The education of the singer should not commence too early, if we mean by
education the training of the voice. If you discover that a child has a
very remarkable voice, "ear" and musical intelligence you had better let
the voice alone and give your attention to the general musical education
of the child along the lines of that received by Madame Sembrich, who is
a fine violinist and pianist. So few are the teachers who know anything
whatever about the child-voice, or who can treat it with any degree of
safety, that it is far better to leave it alone than to tamper with it.
Encourage the child to sing softly, sweetly and naturally, much as in
free fluent conversation, telling him to form the habit of speaking his
tones forward "on the lips" rather than in the throat. If you have among
your acquaintances some musician or singer of indisputable ability and
impeccable honor who can give you disinterested advice have the child go
to this friend now and then to ascertain whether any bad and unnatural
habits are being formed. Of course we have the famous cases of Patti and
others, who seem to have sung from infancy. I have no recollection of
the time when I first commenced to sing. I have always sung and gloried
in my singing.
See to it that your musical child has a good general education. This
does not necessarily mean a college or university training. In fact, the
amount of music study a singer has to accomplish in these days makes the
higher academic training apparently impossible. However, with the great
musical advance there has come a demand for higher and better ordered
intellectual work among singers. This condition is becoming more and
more imperative every day. At the same time you must remember also that
nothing should be undertaken that might in any way be liable to
undermine or impair the child's health.