Walker-My_Musical_Ex.. - Walter Cosand

HENSELT 203
moment or two this effort became so distressing that,
though resolved not to give in, I was obliged to stop
at last, and say, ' I cannot go on any longer !'
This was the beginning of my initiation into the
Henselt technique. I learned that day how to practise
scales, octaves, thirds, etc. Then opening the first
book of Cramer's Studies, my instructress showed me
how to begin, and step by step to build up—a process
which, when faithfully and patiently carried out, must
result in a comparative mastery of these fine studies.
As this book is not intended as a guide, either to
technique or to the right method of practising pieces,
I shall not enter into details regarding my lessons
with Mademoiselle Heinrichsen. Suf&ce it that, after
going to her two or three times, I was deeply inter-
ested, and entirely satisfied that I was getting some-
thing definite—something which would enable me to
develop my hand, and help me to approach all
pianoforte compositions in such a manner that, if
I only had strength and patience to persevere, I
should succeed in taking, at all events, the first step
towards artistic perfection.
I now recognised that all that -I had done here-
tofore had been mere dilettantism. In thinking
it all over, I felt that it was extremely probable
that, in descending from the height on which I
had stood as a dilettante, I might never be able
to get up to an equal height as an artist, but I
resolved anyhow to be on the road thither ; and thus