_Formal lessons delayed._ The principal point I wish to stress is that musical education should not begin with formal lessons on one instrument. Except in the case of rarely-gifted children, such specialized instruction should come naturally after the general musical interests have been awakened and the natural abilities have been revealed. Technical private lessons for children in general should therefore be begun considerably later than has been customary. In this there is a threefold saving: First, except in rare cases, rigid technique of instruction can be responded to much more economically after the age of eight or ten than before. A ten-year-old will acquire more than twice as much in a single lesson as a six-year-old. This will apply even to the much "touted" necessity for early finger development. Second, during this period the child should have the freedom to try himself out spontaneously with diversified encouragement in the development of specific interests; and third, it will take the aspect of drudgery away from the music lesson. To these may be added the fact that this liberal procedure helps to give the child a feeling that he is living music rather than learning it. It involves the play attitude in the acquisition of an art. The attitude of feeling the necessity for hard work, which is a very real necessity in music, can best be cultivated formally after the age of eight or ten. _A sympathetic listener._ Although circumstances may alter cases, facility in piano playing might well be regarded as a foundation work in the approach to other instruments. The child's preference for a particular instrument is generally childish and will change in the normal course of development. An analysis of case histories would make an interesting study on this point. The development of skills in a particular instrument should always be accompanied by opportunities for sharing the pleasure in this skill with other children and the presence of a sympathetic listener in the teacher and the parents. What the child of the primary-school age needs is more a sympathetic and critical listener than a task-driver. This type of approach will discredit the now so prevalent artificial ways of symbolizing music by attempting to force the teacher's affected and stilted imagery upon the child's musical mind, which may run naturally in much more effective channels. It is a notable fact that the great musicians who emerged as very precocious made their early and distinctive progress far more through freedom for self-expression than through instruction from the masters.