One of the deep foundation piers of all educational effort is the
inculcation of habits. The most successful voice teacher is the one who
is most happy in developing habits of correct singing. These habits must
be watched with the persistence, perseverance and affectionate care of
the scientist. The teacher must realize that the single lapse or
violation of a habit may mean the ruin of weeks or months of hard work.
One of the most necessary habits a teacher should form is that of
speaking with ease, naturalness and vocal charm. Many of our American
girls speak with indescribable harshness, slovenliness and shrillness.
This is a severe tax upon the sensibilities of a musical person and I
know of countless people who suffer acute annoyance from this source.
Vowels are emitted with a nasal twang or a throaty growl that seem at
times most unpardonable noises when coming from a pretty face.
Consonants are juggled and mangled until the words are very difficult to
comprehend. Our girls are improving in this respect, but there is still
cause for grievous complaint among voice teachers, who find in this one
of their most formidable obstacles.
Another common natural fault, which is particularly offensive to me, is
that of an objectionable bodily poise. I have found throughout my entire
career that bodily poise in concert work is of paramount importance, but
I seem to have great difficulty in sufficiently impressing this great
truth upon young ladies who would be singers. The noted Parisian
teacher, Sbriglia, is said to require one entire year to build up and
fortify the chest. I have always felt that the best poise is that in
which the shoulders are held well back, although not in a stiff or
strained position, the upper part of the body leaning forward gently and
naturally and the whole frame balanced by a sense of relaxation and
ease. In this position the natural equilibrium is not taxed, and a
peculiar sensation of non-constraint seems to be noticeable,
particularly over the entire area of the front of the torso. This
position suggests ease and an absence of that military rigidity which is
so fatal to all good vocal effort. It also permits of a freer movement
of the abdominal walls, as well as the intercostal muscles, and is thus
conducive to the most natural breathing. Too much anatomical explanation
is liable to confuse the young singer, and if the matter of breathing
can be assisted by poise, just so much is gained.
Another important habit that the teacher should see to at the start is
that of correct thinking. Most vocal beginners are poor thinkers and
fail to realize the vast importance of the mind in all voice work.
Unless the teacher has the power of inspiring the pupil to a realization
of the great fact that nothing is accomplished in the throat that has
not been previously performed in the mind, the path will be a difficult
one. During the process of singing the throat and the auxiliary vocal
process of breathing are really a part of the brain, or, more
specifically, the mind or soul. The body is never more than an
instrument. Without the performer it is as voiceless as the piano of
Richard Wagner standing in all its solitary silence at Wahnfried--a mute
monument of the marvelous thoughts which once rang from its vibrating
wires to all parts of the civilized world. We really sing with that
which leaves the body after death. It is in the cultivation of this
mystery of mysteries, the soul, that most singers fail. The mental ideal
is, after all, that which makes the singer. Patti possessed this ideal
as a child, and with it the wonderful bodily qualifications which made
her immortal. But it requires work to overcome vocal deficiencies, and
Patti as a child was known to have been a ceaseless worker and thinker,
always trying to bring her little body up to the high aesthetic
appreciation of the best artistic interpretation of a given passage.