UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 AT LOS ANGELES,.
 
 HIGH SCHOOL 
 MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 FOR SUPERINTENDENTS, MUSIC 
 
 SUPERVISORS, GRADE AND 
 
 HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS 
 
 BY 
 
 T. P. GJDDINGS 
 
 SUPERVISOR OF MUSIC, 
 
 PUBLIC SCHOOLS, 
 
 MINNEAPOLIS 
 
 AND 
 
 EARL L. BAKER 
 
 ASSISTANT SUPERVISOR OF MUSIC 
 WEST HIGH SCHOOL, 
 
 MINNEAPOLIS 
 
 46665 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 EARL L. BAKER 
 
 3800 COLUMBUS AVE., 
 MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.
 
 Copyright, 1922 
 
 By T. P. GIDDINGS 
 and EARL L. BAKER 
 
 MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. 
 
 PRESS OF 
 
 AUGSBURG PUBLISHING HOUSE 
 MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.
 
 93 
 G 
 
 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 IT is admitted by all who study the question that 
 high school music is only beginning even when the 
 enormous advances that have been made in the last 
 few years are taken into consideration. 
 
 The essentials of high school music are intro- 
 duced in the order of their importance, as they 
 appear to the authors. 
 
 This is a book of methods, facts and experiences, 
 and not a book of theories. Everything referred to 
 has been done successfully and proved to be worth 
 while. 
 
 This book may sound personal in spots. One 
 cannot put himself into a book without being a trifle 
 personal. We do not apologise. We are too old 
 to be modest and so merely explain. 
 
 To the earnest, hard working supervisors who 
 are fulfilling their mission of making the next gen- 
 eration a musical one, this book is respectfully dedi- 
 cated. 
 
 THE AUTHORS.
 
 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 SUBJECT 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. EDUCATIONAL VALUE .... 7 
 
 II. CHORUS 18 
 
 III. GLEE CLUBS 83- 
 
 IV. ORCHESTRAS AND BANDS . . . 103 
 V. CONDUCTING 121 
 
 VI. CONCERTS AND ENTERTAINMENTS . 128 
 
 VII. CREDITS FOR APPLIED Music . . 149 
 
 VIII. INSTRUMENTAL AND VOCAL CLASSES 161 
 
 IX. GENERAL SUPERVISION . . . . 170 
 
 X. HARMONY, HISTORY, APPRECIATION 187 
 
 It is suggested that supervisors get "Grade School 
 Music Teaching," by T. P. Giddings, and read it 
 with particular reference to the chapters on Singing, 
 Reading Music, Ear Training, Voice Testing, Voice 
 Training, and Theory. All these chapters have a 
 direct connection with the high school work, but it 
 was thought best not to duplicate them in the two 
 books.
 
 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC 
 TEACHING 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 EDUCATIONAL VALUE 
 
 Music in the high schools is often looked upon 
 as a pleasant pastime. While its presence in the 
 high school can be justified even on this ground, it 
 has also an educational value. When music is cor- 
 rectly taught, nothing in the whole curriculum com- 
 pares with it for general usefulness. Let us see 
 what facts we can marshal to prove these statements 
 to a skeptical army of educational experts. 
 
 MENTAL SIDE OF MUSIC 
 
 Let us first look at the mental side of music 
 study. A pupil goes to school to train his brain 
 so that he can use it in a rapid, accurate manner., 
 While in every other subject except music accuracy ^ 
 is demanded, little or nothing is said of the speed 
 with which the mind should move. Though speed 
 is one of the main elements of efficiency, in the edu- 
 cation of the child it is often ignored. In reading 
 music the pace is set, and the brain must keep up. 
 This cultivates a habit of rapid mental action that
 
 8 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 is useful in all lines of activity. If a person reads 
 music, vocal or instrumental, his mind works rapidly 
 and rhythmically. Hence the study of music teaches 
 the mind to move. 
 
 In reading music, the pupil must not only get 
 his own part but he must read all the other parts, 
 listen to all the other parts and the accompaniment, 
 and see that he is with the rest of the singers and 
 players both as to time and intonation. In addi- 
 tion he must interpret the meaning of both words 
 and music. When we consider how many involved 
 symbols the eye must translate in a short time and 
 how many sounds the ear must classify in reading 
 music, we may conclude that the mind must be 
 pretty nimble to carry on all these processes simul- 
 taneously and at the speed the music requires. The 
 question is now raised by the skeptic, "Can it be 
 done?" Where the school sings only trite songs 
 the answer is "No." If the music is taught as it 
 should be, the answer is "Yes." 
 
 If deeper and more logical thinking is desired, a. 
 course in harmony, counterpoint, composition, and 
 other studies in the theory of music may well be pit-, 
 ted against mathematics as a means of intellectual 
 development. Yes, it is true as President Eliot ^ 
 says, "Music, rightly taught, is the best mind trainer/ 
 on the list."* 
 
 Three years ago, Prof. Henneman, then of St. Louis, lec- 
 tured to the high school students of Minneapolis on "How a
 
 EDUCATIONAL VALUE 9 
 
 MORAL AND EMOTIONAL 
 
 Able pens have already written of the moral up- 
 lift caused by hearing and performing music of the 
 best kind, so further comment here on the moral 
 and emotional value of music and its study is un- 
 necessary. 
 
 SELFISHNESS 
 
 A great flaw in the education of the young as 
 it is now carried on is its development of selfish- 
 ness. The pupil is goaded to his work by having 
 held up to him the inducement that, if he studies 
 hard, he will get something out of it for himself. 
 Seldom is it suggested to him that if he studies hard 
 
 composer works." While he was in Minneapolis he received 
 a letter from an old friend who is at the head of the music 
 department of Magdalen College, Oxford University. All the 
 music in Oxford University is taught in this college, which 
 is very old and wealthy, and many prizes and scholarships 
 are offered to its students. Of these a few are in music, but 
 most in other branches. 
 
 This letter contained the following proof of President Eliot's 
 statements quoted above. 
 
 Ten per cent of the students of Magdalen College take 
 music. 
 
 Ninety per cent do not. 
 
 The ten per cent taking music receive seventy-five per cent 
 of all those prizes and scholarships; in all departments, mind 
 you. 
 
 The ninety per cent not taking music are contented with, or 
 at least have to put up with, the remaining twenty-five per 
 cent of the prizes and scholarships. 
 
 This rather amazing record has been the average for the 
 last thirty years.
 
 10 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 he may be able to do something for some one else. 
 It should be shown that if he learns to play or sing, 
 he can give pleasure to others. When he is a mem- 
 ber of a chorus or an orchestra, or any other body 
 of musicians doing ensemble work, he will learn 
 that he must do his part well so that the others may 
 do their parts well. Thus the great lesson of co- 
 operation that the world so sadly needs is brought 
 home to the boy or girl in a way that is most effec- 
 tive. Baseball and football teach this cooperation 
 to a few, but in a high school chorus all can learn it. 
 Music also cultivates the spirit of altruism. 
 Young people should be encouraged to hold their 
 talents in readiness for free and frequent use for 
 the good of the community. This use, of course, 
 reacts upon the individual in a very positive way for 
 good and is a strong influence for counteracting evil 
 tendencies. 
 
 PHYSICAL 
 
 The practice of music is recognized to be of 
 great value as a means of physical development. To 
 the singer or to the player of wind instruments there 
 comes the finest kind of lung development, which 
 is conducive to a long and healthy life. The prac- 
 tice of music has also a direct and beneficial effect 
 upon the brain. When the blood circulates rapidly 
 and evenly, as it does when we breathe deeply, the 
 mind is in that calm, alert state that allows it to 
 be used with the highest efficiency. ["The physical
 
 EDUCATIONAL VALUE 11 
 
 control necessary for the successful playing of any 
 instrument or in singing, will induce habits of phys- 
 ical poise and mental equilibrium that make for 
 culture, strength of character, and ability. ^ 
 
 VOCATIONAL 
 
 Last on the list of education values, though by 
 no means unimportant, is the vocational value of 
 music. Long before the present wave of vocational 
 training swept over the country the competent music 
 supervisor was turning out pupils who could earn 
 money with their music. As a result of the prac- 
 tice, encouragement, and training received in the 
 schools thousands of pupils have found places in 
 church choirs. Pupils from school orchestras are 
 joining the musicians' unions and getting the regular 
 fees, or playing independently. Many young peo- 
 ple work their way through college with the help 
 of their music. Motion picture theatres engage 
 many. A student who goes to college is greatly 
 helped if he can sing or play. 
 
 One of the frequent handicaps of life is the 
 inability to express oneself in a forceful and con- 
 vincing manner. A doctor, lawyer, preacher, teach- 
 er, or business man needs the development of the 
 speaking voice which comes from singing correctly. 
 When the doctor comes, if his voice is hard and 
 raspy, we are apt to feel worse after his visit. If 
 his voice is kind, sympathetic, smooth, and clear, we 
 feel better immediately. If the minister's voice is
 
 12 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 unemotional, his prayer or sermon has not the effect 
 that it would have had if he had spoken in a well- 
 modulated voice. A lawyer who does not have 
 good vocal control certainly cannot expect to influ- 
 ence a jury. The same criticisms apply to teachers. 
 In fact we might enumerate dozens of vocations in 
 which good or bad use of the voice may help to 
 spell success or failure. Realizing all of this, would 
 it not be well for superintendents and principals to 
 understand that while the musical education given 
 in the high school may not be of especial value from 
 a vocational standpoint during the student's school 
 life, it may mean a great deal to him later. 
 
 INITIATIVE 
 
 The greatest thing we can develop in the pupil 
 in any line is initiative, no matter what form or di- 
 rection it takes. The pupil who has initiative will 
 be able to go out into the world and carve a place 
 for himself far more easily than the one who simply 
 does what he is told. There is a fine field for the 
 development of initiative in the music classes. The 
 pupil who leads his section of the chorus is develop- 
 ing courage to do many other things without being 
 pushed or prompted. It takes courage of a very 
 fine order to start in and sing a part in a chorus 
 and run the risk of doing it wrong. 
 
 One of the best ways to secure efficiency is to 
 develop the initiative of the child as early as pos- 
 sible. Teachers seldom do this. They do alto-
 
 EDUCATIONAL VALUE 13 
 
 gether too much directing. Indeed they are so apt 
 to direct every move the pupil makes, that the aver- 
 age class would be wholly unable to leave the build- 
 ing at all unless some teacher stood near and said, 
 "Turn, stand, pass," at them. This is especially 
 true of the lower grades. It has its logical result 
 in the upper grades and high school, and is the 
 principal reason for all the criticisms directed to- 
 ward the inefficiency of pupils after they leave 
 school. 
 
 It is not so much the course of study that is at 
 fault, as it is the way the subjects are handled. The 
 pupil is so seldom allowed to use and develop his 
 own initiative that he has none to show when he 
 leaves school. 
 
 EFFICIENCY 
 
 Efficiency means using the easiest, shortest, and 
 most effectual way of doing anything, either mental 
 or physical, whether it be calculating the transit of 
 Venus, making change for a dollar, building a battle- 
 ship, or washing a dish. It means watching every 
 movement to see that it counts, and that the most 
 work is accomplished with the least expenditure of 
 time and energy. This applies to all work, both 
 mental and physical, done in the schoolroom, and it 
 should be the study of every teacher to turn the at- 
 tention of every pupil to the way he does his wqrk 
 as well as to the correctness of the result he attains. 
 The pupil should be developing good life habits
 
 14 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 rather than merely finding correct answers to 
 problems. A teacher who allows a pupil to work 
 in awkward, ineffectual ways, no matter how good 
 the result, is doing him a lasting injury. Efficiency 
 is the watchword of many schools. It is high time 
 that it became universal. The children have been 
 permitted to come to school and learn to dawdle 
 instead of work. The first thing the schools should 
 teach children is how to work. We can make the 
 child do anything we ask him to do but that is not 
 the point. We must make him want to work by 
 giving him a motive and then showing him the best 
 and the easiest way. But as the motive cannot al- 
 ways be made plain at first, we should not weakly 
 wait until the pupil wants to do a thing before re- 
 quiring him to do it We should see that the chil- 
 dren work faithfully at whatever they are doing, 
 and they will soon see that it is worth while. The 
 following incident well illustrates this point: Some 
 years ago a freshman in a high school refused to 
 have his voice tested. He was so stubborn that I 
 took him to the principal, who was one of the most 
 gentle of men. The principal was also a good psy- 
 chologist, and his amazing exhibition of his psychol- 
 ogy fairly took my breath away. Without a word 
 as to why we were there, he leaped from his chair 
 and shouted at the trembling youth, "What are you 
 doing in my office? Go straight back to your class 
 and do whatever any teacher tells you to do, and 
 never show your face in this office again." We 
 turned and went. When we arrived at a secluded
 
 EDUCATIONAL VALUE 15 
 
 place, I tested his voice and he offered no objection. 
 He returned to his class, and the teacher put him 
 on the front seat among the poor singers. Later 
 he gravitated to the back seat where the good sing- 
 ers sit. His teacher soon reported him as the most 
 interested one in the class. All he needed was a 
 jolt. When he got that, he found that music was 
 a fascinating subject and one that well repaid hard 
 work. 
 
 Efficiency is a study that taxes the keenest minds 
 and, conversely, it is a study that will make all minds ( 
 keener. There is the story of the efficiency expert 
 who never laid a brick in his life, but who after 
 watching an old bricklayer work, taught the old hand 
 how to lay bricks four times as fast with half the 
 labor. Children need the same kind of supervision 
 and training. Some years ago I had the good for- 
 tune to work with a red-headed teacher who knew 
 how to teach efficiency. She got her work done with 
 less fuss and feathers and less wasted time than 
 any other teacher I ever saw. On the blackboard 
 was the program for the day. When the clock 
 pointed to the time indicated as the end of a lesson, 
 she simply tapped once with her pencil to turn that 
 lesson off and the next one on. The pupils hated 
 her the first day or two, but at the end of a week 
 they all liked her. At the end of the first month 
 they adored her and at the end of the year when 
 they had to leave her, they were heartbroken. In 
 addition to their book knowledge, her pupils had 
 learned something infinitely better : they knew how
 
 16 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 to work, and they also knew the value of time. Her 
 pupils usually finished the work of their grade a 
 couple of months ahead of time. This teacher's 
 method was very simple. She studied efficiency, but 
 it was before the day this word became a slogan. 
 Her first task with a new set of pupils was to teach 
 them to eliminate all false motions and to waste 
 no time. I owe her a deep debt of gratitude, for 
 she taught me this lesson. 
 
 MUSIC AN EFFICIENCY STUDY 
 
 It may surprise many people, especially musi- 
 cians, to learn that music is the best efficiency study 
 on the whole list. Reading music is an excellent 
 mental training, because it requires the reader to 
 do several things at the same time. This is plainly 
 brought out in the chapter on individual work and 
 in several other places in "Grade School Music 
 Teaching." The great reason music reading is 
 valuable is the fact that the pupil must think in 
 time. He must train his mind to think rhythmically 
 and rapidly. In every other study the pupil may go 
 as rapidly or as slowly as he pleases, but in music 
 the pace is set and his mind must keep up. 
 
 MUSIC THE GAUGE OF A TEACHER 
 
 Not only is music a fine efficiency study, for the 
 children, but it is one of the best tests of a teacher's 
 ability to handle a school. If the teacher is weak 
 in discipline, or slow mentally, the music lesson is
 
 EDUCATIONAL VALUE 17 
 
 the first to show it. Every weakness in the man- 
 agement of the school will stick out like a sore 
 thumb when the music supervisor arrives. Efficiency 
 must, of course, begin with the teacher. x A stream 
 rises no higher than its source and if the teacher 
 is inefficient, it is hopeless to expect anything else 
 from the pupils?) I know a high school teacher who 
 is so efficient that she teaches her six classes daily 
 and never has a paper left over to correct after 
 school. She does this while she is hearing recita- 
 tions. I have seen her listen to a French class with 
 one ear, a German class with the other, and correct 
 papers at the same time and never make a mistake. 
 It seems impossible, but she says it is simple, and it 
 looks simple when you see her do it. She says it is 
 only using your brain as it was intended to be used. 
 One of her secrets is that the pupil and not the 
 teacher does the reciting. 
 
 There are efficiency hints all through this book 
 and the music teacher who wishes to make his teach- 
 ing efficient should make a careful study of the way 
 these suggestions are carried out.
 
 CHAPTER 2 
 
 HIGH SCHOOL CHORUS 
 ORGANIZATION 
 
 WHERE the music in the grades has inspired in 
 the public a liking for music and the ability to read, 
 it is not difficult to carry on the work in the high 
 school. If the music in the grades is nothing more 
 than the recreational singing of rote songs and lis- 
 tening to the talking machine, a far different problem 
 will be confronted in the high school. There are 
 still many high schools where music has never been 
 introduced, and many that take pupils from places 
 where music is not taught in the grades, or where 
 many of the pupils come from the country and have 
 never studied music. Such conditions will prevail 
 until music is required in both urban and rural 
 schools and the work is standardized by competent 
 supervisors. 
 
 In the following pages is set forth an ideal 
 plan for high school music. Variations to meet 
 different conditions are also suggested. In outlin- 
 ing a course of music for any high school, it must 
 be remembered that the work has many phases. 
 There should be music for every one, and there 
 should be special classes for the musically inclined 
 and the musically gifted.
 
 CHORUS 19 
 
 IMPORTANCE OF CHORUS 
 
 First in importance is the high school chorus. 
 This is the big thing and the one to which the most 
 thought and care should be given. The chorus 
 work should be a sane and attractive combination 
 of hard work and recreational singing. Pupils 
 should find recreation in a change of work, and 
 there is no subject in the whole curriculum that gives 
 so good an opportunity to work out this combination 
 as the high school chorus. Pupils at this age are 
 very quick to decide, according to their own stand- 
 ards, whether they like a thing or not, and it rests 
 with the teacher to make the chorus work good 
 enough to convince them that it is worth while. 
 This does not mean that the pupils are to be toadied 
 to in any way, but their points of view must always 
 be considered. 
 
 Nothing in the whole school day interests vis- 
 itors of all kinds like good chorus singing. A fine 
 high school chorus will advertise the school among 
 parents and patrons better than any other feature. 
 Students like it and it helps to build up a better 
 school. 
 
 The value of music education is so generally 
 recognized that pupils in the grades take music as 
 a matter of course, the same as they study arith- 
 metic. Music is rapidly becoming an accredited 
 subject in high schools and its value is no longer 
 questioned.
 
 20 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 LARGE CHORUS NECESSARY 
 
 Pupils in the grades use music that is simple 
 and easy to sing, and a few voices make it effective. 
 In the high school, however, the pupils are grown 
 up and the music that is suitable for children no 
 longer interests them. They will respond to the 
 big things in choral music, if there is an instrument 
 capable of bringing out the great choral effects. 
 This instrument is the chorus. A big chorus with 
 body of tone and enthusiasm of numbers is neces- 
 sary. Every pupil in the school can help in the 
 chorus and can get some good from it, no matter 
 whether his voice is good or poor. Such participa- 
 tion by all means that every individual will be con- 
 tributing to the good of every one else by helping 
 to make the chorus a success. It is the one coopera- 
 tive thing in which every pupil in the school can take 
 part. It means that every pupil in the school can 
 do team work of the most painstaking and valuable 
 variety. 
 
 I 
 
 ORGANIZATION 
 
 There are two ways of organizing the high 
 school chorus the required and the optional. The 
 first is the big, hard way, but the one that brings 
 results of an enduring variety. The other is the 
 small, easy way that amounts to little. The manner 
 in which the high school chorus is organized is a 
 good measure of the backbone of the high school 
 principal and the supervisor. Where there is a
 
 CHORUS 21 
 
 weakness in either, the optional plan is usually fol- 
 lowed. 
 
 There is a wide-spread notion that when a pupil 
 gets into the high school he should choose the sub- 
 jects he is to study. It is proper that he should 
 choose some of his studies, but since he is too im- 
 mature to choose them all, he needs to be advised. 
 He should learn some things whether he likes them 
 or not. 
 
 SELFISHNESS 
 
 The element of selfishness is apt to be para- 
 mount in education. Whether intentionally or not, 
 we are continually appealing to the pupil to do his 
 school work that he may get ahead, be a smarter 
 man, occupy a better position in life, and earn more 
 money than the other fellow. ' It is seldom, if ever, 
 brought home to him that he should also work to 
 be a better man so that he may be of more use to 
 others. The altruistic principle can be taught in the 
 high school chorus in a concrete way. If he is a 
 good singer, he should go into the chorus to help the 
 weaker ones. If he is a poor singer, he can go into 
 the chorus and do as much as he can, so that there 
 will be enthusiasm of large numbers. This un- 
 selfish cooperation should be taught to every high 
 school student in order to counteract the selfish 
 tendencies of utilitarian training. 
 
 The value of choral music is not at first apparent 
 to high school students. The best way to make this
 
 22 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 value apparent is to have all the pupils take it. The 
 very fact that choral music has sufficient value to 
 make it required for all, stamps it at once as some- 
 thing worth while. When the pupils have worked 
 in the chorus for a time, its value will speak for 
 itself. Where music is optional, the boys are apt 
 to neglect it and take something that appears to 
 them more immediately practical. This results in 
 a poorly balanced chorus and satisfactory results are 
 impossible. The mechanically-minded pupils are 
 apt to choose other subjects before they think of 
 taking music. These are the very ones who should 
 have some music to soften and enrich their lives. 
 
 The girls who have high soprano voices will 
 always take chorus work, since most girls have a 
 deeply rooted notion that a soprano voice is a mark 
 of distinction. If they have medium or low voices, 
 they will not as a rule, take chorus work. The lazy- 
 minded pupil will also shun the chorus if he is al- 
 lowed to, for good chorus singing is by no means an 
 easy occupation. 
 
 Music study is often compelled to rest entirely 
 on the interest it excites. When pupils have never 
 tried chorus singing, how can they be interested? 
 We fondly imagine and sometimes say that other 
 subjects in the high school are carried along by the 
 interest they excite, but are they? Careful scrutiny 
 will reveal credits and similar incentives to be the 
 real causes at work.
 
 CHORUS 23 
 
 REQUIRED CHORUS BEST 
 
 / The only effectual way to carry on high school /' 
 / chorus and have it repay the time and money spent''' 
 Vupon it is to make it required for all. Those with 
 chronic throat trouble should be excused, though 
 many of these would be benefitted by a little quiet 
 singing. Pupils who are hurrying through school 
 for economic reasons are often excused, but such 
 pupils need music for its recreational as well as 
 for its cultural value. It brightens the mind and 
 gives a broader point of view, besides relieving the 
 mind of the deadening effect of plodding effort. 
 
 ALL CAN SING 
 
 There is a widespread conviction that only the 
 gifted few can learn to sing. This has been proved 
 untrue by experience. More people can learn to 
 sjng and read vocal music successfully than can learn 
 arithmetic. Since virtually, every pupil in the high 
 school has sung in the grades, why should we de- 
 prive the high school student, or allow him to de- 
 prive himself, of the good that will come to him by 
 taking part in the crowning glory of the music 
 course? For years he has been preparing to sing 
 the big choral masterpieces; now we should see that 
 he does it. 
 
 In high schools where music is just being in- 
 troduced, there is often a great deal of trouble, be- 
 cause of the unfavorable attitude of the pupils to- 
 ward it. In high schools where music is optional,
 
 24 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 the pupils who do not take it are continually saying 
 to the chorus pupils, "We do not take chorus work; 
 why do you take it? It is of no value." Many high 
 school teachers are also saying, either consciously 
 or unconsciously, to the pupils, "Leave music alone; 
 it isn't worth anything to you. Put your time on 
 something that will do you some good my subject, 
 for instance." The parents are apt to say the same 
 thing at home. 
 
 This unfavorable attitude on the part of the 
 community, the pupils, and the teachers is the first 
 and hardest thing the supervisor of music has to 
 overcome. The required method is the best and 
 quickest way to do it. The very fact that the school 
 authorities consider the chorus of enough consequence 
 to be made obligatory upon all pupils, at once creates 
 an atmosphere of respect for the subject. The 
 success of the music itself, when the classes are 
 large and well balanced, as they always are under 
 this method, soon wins the pupils, and in a short 
 time opposition to chorus singing disappears and 
 choral music takes its rightful place in the school 
 work. 
 
 APPRECIATION 
 
 It is in the chorus class that every one has a 
 chance to learn to listen to and appreciate great 
 music. We spend much money in teaching pupils 
 to work; we can certainly afford to spend time, 
 money, and effort in giving them the capacity for 
 enjoyment later in life that music gives.
 
 CHORUS 25 
 
 Since it is admitted that chorus work provides 
 musical, mental, moral, emotional, physical, and vo- 
 cational training of great educational value, it is 
 our duty to see that every one in the high school, 
 as far as possible, gets this training. 
 
 To illustrate further the comparative values of 
 the optional and required ways of carrying on the 
 high school chorus work, let me relate two experi- 
 ences. 
 
 A short time ago I had the privilege of being 
 present at the last rehearsal of Verdi's "Requiem" 
 given by one of the suburban high schools near Bos- 
 ton. There were six hundred pupils in the chorus. 
 I was given to understand that, though the whole 
 school had learned the piece, these six hundred had 
 been chosen to give the work, as that number was 
 all the stage would hold. 
 
 It was the custom for this high school to learn 
 one of the big choral works each year and give it 
 in Boston with soloists and orchestra. The leader, 
 a big, husky fellow whose years were many and 
 whose energy was enormous, was a regular steam 
 engine in human form. It was an inspiration to 
 be present on such an occasion. 
 
 In this school, music took its rightful place as 
 a means of education for every one. No need to 
 drive any of the students into that chorus. They 
 had to be driven out instead. Why? They knew 
 they were doing something worth while. The mu- 
 sic they studied had an instrument that could inter- 
 pret it a big chorus. Hearing and taking part in
 
 26 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 this grand instrument made the music take hold of 
 all the students in the school, and they responded to 
 it wonderfully. 
 
 Two days later I sat upon the platform of a high 
 school auditorium in another city. The school had 
 an enrollment of eighteen hundred. The principal, 
 with a tolerant smile, assured me that the music 
 teacher might be there if he had no other engage- 
 ment, it being his day. He came just a minute ahead 
 of his class. The class entered. They were all 
 seniors and were preparing a number for the com- 
 mencement program. There were sixty sopranos, 
 ten altos, no tenors, and two basses. They left out 
 the tenor of the four-part arrangement of the short 
 and simple song they were studying. 
 
 The music was distributed and they went at it. 
 The teacher informed me that they had worked on 
 this piece during two previous lessons. He also 
 was a big, husky fellow, but he was not old and 
 the fire of enthusiasm was not apparent in his eye. 
 The pupils sang this song over and over endlessly, 
 though willingly enough. They were very amiable 
 about it, but how they endured the ceaseless repeti- 
 tion, getting nowhere, I could not fathom, until I 
 remembered the grade music work I had seen on a 
 previous visit to this same city. They were used 
 to it. They had been brought up on rote and repe- 
 tition, and knew nothing better. 
 
 They sang this simple piece for forty-five min- 
 utes. I nearly went mad; I could hardly remain. 
 The teacher didn't seem to mind it, however; neither
 
 CHORUS 27 
 
 did the pupils. Every one sang all the time. They 
 didn't need to look at the music. The two basses 
 matched pennies, and one girl on the front seat em- 
 broidered, unrebuked. At least two of them got 
 something out of the lesson. I was sure of the girl; 
 but I was in doubt as to which of the basses came 
 out ahead. 
 
 Some high school pupils will read music well, 
 but many will not be able to read music at all. If 
 they cannot read, it is pretty late to teach them. 
 The first thing to be done, however, is to make them 
 want to learn to sing, if they do not already know 
 how. 
 
 A large chorus has the most enthusiasm, and is, 
 of course, much more inspiring than a small one. In 
 the small class the pupils have a better opportunity 
 to read music but the enthusiasm will not run so 
 high. The combination of these two plans is most 
 desirable. 
 
 PERSONNEL OF CHORUS 
 
 It is better to have all the students of the high 
 school together in one chorus than to have them 
 separated according to years. The music will be 
 better and also the school program easier to make 
 out. Instead of a course of music study for four 
 separate years, it is better to outline a flexible course 
 of study in a four-year cycle. There are a number 
 of good reasons for this. The pupils will respond 
 best to music that is difficult and of high quality.
 
 28 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 The older voices must be in the chorus to make this 
 more difficult music sound well. For instance, the 
 Hallelujah from the Messiah will sound pretty thin 
 with freshmen, but if there are a number of seniors 
 in the class to give body to the tone, the selection 
 will sound well and all will get more out of it. The 
 freshmen will work with a will if they are in a class 
 with older pupils, and the older pupils will sing 
 better if it is explained to them that they are making 
 possible not only their own education in music but 
 also that of others. This will teach unselfishness, 
 cooperation, and loyalty to the mass. 
 
 There is so much difference in the size and or- 
 ganization of different high schools that it is diffi- 
 cult to outline a plan of chorus organization to suit 
 all schools. 
 
 LARGE CLASSES BEST 
 
 The size of a high school chorus should not be 
 limited except by the force and ability of the direc- 
 tor, the disciplinary strength of the principal, and 
 the size of the auditorium. A class much under a 
 hundred is too small to be inspiring. From one hun- 
 dred to five hundred is a good number. More than 
 the latter is apt to be cumbersome. 
 
 The plan in use in the Minneapolis high schools 
 works very well. These vary in size from fifteen 
 hundred to three thousand. 
 
 The program is so arranged that the pupils go 
 to the chorus room when they have no other recita- 
 tions. The choruses vary from one hundred to five
 
 CHORUS 29 
 
 hundred, and are made up of freshmen, sophomores, 
 juniors and seniors. In every case, the largest class 
 is the best. Where the classes do not balance well, 
 changes in the program are made to fill out the 
 parts. 
 
 Since the pupils go into the music classes during 
 their study periods, the other teachers are employed 
 in the regular program. Their time therefore is 
 not wasted. * 
 
 ASSEMBLY SINGING 
 
 \ 
 
 Occasionally the whole school assembles for a 
 period in the auditorium and every one sings. Now 
 the full value of the chorus work is apparent. For 
 instance, when all the classes have been studying the 
 "Elijah" it is a wonderful inspiration to hear these 
 grand choruses sung by two thousand fresh, young 
 voices, with a good orchestra. We look forward 
 to the time when there will be a fine pipe organ in 
 each high school to furnish a background for this 
 mass of tone. So much for the Minneapolis high 
 schools. 
 
 In high schools under five hundred, the above 
 plan is not so good, because the classes are too small 
 to make chorus singing worth while. In schools 
 numbering less than five hundred, it is best to have 
 all the pupils meet together and have but one class. 
 As this will necessitate some special time being set 
 aside for the music, the other teachers will naturally 
 have nothing to do during the singing period. But
 
 30 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 the chorus is worth the time spent on it, even if 
 the other teachers are obliged to have an idle period. 
 This latter plan was in operation at Oak Park, Il- 
 linois, until the school got too large. The chrus 
 period there was of twenty minutes' duration daily. 
 There was an assembly period of half an hour, ten 
 minutes being devoted to the various things usu- 
 ally done at assembly. The rest of the time was 
 devoted to music, and the plan worked very well. 
 
 Where the whole school meets as a chorus, there 
 is of course the objection as indicated above, that 
 the rest of the teachers have nothing to do. Since 
 these teachers usually have pupils that they wish to 
 work with personally, it might be arranged that 
 each teacher could take one or two pupils from the 
 chorus for special work. This would not bother the 
 chorus leader particularly and would help make the 
 program for the whole school easier to plan. The 
 other teachers should not take more than one or two 
 at a time ; consequently the supervisor should not be 
 touchy about this. With the proper spirit on both 
 sides, this plan will work very well, and by making 
 this suggestion himself, the clever supervisor will 
 be able to get more time for his chorus work, and 
 by thinking of the other departments, he will es- 
 tablish his work more firmly. The music supervisor, 
 of all people, should remember that his is not the 
 only department in the high school and should, there- 
 fore, meet the other teachers more than half way 
 in any scheme that has to do with furthering the 
 efficiency of the entire school.
 
 CHORUS 31 
 
 INTRODUCING CHORUS WORK 
 
 In places where music is taught in the grades it 
 is not difficult to introduce it for the first time in the 
 high school. There are several ways of doing it. 
 Music was introduced into the high schools of Min- 
 neapolis in 1912. Music had been taught in the 
 grades for many years. All the freshmen entering 
 the high schools in 1912 were required to take the 
 chorus work twice weekly. All the pupils in the 
 other classes were invited to take it if they wished. 
 The next year the sophomores were required to take 
 it, and so on until in four years all were taking it 
 and it had become an established institution. The 
 introduction was not achieved without a good deal 
 of coercion, for many of the pupils wanted to do as 
 they pleased about the music, but now the pupils 
 themselves see the value of the music work. 
 
 Introducing music into high schools where it has 
 never been taught in the grades presents many ob- 
 stacles. If the students do not read music before 
 they get to the high school, they probably will never 
 learn, as very few of them will submit to the dis- 
 cipline and to the reading of the simple material 
 their ignorance requires. Some very gifted super- 
 visors are able to inspire and fill with enthusiasm 
 pupils wholly ignorant of music and sometimes get 
 very creditable work from them, but such strong 
 supervisors are unfortunately the exception rather 
 than the rule.
 
 32 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 LENGTH OF CHORUS PERIOD 
 
 The length of the periods for chorus work 
 varies in different schools. The time usually spent 
 on music in any school is likely to be inadequate. 
 The same cry goes up from the teachers in all grades 
 about all subjects. The trouble with almost all of 
 the schools is that the pupils have not been taught 
 to use to advantage the time allotted to them, and 
 neither have the teachers, for that matter. Effi- 
 ciency in the school room is a subject that every 
 teacher should master so far as possible. Once 
 mastered, there would not be the clamor for more 
 time, for the pupils would be rapid enough in their 
 work to accomplish everything needed. 
 
 There is nothing that will enliven a school so 
 much as a good sing, and if it were possible to do it, 
 the very best thing that could happen to a high 
 school would be to have the whole school meet half 
 an hour daily and sing together. This is Utopian, 
 but it will come when the grade work is perfected. 
 
 CHORUS LEADER 
 
 Probably the most difficult position in the whole 
 school system to fill successfully is that of high 
 school chorus leader. The classes are large; they 
 meet the teacher but once or twice weekly; and the 
 pupils are just at the age when they are hardest to 
 handle. These and many other reasons make the 
 path of the chorus leader anything but a flowery 
 one.
 
 CHORUS 33 
 
 The teacher must be a disciplinarian, one who is 
 able to rule tactfully without too much show of 
 driving. He must be a teacher of the most ingenious 
 variety and also have great force and endurance, 
 both mental and physical. He must have perfect 
 self-control, for nowhere is it needed so much as in 
 the high school chorus class. He must have the 
 right attitude toward his subject and see it from the 
 big human educational side, as well as from the mu- 
 sical side. He must have infinite patience, firmness, 
 and an intense love for young people. 
 
 It is no easy work to be a successful chorus 
 leader. It is a man's job, though many women are 
 doing it splendidly. When I say jthat it is a man's 
 job, I mean that boys are more likely to sing ifV 
 there is a man at the helm. Then again in the large r 
 high schools, where there are many classes daily, 
 the mere physical strain of several chorus classes in 
 succession is too much for the average woman not 
 possessed of great physical, as well as mental, en- 
 durance. Pages might be filled with the attributes 
 desirable in a chorus leader but we must not go as 
 far as to discourage the aspirants to success in this 
 field. 
 
 ^A pupil goes to schoolto learn to use his_brain_^ 
 onjthe^roblems of 1 life._ The average teacEer sel- 
 dom thinks oTThisV much less does she impress it 
 upon her pupils. To both teacher and pupil the 
 lesson of the dayjs too often the end instead of the 
 means of mental training. The importance of the 
 lesson itself should be kept before the student, but
 
 i 
 
 34 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 since the way he gets it is still more important, that 
 should be impressed upon him constantly. If pu- 
 pils had a clear idea of what they come to school 
 for, they would become more interested in watching 
 their own mental development and consequently 
 would have a desire to remain in school longer. 
 
 The music teacher is vitally interested in making 
 the pupils quick-minded, for without this mental 
 alertness on the~part of the pupil, the chorus leader 
 is helpless. Music is especially adapted to culti- 
 vating mental alertness. For this purpose, no sub- 
 ject in the school curriculum is superior. It is the 
 business of the music teacher to make this clear to 
 the pupils. The leader will have to show mental 
 speed and clearness himself, or his preachings will 
 be of no avail. This is why no slow-thinking or 
 slow-speaking person should go into music super- 
 vision. Every teacher should be able to keep a few 
 jumps ahead of his pupils. 
 
 Many teachers believe that, in training the mind, 
 accuracy instead of speed should be the first con- 
 sideration. This is wrong. The pupil should be 
 trained to speed first. Accuracy first is peculiarly 
 fatal to good work in music. In music, time is of 
 fijcst-iinportance, and a teacher who allows a child 
 to hesitate over a note is not only spoiling the music 
 but is allowing the pupil to grow up with a halting, 
 timid habit of mind. In the usual school system a 
 pupil would almost as soon be hanged as make a 
 mistake. Applied to music, this is all wrong. With- 
 out doubt, the principle holds good in other branches,
 
 CHORUS 35 
 
 also. The pupil should grow up with the same fear- 
 lessness toward mistakes in music that he has about 
 throwing a ball and missing the mark. He should 
 feel that it is his privilege to make all the mistakes 
 necessary to get the song right at last. He must 
 learn to start at the beginning of a song and sing 
 to the end without faltering in his time, no matter 
 if he gets many of the tones wrong. With this 
 mental habit as a foundation the rest is easy, be- 
 cause the fearless mind will become far more swift 
 and accurate than the timid one. Personally I like 
 the "sassy" child; his "sass" shows he has fearless- 
 ness and assurance. The wise teacher can turn these 
 qualities into proper channels and make them count 
 for his proper development. 
 
 THE OVER-SENSITIVE MUSICIAN 
 
 It is often noticed that the music teacher who 
 sings or plays well, and who has a sensitive ear, is 
 often a failure as a public school music teacher or 
 as a supervisor. The reason is to be found in the 
 preceding paragraph. The over-sensitive musician 
 is not able to endure discords; consequently, when 
 he hears one he squirms and suffers audibly until the 
 pupils acquire the teacher's false sensitiveness and 
 are afraid to sing anything for fear of making mis- 
 takes. The spirit of the army, which makes the sol- 
 diers advance in the face of the enemy, should pre- 
 vail in the schoolroom and especially in the music 
 lesson. Of course one must have a good ear and
 
 36 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 be a good musician before he can be a good music 
 teacher, but a music teacher should not allow his 
 musical temperament to run away with him. 
 
 SET UP A HIGH IDEAL 
 
 The chorus leader should expect a great deal 
 from his pupils. He should impress upon them at 
 the outset that the chorus class means business and 
 that from it they will receive a training that is well 
 worth while. Since the musical side of the work 
 may not appeal to all of them at first, they should 
 be taught to work for mental and physical develop- 
 ment. Music appreciation will come later. 
 
 If there is anything that a high school pupil will 
 take advantage of and at the same time despise, it 
 is an easy subject or a teacjier who lets thirn'cfo as 
 the]f pleases and wastes <tfiifi time. They admire, 
 though they may complain bitterly of, the teacher 
 who makes them toe the mark and get something 
 done. If properly led and inspired, pupils like to 
 do, and will do, the big, hard things. It is, there- 
 fore, the problem and the joy of the chorus leader 
 to arouse the pupils to such efforts. ^ 
 
 The chorus work will not go well if this feeling 
 on the part of the pupils is impersonal. The right 
 attitude toward the work must be shown by the pu- 
 pils individually. Since sermons of all kinds are 
 usually passed on to the other fellow, it is a poor 
 plan to correct the class as a whole. Whenever 
 a correction is made, it should be made kindly and
 
 CHORUS 37 
 
 personally. If something is wrong, ask some one 
 person if he is responsible. This will bring the mat- 
 ter home to the individual and make him think as an 
 individual. 
 
 SEATING CHORUS AND ACOUSTICS 
 
 It is most important that the different parts of 
 the chorus be able to hear each other and thus be 
 able to keep in time and tune with each other. This 
 desirable state is often hard to achieve, owing to 
 the size, shape, acoustics and seating arrangement of 
 the room. The size of the class and the balance of 
 the parts must also be taken into consideration. If 
 the pupils are not able to hear all the different parts, 
 they cannot keep together, and the music work will 
 be uninteresting, as they will not be able to hear and 
 appreciate their own music. To solve this difficulty, 
 the chorus leader must use his ingenuity and ex- 
 periment a little until he works out a seating arrange- 
 ment that is satisfactory. 
 
 The pupils with true musical ears should sit in 
 the rear seats and grade down to the monotones in 
 the front. This should always be kept in mind when 
 seating any chorus. 
 
 The logical way to seat a chorus is to have the 
 sopranos at the left of the leader, then, in order, 
 the altos, tenors, and basses. This plan is often 
 not feasible, especially in a large class, as the parts 
 cannot hear each other. When this is true, it is 
 better to put the basses and sopranos in the middle,
 
 38 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 the altos to the left of the sopranos, and the tenors 
 to the right of the basses like this: 
 
 Altos Sopranos Basses Tenors 
 With this arrangement all the pupils are sure to 
 hear at least three parts distinctly, two of these be- 
 ing the important ones, bass and soprano. 
 
 In classes where the bass and tenor parts are 
 small, the pupils may sit like this: 
 
 Sopranos Altos 
 
 Tenors Basses 
 
 There are other arrangements that may be used 
 for different purposes. Since the effect of the music 
 on the pupils themselves must not be overlooked, 
 a fine way to accomplish such an end is to divide 
 the class into two choruses so that pupils may oc- 
 casionally hear the music they are studying sung by 
 another chorus. 
 
 At one time the only assembly hall available at 
 the Oak Park High School was a long, narrow room 
 that would seat about nine hundred people. In- 
 stead of being placed at one end or in the middle of 
 one side, the stage was placed in the middle of 
 the room and the seats arranged so that the pupils 
 in one-half the room faced the pupils in the other 
 half across the stage. The whole school, conse- 
 quently, met as one class divided into two complete 
 choruses, one in each end of the room. The rear 
 rows of seats in each end of the room were raised 
 so that the pupils could see each other and also the 
 leader. This temporary assembly hall proved to 
 be an ideal arrangement for chorus practice. These
 
 CHORUS 39 
 
 two choruses either sang antiphonally or together as 
 the leader indicated. 
 
 This effect can be approximated in the usual 
 class room or auditorium by arranging the class in 
 two choruses sitting side by side like this : 
 A. S. B. T. A. S. B. T. 
 
 A. S.. B. T. A. S. B. T., etc. 
 
 The same effect can be produced by having the 
 chorus divided in half, from front to back; but 
 this is not so good an arrangement as the other two. 
 
 Individual work should not be forgotten in the 
 chorus work. While the classes are too large and 
 the time too short for much individual singing, the 
 same results can be arrived at, in a measure, by 
 changing the seating from time to time so that pu- 
 pils may get used to singing with different people. 
 Another way is to seat the pupils by quartettes, like 
 
 /is: 
 ASBTASBT 
 ASBTASBT 
 ASBTASBT 
 
 As pupils should be independent singers when 
 they graduate from high school, seating them in this 
 way, where the pupils sitting immediately next to 
 them are singing some other part, will make them 
 independent and secure nearly all the good effect 
 of individual work without the loss of time which 
 the real individual work would entail. 
 
 Rehearsing a chorus in a large auditorium is 
 very hard work for both teacher and pupils, as it 
 is hard to give orders and be heard. High schools
 
 40 V HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 A 
 
 having music rooms are therefore to be envied. 
 In these music rooms, the seating arrangement should 
 be different from the usual seating arrangement, in 
 that, if opera chairs are used, they should be ar- 
 ranged in sections with not more than four or six 
 chairs in a row. This enables the teacher to get 
 nearer the pupils to help them and to see what they 
 are doing. The usual room has twelve or thirteen 
 seats in a row. This puts many of the pupils too 
 far from the aisle for the teacher to hear their work. 
 
 CARE OF MATERIAL 
 
 One difficulty encountered in chorus work is the 
 handling and conservation of material. When the 
 pupils furnish their own music this presents no 
 problem. When books are furnished by the school 
 board, enough should be purchased to furnish at 
 least one copy for every two pupils. A high school 
 with sixteen hundred pupils should have eight hun- 
 dred books of a kind. In the regular chorus class 
 each pupil would have a book, and at assembly each 
 two pupils would have one. It would be better for 
 each one of the sixteen hundred to have a book and 
 be responsible for it and bring it to the class each 
 time, but this would double the expense. The bet- 
 ter way is to devise some scheme of distributing and 
 collecting the books at each lesson. It is a good 
 plan to have a library truck for the music books. 
 This can be wheeled along the aisle, the end pupil
 
 s 
 
 o 
 o 
 05 
 
 a 
 
 
 -c 
 
 M 
 
 
 * A* 
 
 ~*" 
 
 a) 

 
 CHORUS 41 
 
 on either side taking the required number of books 
 and passing them along. At the end of each lesson 
 period, they may be passed and piled in the middle 
 seat of each row, which seat should be left vacant 
 for that purpose. At the end of the last period 
 they may be collected and returned to their places 
 by the pupils sitting in the aisle seats. Where the 
 room is provided with opera chairs, there should be 
 book racks on the back of each seat. While the 
 books are being given out and collected the class 
 should sing some selection from memory so that 
 the time may be fully occupied. 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 When pupils like a selection, they are very likely 
 to take books home without permission and either 
 forget to bring them back or keep them purposely. 
 Often they want to sing some of the school music 
 in their churches or to work on the lessons at home. 
 They should be encouraged to sing out of school 
 as much as possible. The best way to do this is to 
 place a number of the music books in the school 
 library where they may be drawn as regular library 
 books. This will take a great deal of work from 
 the chorus leader and will allow all the books to be 
 collected at the lessons. 
 
 ATTENDANCE RECORDS 
 
 While keeping a record of the attendance of a 
 chorus class is something of a problem, it is some-
 
 42 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 thing that should be done very accurately. No one 
 would think of calling the names of the pupils as 
 it would take all the time of the lesson to do it. 
 In fact calling the names of the pupils in any class 
 always impressed me as the very best way of wast- 
 ing the time of the lesson that could well be de- 
 vised, yet it is still done in many schools. 
 
 SEATING DIAGRAM 
 
 The best way to take the attendance is to have 
 a seating diagram made with pockets into which 
 cards bearing the names of the pupils can be slipped. 
 A card can be slipped quickly into the pocket corre- 
 sponding to the seat the pupil occupies in the class. 
 These seating diagrams are very easily made. The 
 small ones for common school rooms are for sale 
 at school supply stores, but they are seldom large 
 enough for a chorus class, and the pockets are sel- 
 dom deep enough to accommodate the cards of the 
 size the chorus leader requires. These plats can 
 be made of cardboard, but, as they have to be used 
 a great deal in chorus classes, such material soon be- 
 comes soiled and torn. Some dark colored cloth of 
 a firm texture that can be laundered and starched 
 whenever necessary is best. Such a seating diagram 
 will last indefinitely. 
 
 We will suppose the room is provided with opera 
 chairs and that there are ten seats in a row between 
 aisles and twelve rows of seats from front to rear. 
 This would call for a diagram of twelve rows from 
 side to side, with ten pockets in a row.
 
 Seating Diagram
 
 CHORUS 43 
 
 The cards used may be of any size,, but experi- 
 ence has proved that a card made of stiff cardboard 
 one inch wide and three inches long is about the best 
 size. This card requires a pocket an inch and eighth 
 wide and two inches deep, so that the card will slip 
 in easily and yet be held securely. One inch at the 
 end of the card should show above the pocket. 
 
 A piece of the material twelve by fifteen inches 
 should be used for a foundation. A plat of this 
 size is convenient to handle and will seat one hun- 
 dred and twenty pupils. 
 
 For the above size cut twelve strips of the cloth 
 twelve inches long and two and one half inches 
 wide. Hem one side of each strip with a hem about 
 an eighth of an inch wide. Lay the first strip on the 
 foundation cloth with the hemmed edge one inch 
 and a half from and parallel to the top (twelve inch) 
 edge of foundation cloth. Sew lower unhemmed 
 edge of this strip to the foundation cloth with the 
 line of stitches just two inches from and parallel 
 to the hemmed edge. Lay the next strip so that its 
 hemmed edge is just one inch below and parallel to 
 the hemmed edge of the first strip and sew the lower 
 unhemmed edge to the foundation cloth as the first 
 strip was sewed. The second strip will overlap the 
 first an inch and will then hide the first line of 
 stitches. Sew on the rest of the strips in the same 
 manner. 
 
 To complete the pockets commence a quarter of 
 an inch from one of the long edges of the founda-
 
 44 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 tion and sew a line of stitches from the bottom to 
 the top of the cloth at right angles to the strips 
 sewing them to the foundation cloth. Make this 
 line very straight. An inch and an eighth from this 
 line of stitches sew another. Sew other lines of 
 stitches with the same spacing until the other side 
 of the cloth is reached. This will make a line of 
 ten pockets in a row and each pocket will be two 
 inches deep and an inch and an eighth wide, with 
 a neatly hemmed edge. 
 
 Take another piece of cloth twelve by fifteen 
 inches and sew it to the back of the first by running 
 a line of stitches around three edges leaving one 
 twelve inch edge open. Bind the edges of the whole. 
 Into the pocket formed by the two large pieces of 
 cloth slip a piece of stiff cardboard that will fit 
 tightly and you will have a seating plat that will be 
 very useful and will last for years. When it gets 
 soiled it can readily be laundered. 
 
 CARDS 
 
 When the chorus is seated for the first time each 
 pupil should be given one of the small cards referred 
 to above. Anything the teacher wishes may be put 
 on this card. Instead of telling the pupils what to 
 do with this card a quicker way is to have a sample 
 card drawn on the blackboard and allow each pupil 
 to fill in his own, printing the various items instead 
 of writing them. As soon as the pupils have filled
 
 CHORUS 45 
 
 Jones, in these cards, the person who looks 
 
 Mary A. after the attendance should begin to 
 Senior. place these cards in the pockets of the 
 
 Second seating plat while the chorus leader 
 
 Soprano. takes up the music of the lesson. The 
 Room A. person taking up the cards should stand 
 facing the class holding the seating plat so that 
 the pockets correspond exactly to the seats of the 
 room as he sees them while facing the class. Com- 
 mencing with the front row of pupils he should place 
 the cards belonging to the pupils in the first row of 
 pockets nearest him at the bottom of the plat and 
 so on until all the cards are placed. 
 
 TAKING ATTENDANCE 
 
 The persons taking the attendance may be regu- 
 lar high school teachers assigned to that duty or they 
 may be members of the chorus. It is a good plan 
 to have pupils do this work as it relieves the teach- 
 ers, gives the pupils responsibility, and gets needed 
 work done. A turbulent pupil is often steadied by 
 responsibility and extra work. It is also a good 
 plan to allow a girl to take the attendance of the 
 bass and tenor sections, and a boy that of soprano 
 and alto. 
 
 With a diagram of this kind absences are in- 
 stantly noted by the person holding the diagram 
 and a glance at the names on the cards will quickly 
 show what pupil is missing. When a pupil needs 
 to be moved, his card can be moved to correspond 
 to his new place in the class.
 
 46 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 USEFULNESS OF CARDS 
 
 These cards can be used for a number of other 
 purposes than merely attendance. A card with no 
 additional marks may indicate satisfactory work in 
 class. Various marks may be added if the work is 
 not satisfactory. When a pupil has been absent 
 his card may be turned face in and left so until 
 the pupil has brought his excuse and been reinstated 
 in the class. Deportment may be marked with col- 
 ored cards. If a pupil is troublesome or lazy, a blue 
 card may be slipped in behind his white card and left 
 there until its removal is made the reward of a cer- 
 tain number of days with a perfect score. A repeti- 
 tion of the offense may mean a red card and a longer 
 season of probation. A third offense may mean a 
 black card and consequent expulsion from the class. 
 This seemingly childish-sounding scheme used by a 
 tactful and fair-minded teacher is a potent means 
 to assist pupils to learn to discipline themselves. 
 
 When the diagrams are left where the pupils 
 can see them, one's transgressions against the effi- 
 ciency of the class show up in brilliant colors. That 
 the least disorder destroys the efficiency of the class, 
 the pupils know well. With this glaring record of 
 where the blame rests a wholesome public opinion 
 can be trained. Contrasting the diagrams of differ- 
 ent classes and sections of the same class may have 
 a wholesome influence if tactfully done. There may 
 be a little danger that the pupils will yield to the 
 temptation to remove these colored cards surrepti-
 
 CHORUS 47 
 
 tiously, but here again the innate honesty of the stu- 
 dents can be trusted. 
 
 DISCIPLINE 
 
 It takes strength, tact, and good sense of a very 
 decided type on the part of the chorus leader to 
 properly discipline a large chorus. And if the chorus 
 is not well disciplined there will be no music to 
 amount to anything. It seems almost like sacrilege 
 to mention music and discipline together but we may 
 as well face the facts. Ensemble music of all sorts 
 requires the closest attention, and this attention 
 depends upon the response the leader succeeds in 
 getting from the members of his body of musicians. 
 The discipline the captain of the company of sol- 
 diers imposes upon his men is not to be compared 
 in severity to that required by the leader of the pro- 
 fessional orchestra. The response to orders must 
 be exact and instantaneous or the musical effects will 
 not be good. The same is true of the high school 
 chorus. It is the leader's greatest task to learn how 
 to discipline his chorus effectively and get them not 
 only to submit to this discipline but to discipline 
 themselves. 
 
 If the general discipline of the high school is 
 weak, as it so often is, the chorus class will show 
 the same weakness. There must be a chorus leader 
 who can keep the pupils interested and make the 
 lessons go. Supporting him there must be the prin- 
 cipal of the school and the regular high school teach-
 
 48 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 ers, all of them ready and willing to help make the 
 chorus work a success. There must be at least two 
 stiff and able bodied spines back of each chorus class; 
 one must belong to the chorus leader, and the other 
 to the principal of the school. A weakness in either 
 will result in the failure of the chorus work. The 
 principal is apt to demand that the chorus leader 
 do the disciplining; the chorus leader is prone to lay 
 this work on the principal. As a matter of fact 
 both must do it. Since one person has about all he 
 can do to run the musical end of a chorus class with- 
 out having to do much disciplining, it is well to have 
 one of the regular teachers of the school detailed to 
 assist in this work. 
 
 The success of any scheme of discipline depends 
 entirely upon the ideal the leader has regarding 
 discipline and upon his success in establishing the 
 same ideal in the minds of the pupils and securing 
 their cooperation in enforcing it. Since prevention is, 
 as we know, the best cure for any disease, the clever 
 leader will so plan and carry on his lessons that there 
 will be no time or inclination to disorder among the 
 pupils. The first and most important step in this 
 direction is to make the music work worth while, and 
 to make the pupils see that it is worth while. This 
 will be discussed later. 
 
 Discipline is especially hard in chorus classes as 
 chorus singing is necessarily a noisy subject, involv- 
 ing large numbers of people, and a subject requiring 
 closer and steadier attention than any other. Each 
 chorus leader must work out his own individual ways
 
 CHORUS 49 
 
 of discipline and he must be firm and smiling at the 
 same time. Since young people will work hard for 
 any person they like, the chorus leader must be sure 
 to merit and secure the respect and liking of his 
 pupils. 
 
 ( "It is an easy thing to stand a pupil up and make 
 him do a thing. It is far harder to stand him up 
 and make him want to do it."*) The latter is true 
 discipline; no other ideal should be tolerated. We 
 sometimes have to use the first to begin with but 
 we should never be satisfied until we have achieved 
 the latter. 
 
 The leader should always assume that the pu- 
 pils are in perfect harmony with his wishes and that 
 they will strive to carry out his plans and sugges- 
 tions. He should never assume that there will be 
 trouble in any way, but of course he must be ready 
 to deal with or ignore trouble at any time. The 
 wise teacher will choose which of these two plans 
 will best serve the occasion. 
 
 PUBLIC OPINION 
 
 The leader's most important work will be to 
 train his pupils to take such pride in the music that 
 they will tolerate nothing that impairs its perfec- 
 tion. When this is accomplished, the lawlessly- 
 inclined student will be kept in line by the public 
 opinion of the class. No punishment the teacher is 
 able to mete out approaches in effectiveness the 
 weight of public opinion.
 
 50 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 It should be the rule that pupils should keep at 
 work in the chorus class and do as much as they can 
 no matter what the quality of the result. A pupil's 
 standing in the music class should be determined by 
 the effort put forth rather than by the quality of the 
 effect. This standard will appeal to all as fair and 
 will encourage those who have not had the advantage 
 of a good musical education in the grades. The 
 leader must be continuously on the watch to see that 
 every pupil is working all the time. Whenever a 
 pupil is lazy, wasting his time, or out of order, he 
 should have it brought home to him quietly and per- 
 sonally that he is disturbing the efficiency of the 
 class. If he is not doing his best, the class suffers. 
 If he is attracting attention, the class suffers. Since 
 anything he does that is not helping is hindering the 
 whole class, he should be made to answer for it. 
 This will develop his feeling of individual respon- 
 sibility for the good of the whole lesson. At the 
 end of the month all these lapses should be taken 
 into account when determining the standing of the 
 pupil. 
 
 When a pupil fails in any subject he is often very 
 sure that he has been badly treated and that the 
 teacher has a grudge against him, or at least he tries 
 to make the teacher think so. To silence these ob- 
 jectors slips like the following should be prepared 
 and kept on hand. They can either be printed or 
 made on a typewriter.
 
 CHORUS 5 1 
 
 Date Hour of Chorus.. 
 
 FAILED IN CHORUS WORK 
 
 Why 
 
 Signature of Pupil 
 
 Whenever a pupil is not doing his full duty he 
 may be handed one of these slips. Not a word need 
 be said to disturb the others. Requiring a pupil 
 then and there to write out and sign the reason for 
 failing to do his work gives him food for thought 
 that is very salutary. These slips can be filed away, 
 and if there is any question at the end of the month 
 what the pupil's mark should be, the exhibition of 
 these records in the hand writing of the pupil him- 
 self will quiet any remonstrance he may wish to 
 offer. The pupils realize that it is a rather serious 
 matter for the teacher to have such a document in 
 his possession. They seldom have to be handed 
 the second slip for the same offense. It is not well, 
 however, to keep these slips hanging over a pupil 
 for more than the current month. He should be 
 allowed to start with a clean slate the next month. 
 Some system might also be devised whereby a pupil 
 might redeem his slip or slips, by extra good work 
 for a certain length of time. 
 
 THE "HONOR SYSTEM" 
 
 After the first four weeks of school during which 
 time the students have become acquainted one with 
 the other, they are given the opportunity to elect
 
 52 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 their honor students, those who have shown the 
 best qualities of self-government and musicianship. 
 Each row informally, quickly and quietly elects 
 its honor student who takes the end seat in that row. 
 The honor student acts as chairman of his row. 
 In case of any disturbance or lack of scholarship, 
 the whole row must leave the class and sacrifice their 
 membership in the class until the student who has 
 destroyed the efficiency of the row makes amends 
 both to his fellow students and to the teacher. It 
 does not take him long to see the injustice of his 
 behavior when counseled by his fellow students out- 
 side the class room. If the student causing the dis- 
 order does not make it right with the class the other 
 students in his row have the privilege of dismissing 
 him from the class, or if they fail to come to an 
 understanding, the whole row must leave the class. 
 Thus far we have not had a single case where a pu- 
 pil did not do the right thing. There are many ad- 
 vantages in this kind of discipline. Mainly it re- 
 lieves the teacher of doing the thing himself thus 
 eliminating the usual hard feelings between teacher 
 and pupil. There is no greater penalty than that 
 penalty which is placed upon a student by his fellow 
 classmen. No student cares to be penalized the 
 second time. It teaches disorderly students that 
 they cannot destroy the efficiency of others and that 
 the sooner they learn to be loyal and respectful to 
 others, the happier they will become and the more 
 respected.
 
 CHORUS 53 
 
 INDIVIDUAL THINKING 
 
 The difficult problem in educating pupils in 
 classes is to get them to think individually while 
 working with others. It is this Inability to think 
 personally in a crowd that is responsible for many 
 accidents and panics. This individual consciousness 
 is especially difficult to develop in the chorus class, 
 and to bring about its development will tax the in- 
 genuity of the best teacher. Teachers are very 
 prone to talk too much and in too general a manner. 
 Whenever a criticism is given it should be given to 
 the individual. It should be given tactfully of 
 course; the pupil should not be "bawled out" before 
 the class. If there is a disturbance of any kind the 
 leader should make certain who is responsible and 
 then bring the responsibility home to him with a 
 failure slip or in some other inconspicuous way. 
 
 The teacher should always think of his class as 
 a collection of individuals. Many chorus leaders 
 see but the mass. The leader should always see 
 pupils as individuals. He should learn the names 
 of the pupils as soon as possible and think of them 
 by name as he sweeps his eye over the class. He 
 should establish a personal relation with each mem- 
 ber of the class as soon as possible and show that he 
 is interested in each and every one. He must really 
 feel this interest and not put it on, as pupils at this 
 age are very hard to deceive. Even if a teacher 
 does not feel this personal interest he can cultivate 
 it if he sets about it. If he is a born teacher, he 
 will feel it instinctively.
 
 54 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 When there is something wrong with the music 
 some pupil should be asked to tell the trouble and 
 how to remedy it. The question, "What did you 
 do to make it better?" will emphasize this personal 
 responsibility. Each pupil must feel personally 
 responsible for the success of the chorus and also 
 understand that as a step in this direction he must 
 help his neighbor to knowledge as well as himself. 
 
 PUPILS SHOULD HELP EACH OTHER 
 
 Many pupils will be found who cannot read 
 music. Each one of these should be put in the care 
 of some good reader. It will be good for the clever 
 pupil to help the dull. The latter will learn to be 
 a help to the class instead of a possible hindrance, 
 and the spirit of the whole class will be raised. 
 These pairs of students should be permitted to sit 
 away from the rest of the chorus where the ex- 
 planations of the teacher pupil will not disturb the 
 singing. They should be urged to work together 
 outside of the class time as much as possible. The 
 pride of both should be awakened in the speed with 
 which the slow pupil learns to take care of himself. 
 A pupil will learn from another pupil faster than 
 he will from the teacher. This distribution of the 
 teaching force not only multiplies the teacher's effec- 
 tiveness but rapidly welds the class into a smoothly 
 running music machine. If a teacher wishes to make 
 friends with his pupils he should get them to help
 
 CHORUS 55 
 
 him and help the school. They like responsibility 
 and public spirit. Here is a fine chance to let them 
 develop both. 
 
 A QUIET MUSIC ROOM 
 
 There must be the appeal of common sense in 
 all the suggestions that a teacher makes to a class. 
 For instance, if there is noise in the class room, it 
 will not do for the teacher to say "keep still," for 
 pupils are very apt to think this expression is noth- 
 ing but a symptom of crankiness on the part of the 
 teacher. The teacher should instead remind the 
 class that a person must have delicate hearing to 
 be a good singer; that noise makes the singing sound 
 out of tune and dulls the ear to the more delicate 
 shadings of music. As this logic will appeal to most 
 of the pupils, they will themselves see that the class 
 is quiet. If a pupil is noisy, the teacher may quietly 
 ask him if he is hard of hearing. This will bring 
 home to him his trouble. 
 
 Whispering is but the sign of lack of something 
 to do or of a lack of self-control. If the student 
 does not respond to the teacher's suggestion that 
 whispering impairs the efficiency of the class and is 
 therefore not fair to the other pupils, the offender 
 should be put between two well-conducted pupils and 
 allowed to absorb a little self-control from them. 
 In most cases this is effective. Often it is well for the 
 teacher to point out to the pupil that a lack of self- 
 control is the cause of his trouble.
 
 56 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 THE INATTENTIVE PUPIL 
 
 The inattentive pupil should be reminded that 
 he has work to do, and that if he cannot make him- 
 self do it it is because he is too weak in driving force 
 to make himself work. When his inattention is 
 laid to lack of mental force, a pupil seldom needs 
 a second reminder. In cases of extreme inattention 
 it is sometimes a salutary thing to tell him that the 
 work is apparently too hard for him and that he 
 may sit in the back of the room and draw pictures 
 or do something simple enough for him to grasp. 
 This will not do with some pupils but it is a very 
 effective awakener with many. After one trial of 
 this plan the pupil usually returns to the class and 
 asks to prove to the teacher and the rest of the class 
 that he is strong enough to do the work. "Show 
 me," says the teacher and the incident is closed. 
 
 Removal to a front seat is another good cure 
 for laziness. Pupils who sing out of tune should 
 also sit in the front seats with a few good pupils 
 to help them so that their out-of-tune singing will 
 not affect the music of the whole class. This section 
 of the front seats should be distinct from the dis- 
 ciplinary section. 
 
 Sometimes a pupil does not sing because he 
 knows the piece already. He should be reminded 
 that since there are others who are trying to learn, 
 it is his duty to do his work so well that the rest 
 will have a better chance to learn. 
 
 Sometimes pupils will not sing just because they
 
 CHORUS 57 
 
 do not want to. It is a poor idea for the teacher 
 to say they must sing. If the fact that they are 
 likely to fail and that the rest of the chorus needs 
 their help does not stir them to activity, it is well to 
 interview them after the class and find out the reason 
 for their attitude. A little heart to heart talk will 
 usually settle the matter. Occasionally one will 
 be found with whom this treatment will not be effec- 
 tive. He may be excused from singing and be re- 
 quired to write out all the music the class sings and 
 put the proper syllables under the notes. This 
 should be accepted by the chorus leader as a sub- 
 stitute for the chorus work provided it is done be- 
 fore the pupil goes home at night. This will bring 
 home to the student the foolishness of the "lazy 
 man's burden" as no other plan will, for the clever 
 teacher will see to it that the class sings enough music 
 to keep the student busy long enough to let this les- 
 son sink in. This logical punishment appealing to 
 the student as fair, a few days of this will bring him 
 to his senses. 
 
 Students who are unable to read music rapidly 
 should be allowed and encouraged to take their 
 books home and lightly pencil the syllables under 
 the notes. 
 
 WHY BOYS DO NOT SING 
 
 There are some boys who do not sing. It is 
 never because they do not want to, or that the 
 quality of their voices deters them. Every boy 
 would like to sing if he thought he could do it well.
 
 58 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 Such boys are afraid to exhibit their slowness of 
 reading. Every boy at a certain age yearns to sing 
 bass and make a good loud noise. The tactful super- 
 visor will try in a variety of ways to reach these 
 boys. The basses should be encouraged to sing 
 loudly until their timidity wears off. One super- 
 visor uses this expression with telling effect, "It 
 takes a man to sing bass. A sissy never can." It 
 will be found that the biggest, strongest boys usually 
 have the best voices. This can be pointed out to 
 them and also the fact that the successful public 
 singers are strong men physically. 
 
 As there is no human being quite so susceptible 
 to flattery as the adolescent male, a little skillfully 
 applied at this age will do wonders for many of 
 them. It is right to do this, for there are times 
 in the life of every boy when a little flattery is the 
 finest thing that can happen to him. This is also 
 true of girls, too, for that matter, though they do 
 not need it as much but get it more often than the 
 boys do at the awkward age. 
 
 In this connection, it will be worth while to call 
 the attention of the class to the place music took 
 in the late war. Singing leaders were appointed 
 for the camps and the soldiers were taught to sing. 
 The bands were nearly doubled in size and their 
 use and number greatly increased. It may be worth 
 while to learn, at this point, what people thoroughly 
 conversant with the conditions in the army camps, 
 had to say on this subject. 
 
 "In this awful war music has received an im-
 
 CHORUS 59 
 
 petus greater than ever before known in history. 
 Every officer and soldier of the four million in the 
 American army today has awakened to the fact 
 that music is an essential in war. 
 
 "The essentials are in order: 
 Food 
 Clothes 
 
 Military equipment 
 Music 
 
 "Why is music an essential? 
 
 "Because it has given to our soldiers a morale 
 which they were unable to obtain by any other 
 means. 
 
 "Colonel O. E. Haint said, 'Singing lifts the 
 men along at the end of a hard day as nothing else 
 can.' 
 
 "Lieutenant-Colonel John W. Abbott said con- 
 cerning singing, 'Nothing is more beneficial in pre-/ 
 serving the health and spirits of the men.' 
 
 "Colonel Robert L. Howze, Chief of Staff, 
 said, 'Successfully trained to sing, men become bet- y 
 ter fitted for the team-work so essential in battle^/ 
 
 "General Pershing called for more music in the 
 same message in which he called for more food and 
 munitions. He says, 'Music is as essential to the 
 soldier as food and sleep.' 
 
 "All the other generals were unanimous in ex- 
 pressing the same sentiment." 
 
 DEVICES 
 
 The devices given for control and discipline are 
 only for use as a last resort. Devices of all sorts
 
 60 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 are for use only when the teacher has failed to 
 present the lesson with the proper appeal. How- 
 ever, since all teachers fail at times, it is only sensible 
 to have a number of plans to be used as occasion 
 requires. 
 
 The very best form of discipline that has ever 
 been devised is to keep the class busy all the time 
 of the lesson. With no idle time on their hands 
 and plenty of work that impresses them as worth 
 while, pupils will need no disciplining. 
 
 LESSON PROGRAM 
 
 In classes where the music is owned by the 
 school it should be distributed before the class as- 
 sembles, or placed where each pupil can get a copy 
 as he enters. Each teacher will have to plan this 
 so that no time is wasted. Where the pupils own 
 their music there is of course no problem of /dis- 
 tribution. 
 
 The page and title of the selections to be sung 
 during the lesson should be on the blackboard. As 
 soon as a dozen pupils are seated the pianist should 
 strike the chord and the leader should begin the 
 lesson at once. As the others enter they may 
 open their books and join in. This plan wastes no 
 time. If the teacher wastes no time the pupils will 
 soon catch the spirit of efficiency and work the 
 harder. Thus the lesson of using time to the best 
 advantage will be taught. The pupils will learn to
 
 CHORUS 61 
 
 come in quietly so as not to disturb the music and 
 there will be no opportunity for visiting or other 
 disturbances. 
 
 Another way to begin a chorus lesson is to treat 
 the chorus room as an auditorium and allow the 
 chorus to enterja.s_any. audience does. They may 
 visit quietly while they are taking their seats, put- 
 ting their school books~ away, and finding the page 
 of the first selection in the chorus book. This gives 
 the young people a moment to chat, which privi- 
 lege they dearly love but which they must be taught 
 not to abuse. When the chorus leader steps to the 
 front of the class, that is the signal for attention; 
 the chord sounds from the piano, the conductor 
 moves his baton ; and the chorus swings into the first 
 piece without loss of time. They have had a little 
 rest; they have been treated like sensible human 
 beings and they are in just the frame of mind to 
 enjoy their singing and get some good from the 
 lesson. 
 
 The lesson should be divided into several parts. 
 First some familiar selections should be sung, lively 
 ones, to waken the class to the joy of energetic sing- 
 ing. A chorus needs this awakening more than other 
 classes. Next, new music should be read. Finally, 
 the lesson should be closed with familiar songs and 
 one or two sung from memory while the music is 
 being collected and put in place for the next class. 
 A good marching song may be sung as the class is 
 dismissed. Others of the school may join in and
 
 62 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 / 
 
 the whole building made to ring with the song as 
 the pupils go to their various class rooms. 
 
 The less the leader has to say the better in all 
 school work. The chorus class is no exception. 
 Having the page and title of the selections on the 
 board will do away with some talk on his part. In- 
 stead of announcing the page, the leader may simply 
 point to the next on the board and proceed. He 
 must of course make some comments on the music 
 but these will be reduced to the minimum if he has 
 taught his pupils to follow the baton as outlined in 
 the chapter on conducting. 
 
 One leader used a clever device to restore order 
 when certain chorus members insisted on whispering 
 while they were finding the page of a new selection. 
 He simply arranged the lesson with songs that were 
 in the same or related keys and tapped for them to 
 hold the last chord of one piece while they turned 
 to the next. Then he tapped twice and started them 
 to singing. This gave no time for conversation and 
 at the same time strengthened the singing muscles. 
 It made one think of the heartless parent who com- 
 pelled her hapless child to whistle while stoning 
 raisins. 
 
 SINGING NEW MUSIC 
 
 It is easy for the teacher to conduct the opening 
 and closing parts of the lesson where the class is 
 singing familiar music, for all the pupils do well if 
 the selections fit the class and the occasion. The
 
 CHORUS 63 
 
 middle portion of the lesson, where new music is 
 sung, will tax the ingenuity of the best teacher to 
 bring out all the ability the class possesses. Teach- 
 ers as a rule expect too little of their pupils. This 
 is especially true of the chorus leader, and it shows 
 particularly when the class sings new music. The 
 pupils should learn that in all ensemble music, but 
 especially when they are reading music for the first 
 time, they are getting the best training. It is the 
 individual effort of every member of the class doing 
 team work of the finest and hardest kind that makes 
 the chorus work perfect, that gives him the most 
 good personally, and gives the other fellow a chance 
 to make good also. 
 
 LOGICAL SEQUENCE 
 
 The logical sequence of reading music as out- 
 lined in the chapter on "Reading Music" in "Grade 
 School Music Teaching" should be kept constantly 
 before the pupils. The words "Sing, Time, Notes, 
 Words, Expression" should be on the board where 
 they can be referred to at any time, and when the 
 work does not go well, they should be asked where 
 they have failed to follow the logical order. If 
 their habits of singing, keeping time, etc., are not 
 correct these habits should be reviewed and re- 
 established and the importance of these habits should 
 be impressed upon the pupils. Full directions for 
 achieving these ends will be found in the chapter 
 on Reading Music in the book referred to above.
 
 64 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 The greatest educational value of music study 
 should be brought out when the pupils are reading 
 new music. This part of the lesson shows whether 
 the leader is an educator or not. Here will appear 
 evidence to show whether the leader does all the 
 work or whether the pupils have learned to use their 
 own initiative and are doing the fearless team work 
 so necessary to effective membership in the high 
 school chorus or in the chorus of life. 
 
 New music should be taken up in several ways. 
 Some of the new selections should be sung with the 
 piano the first time as a choral society would sing 
 them. The leader should assume that every pupil 
 reads music well. Pupils should learn that mistakes 
 are of no consequence and, furthermore, should never 
 be reproved for them. They should sing the piece 
 through in the proper time, at the first attempt no 
 matter how many mistakes they make. This will 
 give the pupils a correct idea of the piece as a whole 
 the first time they go through it. The mistakes can 
 be corrected later. Too much reading of new music 
 in this way will, however, make the pupils careless 
 and cause them to relapse into being mere guessers, 
 no matter how good their preparation has been. To 
 obviate this some of the new music should be sung 
 by syllable without the piano and without the beat- 
 ing of time by the leader. In taking up a new piece 
 by syllable the pupils should hold their books and
 
 CHORUS 65 
 
 beat time as outlined in the chapter on "Rhythm" 
 in "Grade School Music Teaching." If the music 
 room is provided with desks or chairs with desk 
 arms, the books may be laid flat. If the room is 
 provided with opera chairs, the pupils may lean for- 
 ward and lay the books flat on the top of the back 
 of the chair in front, holding the book steady with 
 the left hand and beating time with the right. The 
 leader may then walk around and help the weak 
 ones. He will be able to spot these unerringly in 
 the largest class by the way the fingers are pointing. 
 This pointing of the finger shows just what and how 
 much or little the pupil knows. In this work also 
 the pupils must hold to the logical sequence of read- 
 ing music and keep going, singing smoothly and in 
 time, no matter how many mistakes they make or 
 how bad the music sounds. 
 
 It will save time if some routine is adopted to 
 be used whenever the class reads new music by 
 syllable. The following is a good one. 1. Sing the 
 piece once with syllable, pointing and beating time. 
 2. Repeat with words, also pointing and beating 
 time. 3. Hold books up and repeat with words. 
 4. Close books and sing from memory. 5. Open 
 books and sing the next selection. All this the stu- 
 dents should do without being told. The teacher 
 may vary this routine or adopt any other, but one 
 should be agreed upon and the pupils should under- 
 stand that it is to be followed when no other orders 
 are given and followed without their being reminded* 
 or losing a beat between times.
 
 66 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 STUDENTS HELP EACH OTHER 
 
 The chorus leader will not be able to help all the 
 pupils in a large class who need his help. He should 
 therefore enlist a few of the best readers among the 
 pupils as helpers and put them in charge of sections 
 of the chorus to help the lame and halting. This 
 will not only make the teacher's work more effective 
 by multiplying it many times, but will also bring 
 about a fine spirit of cooperation on the part of the 
 pupils. Giving them a glimpse of the teacher's 
 side of the work will induce a new respect for the 
 teacher and his problems. 
 
 Too much syllable work will make the pupils 
 slow readers but will make them accurate. Too 
 much work with the piano will make them rapid 
 though careless and dependent. A third way is to 
 take some of the new songs' words first without the 
 piano or leader, leaving out the first number of the 
 above routine. The ingenious teacher will see and 
 employ many usable variations of the foregoing sug- 
 gestions. 
 
 Treating new selections in these different ways 
 will make the chorus an efficient body of singers and 
 will give them an education in music, concentration, 
 efficiency, and initiative such as is afforded by no 
 other study in the whole curriculum. 
 
 MOTIVE 
 
 In all this work the leader should see that the 
 motive force comes from the pupils. He should
 
 CHORUS 67 
 
 teach them early in the game that they are to work 
 whenever there is an opportunity instead of when- 
 ever they are told. He should convince them that 
 they should come to school to get all they can and 
 not all they have to. He should make them feel 
 that they are to keep the lesson moving, that the 
 teacher is merely the steersman and advisor. This 
 treatment will throw the responsibility upon the 
 pupils where it belongs. When the moving force 
 comes from the pupils habitually the teacher may 
 stop the class and drill as he sees fit, but on no 
 account are the pupils to get the idea that they may 
 stop for mistakes or anything else unless the leader 
 stops them. Following this rule will save much 
 time, and pupils will develop such alert and fearless 
 habits of mind that they will read music rapidly, ac- 
 curately, and eagerly. 
 
 PRACTICE 
 
 It is a good plan to sing a new selection but once 
 or twice at the first lesson and then lay it away to 
 be finished and polished at another time, using the 
 devices referred to in the chapters on "Singing," 
 "Rhythm," and "Reading Music," in "Grade School 
 Music Teaching." The class should be watched 
 closely, and when they show signs of fatigue or lack 
 of interest another selection should be given them 
 to sing. It is far better to practice a piece at sev- 
 eral different lessons than to spend too much time 
 on the same piece at one lesson. Developing the\ 
 pride of the class in the perfection of the finish of 
 
 v
 
 68 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 the music so that they submit to the necessary drill- 
 ing is one of the most important and difficult parts 
 of the teacher's work with high school students. 
 One set of students will think anything is good 
 enough while another set will be very particular 
 about the music and promptly resent any slackness. 
 How to weld these two extremes into a whole will 
 keep the teacher working and compel him to use all 
 the tact and ingenuity he can command. 
 
 INDIVIDUAL WORK 
 
 The time is too short and the numbers too many 
 for individual work in the chorus classes. Nor 
 should there be any need of such individual work 
 as the pupils should be so well prepared that it is 
 not necessary. They seldom are, however, and so 
 many devices may be used to get the effect of in- 
 dividual work without taking so much of the class 
 lesson time as individual work requires. Allowing 
 ^pupils to help each other both in and out of the class 
 time as outlined above is one good way. Another 
 way is to divide the class into sections and let each 
 section sing a part of the music while the others 
 listen. For example, if the pupils are seated in 
 twelve rows from front to back the first three rows 
 across the room may be the first section, the second 
 three rows the second section, etc. These sections 
 may sing in turn and the others be allowed to criti- 
 cise their work. Another excellent way is to seat 
 the pupils by quartettes as is outlined on page 39.
 
 CHORUS 69 
 
 ACCOMPANISTS 
 
 A good chorus accompanist is a prime requisite 
 but hard to get. Accompanists should be developed 
 from among the pupils whenever possible, as play- 
 ing for a chorus is fine training for a pianist. The 
 piano should be an accompaniment, and not a leader 
 or a coverer as it so often is. The piano cleverly 
 played will help the chorus wonderfully. Improp- 
 erly used it will do more to spoil a chorus than any- 
 thing that has yet been devised. 
 
 With the limited time given to music in the 
 grades, pupils seldom become expert in modulation; 
 hence there is a great deal of modern music" thaf~ 
 pupils cannot sing well by syllable without some help 
 from the piano. This phase of modern music is a 
 stumbling block to the usual chorus singer, as the 
 instrument he uses, his voice, can make only one tone 
 at a time and any one making only one tone at a 
 time whether by means of the voice or an instru- 
 ment has difficulty in developing a very complete 
 sense of harmony. Then again much of the music 
 he sings is not harmonically complete in the voice 
 parts, and is only made complete by the addition of 
 the accompaniment. With the meager harmonic 
 sense that he has been able to develop by singing 
 part work in the grades, the average high school 
 student is poorly equipped on the harmonic side to 
 cope with the music he should study in the high 
 school. Hence the piano must fill in the gaps in his 
 harmonic knowledge without diminishing his ability 
 and fearlessness in using the sense of time and tune
 
 70 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 and the limited feeling for harmony he already pos- 
 sesses. 
 
 Most of the selections having few or no modula- 
 tions, and having the complete harmony in the voice 
 parts, should be sung unaccompanied the first time. 
 The chorus should also attempt some of the more 
 harmonically involved pieces in the same way to de- 
 velop the harmonic ingenuity of the pupils. 
 
 When the chorus is singing a new piece the skil- 
 ful accompanist with the foregoing in mind will 
 listen carefully to the chorus, ready to play either 
 the parts, or the accompaniment, or parts of both, 
 as needed. When the singers show signs of losing 
 their sense of tonality he will play just enough to 
 reestablish this; he must use judgment and skill in 
 selecting from the voice parts or accompaniment just 
 what and how much he will play. When a modula- 
 tion occurs, keeping the foregoing in mind, he will 
 contribute a few needed chords to help carry the 
 chorus into the new key, and then, allowing the 
 chorus to carry itself, the accompanist will subside 
 into watchful waiting again. The pianist must sup- 
 ply only what the pupils really lack in knowledge, 
 not what they lack in initiative. A large part of the 
 pianist's skill lies in seeing this difference. Just 
 enough piano must be used to stimulate them to use 
 all the power they possess, not enough to make them 
 lazy. This is a very difficult thing to do. It re- 
 quires a very skilful player and one with judgment 
 as well as skill to do it correctly. 
 
 When pieces are nearing completion the whole
 
 CHORUS 71 
 
 accompaniment should be played and pupils taught 
 to look at, and read, the accompaniment as this 
 part of the selection is very important, especially 
 in the modern music. Some of the pieces should 
 have the accompaniment played as the pupils sing 
 them the first time so that the chorus may practice 
 reading parts and accompaniment at once. 
 
 The chorus leader will need to do some plan- 
 ning to keep his classes supplied with good accom- 
 panists. A fine way to develop them is to organize 
 the piano students of the school into a piano club 
 and have the members play before each other. Some 
 pupil should be requested to play a piano solo at 
 the chorus lesson occasionally. Different pupils 
 should be given certain chorus selections to work out 
 with their private teachers. As many pupils as pos- 
 sible should have a chance to play for the chorus. 
 Competitive trials should be held for pianists to 
 take part in. Many other ways will suggest 
 themselves, the wise leader making sure that 
 enough piano players are growing up in his school 
 so that when one graduates he will not be left help- 
 less as so often happens when one pupil has been 
 allowed to monopolize all the chances to play for 
 the chorus. 
 
 CHORUS CREDITS 
 
 Chorus work should be credited the same as any 
 other study. It is, we must admit, something of a 
 reflection on the quality of the education we give
 
 72 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 the pupils in our high schools that we have to hold 
 out hopes of reward in the shape of credits to make 
 them work. Such a condition will continue to exist, 
 however, until we have taught the pupil to look at 
 his education in the light of an opportunity instead 
 of a task, and until he comes to school to get all 
 he can and not all he has to. 
 
 It is obviously unfair to mark down a pupil with 
 a poorly developed sense of pitch when he does the 
 best nature allows him to do. It is also unfair to 
 mark high a pupil because he has a correct sense of 
 pitch. The fair way is to mark each one on the 
 effort he puts forth. Let the pupil's deportment and 
 general attitude toward the chorus work also be a 
 determining factor in his mark. This would not be 
 fair in other subjects that call for individual skill. 
 It is perfectly fair, however, in the chorus class, 
 which is a community subject, since the members 
 are so dependent upon each other for a perfect re- 
 sult. 
 
 Schools differ so much in their ways of marking 
 that no scheme can be given here. The best and 
 simplest way is to give but two marks, "Satisfac- 
 tory" and "Unsatisfactory." The students have, 
 either done their work or they haven't. These two 
 marks should be sufficient. However, the chorus 
 leader should make his marks fair and conform to 
 the marking scheme used by the teachers of other 
 subjects. 
 
 The following is the plan used in the Minne- 
 apolis high schools:
 
 CHORUS 73 
 
 1. CHORUS 
 
 All pupils attending the Minneapolis high schools 
 attend chorus classes as follows: 
 
 Required In the first and second year, two 
 periods each week. 
 
 Optional In the third and fourth years, one 
 period each week. ( 1 ) two periods a week for one 
 semester of each year, (2) two periods a week for 
 both semesters of one year. Pupils who wish chorus 
 two periods a week during all of the third and fourth 
 years .will be permitted to take it. 
 
 Voice Test The Supervisor of Music will test 
 each voice in the chorus twice each year. Pupils 
 desiring more frequent tests may have the same by 
 applying to the Supervisor of Music. 
 
 Credits One credit for the two required years. 
 One credit for a year's work in either the third or 
 fourth year. These two music credits may be used 
 for graduation from any course. 
 
 MATERIAL 
 
 The question of material for the chorus is a 
 vital one. If there is material enough of the right 
 kind, the chorus will be a success, when there is a 
 good leader. If there is not material enough, no 
 mafiterhow fine the leading and other conditions, 
 the^Krus will amount to little. It is an expensive 
 thing to* furnish enough music to keep up the inter- 
 est in the high school chorus work, and it is only 
 possible where the Board of Education buys the
 
 74 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 material. Where the pupils buy the music books, 
 it is out of the question to ask them to purchase 
 enough. Good material and plenty of it of many 
 kinds should be the motto of every music supervisor. 
 Mrs. Means might have been addressing supervisors 
 of music when she gave her celebrated bit of advice, 
 "Git while yer gittin; git it good and git a plenty." 
 It is a mistake to select too easy music for the 
 high school pupil. He is very much grown up when 
 he enters high school, or at least he thinks he is, 
 and it is just as well to recognize and take advantage 
 of this notion of his. Grown-up music will cause 
 him to work all the harder. In music as well as 
 anything else a pupil gets out of it in knowledge and 
 enjoyment just about as much as he puts into it in 
 the way of effort, and anything that will make him 
 want to put forth more effort is so much gained. 
 On the other hand it should not be forgotten that 
 music has many sides, and that amusement is one 
 of the important ones. Since pupils should be 
 trained for amusement as well as work, many selec- 
 tions of a lighter kind should be used. U A bit of 
 nonsense now and then is relished, etc." ; and a bit of 
 well-sung rag time has started many a lazy class on 
 the upward musical climb. 
 
 Is' In cities where there are several high schools it 
 is a good plan to get different music for each high 
 school. When one school has finished a book or 
 selection, it should trade with another school. Thus 
 the library is made several times larger at no added 
 expense. Of course the material will wear out some-
 
 CHORUS 75 
 
 wJiat faster under this plan, but pupils should be 
 taught to care for public property even more care- 
 fully than they do for their own. 
 
 The pupils should be taught to turn the leaves 
 quickly and noiselessly. This will keep the class 
 quiet, the music will sound better, and the books 
 will last far longer. Furthermore, the pupils will 
 also learn to take care of public property in case 
 the books belong to the school. The best way is to 
 grasp the edge of the page or one of the corners 
 with the thumb and finger. 
 
 VARIETY OF MATERIAL 
 
 The material should be selected with a view to 
 giving the pupil a well-rounded education in all 
 kinds of choral music during the high school course. 
 There is little that cannot be sung by high school 
 pupils if the voices are tested properly and watched 
 carefully. 
 
 Every pupil should surely know one or more of 
 the great oratorios like the "Messiah," "Elijah," or 
 the "Creation," which stand at the head of the 
 choral forms of music. He should both study and 
 hear these given in their entirety. Next should come 
 me great cantatas like "Hiawatha," and lighter ones 
 like "Swan and Skylark," "Rose Maiden," and 
 "Joan of Arc." There is a wealth of these latter 
 to choose from. They have beautiful music and 
 fascinating stories. There are operas both light 
 and grand which can be studied by the whole school
 
 76 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 and given in concert form by the whole ckss, or 
 given with costume and action by a smaller number. 
 These operas well repay study, but we are limited 
 to a comparatively small number as there are few 
 opera stories which will bear very close inspection, 
 and the supervisor will wisely limit himself to 
 proper stories in selecting operas for student 
 presentation. Some of the greatest choral music 
 known is in the form of masses. Pupils should 
 know something of this form of sacred choral mu- 
 sic, but unfortunately the use of these masses in 
 public schools is liable to promote ill-feeling. For a 
 similar reason the use of the Messiah is not tactful 
 in a school containing Jewish children. 
 
 USE OF VOICE 
 
 Many people question the advisability of using 
 these great choral pieces, saying that the pupils will 
 strain their voices. Years ago it was said that sing- 
 ing Wagner ruined the voices of the singers, but such 
 was not the case. Singing never harmed any voice. 
 Yelling does. When Lilli Lehmann, Lillian Nordica, 
 and Jean de Reszke came along, the world found 
 out that singing Wagner was perfectly safe for the 
 voice. It is not the music that is dangerous, but 
 the way the voice is used that does the damage. If 
 pupils use their voices easily and correctly, they will 
 be just as safe singing an oratorio as a lullaby. 
 
 There are a number of oratorios, operas, and 
 cantatas published with the chorus parts only. This
 
 CHORUS 77 
 
 makes the music cheap but these chorus copies are 
 of doubtful value. One of the principal reasons 
 why these compositions in their entirety are so use- 
 ful and interesting is that they tell a more or less 
 connected story both in the words and in the music. 
 The music of the accompaniment and the words and 
 music of the solos, duets, etc., are very important 
 parts of the piece, and the pupils in the chorus never 
 have a chance to learn these if they use only the 
 chorus copies. The solos and the concerted pieces 
 for the soloists should be sung occasionally by the 
 chorus so that every one will get an idea of the 
 whole piece. When the concert is given, the pupils 
 will derive an exquisite pleasure from hearing and 
 following the score of the music they already know 
 as it is sung by fine soloists and played by^the or- 
 chestra instead of on the piano. It is not a wise 
 thing to purchase these chorus editions unless forced 
 to by circumstances. The added interest and edu- 
 cation the chorus receives well repays the added ex- 
 pense of the regular vocal scores. Also when pur- 
 chasing these books the buyer should be sure that 
 they are bound very strongly, as there is a great deal 
 of tvear and tear on music books. Moreover, a 
 book once purchased should be a permanent addi- 
 tion to the library to be used when desired. 
 
 LIGHTER MUSIC 
 
 In addition to the larger forms of choral music 
 spoken of above, there is a vast amount of choral
 
 78 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 music in the shape of detached choruses of all kinds 
 ranging from the big, heavy choruses to the light, 
 simple and humorous ones. There are also many 
 fine selections for men's voices that are perfectly 
 feasible for the high school chorus. The altos, 
 tenors, and basses can use these to good advantage. 
 There are also beautiful choruses for women's 
 voices. The sopranos and altos should sing some of 
 these, the basses and tenors being permitted to listen. 
 
 "ARRANGED MUSIC" 
 
 Much music specially arranged for high schools 
 has been published. The better way, however, is 
 to purchase the regular octavo editions as you will 
 then be likely to get the original and not some pas- 
 teurized version. The publishing houses are not to 
 blame for such versions. It is the demand that calls 
 out the product, and supervisors have been so timid 
 about giving their pupils good strong music that 
 they have created a demand for simplified versions. 
 In many of the "arranged" pieces the finest part of 
 the music has been left out. Years ago when I was 
 a callow youth I purchased an "arranged" edition 
 of the "Song of the Vikings." The high school sang 
 it with much joy, and I liked it myself. Later, hav- 
 ing joined a choral society that sang the original 
 of the same song, I learned that one of the best 
 parts had been omitted. I left that rehearsal, my 
 reformation sudden and complete, and gently placed 
 my edition in the furnace and purchased the real
 
 CHORUS 79 
 
 thing. Pupils will like the original editions much 
 better than the arranged versions even if they are 
 harcfer, and, furthermore, will not be so apt to lose 
 faith in their education later in life. The immortal 
 "Sextette" from Lucia is seldom attempted as it is 
 sung by an opera company. In school music it mas- 
 querades in various forms both vocal and instru- 
 mental all the way from a solo to even a quartette. 
 How much finer it is when done by a sextette, chorus, 
 and orchestra, as it was intended to be sung. Any 
 high school can sing it in the original form, and it 
 is infinitely more effective than in any "arrange- 
 ment" There are many other horrible examples, 
 but these will suffice. There is no need of using 
 any special arrangement of music to have the tenor 
 part sung properly. The regular octavo edition can 
 be used if the voices are tested as outlined in the 
 chapter on testing voices in "Grade School Music 
 Teaching" and the parts arranged as suggested 
 there. The tenor part will be as good as any other 
 part in the average high school. 
 
 4 
 
 UNISON SONGS 
 
 Some unison songs should be used. They are 
 safer in the high school than in the upper grades, as 
 the voices are more settled and have a wider usable 
 compass. Patriotic selections should be in the reper- 
 toire of every chorus. School songs of many sorts 
 should be sung. If they are original in both words 
 and tunes, all the better. Songs should be sung for
 
 80 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 the modern language classes and the ancient lan- 
 guages as well. A piece of ragtime will not be amiss 
 occasionally. Pupils who have been brought up on 
 a good class of music will take rag time as a joke 
 and sing it once in a while just for fun, just the same 
 as they will tell a funny story. The supervisor 
 who says that rag time is wicked and will have none 
 of it will arouse in his pupils a desire to sing it just 
 to see him get "peeved." If he laughs about it and 
 treats it as a good joke, the rag time song will as- 
 sume its proper place in the pupil's mind. The war 
 has shown us what good unison songs sung by large 
 bodies of people will do. We should perpetuate 
 this in our high schools by using many of the new 
 songs as they appear. 
 
 The cleverness of the supervisor shows nowhere 
 better than in his selection of music. The amount 
 of available material is so vast that there is enough 
 to fit every condition if the chorus leader will but 
 hunt for it. The high school chorus leader in Maine 
 has a different problem from the one in California. 
 Small-town conditions differ from those in the large 
 city. The plan of organization will make a differ- 
 ence in the selection of material. Many people write 
 us asking suggestions for high school music material. 
 It is very difficult to advise as a stranger cannot 
 know the local conditions. 
 
 The supervisor must also select music that will 
 suit the age and numbers of his chorus. A small 
 chorus, no matter how well-balanced or trained, 
 should let the Messiah alone. It will sound feeble
 
 CHORUS 81 
 
 with few voices and the musical effect will not be 
 good. The pupil's likes and dislikes in music should 
 be watched closely, especially when establishing mu- 
 sic in a high school. After the pupils have become 
 interested in chorus music itself, it does not make 
 so much difference as they will find enjoyment in all 
 kinds of choral music. The pupils should be allowed 
 to help select the music they are going to sing, when- 
 ever possible. And they should be encouraged to 
 hear all the chorus music they can. If there is a 
 choral society available, they should be urged to 
 attend the concerts and, if they like a piece they hear, 
 the leader should get it for the school. When they 
 hear a particularly fine anthem sung by the church 
 choir, it should be purchased for the chorus if it is 
 not too sectarian. 
 
 Some time ago an interesting experiment was 
 tried in one of the Minneapolis high schools. The 
 leader asked that each pupil hand in an unsigned 
 list of his three favorite songs, those receiving the 
 highest number of voices to be learned and sung by 
 the choruses. Not a piece of ragtime was suggested. 
 The three receiving the highest number were, in 
 order, "A Perfect Day," "Rosary," and "Holy 
 City." Not a bad list when you remember that no 
 attempt had been made to influence their selection. 
 When the selections were decided upon, the pupils 
 were asked to bring copies they owned and use them 
 in the school. Copies were brought in all keys. At 
 times the sopranos sang in the high key; then the 
 basses in the low; then all in a medium key; and
 
 82 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 they decided which was the most suitable for each 
 song. 
 
 The chorus leader will think of many interest- 
 ing variations of, and additions to, the foregoing 
 suggestions as to material. A supervisor must ac- 
 quaint himself with the material suitable for high 
 school music in all its phases, a huge and necessary 
 task. He should have a large and constantly grow- 
 ing library of music. Building up such a library is 
 easy for the one who works in the large town or 
 city for he can haunt the music stores. The super- 
 visor in the small town, however, has a little harder 
 task, but he can do a great deal by mail, as any 
 store is glad to send music on approval to reliable 
 people.
 
 CHAPTER 3 
 GLEE CLUBS 
 
 There are many activities in the high school 
 that need music to round them out; there is a large 
 and interesting class of vocal music that does not 
 sound well when sung by a large chorus; and there 
 are in every high school a number of talented singers 
 who should have special training. These needs can 
 be met by organizing glee clubs, among both boys 
 and girls. These clubs should sing separately and 
 in combination. 
 
 SIZE OF CLUB 
 
 Each club should be large enough to give a 
 got)d body of tone and not so large as to be cum- 
 bersome. Not more than thirty-two should belong 
 to either club. Some difficulty is usually encountered 
 in finding enough low voices among the girls and 
 enough high voices among the boys. The size of 
 each club must be governed by the number of these 
 voices available, for the parts must balance or the 
 music will not be good. Second alto boys may be 
 used to help out the first tenor, but this is usually 
 unsatisfactory as their voices may change suddenly
 
 84 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 and leave the club unbalanced in the face of a public 
 performance. Furthermore, the older boys are not 
 always willing to sing with "kids." 
 
 Voices should be selected very carefully, and 
 only those whose voices sound/well together should 
 be admitted to membership. yThe glee club should 
 be organized with a two-fold purpose; the develop- 
 ment of the individual pupil, and the appearance of 
 the group before the public.^ For both reasons the 
 best possible organization should be built up. 
 
 ORGANIZATION 
 
 The organization of a glee club should be some- 
 thing of a ceremony, and the candidates should pass 
 a rigid examination before being admitted. Of 
 course the examination must be graduated to the 
 ability of the pupils of the school. When the glee 
 club is being organized for the first time, the ex- 
 amination may be less rigid than when the club is 
 well established. It is a mistake to make the en- 
 trance too easy even at the beginning, for what is 
 easy is seldom prized. The club's public work must 
 be pleasing, or the club will fall into disrepute and 
 die from lack of support. It is far better to start 
 with a small but effective organization than a larger 
 one of poorer quality. 
 
 Plenty of publicity should be given before the 
 organization is undertaken so that every pupil in 
 the school will know about the club and have his 
 mind made up whether he will try out or not. The
 
 GLEE CLUBS 
 
 85 
 
 invitation should be to all pupils, and no pupil should 
 be invited personally to join. It is not well for any- 
 one to get an exaggerated notion of his importance. 
 It should be made plain to every pupil that he can 
 get into the glee club if he can sing well enough, 
 is willing to work, and if there is a vacancy. 
 
 Before the examination the leader should pre- 
 pare blanks for each voice part like the following 
 sample, which is for the first bass. With these 
 blanks an accurate record may be kept for reference, 
 the best voices selected for membership, the others 
 kept on the waiting list. 
 
 GLEE CLUB EXAMINATION BLANK 
 
 Date, Jan. 4, 1919 
 Part. First Bass. Mark candidate from 1 (beet) to 4 (poorest). 
 
 Name 
 
 Power 
 
 Quality 
 
 Intonation 
 
 Com- 
 pass 
 
 Read- 
 ing 
 
 General 
 Remarks 
 
 Jones, f ohn 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 ' 2 
 
 b-d 
 
 2 
 
 Earnest 
 
 Smith, James 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 S-e 
 
 1 
 
 Lazy 
 
 The candidates should be asked to assemble and 
 seat themselves according to the parts they have 
 been accustomed to singing. Even though the ex- 
 aminer may know the ability of the candidates per- 
 fectly well, the examination should be held just the 
 same to eliminate all suspicion of unfairness. 
 
 The exercise outlined in the chapter on voice 
 testing in "Grade School Music Teaching" should
 
 86 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 be used to determine the first four numbers on the 
 above blank. For the reading test each pupil should 
 be asked to read a piece of music new to him by 
 singing his part against three other voices singing 
 the three other parts of some four-part selection. 
 The last item must be filled in from general knowl- 
 edge of the applicant. In testing for intonation the 
 leader should require the applicant to begin his test 
 without help from the piano to test the pupil's 
 memory for pitch. As the pupil has doubtless just 
 heard the same pitch used by the last applicant, it 
 is not usually too much to ask. Also the pupil 
 should be allowed to sing the test exercise through 
 several times to determine his ability to stay on the 
 pitch in long passages. When he starts on the 
 wrong pitch the correct pitch should be given to 
 start him correctly and blown at the end to see how 
 true he has remained. The piano may give the pitch, 
 but under no circumstances should it or any other 
 instrument accompany the pupil during the test. 
 
 SELECTION OF MEMBERS 
 
 When all have been tested and recorded as 
 above, it is an easy thing to select the best ones. 
 This should be done by the leader or, if the club is 
 an old, well-organized one, the officers may assist, 
 though the leader must be sure that these officers are 
 not swayed by likes and dislikes rather than by the 
 ability of the various candidates. 
 
 Referring to the items on the examination
 
 GLEE CLUBS 87 
 
 blanks, we see that John Jones has a strong voice 
 of rather poor quality, reads pretty well, and is in 
 earnest. Unfortunately his compass is limited. We 
 might overlook that defect but the third item, intona- 
 tion, counts him out, as no one marked lower than 1 
 in intonation should be taken into a glee club. The 
 second entry, James Smith, while he has a lighter 
 voice, is good in other respects. But he is lazy. 
 He may be taken into the club on probation. If 
 he can be aroused to do the work, he may make a 
 good member. If he cannot be aroused to work 
 he should be dropped at the end of the probation 
 period. 
 
 In selecting the girls for the second soprano 
 part, only those should be taken who can sing so- 
 prano when the clubs unite. If possible, the same 
 care should be taken with the second tenor boys, 
 though this will be more difficult owing to the paucity 
 
 of tenors in the average high school. 
 
 f 
 
 PROBATION 
 
 New members should be taken into the club on 
 six weeks' probation. No matter how good a voice 
 a pupil has or how good an examination he passes, 
 his voice may not 'harmonize with the others, or he 
 may not do good team work in other ways. At the 
 end of the six weeks the leader will be able to de- 
 termine whether the pupil will do or not, and the 
 candidate may then become a member for a year, 
 or be dropped, as his record warrants. If his voice
 
 88 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 changes during the year, and the part to which he 
 changes, is already full, he must drop out. At the 
 beginning of each year another examination should 
 be held, and if new candidates are found that can 
 sing better than the old members, these new ones 
 should replace the old. This will make for the 
 efficiency of the club, as the members will be more 
 likely to work and improve if they know they must 
 pass an examination to hold their places at the end 
 of the year. 
 
 BALANCE OF PARTS 
 
 Great care should be taken to balance the parts 
 when organizing a glee club. The parts should bal- 
 ance as to numbers if possible. They must certainly 
 balance as to power. It will sometimes be found 
 that the outside parts are not strong enough when 
 the numbers are equal. When this happens, more 
 pupils should be placed on the outside parts. For 
 example, if the number in the glee club is thirty, 
 each outside part may number eight, and each in- 
 side part, seven. 
 
 Each member of a glee club should be an inde- 
 pendent singer, able to carry his part correctly alone 
 against the other voices. A fine way to bring this 
 to pass is to organize the club into quartettes. These 
 quartettes should practice together, and each one 
 should have a leader. If the. parts do not balance 
 in numbers as many quartettes as possible should be 
 organized and remaining members placed in quint-
 
 GLEE CLUBS 89 
 
 ettes and sextettes. If a pupil is able to sing his 
 part in a quartette, he will be a valuable member 
 of the club, but if he has to be carried by others he 
 should be dropped. When each member of the club 
 is an independent quartette singer, the club will be 
 able to sing well even when some are unavoidably 
 absent. 
 
 REPERTOIRE 
 
 Each glee club should have a repertoire of songs 
 and be ready to appear on programs for the school 
 or community at any time. The clubs should unite 
 occasionally and sing music for a mixed chorus. 
 
 Serena/ling is very interesting to young people 
 and rightl^ conducted is a very pretty custom. The 
 possibility' of singing a number of pleasing selec- 
 tions under the windows of fair friends, prominent 
 citizen^ or the shut-in-sick, opens up a field of en- 
 deavorthat is well worth the time spent upon it. 
 
 The glee clubs should assist at the Various com- 
 munity "sings" and get up a few of their own. A 
 portable outfit consisting of a lantern, with slides 
 showing the words of the songs, a sheet, ropes, and 
 necessary poles can be easily secured. This outfit 
 can be used either indoors or out. With this outfit 
 and with the glee clubs as a nucleus most interesting 
 informal "sings" can be held in the streets and parks 
 in warm weather. The clubs may sing a few num- 
 bers to attract a crowd, which may then be asked to 
 join in singing a number of familiar selections. As
 
 90 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 it will be too much to ask the whole club to assist 
 at all these community sings, the leader may divide 
 his forces into smaller units and thus multiply the 
 good the clubs can do. 
 
 The glee clubs should sing in the prisons, hos- 
 pitals, and other public institutions whenever they 
 are called upon. It is especially fine for these young 
 people to sing for the unfortunate. 
 
 The members of the glee clubs should feel that 
 their superior ability imposes upon them the respon- 
 sibility of assisting in building up the chorus work 
 of the school. Pupils who get into the glee clubs 
 are very apt to acquire the idea that they are a 
 sort of musical aristocracy and that chorus singing 
 is a trifle beneath them. This idea should never be 
 allowed to take root. The best way to eliminate 
 it is to set the glee club members some task in the 
 regular chorus work of the school such as assisting 
 those pupils who do not read music well. 
 
 The glee clubs should be social as well as mu- 
 sical organizations. Parties, sleigh rides, and social 
 occasions of various kinds should be organized oc- 
 casionally, since these all help to make for interest 
 and tend to build up the coherence and effectiveness 
 of the clubs. 
 
 In addition to making each a regular class, it is 
 a good plan to organize each club in some way, the 
 club having a constitution and by-laws and regularly 
 elected officers. The officers of the club will be 
 able to assist the leader and get valuable executive 
 experience thereby.
 
 GLEE CLUBS 91 
 
 MATERIAL 
 
 There is a wealth of material available for both 
 clubs to sing either separately or together. The 
 success of the clubs depends very largely on the 
 leader's ability to select material that is interesting, 
 suited to the ability of the students, and fits his 
 particular club's conditions. All kinds of music 
 should be included in the repertoire, as the educa- 
 tion of the pupils and the pleasure of the audiences 
 must both be consulted. Serious and frivolous, 
 ^ light and somber music should all be represented. 
 Original compositions and original words set to old 
 tunes to fit local needs should be numbered among 
 the selections. 
 
 Anything written for women's voices may be 
 used by the girls' glee club, but there is sometimes 
 trouble in finding music for the boys. There is a 
 wealth of music for men's voices but much of it 
 is out of the range of boys' voices. There are a 
 number of books compiled with the music within a 
 limited compass and a little searching will reveal 
 much that is usable. In choosing material for both 
 clubs to sing together, the coach should select the 
 lighter compositions and leave ~th~iT~tfeavier pieces 
 to the big chorus. A number of the lighter cantatas 
 for men's voices, for women's voices, and for mixed 
 voices with soloists and orchestra may be used. 
 Unison songs sung by either club are very effective 
 with an orchestra or an organ accompaniment. The 
 best thing that can be done is for both clubs to unite 
 with the orchestra and give an opera.
 
 92 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 GLEE CLUBS REGULAR CLASSES 
 
 The glee clubs should rank as regular classes 
 of the school, should have the same standing, be 
 conducted in the same business-like manner, and re- 
 hearse during school hours. Many glee club re- 
 hearsals, especially of operas, degenerate into mere 
 social occasions. There is no surer way to kill a 
 glee club than to allow this to happen. Pupils like 
 rehearsals to be business-like, get somewhere, and 
 have some reason for being held. Work should be 
 assigned for home study. Furthermore, credit 
 should be allowed and marks given each month or 
 semester the same as in any other subject. 
 
 It is sometimes difficult to find a period in the 
 school day that will accommodate all the members, 
 but a high school program is a very flexible thing 
 and such a period can usually be found. If nothing 
 better can be arranged, the clubs may meet after 
 school, but this is not a very good plan, as there 
 are so many interruptions. 
 
 Like many other classes, glee club rehearsals 
 are sometimes slow and pointless. This should 
 never happen. The leader should have a well- 
 defined plan of rehearsal and then stick to it. This 
 will give a business-like character to the rehearsal 
 that will impress the pupils, make them more inter- 
 ested, and make them work harder. 
 
 REHEARSAL PLAN 
 
 The following general rehearsal plan is sug- 
 gested. This should be placed on the board before
 
 GLEE CLUBS 93 
 
 the time of rehearsal so that no time may be wasted 
 in telling the members what to do. This plan will 
 of course vary with the work the club is doing. 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 7 V 
 
 i 8 
 
 9 
 
 The first group of three should be selections 
 sung from memory, selections that the pupils have 
 learned at previous rehearsals. These should be 
 sung with the best expression of which the club is 
 capable. The leader may either use the baton or 
 not, as he sees fit. The three middle numbers should 
 be those that the pupils have been memorizing 
 since the last lesson. No memorizing should be 
 done at the rehearsals. The whole time should be 
 used to polish up the music. The last three num- 
 bers are selections that should be memorized be- 
 fore the next rehearsal. If the pupils are good 
 readers, it will not be necessary to go over the new 
 music with them before they are asked to learn it. 
 
 The club members should have regular places 
 to stand and sit during public performances, and 
 during the first three numbers of the foregoing pro- 
 gram they should be in their regular places. It is
 
 94 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 very important that the members become accus- 
 tomed to singing with their neighbors, so as to feel 
 at home when performing in public. They should 
 not be too near together. A good rule is to have 
 them stand or sit far enough apart so that the mem- 
 ber's outstretched hand will touch his neighbor's 
 shoulder. Singers must be able to hear themselves 
 and each other to keep in tune, and to do this well 
 there must be spaces between where the voices may 
 resonate. Quartettes often make the mistake of 
 standing too near together. 
 
 During the rehearsal of the second and third 
 groups of the foregoing program the pupils should 
 practice by quartettes. If enough rooms are avail- 
 able, each group should go into a room by itself 
 and practice, the quartette leader taking charge. 
 The club leader may visit each group in turn. If 
 the club meets in a large room or an auditorium, 
 each quartette may practice in a different section of 
 the room, and the leader may listen to each one in 
 turn. Another plan is to seat the club by quartettes. 
 The leader may call upon each quartette by number 
 and in any order. This plan puts each pupil upon his 
 own responsibility, makes good readers of the mem- 
 bers, and gives the leader a chance to mark each 
 pupil on his work. The quartettes, when they sing, 
 may either remain seated, stand in their places, or 
 come to the front of the room. The quartette that 
 is to follow should be in place while the preceding 
 one is singing, and without help from the leader, 
 without losing a beat, sing as soon as the preceding
 
 GLEE CLUBS 95 
 
 quartette has finished. This, it will be seen, is man- 
 aged just as the individual part singing is managed 
 in the upper grades. (See "Grade School Music 
 Teaching.") When a quartette sings its passage 
 correctly, the whole club should sing it over after 
 them to convince the leader that the passage has 
 been sung correctly. The quartettes may be num- 
 bered down from one, the best, and the members 
 may move up to the head quartette as they show 
 Ability. The reward may come in various forms. 
 The first quartette may be the solo quartette and 
 fill some of the best engagements that come to the 
 club. A year ago one first quartette of boys in one 
 of the Minneapolis high schools did a great deal of 
 semi-professional singing. 
 
 The leader may use the piano or not as he 
 pleases during rehearsals, but if he is wise he will 
 insist that the music be so well learned that the 
 piano will not be needed. With music so learned, 
 the piano is an addition and an accompaniment, not 
 a bolster. 
 
 OPERAS 
 
 Giving a light opera or one of the easier grand 
 operas is one of the most interesting and valuable 
 activities possible for the glee clubs and orchestra. 
 Pupils like it, the public likes it, and those taking 
 part get a training in music, dramatic expression,
 
 96 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 and poise that no other school activity gives in a 
 similar measure. A famous high school principal 
 once assembled his teachers and said, "I am going 
 to take the members of the two glee clubs and the 
 orchestra (nearly a hundred pupils in all) from their 
 regular classes three periods daily, two days a week 
 for three weeks to rehearse 'The Chimes of Nor- 
 mandy'. . You teachers are to excuse these pupils 
 from their classes and you are not to compel them 
 to make up the work they have missed. I do not 
 do this to have them learn the opera, but because 
 I am convinced that they are getting more valuable 
 training in the opera company than you are giving 
 them in your classes." These were amazing words, 
 but every supervisor of music knows they are true 
 when the opera rehearsals are handled as they 
 should be. This was the first educator that I ever 
 heard speak so forcibly in support of music. These 
 pupils gave a stunning performance; they enjoyed 
 it as did the audience that filled every available 
 seat; and a goodly sum was netted for the school 
 treasury. 
 
 Rehearsals for an opera must be properly con- 
 ducted or they will waste an enormous amount of 
 time. The music and the Action should be learned 
 together. If this is done, the action will be smooth 
 and authoritative instead of appearing like an after- 
 thought, as it so often does in amateur perform- 
 ances. It must be borne in mind, however, that it 
 is not only impossible to give a performance that ap- 
 proaches the perfection of detail that the profes-
 
 GLEE CLUBS 97 
 
 sional company achieves but it is not desirable, as it 
 takes an enormous amount of time and is apt to 
 cause the pupils to lose the best part of the training. 
 In the professional company every move and expres- 
 sion is carefully thought out by the leader, nothing 
 being left to the ingenuity and individuality of the 
 performer. While this results in a better perform- 
 ance, in the glee clubs the aim is to train the pupil's 
 imagination and ingenuity as well as to give a good 
 show. 
 
 The leader should give the main positions of 
 the chorus and principals, and then allow them to 
 work out the action to suit the words they are sing- 
 ing or saying. This will result in a much more in- 
 telligent action from all. It will also give an ap- 
 pearance of naturalness to the action that the pro- 
 fessional company often lacks. 
 
 The inexperienced leader should send to some 
 music library like "Tarns" in New York City and 
 rent the "stage manager's prompt book." This 
 gives the movements, positions, and costuming. He 
 should memorize this book before the first rehearsal. 
 Chorus and principals should be in place either on 
 the stage or in the rehearsal-room and learn the 
 positions and movements at the same time they are 
 learning the music. Each pupil should have a book 
 so that he may move freely and take the necessary 
 positions. When the positions and music of sev- 
 eral numbers have been rehearsed, the pupils should 
 be told to memorize both before the next rehearsal. 
 The positions should be marked in each book. The
 
 98 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 pupils should also be told to think out the most 
 appropriate action before the next rehearsal, and 
 at the second rehearsal this action should be de- 
 cided upon, written down in the books, and always 
 performed in just that way for that part of the 
 opera. Another section should be taken at the 
 second rehearsal and treated in the same way, and 
 so on until the whole opera is learned. It is not 
 always a good plan to take the opera just as it 
 comes, as there are likely to be parts like the finales 
 of the acts that require more rehearsing than the 
 rest of the opera. These parts should be learned 
 during the first rehearsals. 
 
 The principals should always be present at the 
 chorus rehearsals but they should not take the time 
 of the chorus to rehearse their parts unless they sing 
 with the chorus. The solo parts and concerted num- 
 bers with soloists only, should be worked out at prin- 
 cipals' rehearsals. I am perfectly aware that this 
 will cause the pupils to miss a lot of fun but it will 
 save a good deal of time. After all fun is not the 
 only consideration. 
 
 The pupils must learn to watch the baton very 
 carefully from the very first and learn the music in 
 exact time. Since inability to watch a number of 
 things at the same time brings many amateur com- 
 panies to grief, the members must be trained to do 
 this from the very start. 
 
 The leader must be ready to correct the action 
 of the pupils at any time. This means that he must 
 remember all the movements and positions and not
 
 GLEE CLUBS 99 
 
 change them after they have been decided upon. A 
 poor position or movement well done is far better 
 than a good one poorly or hesitatingly performed. 
 Most amateur leaders, unable to visualize the stage 
 action in advance, grope their way along, making 
 up the action as the company rehearses. This makes 
 the pupils muddy-minded, hesitating in their action, 
 and wastes an enormous amount of time. The 
 N leader might with profit adopt one of the devices 
 of the professional stage manager and make a minia- 
 ture stage of cardboard and figure out the positions 
 and movements with dolls. 
 
 It is often objected that giving an opera turns 
 the pupils' heads, makes them stage struck, and 
 neglectful of their other lessons. This is sometimes 
 true, but it is not necessary, the clever leader see- 
 ing to it that this danger is reduced to the minimum. 
 As singers are very prone to jealousy, it is often 
 difficult to select the principals for an opera. The 
 leader should minimize this danger as much as pos- 
 sible. The best way to do this and to select the 
 principals at the same time is to ask all the members 
 who wish to try for the principal parts to learn 
 the part they think they are best fitted for, and 
 then hold a competitive trial with all members of 
 the clubs present. The one who receives the highest 
 number of votes (the leader of course reserving the 
 right to change the results of the election when it 
 is glaringly at fault) should be considered the one 
 best fitted to sing the part, the next best one to be 
 considered the understudy, ready to sing the part
 
 100 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 if anything happens to the principal performer. 
 Many an amateur opera performance has been 
 crippled by the sudden illness of one of the per- 
 formers with no one ready to take his place. 
 
 CREDITS 
 
 Members of the glee clubs should receive credit 
 for their work the same as they do in other studies 
 and in the same proportion. The following system 
 is in use in Minneapolis and has worked well for 
 a number of years. 
 
 1. GLEE CLUB A girls' glee club will be or- 
 ganized in each high school with not less than six- 
 teen nor more than thirty-two members. 
 
 A boys' glee club will be organized in each high 
 school with not less than sixteen nor more than 
 thirty-two members. 
 
 Requirements Members must ( 1 ) pass an ex- 
 amination in voice and musical ability, (2) attend 
 one ninety-minute or two forty-five minute rehearsals 
 a week, (3) prepare work outside of rehearsals not 
 to exceed three forty-five-minute periods a week, 
 (4) sing, when requested, at any entertainment given 
 by the school authorities. 
 
 Credits One credit will be given for one year's 
 work. Four credits will be given for four years' 
 work. 
 
 The membership of each club is limited to thirty- 
 two and the voices are chosen to balance as to power 
 and if possible as to numbers. When there are not
 
 GLEE CLUBS 101 
 
 enough tenors to make a well balanced club with 
 thirty-two members the number is reduced until the 
 parts do balance. This is more important than a 
 full membership, for if the parts do not balance 
 the music will never be good. Three weeks before 
 the end of a semester a try-out is advertised and all 
 who desire to take the examination for the glee 
 slubs assemble. The examinations which are search- 
 ing, tend to discourage all but the most gifted. All 
 members are Examined once each semester to see 
 if their voices have changed. If they have, the 
 voices are rearranged as to parts. New members 
 are taken for six weeks. If at the end of the trial 
 period they make good they are accepted for a year 
 so that they may earn their full credit. At the end 
 of a year they take another examination to see if 
 they are better than new applicants. 
 
 Any member may be dropped for cause at any 
 time, but the pernicious practice of dropping pupils 
 from the glee clubs when they are down in other sub- 
 jects is not in force in Minneapolis. 
 
 When the glee clubs were first formed the pu- 
 pils did not respond very well, as they waited to be 
 asked. Gradually the idea was drilled into them 
 that the glee club was an organization that one could 
 join if he were good enough and not if he were teased 
 enough. Now it is no uncommon thing for a hun- 
 dred to apply for examination when there are not 
 more than ten vacancies. This shows a healthy 
 spirit, and the long waiting lists make the members 
 who are accepted feel the need of making good.
 
 102 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 Whenever there is a vacancy, one of the pupils from 
 the waiting list is transferred to the club. 
 
 It will be noticed in the foregoing bulletin that 
 outside work is given that requires three forty-five 
 minute periods weekly in addition to the two re- 
 hearsals. This outside work may take the form of 
 rehearsals if enough notice ,is given. All members 
 are required to appear on programs whenever called 
 upon by the school authorities. Those who fail in 
 this without the very best of excuses are dropped 
 at once. This is the way they help pay for their 
 training. If they are not willing to appear, they are 
 not allowed to partake of the benefits of the train- 
 ing. 
 
 Like all such organizations, glee clubs have their 
 ups and downs. While it is sometimes discouraging 
 to the leader to see the best voices graduate, there 
 are usually others to take their places. In brief, the 
 result of this training is that there is in each 
 high school a well-trained body of sixty-four singers 
 receiving a training in music and public spirit. All 
 the while their talents are being developed and kept 
 in readiness for public use.
 
 CHAPTER 4 
 k HIGH SCHOOL ORCHESTRAS AND BANDS 
 
 THE high* school orchestra is a very important 
 organization both on account of its effect upon the 
 players themselves and on account of its relation 
 to the other departments of the school and the com- 
 munity. If there is any one thing that will interest 
 a pupil more than another, give him means of en- 
 joyment, and keep him (or her) out of mischief 
 while growing up, it is playing in an orchestra. The 
 orchestra is a wonderfully sociable institution, and 
 can be made to furnish a lot of pleasure and much 
 hard joyous work. We all know the old adage con- 
 cerning mischief and idle hands. 
 
 Any pupil who plays one of the orchestral in- 
 struments should be in the orchestra, as he not only 
 will receive a fine musical education but learn team 
 work of the most exacting description, and get a 
 good lesson in public spirit by assisting at many 
 school functions. Music should teach unselfishness. 
 The orchestra leader is able to teach this necessary 
 lesson in a very concrete form. 
 
 VOCATIONAL TRAINING 
 
 There is also the vocational side to consider. 
 While a teacher should be chary about advising a
 
 104 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 high school pupil to follow music as a profession, it 
 is perfectly proper to tell him that he can earn 
 money with his music in addition to doing his other 
 life work. It is well for everyone to have an avoca- 
 tion as well as a vocation, to learn amusement as 
 well as work. "It is a poor fiddle that has but one 
 string." If this recreational side of his life can be 
 made remunerative as well as pleasurable, all the 
 better. 
 
 The high school orchestra should give the pu- 
 pil a training that will partially, if not wholly, fit 
 him to do the various things demanded of the rou- 
 tine orchestra player. He should learn to read mu- 
 sic rapidly and accurately both from the printed 
 sheet and from manuscript; to follow the leader's 
 baton in every way; to hear all the other instru- 
 ments; to play his own instrument well; to play all 
 kinds of music; to accompany solo instruments and 
 singers; to play at dances; in short, to get at least 
 a start in all the things a professional orchestra 
 player is called upon to do. While it is of course 
 impossible to turn out symphony players during the 
 four high school years, they can at least get a little 
 taste of the difficult art of orchestral routine. 
 
 The leader should keep two objects in mind when 
 planning work for the high school orchestra, the 
 education of the pupils and assisting the other ac- 
 tivities of the school.
 
 HIGH SCHOOL ORCHESTRAS AND BANDS 105 
 ORGANIZATION 
 
 The best way to organize a high school orchestra 
 is to gather up all the available players, begin with 
 these as a foundation, and build up. Fortunately 
 >almost any combination of instruments sounds well, 
 and to fill up there is the ever present, ever faithful, 
 ever helpful piano. This like every other helpful 
 thing must be used with discretion or it will prove 
 more of a hindrance than a help. 
 
 Pupils often object to playing the less important 
 instruments. They usually dislike to play second 
 violin. This feeling is so prevalent that it has grown 
 into an adage, and the expression "playing second 
 fiddle" has become a term of reproach. All the 
 violin players should learn to play both first and 
 second parts. The discipline of the orchestra should 
 be so well administered that each pupil will learn 
 to look upon all parts as of importance and learn 
 to play the part to which he may be assigned for the 
 good of the whole organization. This is a fine les- 
 son in cooperation and unselfishness. 
 
 The building up of a high school orchestra is 
 a matter of tact, forethought, and hard work on 
 the part of the leader, and one of his hardest prob- 
 lems is securing a variety of instruments. 
 
 The violin is the most popular of the orchestral 
 instruments, and it usually predominates. The su- 
 pervisor will have to use tact in weaning 
 his pupils from the omnipresent violin. He 
 should explain the capacities and uses of all the
 
 106 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 instruments of the modern orchestra to the pupils 
 of the grade schools. He should tell them that if 
 a violinist wants to play professionally he is com- 
 pelled to compete with hordes of other violin play- 
 ers, while if an orchestra leader wants an oboe 
 player he has to comb the country to find one. Some 
 of the violin players can be induced to change to one 
 of the other stringed instruments. Some of them 
 can be induced to re-string their violins and play the 
 viola part, though this is a makeshift. Instruments 
 of the less popular kind should be purchased by the 
 school and loaned to talented pupils. This work 
 with the less popular instruments should begin in 
 the fourth or fifth grade. The supervisor will do 
 well to enlist the assistance of the principals and 
 teachers of the grade schools in the campaign for 
 variety of instruments. 
 
 MINNEAPOLIS PLAN 
 
 The plan we are using in Minneapolis works 
 very well. The Board of Education will send an 
 expert orchestra leader to lead a grade school or- 
 chestra once in two weeks under the following con- 
 ditions. The orchestra must contain six different 
 instruments of the symphony orchestra. Drums 
 and piano are not counted. A musical grade teacher 
 must take charge of the orchestra, be present when 
 the professional leader is conducting the rehearsal, 
 and conduct the orchestra rehearsals at other times. 
 Whenever the instrumentation is not up to the
 
 HIGH SCHOOL ORCHESTRAS AND BANDS 107 
 
 required number, the leader is not allowed to go 
 to the school and the orchestra is either dropped 
 or the pupils have to pay for their own leader. 
 
 FREE LESSONS 
 
 N 
 
 In a number of towns the Board of Education 
 employs teachers who devote their whole time to 
 teaching public school pupils to play orchestral in- 
 struments in classes. This instruction is free as in 
 other branches. In many cases instruments are pur- 
 chased and loaned to pupils for as long as they wish 
 to study, or until they are able to buy their own. 
 This is a fine step in advance and one that other com- 
 munities would do well to emulate. 
 
 SIZE OF ORCHESTRA 
 
 As many as possible should be in the orchestra, 
 but unless the pupils are very fine players there 
 should not be too many in one orchestra. If there 
 are too many players they cannot receive the neces- 
 sary personal attention from the leader. In any 
 high school where the public performance side of 
 education is recognized, the orchestra is called upon 
 so frequently that it cannot give sufficient prepara- 
 tion to the music for all the public occasions. Two 
 orchestras would be able to do the work and do it 
 better than if one tried to do it all. 
 
 TWO ORCHESTRAS 
 
 There are several ways to organize two or- 
 chestras. One way is to divide the players accord-
 
 108 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 ing to ability into first and second orchestras. There 
 are a number of good points in this plan, but while 
 it may be better for the music and may furnish an 
 incentive for the poorer player to work up into a 
 better orchestra, it ignores one very potent feeling 
 on the part of the pupils who are in the second or- 
 chestra. They feel that they are nothing but scrubs 
 anyway; and so they ask themselves, why work? 
 This feeling is also rife among the pupils of the 
 school and they are apt to point it out to the players 
 also. Those who advocate such a plan likewise for- 
 get that it is a good thing for poor players to play 
 with good ones. 
 
 Another and probably better plan is to organize 
 the pupils into two orchestras of equal ability. The 
 better players would thus be able to help the poorer 
 ones and assist the leader to that extent. Each or- 
 chestra could rehearse separately a part of the time 
 and unite with the other in combined rehearsals at 
 certain stated intervals. Each orchestra that has 
 three rehearsals weekly could be by itself twice and 
 unite with the other once each week. When the or- 
 chestras are of equal ability, instead of the discour- 
 agement certain to trouble the second, there would 
 spring up a healthy rivalry between the members 
 and their partisans which would be good for all con- 
 cerned. The leader will see many variations of the 
 two plans outlined which may be made to fit his local 
 conditions. Another plan is to organize a large 
 orchestra taking in all the players, and a small one 
 consisting of the best player in each part. The
 
 HIGH SCHOOL ORCHESTRAS AND BANDS 109 
 
 good players would rehearse with the large organ- 
 ization most of the time and hold special rehearsals 
 of their own. This plan also has many advantages. 
 Where there are two orchestras each orchestra 
 have a repertoire that is available at any 
 
 time, and it could alternate with the other in playing 
 at the different events. They might unite at the con- 
 certs given by the chorus. In such a case the whole 
 organization might play for the choruses and 
 only the best players be chosen to accompany the 
 soloists. 
 
 What properly developed orchestras may do in 
 a public school system is exemplified in an Indiana 
 town where orchestras have been organized for a 
 number of years. The grammar school orchestras 
 are graded. The high school has two orchestras, 
 a first and a second, the pupils being selected for 
 these according to their ability. In addition to the 
 grade school and high school orchestras, there is 
 the city orchestra, composed almost entirely of the 
 pupils who have been in the school orchestras. This 
 orchestra gives a regular series of concerts during 
 the season. When a pupil is able to hold down a 
 desk in a higher orchestra he is promoted. This is 
 a fine thing and cannot but have a wonderful effect 
 upon the musical life of the town. 
 
 MATERIAL 
 
 High school orchestra players should become 
 familiar with a great variety of music ranging from
 
 110 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING ' 
 
 the dance tune to the symphony. Though they will 
 not be able to play symphonies well they should try 
 one or two to find out what they are. It must not 
 be forgotten that Ihe education of the members is 
 a large part of the work of the orchestra. 
 
 Each orchestra should have a large library of 
 music. Much of this music should be played but 
 once and then laid aside. Since the success and value 
 of the orchestra player depends very largely on his 
 reading ability, the only way to become an expert 
 sight reader is to do a great deal of it. Selections 
 covering a wide range of music should be carefully 
 rehearsed and added to the permanent repertoire. 
 The material should be divided into several sections 
 and purchases made according to the purpose of the 
 section to which the selections belong, for example, 
 sight reading pieces to be played but once; difficult 
 selections that are only to be played for the educa- 
 tion of the players; selections that can be played 
 well enough to be used in public, including accom- 
 paniments, dance music, overtures, etc. 
 
 CARE OF MATERIAL 
 
 Each student should have an envelope in which 
 to carry his orchestra music for home rehearsal. If 
 in this envelope there is a stiff piece of cardboard 
 that can not be folded or rolled, all the better, as 
 orchestra music should be kept flat. Another and 
 better but more expensive plan is to put the music
 
 HIGH SCHOOL ORCHESTRAS AND BANDS 111 
 
 in loose-leaf folios. There are several of these 
 on the market. With these the permanent reper- 
 toire of the band or orchestra can be put in shape 
 to be used most expeditiously at rehearsals or con- 
 ?erts. It is suggested that the Y. and E. folding 
 and expanding envelope No. 4556 C, 15x9^ inches 
 be used. Pupils should be taught to keep the music 
 in the best of order and replace every piece that is 
 lost or defaced in any way. Many leaders do not 
 allow students to take music home as it is very liable 
 to be lost or defaced. This is a poor policy, for 
 they should learn to take care of music and return 
 it just as they do books from the library. The or- 
 chestra librarian should have some system that will 
 take care of all this. 
 
 LIBRARIAN 
 
 Every orchestra should have a librarian who 
 has charge of the music. He should be methodical 
 and trustworthy, for it is a very difficult and im- 
 portant work to look after the music of an orchestra 
 made up of careless high school boys and girls, and 
 have the music at hand when wanted. Teaching or- 
 chestra players to be careful of their music is one 
 of the hardest lessons the leader has to teach, and 
 he should have an able assistant in the librarian. 
 
 Before the rehearsal the librarian should place 
 the racks and chairs and distribute the music. Or- 
 chestra music should be kept in folders or envelopes 
 with the name and parts written or printed on the
 
 112 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 outside as is done in the music stores. The librarian 
 should know in advance just what music is to be used 
 at the rehearsal. He should place all the music for 
 each two players in a folder and place this folder 
 or envelope on the rack. One of the greatest time 
 wasters in the average orchestra rehearsal is the dis- 
 tribution and collection of the music. The folder 
 or envelope plan saves time. The librarian should 
 have entire charge of this, as the leader has some- 
 thing more important to do. 
 
 At the end of the rehearsal each pupil should put 
 the music he is to take home and rehearse into his 
 private envelope. This should be preferably an 
 envelope with a good-sized flap that can be tied shut 
 so that the loose sheets of music cannot fall out. 
 With the envelope containing a stiff sheet of card- 
 board and a flap that shuts, these risks are reduced to 
 the minimum. Before the pupils are dismissed the 
 leader should see that this music is placed in the 
 envelopes and the envelopes closed, and the rest of 
 the music placed in the holders for the librarian to 
 collect after the pupils have gone. 
 
 Here might be inserted chapters on Conducting, 
 Reading Music, Tuning, and Ear Training, but in- 
 stead of this the reader is asked to refer to these 
 chapters in "Grade School Music Teaching," and 
 also to read up on these same subjects in the ap- 
 pended list of orchestra books. The present book 
 is concerned with the school room practice of the 
 orchestra rather than with the more technical side 
 of the work.
 
 HIGH SCHOOL ORCHESTRAS AND BANDS 113 
 
 HOW TO CONDUCT A REHEARSAL 
 
 Orchestra rehearsals should be held in school 
 ftme, for the orchestra is a class like any other. If 
 the rehearsals are held after school, there are the 
 interruptions and absences due to the thousand and 
 one causes the average high school student is able 
 to invent when his whims interfere with his duty. 
 Rehearsal time should be a double period instead of 
 a single one, as the usual forty-five minutes is hardly 
 long enough for a good rehearsal. It takes some 
 time for the player to get warmed up and tuned up. 
 A good compromise plan is for the rehearsal to come 
 the last period of the school day and then have the 
 players stay one period after school. 
 
 Before the rehearsal time the leader should place 
 the program of the lesson on the board so that 
 every player may at once arrange his music in the 
 proper order. The following is a sample program. 
 
 Perfected 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 10 ) 
 
 11. . >Studied at home 
 
 12.. ..J 
 
 New
 
 114 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 13 
 
 14 
 
 To be studied at home 
 
 16. 
 
 The first three numbers are selections perfected 
 at some previous rehearsal. While these are being 
 played, the leader should conduct as he would at a 
 concert, varying the expression and tempo as seems 
 best to him to bring out all the beauty of the selec- 
 tions. The next six numbers are new pieces and, 
 consequently, these should be played either in con- 
 cert or individually. These pieces should be played 
 but once and then laid aside, for their reading value 
 is gone after one playing. These pieces should be 
 played at the proper speed the first time through. 
 The third group of three pieces comprises those the 
 pupils took home and practiced since the last re- 
 hearsal. The leader should rehearse these selec- 
 tions for ensemble perfection and then add them 
 to the permanent repertoire. The fourth contains 
 the selections the pupils are to take home and study. 
 These may be taken from the sight-reading group 
 or from any other source. A rehearsal planned and 
 carried out as above will use all the time and ac- 
 complish much. The pupils will like it as it will 
 impress them as business-like and not as a mere 
 pastime. 
 
 The pupils should come into the class room a 
 little early if possible, tune their instruments quickly, 
 have their tuning verified by the concert master, ar- 
 range their music, and sit quietly and let the others
 
 HIGH SCHOOL ORCHESTRAS AND BANDS 115 
 
 tune. When the leader steps to his desk there should 
 be perfect silence. His stepping to the desk should 
 at once signify that the rehearsal has commenced. 
 He should merely raise his baton and swing the 
 players into the first piece as he would at a concert. 
 Discipline is very lax in many high school orchestras, 
 the pupils feeling free to make all the noise they 
 see fit. Often the leader's words are lost in the 
 various tunings and noises that are going on. This 
 has a deleterious effect on the players and their 
 music. The pupils' ears get dull in the noisy atmo- 
 sphere and the attention poor. The orchestra player 
 needs all the attention he is capable of giving, and 
 his hearing must be most delicate. 
 
 INDIVIDUAL WORK 
 
 The leader will greatly strengthen his orchestra 
 by having the players do individual work. To do 
 this he should divide the whole number into groups 
 consisting of one instrument of each kind rep- 
 resented. This will of course require some instru- 
 ments to play in more than one group, but this can 
 easily be arranged. These groups should be num- 
 bered, and allowed to play passages in rotation. For 
 instance, the first group should be permitted to try 
 a passage of a certain number of measures, and if 
 they play it perfectly, the whole orchestra should 
 play it over after them to inform the leader it is 
 right. If it is not correctly played, the next group 
 should take it up without comment, and so on around
 
 116 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 the class. This is most valuable training for all 
 concerned. This is the same thing as the individual 
 work in part singing in the grades. 
 
 The individual groups should follow each other 
 in exact time. The whole orchestra should also 
 follow in exact time when' a passage is played cor- 
 rectly by any group. Some of the time the leader 
 should have the different groups play out of turn. 
 This can be done by calling the number of the group, 
 whenever the leader wishes a group to play. This 
 will eliminate the mental sogginess of certain pu- 
 pils, who, knowing just when they will have to play, 
 take naps between times. Many variations of this 
 scheme may be easily devised that will work to the 
 everlasting good of the players both musically and 
 mentally. 
 
 The pupils who are playing have a chance to 
 work without help, and those who are listening have 
 the chance to sharpen their ears and their attention, 
 for they must decide whether or not the passage is 
 correctly played. The leader must not decide 
 whether it is right or not, further than to stop the 
 orchestra when it starts to play after a group has 
 not played correctly. Since the pupils will not have 
 the music of all the parts before them to help de- 
 termine whether or not it is correctly played, they 
 must depend upon their harmonic sense to supply 
 the other parts. This is a most valuable training 
 for the orchestra player, for it strengthens his har- 
 monic hearing. 
 
 Individual work should be done in reading new
 
 HIGH SCHOOL ORCHESTRAS AND BANDS 117 
 
 music to improve the reading of each player. It 
 Should also be used to check up on the home study 
 of the pupils as a basis for marking the progress 
 of the .players. 
 
 USE OF PIANO 
 
 The piano is a great addition to the small or- 
 chestra as it fills in and supplies the missing parts 
 but it also is a great coverer since it conceals the 
 discords and makes the players careless in their in- 
 tonation. The music should be learned without the 
 piano first, as the players should learn to gauge 
 and correct their intonation from the other instru- 
 ments. Later the piano can be added with good 
 effect. This plan of not using the piano will make 
 the rehearsals sound rather thin and cause each 
 error to stick out like a sore thumb. All the bet- 
 ter, for, being so apparent, it can then be more 
 easily corrected. 
 
 REHEARSE WITH CHORUS 
 
 The orchestra should rehearse with the chorus 
 whenever possible, as accompanying of all kinds 
 is a valuable training for orchestra players. Fur- 
 thermore, nothing so vitalizes the chorus work as 
 to have the orchestra for an accompaniment. This 
 is especially true when the orchestra is a fine big one 
 and the music one of the choral masterpieces. Even 
 if the orchestra is small and does not give a flawless 
 performance, the tone colors of the different instru-
 
 118 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 ments enrich the music and make the work more 
 interesting for all concerned. 
 
 ROLL CALL 
 
 Time should not be taken from rehearsal for 
 roll call. The librarian or some other student should 
 take the attendance while the pupils are playing. 
 
 ORGANIZATION 
 
 It is a very good plan to have some organization 
 of the orchestra. There should of cpurse be the 
 regular organization as outlined in the books on 
 orchestra having a concert master and a leader of 
 each part. In addition to this there should be some 
 organization with a president, etc., and also a pub- 
 licity committee to keep up the interest in the or- 
 chestra among the student body and bring into it the 
 new students who do not know of it or who are too 
 timid to join. This committee can be made of great 
 assistance to the leader and the orchestra as a whole. 
 
 CREDITS 
 
 Credit should be given pupils who play in the 
 orchestra if their work is worth it. If they merely 
 play occasionally for the fun of the thing, they should 
 receive no credit. Music should not be looked upon 
 as a snap; the music credits that are given in the 
 high school should be earned. Since music is all 
 too apt to be looked upon as a fad by pupils, public,
 
 HIGH SCHOOL ORCHESTRAS AND BANDS 119 
 
 high school teachers, the credits that music stu- 
 dents receive should be convincingly hard to get. 
 Various systems are in vogue in different school sys- 
 tems. The following plan is in use in the Minne- 
 apolis schools. Any high school pupil playing any 
 instrument of the symphony orchestra may play in 
 the orchestra, having this work count as one of his 
 regular studies. Members of the orchestra must 
 (1) take one thirty-minute lesson weekly from some 
 approved private instructor for the thirty-eight 
 weeks of the school year; (2) attend one two-hour 
 or three forty-five minute rehearsals weekly; (3) 
 practice seven hours weekly; (4) and when requested 
 play at any entertainment given by the school author- 
 ities. Two credits are given for one year's work, 
 eight credits for four years' work. Pupils doing 
 all the foregoing work except taking the private les- 
 sons are given one credit for one year's work. No 
 credits are given pupils who study an instrument but 
 do not play in the orchestra. A place is found in 
 an orchestra for all who wish to study with the ex- 
 ception of pupils, who, just beginning the study of 
 an instrument, cannot play well enough to enter an 
 orchestra. These pupils are allowed to take their 
 lessons for a few months and do some extra prac- 
 ticing instead of playing in the orchestra. 
 
 There are two reasons for requiring all instru- 
 mentalists to play in the orchestra. In the first 
 place, ensemble playing is a necessary part of an 
 instrumentalist's education; in the second, he should
 
 120 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 use his talents for the common good and help pay for 
 his training. 
 
 All that has been said above about the orchestra 
 can be said about the band. There should be a good 
 band in every high school and both boys and girls 
 should play in it. The band can fill a number of 
 needs better than an orchestra. It should have a 
 part in all outdoor entertainments and many of the 
 indoor events as well. Credits should be given for 
 band playing the same as for orchestra. Appended 
 will be found a list of orchestra and band instruc- 
 tion books. 
 
 BOOKS ON ORCHESTRA AND BAND 
 
 Kling's Instrumentation Fischer 
 
 "Instrumentation," Prout - Novello Ewer and Co. 
 
 "Wind Band," Clappe Fischer 
 
 "Orchestral Instruments and their Uses," D. G. 
 
 Mason .... Novello Ewer and Co. 
 "Amateur Band Guide," Goldman - - Fischer 
 "Band Assistant," Laurendeau - Ditson & Co. 
 "Instrumentation," Gaston Borch - - Schirmer 
 "Public School Orchestras and Bands," Glenn H. 
 
 Woods Ditson & Co. 
 
 "Building the School Orchestra," R. N. Carr - 
 
 Ginn & Co. (In press.)
 
 CHAPTER 5 
 
 CONDUCTING 
 
 CONDUCTING of school orchestras, bands, or 
 choruses is for the purpose of giving some selection 
 in public so that the leader's idea of the music will 
 be interpreted by the players or singers. This chap- 
 ter does not venture into the realm of artistry. It 
 only aims to give a few hints as to how the artistry 
 of the leader may be most easily and definitely ex- 
 pressed to the audience through the medium of the 
 body of musicians he is conducting. 
 
 TWO KINDS OF CONDUCTING 
 
 We are often called upon to observe two kinds 
 of conducting. One is the spectacular, where the 
 leader claims all the attention; the other, the one 
 where the leader uses the baton as it should be used, 
 as the power to weld the whole body of musicians 
 into a consistent whole. This quiet style of leading, 
 with a firm hold of the musicians, was wonderfully 
 exemplified by the late Theodore Thomas. His 
 beat was as definite as clockwork and there was no 
 mistaking it, even by a novice. 
 
 The pupils should know their music so well that
 
 122 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 they can play or sing it perfectly without cues. The 
 leader should show the speed and dynamics of the 
 selection, but the singers and players should count 
 their own measures and know exactly when they are 
 to come in. This kind of conducting is the best to 
 use with amateur orchestras and choruses since it 
 keeps them alive and makes them more self-depend- 
 ent. For the leader to do too much of the thinking 
 for the musicians is as bad as to sing and play with 
 them when they are learning new pieces. 
 
 In public performances, of course, cues should 
 be given, but the players should be so well trained 
 that the piece will not be spoiled if the leader slips 
 up on a few cues, as the average amateur leader is 
 very apt to do. The fact is that a fine teacher of 
 orchestra or chorus is seldom a good leader, and a 
 fine leader of orchestra, band or chorus, seldom a 
 good teacher. As the two things are diametrically 
 opposed to each other, it is very difficult to do both. 
 A teacher must keep still and let his pupils learn by 
 experience. The leader must do just the opposite. 
 He must keep everything going and preclude the 
 possibility of mistakes. This is good leading, but 
 very poor teaching, as the player and singer should 
 learn to lead himself first. Then he is ready to be 
 led. This is one of the difficulties for the average 
 supervisor of music, for he must be both a teacher 
 and a conductor. In learning new selections, singers 
 and players should keep together by ear, even in 
 bodies of several hundred. This gives them a most 
 valuable ear training, which they will not get if the
 
 CONDUCTING 123 
 
 X 
 
 conductor beats time either visibly or audibly. They 
 should also sing with their own expression first, after 
 which experience the leader should take hold and 
 mould them according to his own ideas. 
 
 SYSTEM OF CONDUCTING 
 
 It is well for the supervisor of music to read 
 many books on conducting and use the good points 
 of all, but he must adopt some system and stick to it 
 so that his pupils will know what to do. In any 
 event, when he is conducting, he must be the real 
 leader and insist that his musicians follow him per- 
 fectly. The more plainly and simply he beats, the 
 better they will follow. The system of conducting 
 here outlined has these points to recommend it. It 
 is simple and is so sufficiently universal that strangers 
 have no trouble in following it. 
 
 Any set of signals that will tell the players or 
 singers how the leader wants the piece to go will 
 do. Of course, the leader has made an exhaustive 
 study of the piece and if he knows it by heart, all 
 the better, as he will have his eyes free to see what 
 his forces are doing. As to the proper interpreta- 
 tion, the leader should be free to do as he pleases. 
 It all should rest with him. The players and singers 
 should do as he wishes. 
 
 In beating time, the conductor should move the 
 baton as follows, in the different measures. In two- 
 part measures, the beat should be straight down for 
 the first beat and straight up for the second beat.
 
 124 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 This will give a perfect representation of the meas- 
 ure. In three-part, the baton should go straight 
 down, straight to the right, and then obliquely to 
 the starting point. In four-part, it should go straight 
 down, straight left, straight right, and then straight 
 up to the starting point. In six-part measure, it 
 should either go down and up, as in two-part meas- 
 ure, three eighth-notes to a beat, or it should go 
 down, left, left, right, up, up to the starting point. 
 The other divisions of time are usually done as three 
 and four-beat measures. 
 
 HOLD BATON HIGH 
 
 The criticism is sometimes made that bringing 
 the baton straight down is apt to bring it too low 
 to be seen. The answer is that it should go straight 
 down so that down means down instead of some 
 vague oblique direction, as it does so often. The 
 leader should stand high enough to be visible to all, 
 hold his baton high, and then move it but a short 
 distance. There is no reason for waving the baton 
 in wide sweeps, as some conductors often do, unless 
 the chorus is extremely large. 
 
 The length of the movement tells the power of 
 tone to be employed, and the speed of the baton, 
 of course, gives the speed of the piece. As the side 
 of the baton should be visible to the singers or play- 
 ers, it should be of a very distinct color. White is 
 best. Some contrasting color should be used by 
 lady leaders.
 
 x CONDUCTING 125 
 
 VARY THE BEAT 
 
 When conducting rehearsals, the leader should 
 vary the time a great deal and never vary it the 
 same way. It is better to have the chorus or or- 
 chestra alive and in a state of expectancy than to 
 have them know in advance how fast or how slow, 
 how loud or how soft, they are going to sing or play. 
 If they are too sure of what the leader is going 
 to do, they will not watch closely. This will make 
 the performance dull and soggy, and will cause the 
 leader to tear his hair over the stupidity of choruses 
 in general and this one in particular, when it is his 
 own fault. If the conductor has his chorus and or- 
 chestra well in hand at the rehearsal, and drills 
 them, not so much on the piece as in following the 
 beat, he will have the power to play upon his forces 
 at will. Since leaders' seldom feel the same at con- 
 certs as they do at rehearsals, and since the feeling 
 they have for the music at the concert may be a 
 far better one than the one they felt at the rehearsal, 
 the instrument, no matter whether it be chorus or 
 orchestra, should respond to his needs. To bring 
 this about, he must drill beforehand, not on his 
 moods but on responding to them. 
 
 The left hand should be free to turn the music, 
 give the cues, and supplement the work of the right 
 hand. For example, a gesture with the palm toward 
 the chorus will mean softer, if they have not fol- 
 lowed the baton correctly as to power. A beckoning
 
 126 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 with the left hand will bring out a certain part 
 louder. On holds, the power may be varied by mov- 
 ing the two hands nearer together or farther apart, 
 for diminishes and swells. A very clever way to 
 hold attention and at the same time tell the pupils 
 how loudly to sing is to use the fingers of the left 
 hand to denote power. The hand held up with all 
 the fingers and thumb folded means the softest tone 
 possible. One extended finger a little louder and 
 so on until the whole extended hand means full 
 power. 
 
 Successful conducting hinges on the movements 
 of the baton, which movements should be so definite 
 that the dullest musician will be able to see and fol- 
 low them. Poor following on the part of a chorus 
 or orchestra is always the fault of the leader. Ob- 
 scure beats or gestures do not compel close atten- 
 tion. It takes backbone to make people obey, and 
 the leader must be firm, unyielding, and definite. 
 
 We are quite aware that the foregoing system of 
 leading is opposed to the accepted systems in some 
 ways, but we have endeavored to put in only the 
 plainest necessities, eliminating useless pyrotechnics 
 that make the leader conspicuous but ineffective. 
 Better look like a basswood image and be easily fol- 
 lowed than be a picture of willowy grace and beauty 
 with vague meaning. The concert will sound better, 
 and after all, the concert is to be heard and not 
 seen.
 
 CONDUCTING 127 
 
 CONDUCTING 
 
 "On Conducting," Richard Wagner ... 
 
 William Reeves, London 
 
 "The Essentials of Conducting," Carl W. Gherkins 
 
 Ditson & Co. 
 "Choirs and Choral Music," Arthur Mees 
 
 Chas. Scribner
 
 CHAPTER 6 
 
 CONCERTS AND ENTERTAINMENTS 
 
 OF the many sides to high school music a very 
 important one is the social and entertainment. A 
 pupil learns music for a number of reasons, but one 
 very potent reason is that if he can sing or play an 
 instrument acceptably he will be able to appear in 
 public and entertain his friends. This is a very 
 strong and natural feeling on the part of the pupil, 
 and one of which the supervisor should take full 
 advantage. 
 
 Appearing before an audience gives the students 
 a poise and self-possession that is extremely valuable 
 and of a kind to be acquired in no other way. Con- 
 sequently he should have as much practice of this 
 kind as possible. In large high schools it is very 
 difficult to give all the students anything like the 
 amount of this they should have. Therefore, any 
 scheme to further this end is legitimate, provided 
 it does not take too much of the student's time. 
 Music is particularly adapted for public appear- 
 ances, as it takes in so many people and is so uni- 
 versally used.
 
 CONCERTS AND ENTERTAINMENTS 129 
 
 MOTIVE 
 
 Entertainments will furnish pupils an immediate 
 and interesting motive for a great deal of hard 
 work. The money made at these entertainments can 
 be applied to some school project, and furthermore, 
 pupils will learn to help pay for their school training. 
 The education we now have is too free. It breeds 
 selfishness in the pupils. The idea is constantly held 
 before them that they must work for the good it 
 will do them. In music they can be shown an op- 
 portunity to work for the common good or the good 
 they can do others. 
 
 Musical entertainments are also excellent for 
 popularizing high school music. The supervisor 
 may work for years in the school room and his work 
 be unappreciated as the people will not notice the 
 results. Some will notice that Jennie or Henry can 
 read music, but it takes a successful concert to show 
 the community that music is in the schools and that 
 the results are worth the time and money spent upon 
 it. This is especially true in towns where music is 
 just being introduced into the schools. 
 
 Granted the good that concerts do, let us look 
 at the kind and character of entertainments that can 
 be given with the best effect on all concerned. When 
 the leader is a live wire and the school management 
 is awake to the good the pupils get from successful 
 public appearances, a great number and variety of 
 entertainments can be given. In addition to its 
 own concerts the music department should be ready,
 
 130 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 able, and willing to assist the activities of all the 
 other departments. The school band should play 
 at the ball games. The orchestra should play be- 
 tween acts of the school plays, for the school dances, 
 etc. The teachers of other departments should take 
 pains to assist the music department in part pay- 
 ment for what the music will do for them, and thus 
 set an example in unselfish cooperation for the pu- 
 pils to follow. 
 
 All the entertainments of all the departments 
 for the school year should be scheduled in advance 
 so that they will not be too numerous nor too near 
 together, for they must be well done and they must 
 not work either the pupils or the community too 
 hard. A large part of the preparation should be 
 done in school time and be a part of the regular 
 school work, and credit should be given for a good 
 deal of it though not for all, as those pupils having 
 special talent should be taught to use it for the com- 
 mon good without compensation. There is too 
 much of "What do I get out of it?" and too little 
 of "What can I do to help?" in our modern educa- 
 tion. We should see to it that music furnishes a 
 little training in unselfishness to counteract this. 
 
 As high school music is largely chorus work, 
 many of the concerts should consist of chorus sing- 
 ing of various kinds. This will allow more people 
 to take part in the entertainments and the more peo- 
 ple interested, the better from the artistic, educa- 
 tional, and box-office points of view. As the music 
 the chorus sings at these concerts can be a part of
 
 CONCERTS AND ENTERTAINMENTS 131 
 
 the daily music lessons, extra time will not be re- 
 quired for rehearsals. 
 
 SELECTING THE CHORUS 
 
 All the pupils in the classes should learn the mu- 
 sic to be sung at the concerts and, if the stage is 
 large enough, the whole school should appear. If 
 this is impossible, the concert chorus should be made 
 up by selecting the best singers, using as many as 
 the stage will accommodate. There will naturally 
 be some heart-burnings, as some who dearly love 
 to sing will be omitted. This feeling may, however, 
 be reduced to a minimum by allowing the pupils to 
 select the singers either wholly or in part. Young 
 people, being very honest, in selecting singers that 
 are to represent the class at a concert are often 
 more particular than the leader. They are very 
 quick to see that some one else sings well and are 
 satisfied with the justice of the selection. As there 
 is the audience paying for a good performance to 
 be considered, it is the duty of the class to make 
 it as good a performance as possible. If some one 
 can make the show better by not appearing in it, he 
 or she will see the justice of the selections and cheer- 
 fully abide by them. A clever leader will not only 
 be able to reduce the disappointments to a mini- 
 mum by letting the pupils help in the selection of 
 the chorus, but will be doing a little toward raising 
 a race of singers not afflicted with jealousy. Many 
 of those not selected to sing may be used as ushers, 
 ticket sellers, and in many other capacities.
 
 132 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 BALANCE OF PARTS 
 
 The parts should balance perfectly in this spe- 
 cial chorus and the music be so well learned that a 
 flawless performance can be given. Pupils them- 
 selves are very particular about this. A supervisor 
 who allows any slackness of preparation is usually 
 made to feel their displeasure in no uncertain man- 
 ner. 
 
 The chorus should make another appearance at 
 Commencement. There is no form of Commence- 
 ment so attractive as a few short speeches from the 
 pupils and a number of fine choruses given by a big 
 stageful of charming young people. 
 
 ORATORIO 
 
 The best and most valuable entertainment that 
 can be given by the high school music department is 
 the Oratorio or the Cantata that is given without 
 scenery and action. It is not the most popular with 
 the public, but it should become so as it furnishes an 
 opportunity for both school and public to become 
 intimately acquainted with the finest choral music. 
 
 There has been a good deal of nonsense written 
 about the dangers of allowing high school pupils to 
 sing the big things in choral music; but this nonsense 
 usually comes from musicians who are unable to see 
 things in their proper proportions and who know 
 little or nothing about the workings of the human 
 voice. As the musician is very apt to think only of
 
 CONCERTS AND ENTERTAINMENTS 133 
 
 the music, to suit him it must be performed accord- 
 ing to tradition. Take the "Hallelujah" for ex- 
 ample. This selection sounds best with a full, pow- 
 erful tone from the chorus which high school stu- 
 dents cannot give without straining. (There is, 
 however, no danger of their straining as to com- 
 pass if the voices have been correctly classified.) 
 But shall we forever close the door of the realm of 
 fine choral music to these young people just because 
 they cannot sing with all the power the music de- 
 mands? Certainly not. Better use a larger num- 
 ber of singers and then do not let them get excited 
 and sing too hard. Each voice should sing with 
 medium power and the whole effect will be good. 
 If the soft passages are sung very softly, the loud 
 places will sound loud enough to be in proportion, 
 and the musical effect will be surprisingly good 
 though in a somewhat lighter form than the music 
 seems to call for. Test the voices in the high school 
 properly, insist that they be used easily, and then 
 sing all the great music you wish, the more the bet- 
 ter. The leader should not fear to allow the pupils 
 to sing the big fine things. They will respond to 
 them nobly for theirs is the age when the great 
 choral masterpieces appeal to them. 
 
 The soloists should be taken from the ranks 
 of the students or teachers whenever possible, and 
 the school orchestra should furnish the accompani- 
 ments, even if it does not play as well as the Min- 
 neapolis Symphony Orchestra. If soloists are not 
 available from the school forces, the singers of the
 
 134 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 town are usually ready and willing to assist, and 
 they should be, for it is their problem as much as 
 that of the supervisor of music to educate the com- 
 munity in the higher forms of music. 
 
 OPERA 
 
 The next most important and very likely the 
 most popular form of entertainment a high school 
 can give is the light opera. This should be given 
 by the glee clubs in the larger high schools and by 
 the whole chorus in the smaller ones. There is 
 nothing in the whole range of music that will so 
 soon and so thoroughly interest the pupils of a 
 small high school where music is new or unpopular, 
 as learning and giving a light opera. 
 
 To illustrate this point pardon a personal ref- 
 erence. Some years ago I spent one day weekly in 
 a small town where music had been so cordially 
 hated that it had been dropped two years before. 
 I was at my wit's end the first time I visited that 
 high school. Not a pupil would open his mouth 
 to try the music I had brought. So I smiled and 
 played and sang to them instead. At the second 
 lesson a few of the girls piped up a little. At the 
 third lesson I suggested that they give a light opera 
 as they had a good auditorium and the high school 
 numbered about seventy members. Their jaws 
 dropped and the principal looked at me as if doubt- 
 ing my sanity. I told them what fun it was to get 
 up an opera. They voted to try it. Then I sug-
 
 CONCERTS AND ENTERTAINMENTS 135 
 
 gested that their voices better be tested to see 
 what part they could sing best. Moreover, I offered 
 to stay that afternon and test the voices of all who 
 were interested enough to stay after school for the 
 purpose. Over half of them stayed and most of the 
 rest submitted to the operation the next week. 
 
 The opera selected was Pinafore, and the next 
 week all were supplied with books. The work they 
 made of it was something awful, but we picked out 
 the soloists and they got busy. I never worked 
 harder in my life. Neither had they. To make a 
 long story short, they gave that opera in February. 
 I feel as if I had been drinking vinegar yet when 
 I remember how some of those choruses sounded. 
 They fondly imagined they were singing the parts 
 and they worked heroically to get them right, but 
 it was impossible. The choruses were mostly in 
 unison, octaves or fifths, but the tune, the action, 
 and the pep were all there. The soloists sang their 
 parts correctly except in the concerted passages, 
 when they, too, lapsed into chords that Sullivan 
 never would have recognized. But I held my peace 
 and we were all happy. The whole town came and 
 marvelled that these pupils could do so well. The 
 musical ones in the audience shuddered once in a 
 while but most of them enjoyed the whole thing. As 
 a performance, it left many things to be desired. 
 As a means of getting that high school to singing, 
 it was a glittering success. I only give this for an 
 illustration of what an opera will do when a high 
 school needs waking up musically. If I had been
 
 136 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 a sensitive musician, I never could have endured 
 the liberties those pupils took with Sullivan's music. 
 I shut my ear, however, and kept my eye on the 
 future, and they came out all right, for the next 
 music they studied was sung much better and in time 
 they became fine readers of music. 
 
 The foregoing incident explains why fine mu- 
 sicians sometimes fail in attempting to do high 
 school music work. They are looking at the music 
 so hard that they do not take into consideration the 
 limited ability and experience of the students. Get 
 the pupils to do the very best they are capable of 
 doing, and then do not fuss if results are not perfect. 
 Get the pupils interested, and the perfect results 
 will come later. 
 
 PAGEANTS 
 
 Pageantry will furnish the motive for much hard 
 study and give an outlet for the artistic activities 
 of many departments at the same time. For ex- 
 ample : the pupils of an eighth grade class in United 
 States history decided to give a pageant of the his- 
 tory of the United States in the spring. As there 
 was the ever-present need of deciding what to use 
 and what to reject, they learned their history better 
 as they went along. When they had selected the 
 scenes to be used, the English class wrote the 
 speeches, the manual-training class made the scenery, 
 and other properties, the art class painted the 
 scenery, the sewing class made the costumes, the
 
 CONCERTS AND ENTERTAINMENTS 137 
 
 arithmetic class estimated the cost and attended to 
 the business part of it, and the physical training 
 class staged it. Last but not least the music class 
 found, adapted, played and sang the music that went 
 with it. The history work of that class had a mo- 
 tive that was living and vital to every pupil, and 
 when the pageant was over every one had seen a fine 
 entertainment, a goodly sum of money had been 
 acquired for school use, and United States history 
 had been made to live in the minds of those pupils. 
 Of course there was work and plenty of it, but it 
 was interesting work and work that was worth 
 while. 
 
 Some such plans as outlined above can be used 
 better in a high school than it can in the grades, and 
 the number of subjects that can be so treated is 
 legion. All entertainments should be planned to 
 interest as many departments as possible. 
 
 REGULAR LESSON 
 
 An "At Home" day with the music lesson as 
 the form of entertainment has a most beneficial 
 effect upon the pupils, who may set a day and invite 
 their friends to come and hear them sing for an 
 hour. This entertainment may of course take any 
 form, but the best one is a regular music lesson in 
 all its phases ending with a number of well-finished, 
 well-polished songs. This is a very sensible form 
 of entertainment, as it gives the parents a chance 
 to see what the music work in the schools really is.
 
 138 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 Very few have any idea of it until they see an actual 
 lesson. The effect on the pupil is equally good as 
 it gives a motive for the regular school work that 
 the set concert sometimes lacks, and it can be given 
 without taking any extra time for preparation. 
 
 COMPETITIVE FESTIVALS 
 
 Competitive festivals are fine things, though 
 there are few of them held in this country. There 
 should be more. Choirs may be selected from each 
 school, or each class, to compete with choirs from 
 other schools, classes or towns. One of the best 
 ways to make this selection is to leave each school 
 free to choose its own music and choir, though the 
 kind of piece should be outlined beforehand as to 
 number of parts and the choir limited as to number 
 of singers. This plan will result in a good program 
 of sufficient variety to be pleasing to the audience. 
 The different choirs should be marked by the judges 
 as to beauty of tone, balance of parts, clearness of 
 articulation, appropriateness of selection, expression 
 and other points agreed upon in advance. 
 
 MINSTREL SHOW 
 
 In the wealth of possible musical activities in 
 the high school, fun and nonsense should not be for- 
 gotten. Once in a while the old fashioned minstrel 
 show can be revived. There is a lot of fun to be 
 derived from it if it is well done, and the ingenuity 
 demanded in making it original and up-to-date is
 
 s 
 
 s 
 rf 
 
 ~ 
 
 B
 
 CONCERTS AND ENTERTAINMENTS 139 
 
 a fine training for the pupils. Pure fun-making is 
 one of the most valuable things anyone can learn 
 either for life or a living. 
 
 OUT-DOOR CONCERTS 
 
 Out-door concerts in warm weather can be made 
 very attractive. The best way to bring this about 
 is to find a side hill in some park or field and place 
 the audience on the hillside and the chorus on the 
 flat below. All kinds of concerts can be given in 
 this way. Music sounds well out of doors, and the 
 added freedom and joy of being in the open throws 
 a glamor over even a mediocre program. The 
 audience should always be asked to sing some 
 familiar selections with the chorus. 
 
 COMMUNITY MUSIC 
 
 This is one form of community singing, and high 
 school students should be given the chance to help 
 the music of the community whenever possible. A 
 band or orchestra is best for an accompaniment, as 
 the tones of the piano do not carry well in the open 
 air. 
 
 The foregoing picture of the Eastman Stadium 
 at Anoka, Minnesota, is a fine example of the small 
 outdoor theatre. It is built of cement steps on a 
 hillside overlooking the river. The hill is about 
 thirty feet high and there are twenty curving steps. 
 The stage slopes to the river in low terraces. It 
 will seat sixteen hundred and every one that sings
 
 140 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 or speaks there is amazed at the perfect acoustics 
 as the softest tone is audible to the farthest listener. 
 The reason lies in the curve of the seats and the 
 steepness of the hill. Instead of the stage being 
 raised above the level of the ground, there is an 
 orchestra pit lined with cement, four feet deep and 
 forty feet long, in front of the stage. This pit 
 seems to reinforce the tone. All kinds of entertain- 
 ments are given here, and one of the features of 
 every entertainment is the singing of the audience. 
 The place is furnished with a first-class picture 
 machine, the words of the songs being written on 
 common window glass with a stub pen and India ink 
 and thrown on the screen. This is a fine way to get 
 audiences to singing either indoors or out. The 
 leader may either have a pole with a small knob on 
 the end and point to the words in time or he may 
 simply stand next to the screen and put his hand in 
 the strong light and beat time. The audience will 
 be able to follow perfectly as the strong light on 
 his hand and the black shadow it throws on the 
 screen will be distinctly visible to all. 
 
 People like to sing, and audiences should be in- 
 vited to sing at every entertainment. The super- 
 visor of music should keep in close touch with com- 
 munity music of all sorts. Whenever no one else 
 in his city is willing to supervise it, he should be. 
 
 OPERAS AND CANTATAS 
 
 The glee clubs and orchestra may unite and give 
 some of the lighter cantatas without stage action.
 
 CONCERTS AND ENTERTAINMENTS 141 
 
 They may also unite and give a light opera or some 
 of the easier grand operas. Great care should be 
 exercised in the selection of an opera. Only those 
 with good music and clean lines should be taken. 
 The Gilbert and Sullivan operas are all fine mu- 
 sically, and there is plenty of good clean fun in them 
 all. If the leader is not well versed in stage-man- 
 agement, he should rent the "stage manager's prompt 
 book" from some musical library. With this book, 
 staging an opera is an easy matter. A good dancing 
 teacher, or one of the high school teachers who can 
 teach dancing, should help if the leader himself 
 cannot do this part of the work. With these helps 
 any high school can give an opera in good shape. 
 There is always talent in every high school. It is 
 only waiting to be developed. 
 
 All the pupils who wish should be encouraged 
 to learn the solo parts and contests should then be 
 held to determine who can do them best. The 
 pupils should help select the soloists. They will 
 be very honest about this. With this plan there will 
 always be understudies to depend upon if one of 
 the soloists is ill at the last moment. It is also 
 a good plan to give the opera twice and have a 
 different cast each time, so that as many as pos- 
 sible may have a chance to sing the solo parts. The 
 foregoing method of selecting the solo parts will 
 obviate much heart-burning, for it must not be for- 
 gotten that these young people are singers, and that 
 singers are very prone to' jealousy. The wise leader 
 will see that this is reduced to the minimum. He
 
 142 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 will also guard against the pupil's getting "stage 
 struck." He should tell them just what it means 
 to go on the stage professionally. I do not mean 
 the dangers of the stage, for we no longer believe 
 that the theater is the ante-room of perdition that 
 the truly good once thought it, but these young peo- 
 ple should understand a number of things about 
 theatricals. They must be taught the difference be- 
 tween the quality of their work as viewed by friends 
 and as viewed by strangers. A performance that 
 would please their friends, who go to hear them 
 more than the piece, is a very different performance 
 from one given by a professional company with its 
 trained actors, lavish mounting, and perfection of 
 detail, attained by professionals only at the price 
 of terrific toil. If, during the preparation of an 
 opera, there are signs of pupils' getting stage struck, 
 it would probably cure them to have one or two real 
 rehearsals of several hours' duration to let them 
 know the difference between the rehearsals of pro- 
 fessionals and those of amateurs. If there is any- 
 one with real dramatic ability, who is willing to pay 
 the price of hard work, and whose talent shows in 
 the performance, this one may continue his dramatic 
 studies with some faint idea of the demands of the 
 professional stage. Many a famous person has 
 started out in amateur theatricals. Many others 
 have been "strung along" by admiring friends until 
 they become unsettled for life simply because of ill- 
 advised flattery when they appeared successfully
 
 CONCERTS AND ENTERTAINMENTS 143 
 
 in some home-talent play. This should be well 
 guarded against by the school opera leader. 
 
 The pupils should learn to sing the music abso- 
 lutely in time from memory. The leader should use 
 the baton at every rehearsal. He must have his 
 forces so well in hand that soloists, chorus, and or- 
 chestra are welded into an efficient and expressive 
 whole. In the later rehearsals and during the per- 
 formance, when the pupils know the piece perfectly 
 and can follow the baton, the leader may vary the 
 time to suit the action. 
 
 During the preparation of an opera pupils often 
 make rehearsals an excuse for unprepared lessons 
 in other studies. Pupils who do this should be re- 
 quired to leave the club. Such a punishment will 
 result in better scholarship and will tend to remove 
 the "fly-a-way" feeling pupils are prone to possess 
 when preparing for some theatrical performance. 
 It will also make the pupil learn to conserve his 
 time, work under pressure, and use his odd mo- 
 ments. 
 
 OPEN AIR OPERA 
 
 Opera in the open air is deservedly becoming 
 popular. The supervisor of music in a Kentucky 
 town gave Pinafore with her small high school, 
 using a flat-boat in the river as "H. M. S. Pinafore." 
 Masts and sails were easily erected, and though the 
 flat-boat did not look exactly like a "man-of-war" in 
 every respect, imagination easily filled out the pic-
 
 144 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 ture. Plenty of people came, and they say it strained 
 some of the rivets of the hill-side to hold them all. 
 They came from far and near to hear the old opera 
 that has made millions laugh, and to see it in a new 
 setting in which they could throw Dick Deadeye 
 overboard into real water. 
 
 COOPERATION 
 
 The other departments should cooperate with 
 the music department, in giving songs and pageants. 
 The scenery, costumes and other properties should 
 be designed, made, and painted by the art, domestic 
 art, and manual training departments. The busi- 
 ness side of all concerts and entertainments should 
 be taken care of by the commercial department. 
 Usually it is difficult for this department to find 
 enough real business transactions for the pupils to 
 practice upon. And real problems are of course 
 more interesting and valuable than the fictitious ones 
 found in books. As a result of such cooperation the 
 music supervisor will be left free to attend to the 
 artistic end of the work unhampered by business de- 
 tails, the business department will have real busi- 
 ness to attend to, and every one will be interested in 
 the production. Where there is no business depart- 
 ment, a committee of the pupils should look after 
 the business end of the entertainments with a teacher 
 on the auditing committee, not to keep the students 
 honest but to compel them to be business-like, and 
 protect the pupils from charges of mismanagement.
 
 CONCERTS AND ENTERTAINMENTS 145 
 
 REHEARSALS 
 
 Entertainments of all kinds and especially operas 
 require thorough and painstaking preparation. As 
 the time of performance draws near the rehearsals 
 are apt to be long and taxing. Numberless details 
 must be attended to, every one feels hurried and 
 the tempers of all concerned are often strained to 
 the breaking points. Every one is in a state of ex- 
 pectancy and anxious to have the show go off well. 
 Little troubles that would never be noticed during 
 normal times loom up like mountains. Whatever 
 artistic temperament (or temper) there may be in 
 the company comes to the surface and the leader 
 must exercise unlimited patience and use all the tact 
 with which he is endowed. He should explain this 
 to the pupils taking part and warn them against the 
 high-strung temper and lack of self-control usually 
 attributed to musicians. It would be well for him 
 to state that during these strenuous times, like a com- 
 mander in battle, orders must be given sharply and 
 incisively, and even yelled at times to make his 
 wishes known above the sounds of chorus and or- 
 chestra. 
 
 There will be small mishaps during the per- 
 formance that should not be noticed. If sorrowing 
 members of the company refer to them, the leader 
 should laugh them off as if they were jokes. 
 
 The exacting work of rehearsing which reaches 
 a climax in the performance, keeps everyone keyed 
 up to the highest pitch. After it is all over there
 
 146 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 comes a reaction. The future seems to hold nothing 
 of interest. The pupils must now resume their 
 regular work and again face the humdrum world. 
 The luckless singer who has made a slip that is 
 likely to call forth criticism finds himself still fur- 
 ther down in the dumps. 
 
 AFTER THE SHOW 
 
 A general jubilation after the performance is 
 in order. Every one should stay a while and talk 
 over the successful features of the play. The leader 
 should congratulate every one, soloists, chorus and 
 orchestra. All criticism should be taboo at this 
 time. A week or so later the company should as- 
 semble and talk over the whole performance critic- 
 ally with a view to profiting by the mistakes. 
 
 Perhaps I am emphasizing unduly this part of 
 the leader's duties, but, though years have elapsed, 
 I well remember the feelings I used to have after 
 I had sung in a home talent opera. I used to think 
 there was nothing left to live for, and dreaded the 
 next day with its dreary round of necessary and irk- 
 some tasks. Everything seemed drab even after 
 the subdued glare of the kerosene footlights we used 
 in the little "opery house" in the old home town. 
 After I became a supervisor I remembered this and 
 always made it a point to say nice things to each 
 one after the performance, even if I did have to 
 strain one of the commandments a trifle to do it. 
 1 Here in Minneapolis my principal connection
 
 CONCERTS AND ENTERTAINMENTS 147 
 
 with the numerous musical entertainments given in 
 the schools is admiring the work of others. When- 
 ever possible I attend the dress rehearsals and make 
 every one believe that the performance will be a 
 stunning success. Commendation at this time has 
 a most salutary effect. Occasionally I am a trifle 
 spectacular about it. For instance, after the per- 
 formance of a cantata or oratorio I do not wait 
 until the leader and singers have left the stage be- 
 fore congratulating them. It sometimes looks as 
 though I were trying to get into the lime-light, but 
 all concerned seem to rather like to have the "old 
 man" make a little fuss over them in public. 
 
 MUSICAL SOCIETY 
 
 A musical society organized like a debating so- 
 ciety with constitution, by-laws, etc., will furnish 
 a fine outlet for the musical talent of any high 
 school. Pupils who wish to learn to appear before 
 audiences should join this society, the elocutionists 
 as well as musicians. The orchestra and glee clubs 
 and other ensemble groups should join as organiza- 
 tions. The individual members of these organiza- 
 tions may also join as individuals if they so wish. 
 
 Xhe above pupils and organizations join as ac- 
 tive members and appear on the programs as re- 
 quested by the management. 
 
 The membership of the society should also in- 
 clude associate members, who join merely to attend 
 the concerts and entertainments given by the society.
 
 148 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 The general public should also be admitted to 
 the entertainments of the society by paying a small 
 admission fee. 
 
 If cleverly run, a musical society not only will 
 give pupils a chance to appear before audiences 
 a very important part of a student's education but 
 it will be able to make a good deal of money which 
 may be used for some school purpose. Art for art's 
 sake is all very well and should be encouraged, but 
 art is all the better off when it can help in other ways 
 as well.
 
 CHAPTER 7 
 CREDITS FOR APPLIED Music 
 
 THE subject of school music credits is a very 
 difficult one to deal with and will be until there is 
 a standard of work established in music teaching 
 as there now is in other school subjects. There is no 
 standard even in the school chorus classes that work 
 under the direct supervision of the school author- 
 ities, in school buildings under teachers paid by the 
 Board of Education. One high school will sing the 
 Messiah with a perfection of detail and expression, 
 within certain limits, that few choral societies even 
 attain and another school will have only assembly 
 singing where the pupils sing a few popular songs 
 in unison. Both these choruses will demand credit 
 for their work in the same ratio that other subjects 
 are credited in the same school. Where there is 
 such a variety of ideals and attainments on the part 
 of the supervisors who are paid by Boards of Edu- 
 cation and who are supposed to know school condi- 
 tions, and are able to keep pupils up to some stand-
 
 150 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 ard, what can be expected of the private teachers 
 who have no such responsibility to the community, 
 and who depend for their income directly upon the 
 way they pet their pupils along, getting them to do 
 as much as possible while keeping them happy and 
 contented in order to hold them? Until there is 
 some established standard of attainment required 
 of all music teachers the country over, there will 
 still be a question in the minds of the school au- 
 thorities as to whether or not credits should be 
 granted for music study either in school or out. 
 
 Large numbers of private teachers do not be- 
 lieve in giving credits for music study until it is 
 systematized in some way. Many state music teach- 
 ers' associations are attempting to standardize music 
 teaching in various ways, but standardization will 
 never be accomplished until there are state laws 
 establishing standards of music, and certificates is- 
 sued to music teachers as they now are to school 
 teachers. 
 
 CREDITS 
 
 There are various ways of giving credits for the 
 study of music under private teachers. In this con- 
 nection the reader is referred to two bulletins issued 
 by the Bureau of Education at Washington : "Music
 
 CREDITS FOR APPLIED MUSIC 151 
 
 in the Public Schools" No. 33, by Will Erhart; "Mu- 
 sic in Secondary Schools "~No. ^49, by Will Erhart 
 and Usborne McConathy. These two books should 
 be in the library of every supervisor. 
 
 The system used in Minneapolis is here inserted. 
 
 PIANO, VOICE, PIPE ORGAN 
 
 Pupils of the high school may take lessons in 
 any one of these three branches as one of their 
 regular studies. 
 
 Requirements Each pupil must ( 1 ) take one 
 thirty-minute period a week, from some approved 
 private teacher, for the thirty-eight weeks of the 
 school year, (2) practice seven hours a week, (3) 
 take one period a week in the high school theory 
 class, (4) prepare work for the class not to exceed 
 two forty-five-minute periods a week, (5) appear at 
 any entertainment given by the school authorities, 
 when requested. 
 
 Credits Credit for two years' work with piano, 
 voice, or pipe organ may be obtained and used in 
 any course except the commercial and industrial 
 courses. The principal will use his discretion in mak- 
 ing substitutions in the courses. A pupil who wishes 
 more than two years' credit in piano, voice, or pipe 
 organ should enroll in the arts course. In cases 
 where extraordinary talent is manifest, the principal
 
 152 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 may make a special course to meet unusual condi- 
 
 Ctions. Three credits will be given for one year's 
 work, twelve credits for four years' work. 
 
 Note The University of Minnesota requires 
 fifteen years credits for entrance. Of these fifteen 
 year credits, four music credits may be used for 
 entrance to all courses in the University except en- 
 gineering, and this school will allow three credits 
 for music. 
 
 The theory class is open to all pupils of the 
 high school who wish to take it, whether taking 
 other music or not. No credit will be given for the 
 theory class alone. 
 
 A limited number of elective music credits may 
 be substituted in the commercial and industrial 
 courses at the discretion of the principal. 
 
 In the present state of music teaching it is not 
 possible, or at least it is not feasible, to set up any 
 standard and require all to meet it. In the above 
 system the pupil is given his credit if in the judgment 
 of the harmony teacher or the orchestra leader, he 
 has made sufficient progress to warrant it, no matter 
 who his private teacher is. It would be far better 
 if there were accredited teachers who could be re- 
 lied upon to give their pupils a good musical educa- 
 tion and save the supervisor the bother and expense 
 of keeping track of their progress, but this is not 
 possible at present.
 
 CREDITS FOR APPLIED MUSIC 153 
 
 It will be seen by referring to the above Minne- 
 apolis plan that only the piano, pipe organ, and 
 voice pupils are in the harmony classes. This is done 
 so that the harmony teacher can check up the prog- 
 ress of the pupils and determine whether they have 
 earned their credits or not. At first we adopted the 
 examination system and each pupil paid for his ex- 
 amination. This was soon vetoed by the Board of 
 Education, and the harmony teacher was enpowered 
 to be the representative of the Board of Education 
 and grant credits as he saw fit under the above 
 rules. 
 
 All pupils studying symphony instruments are 
 compelled to play in an orchestra before they can 
 receive credits for their music study under outside 
 teachers. These pupils are allowed to enter the har- 
 mony classes if they wish, but are not allowed to 
 substitute harmony for orchestra playing. Pupils 
 should help pay for their training whenever possible, 
 and as orchestras are very useful in high schools, 
 it is only fitting that pupils who can play orchestral 
 instruments should help in the school orchestras as 
 part of their work. The orchestra leader can easily 
 keep track of the pupils' progress and credit them 
 accordingly. 
 
 Occasionally a teacher will be found who does 
 not wish his pupils to do ensemble work. We some-
 
 154 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 times allow such pupils to stay out of the orchestra 
 until some special stage in his development is reached 
 and still give them the credit, but if the teacher says 
 that playing with others is liable to dull the pupil's 
 musical perceptions and that the pupil is to be 
 trained to be a soloist we withhold his credit and 
 advise him to seek a teacher who is less finicky. 
 We contend that the pupil gains more than he loses 
 by playing in the orchestra, and also contend that, 
 if we give him the credit, he shall make some return 
 to the school by using his talent for the good of the 
 school and community that is educating him. He is 
 old this very plainly and drilled in the reason for it. 
 A pupil here in Minneapolis is allowed to grad- 
 uate with one-fourth of his credits in music if he 
 wishes. In special cases a musically gifted pupil is 
 allowed to graduate with more. There are a number 
 of cases now in the high schools where the pupils 
 are interested in nothing but music. With each of 
 these the principal has agreed that if he earn half 
 his credits in regular subjects he will be allowed to 
 graduate with the other half in music. This is done 
 to keep him from leaving school and studying noth- 
 ing but music, which is always to be cleplored. 
 These pupils know, of course, that extra music 
 credits will not admit them to the state University, 
 as the University of Minnesota allows only four 
 year-credits for music out of the fifteen required 
 for admission.
 
 CREDITS FOR APPLIED MUSIC 155 
 
 HOW IT WORKS 
 
 Such a system, while by no means perfect, works 
 very well. It seems to be as fair as the supervisor 
 can make it. The pupils earn their credits, for the 
 music requirements are a trifle harder than are those 
 for any other subject. They were made so purposely. 
 The average high school student only half works. 
 He comes to school and learns to dawdle instead of 
 work. Unfortunately but truly, the parents and 
 teachers are alike to blame. He is not. As the or- 
 dinary person does only what he has to in this 
 world, the growing youth should be taught to drive 
 himself. This is not allowed, however, to any great 
 extent in the modern system of schools. Another 
 reason that the requirements are hard is that people 
 are very apt to think that music is but a fad and 
 that music credits are a snap. 
 
 A large number applied for credit the first year 
 we offered them. After a few weeks many saw their 
 error of judgment and dropped the music for 
 something easier. That was no surprise. They were 
 allowed to drop it, as we were out to attract the 
 real musicians, those who meant business and not 
 those looking for an easy thing. Now only the ear- 
 nest students elect music. 
 
 The numbers taking the courses are somewhat 
 disappointing. When we read articles in the music 
 magazines and get letters from supervisors and pri-
 
 156 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 vate teachers in other cities telling us what a wide- 
 spread demand there is for music credits and how 
 hard it is to get the system started, we smile to 
 ourselves and wonder if the demand is not less wide- 
 spread than we sometimes imagine. Credits should 
 be given, and of course there is a demand for them, 
 but the following incident may show more plainly 
 what is meant. A personal experience may be to 
 the point here. 
 
 A few years ago, after I had been in Minneap- 
 olis but two years and the high school work was just 
 getting established, I concluded that the time was 
 ripe to ask for music credits for students taking les- 
 sons from outside teachers. I decided to go slow and 
 not ask too much at once. I made my request to 
 the Superintendent, who requested me to lay my 
 plan before the Board of Education. When I had 
 finished my statement, one of them inquired why I 
 asked for orchestra credit only. When I explained 
 that I had decided not to be too greedy in that line, 
 I was told that when I had a plan to submit, grant- 
 ing credits for all kinds of music, they would listen 
 to it. I apologized for being so slow and withdrew. 
 The next week the above plan was adopted with no 
 discussion. I had been too slow for the Board of Edu- 
 cation, but I never committed that offence again.
 
 CREDITS FOR APPLIED MUSIC 157 
 
 LIMITED DEMAND 
 
 To return to the limited demand for credits and 
 the reasons therefor. 
 
 Some time ago we took a census of the 8,000 
 high school pupils and found that approximately 
 2,500 were studying music with outside teachers and 
 yet scarcely 500 were taking credit for it. Not a 
 very large number, and it makes one wonder why 
 more were not taking credit so freely offered in Or- 
 chestra, Band, Piano, Voice, and Pipe Organ. Most 
 of these high school students who are studying 
 music seem to prefer taking music in addition to 
 the four subjects required for graduation. Let us 
 look for the reasons. 
 
 Every new subject (and especially music) in- 
 troduced into the high school curriculum must con- 
 tend with a number of opposing forces, one of which 
 is the attitude (unconscious usually) of the high 
 school teachers. The optional system of choosing 
 subjects in the high school makes for variable num- 
 bers in all the classes, and it is natural that the 
 teachers should be interested in keeping up the num- 
 bers taking their particular subjects. Since music, 
 to the average high school teacher, seems but waste 
 of time, when pupils apply to one of these teachers 
 for assistance in choosing their courses, a teacher 
 of this sort is very apt to advise against music and
 
 158 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 other unnecessary things and suggest something prac- 
 tical, like his own subject. In many high schools, 
 each teacher acts as advisor to a group of pupils 
 and helps them choose their subjects and make out 
 their programs. If the musical pupil is assigned to 
 an advisor who has no use for music, it stands to 
 reason that his musical aspirations receive scant 
 sympathy and he is influenced to take something else. 
 Then again the Universities are but just beginning 
 to recognize music, and pupils have to plan their 
 high school courses to enter some higher school. 
 High schools are getting more and more practical 
 and courses are now offered that fit the pupil for 
 some occupation by which he will earn money. Mu- 
 sic does not appeal to him as a vocation, and so he 
 chooses something else. Added to all this is a some- 
 what apathetic attitude of the private teachers. 
 They do not insist that their pupils work for credits. 
 
 ADVERTISING 
 
 We advertise these courses in the high schools 
 in the following manner. 
 
 Before the end of each term the above bulletin 
 is read and explained to all pupils as they are mak- 
 ing out their programs for the next term and a copy 
 of it is given to all pupils interested enough to ask 
 for one. Every year or two a copy of this bulletin 
 is sent to every music teacher in the city. A copy of
 
 CREDITS FOR APPLIED MUSIC 159 
 
 this bulletin is always on the bulletin board of every 
 high school and a copy is always at the door of the 
 music room. Programs by the harmony students are 
 given from time to time at assembly. These pro- 
 grams are made up of original compositions. 
 
 With this publicity we let it rest and the pupils 
 may choose it or not. We feel that they should not 
 be pressed and herded into these classes. If they 
 want to study music seriously they will take it. 
 Others we do not desire. 
 
 The time will come, and let us hope it will be 
 soon, when some general standard will be required 
 of students taking music and only those of a certain 
 standard will be given credits in music the same as 
 is now the case in other subjects. This is not possible 
 now, and there is no standard among teachers them- 
 selves, and we have nothing to go by that is general 
 enough to be adopted. At the present time it seems 
 only fair to give credit on progress made and effort 
 put forth rather than on some set standard. 
 
 We of course recognize the music credits pupils 
 bring from some other high school. We do not, how- 
 ever, recognize the credits that a pupil gets from any 
 private school or conservatory. If we did, we should 
 have no idea of their value without an examination, 
 and so we ignore them all. This works hardship at 
 times, but if we recognized any private school we 
 should have to recognize them all. Otherwise we
 
 160 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 should have to establish some sort of system of rec- 
 ognizing certain ones and ignoring others, which 
 would lead to many complications we should prefer 
 to avoid. 
 
 This system of credits is a step in the right direc- 
 tion and will, as time goes on, work out to better 
 advantage as the standardization of music is ac- 
 complished and the value of music as an educational 
 and vocational force is more and more recognized. 
 At present it is on trial and it rests with the mu- 
 sicians of the country to show that it is worth the 
 time and effort spent upon it.
 
 CHAPTER 8 
 INSTRUMENTAL AND VOCAL CLASSES 
 
 THE right of every child to an education paid 
 for by the public, of which he and his parents are a 
 part, is no longer questioned. It is now being rec- 
 ognized that his education must be both cultural and 
 vocational. The trend of education is toward tak- 
 ing everything into the public schools. Each year, 
 new courses are started in the high schools to meet 
 the insistent demands of the public for complete 
 training that will fit pupils for social as well as in- 
 dustrial life. The study of music is coming into the 
 high schools more and more as people begin to see 
 that, when rightly carried on, it combines mental, 
 physical, moral, emotional, and vocational training 
 of a high order. 
 
 Long ago we found that, in academic subjects, 
 the class lesson was more effective and more econom- 
 ical than the private lesson. We have since discov- 
 ered that this principle also applies to music, and 
 the day of the private music teacher is rapidly pass- 
 ing. Aside from the expense, which of course is 
 very much less, class lessons are better than private 
 lessons. In private lessons there are no other pupils
 
 162 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 with which the student may compare himself. He 
 loses the stimulus of doing the same work others are 
 doing, and without this opportunity for comparison 
 he is unable to set a standard for himself. We little 
 realize the value and power of the training pupils 
 absorb from one another. 
 
 Another superiority of the class lesson is the as- 
 surance pupils acquire from reciting before others. 
 This is particularly true of the music pupil, who 
 needs all the assurance he can develop. As he must 
 later perform before people, it is vitally necessary 
 that he learn to do this in a self-possessed manner. 
 The private pupil has little chance to play before 
 audiences except at infrequent recitals. In the class 
 lessons every lesson is a recital where the pupil 
 performs before a very critical audience. 
 
 The class lesson is better for the teacher. When 
 there is but one pupil in a class the teacher can do 
 almost anything in the way of teaching and not be 
 detected but with a class the teacher must observe 
 the principles of psychology and of pedagogy or he 
 will come to grief. It takes real teaching to run a 
 class in any subject, for pupils will not do anything if 
 there is not some semblance of logic and order in 
 the way the teacher works. This is especially true 
 of music. 
 
 There is no reason why music of all kinds should 
 not be taught in high schools in classes as large or 
 nearly as large as those in other subjects. 
 
 There should be a conservatory of music as an 
 integral part of every high school and college, and
 
 INSTRUMENTAL AND VOCAL CLASSES 163 
 
 public education should provide for the training of 
 teachers to carry on the work. 
 
 It is impossible in this volume to give a very 
 exhaustive study of class lessons when each branch 
 of music teaching is worthy of and demands a text- 
 book of its own. There are, however, a few gen- 
 eral principles that apply to all, to which we will 
 briefly refer. 
 
 TEACHERS 
 
 It is very difficult to find teachers capable of do- 
 ing this work. There are plenty of school teachers 
 who know how to handle classes but who do not 
 know enough of music. On the other hand there are 
 plenty of private teachers who know music in all 
 its phases but do not know how to teach classes. 
 They have never had experience in class work and 
 they know very little pedagogy. The average private 
 teacher of music is perfectly helpless when con- 
 fronted with more than two or three pupils at a 
 time. He is not to blame. He never had a chance 
 to learn. There are few if any places where teachers 
 are trained to teach music classes in voice, piano, 
 violin, etc. The supervisors of the country should 
 see that schools are established where teachers can 
 be trained to teach music in classes. This has already 
 been done for supervisors and teachers of vocal 
 music, but for class teachers of voice culture and in- 
 strumental music little or nothing has been done. 
 
 Class teaching in music is school teaching pure 
 and simple. Whatever methods are good in teach-
 
 164 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 ing common school branches will apply equally well 
 to music teaching in classes. 
 
 INSTRUMENTAL AND VOCAL CLASSES 
 
 School teachers who are trained musicians make 
 the best teachers of music classes. They have had 
 normal training and know how to teach school. With 
 a little special training they are able to apply their 
 knowledge of pedagogy to the teaching of music 
 in classes. Private teachers of music who wish to 
 take up this work should take a course of normal 
 training in regular school branches and special train- 
 ing with reference to music-class teaching. 
 
 Until teachers are trained to run music classes 
 successfully, music will not be as universally studied 
 as it should be owing to the prohibitive cost and the 
 meager results of private lessons. Developing piano 
 teachers for the Minneapolis schools brought out 
 the need of this training and a J)ook* is respectfully 
 recommended to our readers as embodying many 
 things that will apply to the teaching of all kinds 
 of music classes. The chapter on class procedure is 
 especially recommended to those who wish to give 
 classroom instruction. 
 
 ORGANIZATION 
 
 When the teachers are trained and ready, how 
 shall the classes be organized? Who shall pay the 
 teachers? 
 
 * "Giddings Public School Piano Class Method," Oliver Dit- 
 so n & Co., Boston.
 
 INSTRUMENTAL AND VOCAL CLASSES 165 
 
 The ideal plan is to have the teachers paid a 
 regular salary by the Board of Education and the 
 classes placed upon the same basis as the other 
 classes in the school. The number of pupils in the 
 classes, the frequency with which they meet, and the 
 point of progress at which the pupils are expected 
 to arrive, will be governed by the kind of music 
 taught. For instance, some of the piano classes in 
 the high school that are well advanced should meet 
 every day, and individual pupils should play for the 
 class often, when learning interpretation. When the 
 classes are not so advanced it might be well for them 
 to meet but once or twice weekly. This will have to 
 be decided by experience. In voice building twice 
 weekly and twenty in a class has been found to be 
 quite ideal. 
 
 The whole subject of instrumental and voice 
 teaching in both grade and high schools is in an un- 
 developed state. Comparatively few supervisors do 
 anything with it and those few are experimenting and 
 learning how to do it and trying to discover how 
 much of this addition to the regular curriculum their 
 communities will accept. 
 
 The city of Oakland, California, has worked out 
 a unique and efficient system of instrumental in- 
 struction in the public schools, both grade and high. 
 The teachers are paid by the Board of Education 
 and any pupil in the schools may receive lessons on 
 any band or orchestral instrument free. Piano and
 
 166 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 voice lessons, while given in the schools must be paid 
 for by the pupils. The Oakland plan is well worth 
 study and emulation. The results are well worth 
 while both because of the numbers of pupils who are 
 learning music and the number of excellent bands 
 and orchestras there are in the schools. 
 
 Through the courtesy of Mr. Glenn Woods, 
 under whose efficient leadership this admirable plan 
 has been developed, a summary of the Oakland plan 
 is here appended. 
 
 SUMMARY OF INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC IN THE 
 OAKLAND SCHOOLS 
 
 Instrumental work in the public school system 
 depends upon three essentials: first, it is absolutely 
 necessary to supply the unusual instruments to the 
 children for the band and orchestra, either through 
 concerts given by the individual schools to raise 
 funds for securing them or through 'the Board of 
 Education; second, it is only when the work begins 
 in the lower grades of the elementary schools and 
 is carried through the high schools, that any con- 
 tinuity of instruction can be secured or any degree 
 of skill on the part of the pupils can be expected; 
 third, the only positive guarantee that the work in 
 the instrumental music will be well done or receive 
 public recognition as being worth while, is that the 
 instruction be given by special teachers of instru- 
 mental music who are themselves able to play the 
 string, brass, and reed instruments.
 
 INSTRUMENTAL AND VOCAL CLASSES 167 
 
 The Oakland Board of Education has employed 
 eight special teachers of instrumental music to in- 
 struct the pupils in the grade schools. It has also 
 employed four teachers of instrumental music in the 
 high schools. All of these teachers not only play 
 string, brass, and reed instruments, but are quali- 
 fied to give instruction upon all the instruments of 
 both band and orchestra. 
 
 The three ideas mentioned, beginning the work 
 in grade schools, supplying the unusual instruments, 
 and employing special teachers, have all been 
 adopted in the Oakland public schools. To meet the 
 second demand, the Board of Education supplied a 
 number of rarer instruments at an approximate cost 
 of $5,000, and placed them in those schools already 
 having the nucleus of a band or an orchestra. 
 
 The instruments purchased by the Board, all 
 of which are in use, are as follows : twenty-five 
 basses, twelve altos, fourteen mellophones, a double 
 quartette of saxophones, eight Fluegel horns, two 
 trumpets, ten French horns, five oboes, five bassoons, 
 one piccolo, ten string basses, bells, and tympani, 
 five cellos, three trombones, eight violas. Requests 
 are constantly being received for more of these in- 
 struments. 
 
 The special teachers have at least five schools 
 a week and teach from eight in the morning until 
 four in the afternoon. They give individual lessons 
 of from fifteen to twenty minutes' duration to all 
 the pupils they can meet. They average between 
 twenty and twenty-five lessons a day, or one
 
 168 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 hundred and thirty lessons a week. The size of 
 classes in which violin instruction is given rarely ex- 
 ceeds five pupils. While it is frequently argued that 
 pupils can be taught violin in larger classes, it has 
 been the practice of the department of music in the 
 Oakland schools to prefer a few number receiving 
 instruction, and to feel assured that those pupils are 
 receiving better training than they would in large 
 classes. 
 
 Broadly speaking, one idea is dominant, that the 
 pupil acquire a musical education. If, when he 
 comes to selecting a vocation, music is his choice, 
 then the instruction he has received in the public 
 schools will have been of such a character that he 
 will be able to continue his studies and have nothing 
 to undo on account of his instruction in the public 
 schools. 
 
 For those pupils then, who choose music as a 
 vocation, the training will be complete as far as 
 they go, and those who enjoy music only as a matter 
 of recreation will have received sufficient instruction 
 to instil in them an appreciation of the best that 
 music offers, and above all, to enable them to par- 
 ticipate actively in the performance of good music. 
 
 BONDING OF INSTRUMENTS 
 
 To Parents: 
 
 1. Bonds must be signed for instruments loaned 
 to pupils. 
 
 2. The amount of the bond simply covers the 
 cost of the instrument.
 
 INSTRUMENTAL AND VOCAL CLASSES 169 
 
 3. Should the instruments be damaged, the par- 
 ents must pay for repairs. 
 
 4. Instructors will examine instruments each 
 month and report condition. 
 
 5. Should students leave school and return the 
 instrument in good condition, no charge will be 
 made for its use. 
 
 6. Students to whom instruments are loaned 
 must continue their special lessons. It is only just 
 that the students be required to practice regularly 
 and continue their lessons if the Board of Education 
 supplies the instruments. If the students do not con- 
 tinue their lessons and keep up their regular prac- 
 tice, making reasonable progress, we reserve the 
 privilege of recalling the instrument to be assigned 
 to other students who are anxious to avail them- 
 selves of these special advantages. 
 
 Instruments furnished by the Board of Educa- 
 tion are for use in school organizations only. Any 
 violation whatsoever of this rule immediately for- 
 feits the further privilege of their use. 
 
 Recommendation concerning the purchase of 
 new instruments will gladly be given to parents. 
 All instruments that are recommended have been 
 tested and are quoted by the dealers at special prices 
 to school students. It is not advisable to purchase 
 expensive instruments until the pupils are sufficiently 
 well advanced in their studies and have proven by 
 their proficiency that their tastes and qualifications 
 warrant such expenditure.
 
 CHAPTER 9 
 
 GENERAL SUPERVISION 
 By T. P. Giddings 
 
 THERE is a most excellent book by Mr. Thomas 
 Tapper on the "Music Supervisor". There are a 
 number of other writings on the subject of music 
 supervision and, though seemingly unnecessary, I 
 cannot refrain from adding a chapter on general 
 music supervision with my own music department 
 as an example. 
 
 That a stream rises no higher than its source is 
 especially true when applied to school music. The 
 music supervisor is, or should be, the fountain head 
 of music in his town; he cannot avoid this responsi- 
 bility; upon him more than any one else depends 
 the musical future of his city. The supervisor of 
 music is singularly alone in his work. This is equally 
 true of the supervisor in the small town and the 
 large city. He is the only one of his kind in the 
 place and it is rarely that he has the opportunity to 
 see others working at the same thing he is doing. 
 He visits other systems occasionally but, like every 
 other teacher, not often enough.
 
 GENERAL SUPERVISION 171 
 
 SEEING IS BELIEVING 
 
 The only way to learn what another supervisor 
 is doing is to see him at work, to see the actual pro- 
 cess of music teaching. A person may tell at great 
 length what he does, and still not give a clear idea 
 of what he really accomplishes in his schools. I have 
 heard supervisors at conventions tell what went on 
 in their towns. Later I have visited them and have 
 had the greatest difficulty in making the mantle of 
 charity, which is rather skimpy in my case, cover 
 what I saw. I also have risen and related what I did, 
 and visitors have departed from my town with a 
 firmly rooted suspicion that I, also, am a prominent 
 member of the Supervisors' Ananias Club, and yet 
 I am sure we all mean to tell the truth when we arise 
 and speak in meeting. The trouble is that we are too 
 much alone, too far apart, have no common standard 
 and consequently are unable to see ourselves and 
 our work in the right perspective. I have repeatedly 
 said that the Music Supervisors' National Confer- 
 ence should standardize the teaching of school music 
 and that this standard should be universally adopted. 
 Public School Music will never take its proper place 
 until this is done. 
 
 STANDARDIZATION 
 
 There is one best way to do any work. This is 
 as true of music teaching as it is of brick-laying, 
 and this best way should be found and music teach- 
 ing should not be controlled entirely by the different
 
 172 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 temperaments of the individual supervisors. This 
 standardization can only come about by the frequent 
 exchange of ideas between supervisors. As a step 
 toward this the supervisor of music in each large 
 city should standardize the work in that city. Un- 
 fortunately this is not always done and we have 
 the spectacle of several large cities where there is 
 no head supervisor and each music teacher does as 
 he pleases in his own school or section. In other 
 places different sections of the same city are under 
 independent school managements and do wholly dif- 
 ferent work in music. In other places the high schools 
 and grades are independent and there is no continu- 
 ity to the work. 
 
 In cities where there is a music director it is 
 surely incumbent upon him to see that a coherent 
 system is put into practice in all the schools under 
 his supervision. A few years ago a prominent super- 
 visor asked me if I ever visited my assistants. "Cer- 
 tainly," I said, "and often." He said he believed 
 it a good idea. I was amazed to find upon inquiry 
 that he had never seen any of his assistants teach 
 during all the time he had been in that city. 
 
 ORGANIZATION 
 
 To make any work effective there must be an 
 organization to carry it on. For purposes of il- 
 lustration I will use the Minneapolis music depart- 
 ment as an example. It is the one I know best and 
 I feel free to discuss both its weak and its strong 
 points. The place is large enough to serve as a
 
 GENERAL SUPERVISION 173 
 
 sample of the largest cities and not too large to be 
 typical of many cities of medium size. It may also 
 be interesting to read of the different steps that led 
 to this organization, for I am old enough not to fear 
 people looking behind the scenes. If my experience 
 will help any one I gladly pass it on. 
 
 The organization of a music department is a 
 very important part of a supervisor's work. This 
 organization differs with the size of the city and 
 with the ideals of the supervisor. All this, of course, 
 depends upon the way he has been able to educate 
 his community into allowing him funds to carry on 
 his work. This latter depends directly upon the ef- 
 ficiency the music department has been able to show 
 in its workings and results. 
 
 Minneapolis is a city of 380,000 (1920) and 
 has many advantages in a musical line, chief of which 
 is a Symphony Orchestra of the first rank. There 
 are a number of fine conservatories of music, and 
 the people loyally support music in all its forms. 
 Music has been taught in the Minneapolis schools 
 for fifty-seven years, but previous to 1912 no regular 
 work had been done in the high schools. Never 
 more than one supervisor at a time had been em- 
 ployed in the grades. 
 
 Once in two weeks the Superintendent 
 meets the assistant Superintendents and Super- 
 visors in a body. This meeting takes the form 
 of a discussion, in which everything is talked over 
 and each one ventilates his opinion, if he has one, 
 and a vote is often taken, the Superintendent and
 
 174 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 Board of Education reserving the right of final de- 
 cision, of course. These meetings are most valu- 
 able to us all, far more to us than to the Superin- 
 tendent, as in this way all know the resources and 
 possibilities of the school system. Each head of a 
 department knows what is going on in the other 
 departments. Troublesome questions are discussed 
 and help and advice from a number of interested 
 people are available. All feel that these meetings 
 are most interesting and entertaining as well as val- 
 uable. This plan also saves the time of all concerned 
 as well as the time of the Superintendent, as this 
 meeting is a clearing house of all questions that have 
 to be discussed and settled. For instance if I, as 
 head of the music department, wish to make some 
 change in my department, I bring it before this 
 meeting and we decide whether it is possible or not; 
 if so, I go ahead with it. If it affects only the high 
 schools, it is then brought before the principals of 
 the high schools for their approval; if it affects 
 the grade schools, I bring it before the grade school 
 principals at their next meeting. Do not gather 
 from the above that we are a "soviet"-governed set 
 of schools; not at all. There is plenty of central 
 authority, but it is exercised so as to secure cheerful 
 cooperation instead of a grudging bowing to au- 
 thority. 
 
 MUSIC DEPARTMENT 
 
 In my own department the same system is used. 
 All questions concerning the department and its
 
 GENERAL SUPERVISION 175 
 
 workings and its relations to the other parts of the 
 school system are talked over and decided upon at 
 meetings of the whole department which are held 
 at my office from four to five-thirty every Monday 
 afternoon. Each one has made a memorandum of 
 the questions that have arisen during the week. Most 
 of the time at this meeting is spent in discussing and 
 settling these questions. This time is also the of- 
 fice hour of the department. The teachers of the 
 city come to see us at that time. Very few come, 
 however, as the directions for running the music in 
 the Minneapolis schools are very clearly printed and 
 a copy is placed in every teacher's hands. When 
 changes are decided upon, these changes are printed 
 in the weekly bulletin. Even if the question under 
 discussion affects only the kindergartens, the high 
 school music teachers take part. Every one in the 
 department should know what is going on in the 
 whole department; also I want them to get ac- 
 quainted with each other. I want their opinions 
 and advice. While I have the deciding vote, of 
 course, everyone is entitled to his opinion and a 
 majority vote is often taken to settle disputed points. 
 The meetings are by no means all serious, and many 
 a frivolous word is bandied about, for we are all firm 
 believers in the uplift of occasional nonsense both 
 in school and out. When our meeting is over, al- 
 ways some of us, and often all of us, repair to a 
 "snatch-me-quick" and then to a movie for relaxa- 
 tion, getting home or to our other engagements 
 early in the evening. Occasionally we have a picnic,
 
 176 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 or an evening frolic of the most informal descrip- 
 tion, to which all the wives and husbands of the 
 department are invited. When people work together 
 it is a fine thing to have them know each other 
 socially as well as professionally. When a person 
 really knows another he will usually find something 
 to admire in him. There is little or no jealousy in 
 my department, or, if there is, it never shows. Each 
 one expects to share all his hopes, fears, ideas, and 
 ambitions. "Each for all" is our motto, and we live 
 up to it. This has its effect on the department itself 
 and it also shows in the work in the schools. We 
 give a good example of a lot of songbirds working 
 pleasantly together. 
 
 PERSONAL 
 
 The music department is expanding as money 
 for such expansion becomes available. I would 
 gladly make great additions to my department, but 
 with my intimate knowledge of the resources of the 
 system I refrain from asking for what I know is im- 
 possible to grant. Neither do I grunt, complain, or 
 get peeved over what I cannot have, but work cheer- 
 fully with what is available. There is always an- 
 other year coming. 
 
 At a movie recently a choice bit of wisdom was 
 flashed upon the screen in one of the great pictures. 
 The setting does not matter, but every supervisor 
 of music can use the philosophy of the heroine who 
 said to herself, "If you can't get what you want, 
 want what you can get."
 
 GENERAL SUPERVISION 177 
 
 Right here I am going to digress and write a 
 short and very personal sermonette. I have for 
 years attended Supervisors' meetings, rarely missing 
 one. I have known the Supervisors of most of the 
 larger cities of the country for lo, these many years, 
 and my acquaintance with a number of them has 
 been limited to hearing of the awful things they 
 had to put up with from their Superintendents, 
 Boards of Education, Politics and Communities. 
 These lamentations so scared me that I remained 
 contentedly in my small place at Oak Park, rather 
 than brave a larger place. When the opportunity 
 arrived to come to Minneapolis, which is only 
 twenty miles from home, I took the chance and came. 
 I am glad I did it. In the eleven years I have been 
 here, I have had nothing to mourn about. Everyone 
 has treated me kindly, I have never been crushed, 
 "Politics" has never touched me (we do not have 
 them in our city schools), and work in a large city 
 is far more interesting and variegated than in a 
 small one. I have worked hard of course, but that 
 is what I am paid for. I have spent many nights 
 and not a few Sundays working on my school job. 
 I learned years ago that one had to work to get 
 anything done in this world. I also learned that I 
 seldom, if ever, worked to my limit. I have always 
 refused (not always successfully) to worry. I found 
 that the best cure for worry was to work to remove 
 the cause for worry. 
 
 The supervisor of anything and especially the 
 supervisor of music can be a vast help to any system
 
 178 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 of schools, and he can also be an awful nuisance. 
 People seem to look for trouble in the music depart- 
 ment, just as many clergymen refer to the choir as 
 the "war department" of the church. I well re- 
 member the first National Music Supervisors' Con- 
 ference I attended since coming to Minneapolis. 
 On my return the Superintendent asked me about 
 my impressions. I said, "When I listened to the 
 wails of the Supervisors and heard what they had 
 to put up with from their Superintendents, I re- 
 joiced to be in Minneapolis." His only answer was 
 a grunt. Then I added that when I analyzed the 
 situation still further and thought what the super- 
 intendents had to put up with from their supervisors, 
 it explained a lot of things. His response to this 
 latter sentiment was both voluble and heartfelt. 
 
 Music supervisors, more than any others, should 
 be very particular not to embarrass the school man- 
 agement in any way. Their connection with the mu- 
 sical interests of the city and the feeling on the part 
 of most Superintendents and Boards of Education 
 that music is something mysterious that they know 
 nothing of, gives the Music Supervisor a peculiar 
 and powerful chance to make trouble if he so wishes. 
 It also gives him the chance to become a power in 
 his community. Apropos of this, I was recently dis- 
 cussing with a friend of mine a certain point in ad- 
 ministration. "But the whole public opinion of the 
 community and that of the teaching profession," he 
 said, "would be against you." My reply seemed per- 
 fectly natural to me but he said it was a staggering
 
 GENERAL SUPERVISION 179 
 
 one to him. "That makes no difference," I said, 
 "I make public opinion. That is my job." It is the 
 job of any supervisor and one of his most important 
 functions. 
 
 MY CREED 
 
 I have a little creed that I recite to every Super- 
 intendent with whom I work. I will pass it on. It 
 has never failed to establish and keep cordial rela- 
 tions between us. I mean every word of it and do 
 my best to live up to it. 
 
 "You are my boss. Whatever you say, goes. 
 Whatever criticism you wish to give me or my de- 
 partment on my work will be welcomed. I have no 
 feelings, am not sensitive. You are responsible for 
 my work ; my good work helps you ; you will get the 
 credit for my poor work. I am in this system to do 
 my best for the schools first, my department next. 
 I will work hard and cheerfully under whatever con- 
 ditions are necessary. When, if ever, I cannot do 
 this, I will resign. I will never stay in a system and 
 nurse a grouch. You and the school system are en- 
 titled to cheerful, loyal work from me as well as 
 hard work. You shall have it. Whenever you see 
 signs that I am not living up to this, speak up, speak 
 hard and distinctly." 
 
 ORGANIZATION OF MUSIC DEPARTMENT 
 
 The Minneapolis music department is organized 
 as follows :
 
 180 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 One supervisor, who has general supervision of 
 all music in day and night schools, kindergarten, 
 grade, and high. 
 
 Three grade supervisors. Two for vocal work 
 in grades and kindergartens, and one who supervises 
 and organizes the orchestras and instrumental 
 classes. 
 
 Nine special teachers of music in the senior, 
 junior, and vocational high schools. Five senior, 
 three junior, and one vocational. These spend their 
 entire time in music work. 
 
 In the senior high schools, the teachers are all 
 men. These men teach the chorus classes in every 
 case. In some of the schools they also drill the glee 
 clubs, orchestras, and bands. In several cases these 
 smaller organizations are carried on by regular 
 high school teachers, who work part time in the music 
 department under the supervision of the music 
 supervisor. 
 
 In addition to the above-mentioned, one man 
 teaches harmony in all the high schools. The pupils 
 who receive credits for outside music study make 
 up the harmony classes. The high school men also 
 do some supervision in the grades, as it is not well 
 for a high school teacher of music to do only high 
 school work. He should prepare some of the grade 
 pupils that come to his high school, so that he may 
 have a clear idea of what to expect from his pupils. 
 
 One teacher of voice culture gives class lessons 
 in all the high schools, the pupils paying for the 
 lessons.
 
 GENERAL SUPERVISION 181 
 
 Each chorus leader in the five senior high schools, 
 has an assistant to take the attendance and do the 
 clerical work incidental to looking after the large 
 number of students in the chorus classes. These as- 
 sistants are pupils in Public School Music Supervi- 
 sion. They are glad to accept a small salary, and 
 they also have a chance to learn by actual work in 
 a high school. 
 
 The seventh and eighth grades are organized on 
 the departmental plan and one teacher takes the 
 music as part of her regular work. This teacher 
 usually leads the orchestra. 
 
 Grade teachers below the seventh grade teach 
 their own music. In a few cases where the teacher 
 cannot teach music she trades work with some other 
 teacher. 
 
 The Supervisor of Music himself supervises the 
 upper grades of twenty-five buildings, all the grades 
 of three buildings and visits the other music teach- 
 ers at frequent intervals. His program is not reg- 
 ular, but he leaves a weekly itinerary card at the 
 Superintendent's office so that he can always be 
 reached at any time. 
 
 The assistant supervisors visit the grade schools. 
 In some of the buildings they visit all the grades 
 and in others only as far as the seventh grade. The 
 men from the high schools supervise the department 
 work in a number of the buildings, as it is found that 
 men do not do very well in the lower grades but 
 as a rule are more successful than women with the 
 big boys in the upper grades. The assistant super- 
 visors have regular programs which they follow,
 
 182 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 leaving a weekly itinerary card at the Superinten- 
 dents' office, and also one with the Supervisor. These 
 programs are made out for two weeks in advance. 
 
 The Supervisor or an Assistant Supervisor may 
 change his program whenever necessary, but when 
 this is done he must inform the office, and in case 
 of assistants they must inform the office and also 
 the Supervisor himself of the change. In this way 
 the office is always in touch with the whole depart- 
 ment and communication can be established when- 
 ever need arises. 
 
 In addition to the above there are a number of 
 piano and violin and other instrumental class teach- 
 ers. These teachers work under the supervision of 
 the music department but are paid by the pupils. 
 There is a great central band for boys in our city, 
 and instruction on all band instruments is free to 
 all. This band is supported by an association of pub- 
 lic spirited citizens and relieves the schools of most 
 of the instrumental teaching of this type. These 
 pupils usually play in the school orchestras. 
 
 A supervisor visits each room in the grades once 
 in six weeks. 
 
 OUTSIDE WORK 
 
 As it is increasingly difficult to procure and re- 
 tain assistant supervisors, I make it a point to find 
 outside work for them to do. Most of them lead 
 choirs and teach privately. Minneapolis is rapidly 
 becoming a center for the training of supervisors. 
 At present six of us are in this work in the Uni-
 
 GENERAL SUPERVISION 183 
 
 versity and the various conservatories. Pupils from 
 the University classes are allowed to practise in 
 the public schools. Many pupils from the conserva- 
 tory classes are used to assist unmusical teachers, 
 teach small classes of backward pupils in high 
 schools, work with monotones from the grades, and 
 thus get practice in teaching, and help us at the 
 same time. They also play accompaniments when- 
 ever an accompanist cannot be found in the chorus 
 classes. 
 
 In addition to the outside work that we are paid 
 for, we do a great deal of other work in the com- 
 munity, leading community sings, etc. We also be- 
 long to the various musical societies. I am one of 
 the directors of the Civic Music League and in that 
 capacity am able to keep in touch with the various 
 musical organizations of the city. There is the finest 
 spirit of cooperation between the musicians of the 
 city and the public school music department. They 
 support us royally, and always include us in their 
 activities. 
 
 STANDARD OF TEACHING 
 
 As has been stated above, all questions of man- 
 agement and methods of work are discussed at our 
 Monday meetings; and when we decide upon any 
 procedure, we all adopt it and pursue it the same 
 way. The assistant supervisors do not have certain 
 districts, but are assigned to certain buildings, and 
 these are changed occasionally as need arises. We 
 first agree on methods and these methods are all em-
 
 184 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 bodied in a pamphlet published by the Board of 
 Education, a copy of which is placed in the hands of 
 every grade teacher, and one is carried by every 
 music supervisor and strictly adhered to. Teachers 
 and supervisors are left perfectly free to do as they 
 please on the art side of the work, but on the me- 
 chanical side the rules once adopted are adhered to 
 by all until a revision is decided upon. A revised 
 pamphlet is then issued, and every one adopts the 
 new rules and procedures. 
 
 These pamphlets have proven so popular, and 
 we receive so many calls for them from other cities, 
 that the Board of Education prints a number of 
 extra ones and they are for sale at twenty-five cents 
 each. 
 
 These may be secured by anyone sending twenty- 
 five cents in stamps to T. P. Giddings, 305 City Hall, 
 Minneapolis, Minn. 
 
 "BEES" 
 
 The music supervisors teach most of the time 
 when visiting schools. Occasionally the grade 
 teacher is asked to give the lesson, but only when 
 the supervisor cannot diagnose the trouble by teach- 
 ing the class. The supervisor must be a good teacher, 
 and tc improve ourselves we have "bees", as we 
 call them, once or twice a term. We all assemble 
 at the same building for a whole day and we take 
 turns teaching. After each lesson we adjourn to a 
 vacant room and discuss it freely and exhaustively. 
 Everyone gains in power, and all do the work more 
 nearly alike. This uniformity of work has many ad-
 
 GENERAL SUPERVISION 185 
 
 vantages. When a supervisor changes buildings the 
 teachers do not have the trouble of getting used to 
 a new set of methods. When teachers or pupils are 
 transferred from one building to another they have 
 nothing to change. Then again the system we agree 
 upon is the simplest, most direct, and efficient we 
 are able to think up, and so we all use it and require 
 the teachers to do the same. It also makes us sys- 
 tematic in our teaching, a thing that is often difficult 
 for musicians. These "bees" are held in high schools 
 as well as in the grades, and the grade and high 
 school supervisors attend all of them whenever pos- 
 sible, as I want them all to know all the work so 
 that when one of them is offered a better place, as 
 sometimes happen, they will be prepared. While I 
 hate to lose them, they go with my blessing as well 
 prepared as I can make them. 
 
 VISITING DAYS 
 
 These "bees" are supplemented by occasional 
 visiting days. Whenever in my visits I notice that 
 one of my assistants is weak in some way and that 
 some other is strong in that line, I send the one need- 
 ing help to spend the day with the stronger teacher. 
 
 In addition to all this, it has been the custom to 
 invite all the music supervisors in the state to spend 
 the day before the Minnesota Teachers' Association 
 convenes, visiting the school music classes. These 
 meetings alternate yearly between Minneapolis and 
 St. Paul.
 
 186 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 CONFERENCES 
 
 We all attend the National Conference when- 
 ever possible. We hope soon to organize a club 
 similar to the Pulse Club of Boston, a club com- 
 posed of the supervisors of music in and around the 
 city of Boston. I understand that there are one 
 hundred and fifty supervisors of music within fifty 
 miles of the Hub. They have lively and valuable 
 meetings, one of which I had the pleasure of at- 
 tending a few years ago. The good effects of this 
 club were very apparent in the work of the schools 
 I visited in that vicinity. There should be more of 
 these clubs and conferences. Many other places in 
 the country could adopt this plan with great profit. 
 
 TEACHERS' MEETINGS 
 
 We visit each grade teacher once in six weeks, 
 new teachers oftener, and give a sample lesson. Each 
 supervisor usually holds a teachers' meeting of a 
 few minutes whenever he visits a building. Grade 
 meetings are held occasionally and all the teachers 
 of the same grade assemble. I usually conduct these 
 meetings and there is always a class of children 
 present for me to operate upon, for the supervisor 
 of music may talk eternally and not make it clear, 
 but if he has a class on hand to illustrate what he is 
 talking about, every teacher present sees the point 
 and is helped by the meeting. 
 
 In addition a series of optional meetings is given 
 each year to which the new teachers and those who 
 need extra help are invited.
 
 
 *frs^ 
 
 CHAPTER 10 
 
 HARMONY, HISTORY, APPRECIATION 
 WHY PUPILS STUDY HARMONY 
 
 A PUPIL studies harmony to enable him to put 
 his musical thoughts into intelligible form. He also 
 studies harmony to be able to hear or see what the 
 composer is saying as he listens to a composition or 
 looks at the printed page of music. This requires an 
 intimate knowledge of chords, progressions, and 
 many other facts of musical theory. 
 
 Application of the pedagogical rule that "We 
 learn to do by doing" has made teaching in the mod- 
 ern public schools very effective. Unfortunately 
 teachers are less apt to use sensible pedagogical 
 rules with older pupils though correct pedagogy is 
 just as important in the high school as in the kinder- 
 garten. This omission gives rise to the current say- 
 ing that the farther up in the scale of education the 
 poorer the teaching. 
 
 Apply the pedagogical principle referred to 
 above, to the study of harmony, and we plainly see 
 that the way for a pupil to study harmony is to com- 
 pose first and learn the elements of harmony by 
 using them. When they are learned in this way they 
 will stick and be useful at all times.
 
 188 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 To understand this still better, let us look at the 
 way two other subjects are taught. Years ago a pupil 
 in the manual training department learned the use 
 of tools by reducing a small piece of board to saw- 
 dust in various ways. In the benighted mind of the 
 teacher (it doesn't seem possible, but I have seen 
 it done many times) the proper result had now been 
 accomplished; the pupils had learned to use tools. 
 To the keener mind of the pupil it was plain that 
 the result of all that time and hard work was nothing 
 but sawdust, and it is no wonder he had to be 
 scourged to his classes. Later it was found that the 
 use of tools could be far better taught by letting 
 the pupil make something, and now manual training 
 is one of the most useful and interesting subjects in 
 the whole curriculum. 
 
 When the usual high school student graduates 
 after several years of work in some foreign lan- 
 guage, can he use it, can he talk it, can he read it? 
 Hardly. Why not? Because he has learned it back- 
 wards. He has in mind numbers of unrelated words 
 and masses of grammatical rules, and when he wants 
 to use this language he has to mentally paw over this 
 mess of facts until he exhumes the right one. He 
 has to use so much energy thinking about the lan- 
 guage, that he is unable to think in it. It calls to 
 mind the story of the disorderly old lady who had 
 a place for everything, and everything in it, a deep 
 bureau drawer. When she wanted anything she took 
 a stick and stirred three times. If it came to the 
 top, she used it. If not, she concluded it was lost
 
 HARMONY, HISTORY, APPRECIATION 189 
 
 and either went without or bought another. The 
 foreign language student of any age should learn it 
 as he did his mother tongue. He should use it first 
 and by this use learn the grammar. 
 
 The harmony pupil usually studies harmony just 
 as he does a foreign language and he uses it about 
 as much and as well after he graduates. The student 
 of harmony should compose first. He should write 
 numberless things and learn the different elements 
 of harmony by use, and then his knowledge will 
 function. He will, moreover, be interested in his 
 music work, for he will have always at hand the 
 fruit of his labors in the shape of compositions that 
 he can take home, keep, and enjoy the same as the 
 manual training student takes home the things he 
 makes to be used and admired in the home circle. 
 
 Here is a great field in the musical education of 
 high school students and one that is practically un- 
 touched. Teachers do not know how to do it. Books 
 of the right kind are not available. While a number 
 of authors of harmony books have vaguely seen this 
 pedagogical principle and have tried to follow it out, 
 no one has as yet succeeded. Until some fine musical / 
 pedagogue and composer arises and writes a compo- 
 sition, analysis, harmony, and counterpoint book, all 
 in one, in which the pupil is enabled to start and 
 work logically in the field of theoretical music, this 
 most important branch of musical education will not 
 function as it should and will be looked upon askance 
 by the educational powers that be. 

 
 190 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC 
 
 The place of music history in the high school is 
 a very debatable one. Every one should know 
 some music history as well as some general history. 
 Many teachers are trying to sandwich music history 
 in with appreciation but music appreciation is hear- 
 ing music and not hearing about it. 
 
 The solution of the music history question is to 
 incorporate it with general history. In this way stu- 
 dents would get an idea of the history of music in its 
 proper setting as a part of the development of the 
 human race. 
 
 Some day someone will write a general history 
 combining the history of the fine arts as well as the 
 usual things now found in the histories that pupils 
 study in the high schools. Until then very little mu- 
 sic history will be taught. When this book appears 
 every one will have a chance to learn it. 
 
 MUSIC APPRECIATION 
 
 This important subject deserves a book by it- 
 self. This chapter will but touch a few points. 
 
 The amount of available material is so vast that 
 it is very difficult to select that which will return 
 the most value for the limited amount of time that 
 can be spent on the subject. The present tendency is 
 to allow Music Appreciation to crowd out other 
 work in music. 
 
 This subject naturally divides itself into two 
 classes : Music Appreciation for every one and Mu-
 
 HARMONY, HISTORY, APPRECIATION 191 
 
 sic Appreciation for the budding professional mu- 
 sician or those particularly interested in the subject 
 and who wish to go into it more deeply. 
 
 Every pupil should take the first kind the same 
 as every one takes chorus. These two should be in 
 a sane combination. All pupils should learn to ap- 
 preciate the music they are performing, no matter 
 what form it takes. This is too often neglected. 
 This part of Appreciation should be for all pupils 
 and should go hand in hand with the work of listen- 
 ing to music others make either with talking ma- 
 chine, piano player, orchestras, etc. They should 
 be encouraged to attend concerts whenever possible. 
 Music memory contests are very valuable if they do 
 not crowd out all the other music work as they so 
 often do. 
 
 The English department in both grade and high 
 schools should use the Music Appreciation for 
 themes. A union between the English and Music 
 departments could here be made very strong and 
 profitable. Some day a clever writer will bring out 
 a book telling how this can be done. A number of 
 people are now trying to work this union, but no 
 comprehensive plan has as yet come under our notice. 
 
 Needless to say this general course in apprecia- 
 tion should be planned to take advantage of local 
 conditions. Here in Minneapolis the Symphony Or- 
 chestra is a great help. There are four special con- 
 certs each year for the young people. Admission 
 is fifteen cents for teachers and pupils of the schools. 
 The programs are sent out several weeks in ad-
 
 192 HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING 
 
 vance and are studied by all the pupils in the three 
 upper grades and the high schools. As many as 
 the auditorium will accommodate hear these concerts 
 and the effect on the musical life of the schools is 
 very marked. 
 
 In addition to the above general work in Ap- 
 preciation every high school should offer intensive 
 courses for those who are particularly interested in 
 music. Critical Analysis might be a better term than 
 Music Appreciation. These classes should be small 
 like the classes in other high school subjects, should 
 meet every day and be credited the same as any other 
 major subject. This is already being done in a num- 
 ber of high schools, but here again there is no gen- 
 eral system as the subject is so vast and the number 
 of things a class may study is so great that it is very 
 difficult to map out a course that will fit the pupils 
 and give the best returns for the time spent. 
 
 The following books will be found helpful. 
 
 Music Appreciation Hamilton. 
 
 Music Appreciation Stewart MacPherson. 
 
 Music Appreciation Surette and Mason. 
 
 Music : An Art and a Language W. R. Spauld- 
 ing. 
 
 Listening Lessons in Music Agnes F. Fry- 
 berger. 
 
 What We Hear in Music Anne Shaw Foulk- 
 ner. 
 
 The Victor Book on Music Appreciation.
 
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