The San Francisco call., 1904-02-17
INSTRUCTIVE CTUDErS
By YINOIEDAAGfENN AND
1<zSJ1KfEN

AlAE tune dl AAAC lD- VI AAlt hNo0 a. III
same moment that he places the breath
at his diaphragm. One starts up as the
other starts down. They meet at the
front Of the mouth Gust back of the
front teeth, and by their meeting a
musical note is made. Instead of stand
ing still on the threshold. so to speak,
the sound is borne out into the room
by means of the imaginary circle just
described, and the wider the circle the
better placed viii be the note. In
other words, the more freedom the pu-
pill is able TO acquire the better, clearer,
sweeter tone will his vocal chords give
forth.
The pupil must be careful not to push
the breath, but to let it come naturally,
even Il the sound is very small and
thin at first. That is Of very little mo-
ment. for the voice will strengthen rap
idly with practice. and the only i'm
portant thing at first is to acquire
sweetness and purity of tone, letting
the rest come afterward. If the pupil is
forcing the breath you can easily detect
II. for as he starts to expel the breath
he will probably say "ha" instead Of
"ah" in that case. and the difference in
tone will be apparent at once. Remem-
Der. too, that the voice must always
come out and never go toward the back
OF the throat.
We VIII now take up an exercise de-
signed to promote freedom and fiexi-
bility Of tone The pupil must start on
D once more. but this time he is to sing
three notes in one breath, instead of one
TO frnr n r and
back to D again-in other words, he is
to sing D, z. D.
The moment he has struck D his
mind must travel to z: in other words,
he must think ahead" as he has been
taught to do when reading piano music.
The method is the same in both cases,
but the idea in singing is TO place"
the note before it is actually struck;
that is. 10 find out as soon as possible
where the note is to go. TO place the
tone in the mind, and so to be ready
for the voice when the time comes 70
actually strike the note.
After a short time this will all hap
pen naturally and without any con-
scious thought whatever on the part
Of the child II is merely mental
reading at sight and requires no ef-
fort whatever, as soon as the pupil
becomes accustomed to singing in this
way.
Now we viii take up a third and more
lengthy exercise. This begins, as did
the others. with D. The pupil must
sing first D, then f, then D, then E
again After this he should take a
breath and repeat the exercise. Next
he does exactly the same thing on the
two notes c and D. repeating this part
Of the exercise as he did the first part
Next he must try it on B and c, then
IN A and B, and finally on G and A,
thus going through the compass OF five
notes and so completing the exercise.
Between each group Of notes the breath
should be taken, but as lightly as pos
sible, so that the exercise may run
smoothly from beginning to end.
As the exercise descends the pupil
should endeavor to keep thinking
high"-in fact, the lower the notes go
the higher he should try 10 think TO
keep his tones high and pure. The idea
is TO gradually bring all his notes to
the same level, so that one shall be in
quality exactly like another, as are the
notes Of a violin or piano. 1 hope
make myself perfectly plain. When 1
say that one note should be just like
another I do not Of course refer to the
differences in tone required to bring
out the proper amount of feeling and
expression-of course there are head"
tones and "chest" tones, covered"
tones, crying tones. and so on, ad in
finitum; but with all these with the
exception OF the head tones) we have
nothing to do just now. We are merely
getting the voice ready to sing, as we
prepared. the fingers for playing, and
the first and most necessary thing Of
all is to teach the pupil to know how to
manage his voice so that one note shall
be just as good as another, and so that
that which is the quality of his best
note at the beginning shall become the
quality Of all his notes as time goes on.
The thinking ahead" process will
help him to acquire a legato, singing
tone in just the way that it does when
playing the piano. If he wishes to
take a note an octave higher than the
one he has just sung, his mind,
brought first to the note in question
and firmly placed on it. will place the
tone thereon twice as easily as 1t
could be done in any other way.
Another point TO remember is this:
The higher the note is the deeper the
breath should be. The pupil should
strive always to start the breath deep
er and deeper, the tone higher and
higher, and to widen always the cir
Gle of sound, as explained earlier in
the lesson.
The last exercise that I described
is in its complete form d. E, D, E, D.
then c, D. c. D, c, then B. C, B, c, B,
then A, B, A, B, A and finally G, A,
I G, A, C.
/ This should be sung as given in the
/ illustration, and as the pupil tries it
strike a chord occasionally on the
piano. TO be sure that he is keeping
exactly on the key. Do not play for
/ him all the time, however, as he must
learn to carry the different Inter
vals' in his mind and so acquire a true
sense Of pitch.
After each trial of the exercise LET
I him rest a bit, so that he NAV bepin