CHORDS IN THE LIGHT OF THEIR ORIGIN 277 



true. To the speller and performer of notes such 

 errors are not troublesome: it is otherwise with the 

 reader and interpreter of ideas, 



52. Melody the Original Reporter of Harmony, There- 

 fore the Natural Preceptor and Guide in the First 

 Studies in Chords 



The thread of this exposition is here temporarily 

 dropped in order to inquire into the most simple and 

 direct way of insuring from the outset the student's 

 musical understanding and mastery of the chord- 

 material taken up from lesson to lesson. The ground- 

 forms of the three primary triads I, V, IV constitute 

 the material of the usual first lesson. It is customary, 

 after explaining this material and giving rules for its 

 treatment, to embody it in a group of exercises each 

 consisting in a series of fundamental basses. The 

 student then fills in the chords, in doing which he 

 carefully ties the bond-tones and avoids the imper- 

 missible consecutive fifths and octaves. This lesson 

 is followed by others, each adding more material, 

 more rules plus exceptions to or modifications of pre- 

 vious rules, more exercises in the bass, more per- 

 formances by the student, and so the work proceeds. 

 It is well known that in performing these tasks most 

 students do not exercise their natural musical facul- 

 ties in the slightest degree, they see but do not hear 

 what they write, their observance of rules, their per- 

 formances are purely mechanical. Such unprofitable 

 results point directly to some radical defect in teach- 

 ing, to some psychological error in our pedagogy. 



