n the Autumn issue of KEYBOARD COMPANION, student retention was targeted as one of the themes which the magazine intends to "vigorously pursue, continuing to research reasons for student dropouts, and continuing to explore new and more effective ways to ensure high levels of student enjoyment and success." "Enjoyment" and "success" are, of course, the key words here for rarely do students want to discontinue an activity they truly enjoy, particularly when they are successful.

As I read and edited the articles that appear in this issue, a number of things jumped out at me which relate to enhancing student enjoyment and success. Thinking in terms of a young beginner, surely the most important thing- at least to the child-is the music itself and being able to make it at the piano! Apropos of this, in this issue's "Music Reading" column, Kathleen Rountree reminisces about her own experiences as a young beginning piano student. She recalls her first lesson when she climbed the stairs of her teacher's porch with "great excitement. I was going to play the piano!" As she walked through the doors of the living room, she had only one goal-"to play a great 'song.'" But her teacher had "plans of her own for the lesson." She "intercepted the beeline" Kathleen was making to the piano and steered her instead to a "folding card table in the corner" where the entire lesson was spent "drawing notes and learning about lines and spaces." It was not until the second lesson that she was "allowed to sit at the piano and play single notes" identified off of flashcards. And it wasn't until lesson three or four that she was finally allowed to play something "vaguely resembling a 'song.'" In spite of the fact that her early study got "better as time went on", and that she "learned a great deal," still, Kathleen summarizes her "overwhelming memory of those first lessons" with one word-"disappointment."

Those of us who teach beginners should perhaps ask ourselves two questions: 1) what kinds of "songs" do our beginners want to play?, and 2) how soon and how successfully are they able to play them? Apparently for many students who begin piano lessons, the desire to be able to play "songs" they want to play in a reasonable amount of time is not being fulfilled soon enough in the student's experience or else the dropout rate would surely not consistently remain so high.

In addition to being able to successfully play appealing music, certainly the environment at the lesson also plays a vital role in fostering student enjoyment. Is there enough emphasis on the positive versus the negative? This issue's "Home Practice" column focuses on student answers to questions posed in a recent questionnaire. In responding to the question "What do you like about coming to lessons?", one student's reply was, "I get to learn what I'm doing wrong in my 'songs.'" Since this was one of my own students, this response gave me much food for thought. I asked myself, "Is there enough emphasis at lessons on what students are doing right??" How often at the end of a piece's performance do we ask, "What did you like about your performance?" Surely seeking student input is an important part of the evaluation process, and the student's knowing what he or she did well should go hand-in-hand with knowing what needs to be improved. Sybil Barnaby, one of the writers for this issue's "Adult Study" column, offers this advice: "Do not measure your progress by the notes you miss, but by the ones you play correctly." Patricia Bulko, another adult student writing for this same column, ends her article with these words: "Music makes my soul sing ... what a journey!"

Children approaching their first piano lesson with "great excitement" are just beginning this "journey," each bringing with them, among other things, a soul that wants to "sing." Helping them to find their voice, inspiring them to continue wanting to "sing," and then enabling them to successfully do so is the awesome responsibility entrusted to each of us. What kind of a "journey" will it be?

Jessie Willcox Smith was one of the most gifted women illustrators of her time. Early in her career she decided that her art would concentrate on the universe of the child and for over thirty years she worked with great sensitivity and tenderness in that arena. She created her images with a mixture of media, combining charcoal, watercolor, gouache and even oil to create just the right tone in each piece. Many of her pieces are drawn from the child's point of view, making them all the more endearing. A popular and prolific book illustrator, she depicted many of childhood's fears and joys and did so in a sympathetic, non-judgmental manner.

The image, "Scales," was reproduced in one of the popular books illustrated by Smith, The Bed Time Book, written by Helen Hay Whitney. It was published in 1907, the same year Smith moved to the famous studio at Cogslea with fellow illustrators Violet Oakley and Elizabeth Shippen Green. According to Alice Carter in her recent book, The Red Rose Girls, "Jessie Smith relied on the works of several other artists to provide inspiration for her paintings of children. She especially admired Abbott Thayer. 'He is eternal and his children have souls and minds of noble beauty.'"1

1 Carter, Alice. The Red Rose Girls: An Uncommon Story of Art and Love. NY: Harry N. Abrams, Publishers, 2000, p. 129.

Want some superb yet simple strategies for dealing with transfer students? From a past issue (Autumn 1995), we offer "What do you do to assure success with transfer students?" Former associate editor Joyce Cameron offers some thoughts, and Joni Reed and Rebecca Shockley provide two extremely informative yet concise essays on this very important subject.

Leslie Michaelis

Elvina Pearce and Students

Ted Cooper
Meg Gray
Kathleen Rountree

Maryen Herrett
Scott McBride Smith
Adrienne Wiley

Steve Betts
Kathleen Murray

Phyllis Alpert Lehrer

Sybil Barnaby
Patricia Bulko
Lucille Reifman

Gay Garard-Brewer
Jean Fox
Avonne Higgins
Anita Renfroe

Gail Fischler
Maura Hall
Linda Kennedy
Bobbie Rastall

Jocelyn Cross Makowski
Christine Mirabella