Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1900-06-24
HOW TO BE A FINE SINGER.
Good Points Set Forth by One of the
Worlds Famous SfhEe Women.
BY Nine. Schumann-Heink.

BY Nine. Schumann-Heink.
The gift which belongs to the teacher
is frequently quite apart from the quail
ties that go to make up a fine concert
singer or operate artistic.
There is nc person so important in
the world of music as the teacher.
Voices that have natural promise are
frequently made or ruined by the meth
DDS adopted by teachers.
The voice is a natural element as
mysterious in its possibilities almost as
the element of electricity in the air.
Unless it is harnessed, nurtured, de-
veloped and disciplined by expert teach
ing, it becomes noise without meaning
or is lost altogether.
If vol have the slightest musical
gift, go at once to a good teacher.
You will very quickly discover what
your prospects are. 1t is no use to
evade this point.
1t is no use to buy a book of vocal
exercises, to sit down at the piano and
sing scales without the skilled advice
of a singing teacher.
If you are in difficulties, you go to a
lawyer, If you are ill you send for a
doctor; so, if you think you have q
| voice, go to a teacher and find out
if you have m Oh not.
You can ascertain from friends or
musicians what teacher to go to, and II
Is well to be liberal IN your original
outlay for this important information,
At first, your voice will be an I'M
known quantity to yourself and your
teacher. Not until you have studied
for three months will your voice be-
gin to show signs of any improvement
in quality.
1t may have only an almost imper-
ceptible promise of anything when you
begin. Only the teachers ear and
knowledge of voice-work can appre-
ciate or even surmise the possibilities
1t will take three months, at least,
for a beginner with an average voice to
receive in some degree a musical COM
p%rehension of what singing means.
At the end of that time the student
will be justified, with the advice of a
teacher. to decide If he or she shall con-
tinue to develop the gift fully.
Where to study.
There is a great deal said and written
about the various advantages to be
gained by studying in different places.
The location is immaterial, the first
essential Is TO have a competent teach
er preferably of the old Italian school.
All voices are no capable of operate
work. There is as much difference be-
tween the demands of the concert plat
form and the operate stage as there
is between the languages.
There are fewer voices capable of op-
cratic singing.
The first and foremost condition to
be considered for students who expect
to become operate singers is a good
voice. All success in grand opera is
founded on the quality and stability of
| the voice.
Having this foundation, a fine pres
ence is another requisite for operatic
work.
Grand opera is usually given on very
large stages, and there is probably
more necessity for fine presence on the
operate stage than there is on the
dramatic stage.
Another essential for grand opera
work Is an unusually strong physique.
The strain involved in sustaining a
great operate role is perhaps greater
than that of any other dramatic per-
) Torrance. Not only must the singer