect, the pupil should not fall into the opposite extreme, and leave a finger on a key longer than Is necessary, while the others are striking the notes following. I recommend, for this purpose, a most careful practice of the first studies for the five fingers, at the beginning of this Method. In agitated passages, and crescendos, towards the end of a scale, in a rapid group, and also, generally, at the close of phrases, the pupil is apt to hurry the time. This fault not only weakens the hands, but likewise gives rise to numerous irreg­ularities, in the course of execution, disagreeable to the hearer The fingers should always be restrained in such passages.
	The pupil who wishes to make real progress, should devote at least three hours a day to diligent study. These hours need not be consecutive: on the contrary, they may he divided among different parts of the day, at intervals sufficiently distant to afford rest to the hands, as well as to enable the player to withdraw his attention wholly from his practice. Close appli­cation, too long continued, is sure to dishearten and disgust the pupil