32 Whether Music is necessary to the Orator,— 
When the execution of this solfay was tolerably attained, I in- 
dulged the Speaker in the playing, and attempting at the same 
time to sing, a few favourite songs with which he was in some de- 
gree acquainted—an indulgence that I fear was injudicious, every 
one of those songs, ** God save the King” excepted, being, for 
oratorical purpose, too extensive in compass and too wide in its 
intervals. Undecided, however, at this period, as to the pro- 
priety or impropriety of this modulating exercise, I acquiesced in 
the desire of the Speaker, and facilitated the acquirement of those 
songs by the following very simple contrivance, which any gen- 
tleman unacquainted with music, who wishes to devote a leisure 
hour to the cultivation of suitable productions, may instantly em- 
ploy. 
Implement for playing simple Tunes with Facility on the Piano 
Forte. 
[Any method of fingering which the performer shall find most con- 
venient, will equally answer his purpose. The Speaker scarcely 
ever used any other than the forefinger or forefinger and thumb 
of his right hand.]. 
Prepare a thin slip of deal or any other timber, sufficiently long 
to extend from any C of the piano to its double octave ;—and 
about one inch and a half broad. Glue to its bottom an equally 
long slip [fourteen inches] of white paste-board, which shall pro- 
ject about one inch beyond the margin of the timber. On this 
paste-board the musical letters of the double octave, exactly cor- 
responding with their /oca/ situation on the piano, are written in 
the manner specified. Then insert perpendicularly in the tim- 
ber, at x z, two wires, each about six or eight inches long, more 
or less, bent backward at the upper extremities iu the form of 
hooks. The implement is now complete; and while in use it is 
suspended horizontally, by means of these hooks, from the top 
of the piano—over, and almost in contact with the keys of any 
appropriate disdiapason. 
The extremities of the black keys of the piano must project 
about 3-4ths of an inch beyond the margin of the paste-board. 
Sketch of the Implement. 
x Pigte | 
CIDIEJFIG{AIBic|djel{t}]g lal ble 
A suitable alteration of the characters of our time-table, for 
prosodial equivalents, rendered this little plan still more satisfac- 
tory to the Speaker. Instead of the usual minim crotchet, qua- 
ver, and semiquaver, I substituted the following signs: 
For 
