Page:Letters to a Young Lady (Czerny).djvu/48

 and the memory must be early accustomed to this great number of marks of transposition.

As, in such unusual keys, the black keys must be principally employed, and as they are narrower than the white ones, and therefore less certain as to the striking of them; it is absolutely requisite on the part of the player, that he should keep his hand particularly firm, and somewhat higher than usual over the keys, and employ a very decided touch, in order to acquire the same degree of certainty as on the white keys.

You complain, Miss, that the studying of difficult pieces still costs you much time and labour. There is a certain remedy against this, which I may call the art of studying, and which I will impart to you, as far as it can be done in writing.

There are pupils who study such compositions attentively enough it is true, but so slow and with such frequent interruptions, that these pieces become tedious and disagreeable to them before they have half learned them. Such pupils often take half a year to learn a few pieces tolerably; and, by this wasteful expenditure of time, always remain in the back-ground.

Others, on the contrary, try to conquer every thing by force; and imagine that they shall succeed in this by practising for hours,