The eternal question, "At what age shall I commence to study singing?"
is always more or less amusing to the experienced singer. If the
singer's spirit is in the child, nothing will stop his singing. He will
sing from morning until night, and seems to be guided in most cases by
an all-providing Nature that makes its untutored efforts the very best
kind of practice. Unless the child is brought into contact with very bad
music he is not likely to be injured. Children seem to be trying their
best to prove the Darwinian theory by showing us that they can mimic
quite as well as monkeys. The average child comes into the better part
of his little store of wisdom through mimicry. Naturally if the little
vocal student is taken to the vaudeville theatre, where every imaginable
vocal law is smashed during a three-hour performance, and if the child
observes that the smashing process is followed by the enthusiastic
applause of the unthinking audience, it is only reasonable to suppose
that the child will discover in this what he believes to be the most
approved art of singing.
It is evident then that the first thing which the parent of the musical
child should consider is that of teaching him to appreciate what is
looked upon as good and what is looked upon as bad. Although many
singers with fine voices have appeared in vaudeville, the others must be
regarded as "horrible" examples, and the child should know that they are
such. On the other hand, it is quite evident that the more good singing
that the child hears in the impressionable years of its youth the
greater will be the effect upon the mind which is to direct the child's
musical future. This is a branch of the vocalist's education which may
begin long before the actual lessons. If it is carefully conducted the
teacher should have far less difficulty in starting the child with the
actual work. The only possible danger might be that the child's
imitative faculty could lead it to extremes of pitch in imitating some
singer. Even this is hardly more likely to injure it than the shouting
and screaming which often accompanies the play of children.
The actual time of starting must depend upon the individual. It is never
too early for him to start in acquiring his musical knowledge.
Everything he might learn of music itself, through the study of the
piano or any other instrument would all become a part of his capital
when he became a singer. Those singers are fortunate whose musical
knowledge commenced with the cradle and whose first master was that
greatest of all teachers, the mother. Speaking generally, it seems to be
the impression of singing teachers that voice students should not
commence the vocal side of their studies until they are from sixteen to
seventeen years of age. In this connection, consider my own case. My
first public appearance with orchestra was when I was fourteen. It was
in Bristol, England, and among other things I sang _Ora Pro Nobis_ from
Gounod's _Workers_.
I was fortunate in having in my first teacher, D. W. Rootham, a man too
thoroughly blessed with good British common sense to have any "tricks."
He had no fantastic way of doing things, no proprietary methods, that
none else in the world was supposed to possess. He listened for the
beautiful in my voice and, as his sense of musical appreciation was
highly cultivated, he could detect faults, explain them to me and show
me how to overcome them by purely natural methods. The principal part of
the process was to make me realize mentally just what was wrong and then
what was the more artistic way of doing it.