29
“Yes,” say you, “if it did not take up so much time to continue practising what I have already learned, and also to study new pieces.”
Dear Miss, you cannot imagine what may be effected, in one single day, if we properly avail ourselves of the time.
If, with a fixed determination to excel on the pianoforte, you dedicate to it, daily, only three hours, of which about half an hour shall be appropriated to the exercises, as much more to playing over the old pieces, and the remaining time to the study of new compositions,—this will assuredly enable you, by degrees, to attain a very commanding degree of excellence, without necessarily obliging you to neglect your other pursuits.
Your instructor has already accustomed you to observe, in general, the marks of expression; as forte, piano, legato, staccato, &c. The more you begin to overcome all the mechanical difficulties of pianoforte-playing, the greater the attention you must give to this important subject—expression.
Expression, feeling, and sensibility are the soul of music, as of every other art. If we were to play a piece of music with exactly the same degree of forte or piano throughout, it would sound as ridiculous, as if we were to recite a beautiful poem in the same monotonous
