312 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF EDUCATION. 
should have good judgment, and use it continually ; no wise teacher will 
continue a lesson the moment children show signs of fatigue. The work 
can be made so pleasant to the children and to the teachers in the different 
ooms that ‘singing day” will be looked forward to with great delight. 
DISCUSSION. 
Principal W. E. Warr, of Chicago: Singing by means of notation should be put 
>ff to the third year. At first, begin with rote singing, to instill songs of home, love, 
friendship, and patriotism into the minds and hearts of the children. The teaching of 
‘hese songs should rot, as a rule, be left to the regular teacher, for many of these do not 
know how to teach them in the proper manner; the special teacher should teach all rote 
songs in an artistic manner. If many leave school before they enter the higher grades, 
they will carry away much more that will be of real value to them by learning beautiful 
songs, having words of good sentiment, than any ability they may gain in music 
reading. 
MR. BLACKMAN, of Chicago: The teaching which leads to music reading should begin 
with the first lesson. For instance, if the teacher should make regular motions with 
the hand, the children imitating, she would be teaching them to compute time. Couple 
with this the singing of two or three tones of the scale, while the children are led to 
nite these tones to such words as they can appreciate, and the work of education in 
music teaching is begun. Children should be taught rote songs also, and I hope the 
United States Commission of Education will secure a classified list of suitable rote songs 
for the use of the schools of our country. 
Mr. N. L. GLOVER, of Akron, Ohio: I am surprised that there skould be any diver- 
sity of opinion on the time of beginning to read music. Rote songs should be continued 
shrough all the primary grades, provided the example given by the teacher is worthy of 
imitation ; but music reading should commence at first and should be continued until 
the pupil is able to sing new music from the notation without any aid. The gentleman 
who read the paper had trouble in teaching a tone of one given pitch, at first, to some 
seginners, while others learned it more readily. Some could imitate better than others. 
My experience has been that pupils can imitate more easily when several tones of ths 
scale are used in short musical phrases than when only one tonc at a time is used. 
Mgrs. J. S. Dixwoobig, of Duluth, Minnesota: I advise dwelling upon the scale 
about three weeks, then taking up such notation as is necessary to represent what has 
geen learned. 
. Harmony. 
Miss Lisga BracEvoeEL, of Nashville, Tennessee : I think the feeling of time should 
ome first. 
Mr. E. H. Norsg, of Chicago : In what grades should pupils be required to take up 
part singing ? I think they should be taught to sing chords as early as the third year. 
Let the pupil hear these beautiful combinations of tones. They will take great delight 
in this kind of work. It will train their ears, and they will be able to produce a tone 
of better quality. When they can sing chords, let them reach out, a little at a time. in 
:wo-part singing, and they will gradually grow into part singing. 
Mgrs. Love, of Muncie, Indiana : I advise that harmony should be commenced the 
first year. The time will come when vocal harmony will be taught from the start. 
Mrs. Rick, of Los Angeles, California : 1 think the study of harmony should begin 
the first year. We do it on the Pacific Coast, but it may be the children there are 
brighter than others. 
MR. BLACKMAN : The intervals of the scale should be thoroughly fixed before har- 
mony is begun, and a good tone should be first formed, or the harmony produced would 
be discord. 1 think the fifth grade is soon enough for two-part singing.