We are pleased to publish your letters, but cannot include readers' email addresses since this can lead to problems of privacy. All letters should be addressed to me, John Woodford, at editor@musicteachers.co.uk. In association with Oxford University Press, we are pleased to give away ‘The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music’ (4th Edition, Michael Kennedy) for each month’s most interesting letter. This valuable resource should be on any musician’s reference shelves.

From Stephen Bennison, Lancahire

I have been a music teacher for the past ten years, and have tried all sorts of methods to help develop listening in the classroom. This is a particularly difficult area, since children are so used to hearing, rather than listening, to music. Quite honestly, I find the best method is to 'depress' their minds, using a trick I discovered years ago at teacher-training college. Fundamentally, this is a drama exercise, but if teachers follow the following techniques, they might find that children become more receptive:

1. Make sure that lighting is at an acceptable level in the classroom - too bright and it's a distraction
2. Sit in silence for a few seconds and then ask the kids to trace the outline of window frames, bricks on the wall, posters, etc., with their eyes (as if drawing around the object with a pencil). This has the effect of emptying their brains.
3. After about a minute, explain that you are going to start the music - when they hear it they have the choice of either closing their eyes and listening, or carrying on with the 'tracing' exercise.

This might sound an unusual approach, but I have found it to be extremely useful - the more used the pupils become to doing it, the stronger their listening powers and concentration will become.

Many thanks for an excellent suggestion. I would be grateful if readers would provide feedback on this issue, or share their own classroom tips with us.

From Mark Roberts, Devon

I would like to congratulate MusicTeachers.co.uk on their journal: the articles are diverse and contain information that would be of interest to musicians and music-lovers. However, the Editor is perhaps a little cynical in his viewpoint. What's his problem? Is he is a failed musician, or one who absolutely hates his job as a teacher? I prefer optimism, enjoy a relatively successful life as a performer and teacher and am quite content with the profession as a whole. Things do occasionally look a bit glum, but performing is performing, no matter what the venue, pay or material, and the satisfaction I get from teaching is a form of payment that cannot be bettered. Perhaps in future, Mr Woodford might remember that there is a lighter side to being a musician. Perhaps he should learn to enjoy it!

Perhaps you haven't heard of irony. JW (failed musician).

From Will Barclay, London

I have recently read your journal with interest and am happy to recommend this to friends and associates. I particularly find the educational resources useful, especially Alison Ruddock's enlightening and tongue-in-cheek articles on teaching the piano. Are you intending to run similar series for other instruments? I teach the piano, as well as singing and musical theory. Perhaps we could see something on those areas too.

At present, there are no plans to extend the series of articles to other instruments since Ms Ruddock's writings are applicable elsewhere - much of what she says is to do with attitudes of both teachers and pupils. However, if there is anyone out there who might wish to send their experiences as either an instrumental or classroom teacher, they are welcome to submit these to our editorial team. JW

From Shirley Stinton, Reading

In answer to last month's request from Siobhan Knight, I think the work she's referring to is a vocal arrangement of JS Bach's B minor Prelude (no. 12) from the first book of the Well-Tempered Clavier, which was done solely for the advert.

From Nicolas Varney, Manchester

Congratulations on Issue 2. Your review article particularly moved me on the Alma Rosé story: my father met her in London before the war and was struck by her kind manner and the interest she showed in several of his colleagues... I have bought Newman's book (Alma Rosé: From Vienna to Auschwitz) and have found it to be yet another story of an unsung hero. What I found particularly interesting was the eyewitness testimony you included in the review. Mrs Lasker-Wallfisch speaks with dignity and authority on the subject - what a pity therefore, that she wasn't consulted by the editors of Fania Fénelon's version of events, or for that matter, Arthur Miller, whose adaptation hit the small screen in the mid 80s.

From Mark Gregory, Leicester

I happened across your website by mistake, but was transfixed by your article on Alma Rosé and Anita Lasker-Wallfisch's response to the Newman book. I remember the Arthur Miller screenplay of Fénelon's story and the especially moving performance given by Vanessa Redgrave; what a pity that Miller was not subject to this important biography beforehand. My congratulation to those who spoke to Ms Lasker Wallfisch - I have also purchased her book and find that the matter-of-fact way in which she writes the story even more moving.

From Maria Nichols, Swindon

…The period was a time in which people acted with intense cruelty; we must remember that Anita Lasker-Wallfisch is German, thus making her story all the more poignant. It was interesting and moving to read this account, even my children, for whom music is nothing more than repetitive beats, read it and found it interesting.

From R. D., Greater London

[…] and remember, Stalin was responsible for many more deaths that the Nazi's, but we seem to sweep that under the carpet. What is the point in continuing to rake up stories such as Alma Rosé's. There is nothing touching about reading about the concentration camps, and your organ is not an appropriate venue for such a review.

We have had quite a response from readers on this article. Although it is time to forgive and forget the actions of a small group of people sixty or so years ago, we cannot and must not forget how easy it can be to persecute minorities. R.D. (who understandably wanted to be identified by his initials), looks at it from another angle. Yet it is the blinkered attitudes of a race of people, the Church and the Allies that allowed that sort of carnage to continue throughout the Second World War. Besides, I would have thought a journal on music and musicians is more than appropriate for such an article. JW

From Anne Walker, London

I would be interested to know if any readers know of a piano-duet recording made by Dave Brubeck in the 1950s which had a leitmotif based on the song, "There'll be no tomorrow." I think it was called Points on Jazz and that he recorded both parts. I heard it many years ago at a friend's home and have since tried countless times to get a copy of it. Unfortunately, unless I can provide a specific title, the record shops cannot help.

Any suggestions? JW