"There are gifted people who may be called natural born singers. Melba
is one of these. Such singers do not require much technical practice, or
if they need a little of it, half an hour a day is sufficient. I am not
one of those who do not need to practice. I give between one and two
hours daily to vocalizes, scales and tone study. But I love it! A scale
is beautiful to me, if it is rightly sung. In fact it is not merely a
succession of notes; it represents color. I always translate sound into
color. It is a fascinating study to make different qualities of tonal
color in the voice. Certain rôles require an entirely different range of
colors from others. One night I must sing a part with thick, heavy,
rich tones; the next night my tones must be thinned out in quite another
timbre of the voice, to fit an opposite character."
Asked if she can hear herself, Miss Farrar answered:
"No, I do not actually hear my voice, except in a general way; but we
learn to know the sensations produced in muscles of throat, head, face,
lips and other parts of the anatomy, which vibrate in a certain manner
to correct tone production. We learn the _feeling_ of the tone.
Therefore every one, no matter how advanced, requires expert advice as
to the results.