Page:Letters to a Young Lady (Czerny).djvu/20

 know perfectly all the notes in the treble clef, and are able to play slowly, but correctly, with both hands, all those little pieces in my School, which are written for both hands in the treble clef, then take the bass notes, and proceed with them just in the same manner.

You must practise each piece, paying the strictest attention to the fingering indicated, till you are able to execute it without stopping or stumbling. Each day you should read through a couple of fresh little pieces, to accustom the eye and the fingers to the various and ever-new passages which are formed by means of the notes.

At first, after each note, we must also look at the key which is to be struck; but afterwards, when we have attained a tolerable certainty in finding the keys, it is better to fix the eye on the notes rather than on the keys.

And now, Miss, allow me in this letter to offer this last very important remark: the best knowledge of the notes avails us very little, if, at the same time, the fingers do not begin to develop that degree of flexibility which is requisite for striking the keys and for playing in general. I therefore most earnestly recommend you to practise daily, with untiring diligence and the greatest attention, all the five-finger exercises in both hands, which you will find at the beginning of my Pianoforte School,