Practice
Sir: In your leading article 'To be precise' (19 November) I was pleased to read once again in your pages a plea for the English language. The sentence which struck me most forcibly was. 'It is as if we wanted children to learn to play Mozart, but without ever having to practise those wretched scales'.
I run a business supplying music by post, and every day I receive orders from child- ren and students who have no idea how to put a letter together, or in many cases how to spell their own names and addresses, let alone those of composers.
The thing which stands out above all, however is that they are ordering advanced music at a very early age, albeit by compos- ers such as `Motsare, Ilindermith', 'Andre Lloyd Webber's Father' and a certain Lenno X. Berkley. This indicates clearly that in music teaching at any rate, where ther, are no short cuts or 'play-ways' to acquiring skill, music teachers are doing a good job.
June Emerson
Windmill Farm, Ampleforth, North Yorkshire
Previous page
