proof of courage, but not of wisdom. One cannot expect to go before an
audience and sing over their heads, and by so doing educate them up to
one's own standard of music.
You must reach down from your lofty ideals and meet the public on its
own ground.
For example, in creating a love for the grand opera (which the people,
especially of the west, up to a few years ago have had no chance of
hearing), you must proceed gradually, carefully and with tact.
Teachers of voice culture should organize grand opera study clubs, give
concerts, using selections from the popular grand opera--I mean by
popular grand opera "Il Trovatore," "Carmen," "Faust," etc. These
operas contain airs that are attractive, and can be followed by the
masses.
It would not be long before the grand opera would share honors with the
now flourishing musical comedy in the affections of the music-loving
public, and the term "grand opera" would not sound to them like a
"bugaboo."
In Brooklyn one afternoon I passed a number of boys coming from school,
and was astonished to hear them whistling "Tannhauser." While this would
be quite natural in Europe it is rather unusual here, where the popular
song has the upper hand with the young folks. I made inquiries and found
that a phonograph had been installed in the school and that every
morning the pupils listened to selections from the grand operas. My
already good opinion of the value of the phonograph was strengthened, as
I fully realize what effect hearing good music in the public schools
would have on the coming generation.
In order to fully appreciate a difficult composition one must have made
a study of music, same as a doctor, in order to appreciate a lecture on
some intricate subject about his profession, must have made a study of
that profession.
The painter sees in a great painting the beauties of execution that
entirely escape the eyes of the uninitiated; yet the musician will go
before an audience of whom two-thirds have probably never studied music
at all, and expect them to appreciate the classical music, and because
they do not, he would brand them as unappreciative, absurd; he expects
the impossible.
The average audience does not care for the name of a composition as long
as the music appeals to them, and this is generally a matter of how it
is interpreted.
The power of a beautiful interpretation does not make itself felt in
singing classics alone. Many persons harbor the notion that
interpretation relates to the work of the dead masters only. This is not
true. The simplest song needs interpretation, as well as the oratorio or
opera and the difference between good and bad artists is largely a
matter of interpretation. A simple song that emanates from the heart and
soul, will have a reciprocal effect on others and will outlive all
sermons in the memory.
The average audience goes to the concert, not to be educated, but to be
entertained. Entertain them, interest them, win them and they will come
again.
After you have endeared yourself to them, you can begin to sing more
pretentious music, and before they realize it, they are listening to and
enjoying the works of the great masters.
I have seen a vast audience go to hear Patti sing "Home, Sweet Home,"
and while listening they became acquainted with other songs, that by
hearing again and again, have helped to educate them to appreciate the
better music.
I love the "oratorios" and "grand operas" particularly. They are part of
my life. But I do not expect all with whom I come in contact to feel the
same.
I have seen more people asleep at a piano recital than I have at church,
and I did not blame them, when some amateur would be wrestling with a
twenty-page selection of which he had not the slightest conception, with
the exception of being able to read the notes and find them on the
instrument.
Let us not become so blinded that we can see only one way--our way.
In educating the masses let us not begin by driving them away with
compositions which they cannot understand.
Art has no fatherland, and all that is beautiful should be prized by us,
no matter how simple or what clime or region produced it.
When you hear someone dwelling on the fact that Mansfield did not ask
his audience what play they wanted, neither did Patti ask them what she
should sing, the argument is ridiculous. Bear this in mind: The audience
did not go to hear "Il Barbiere" or "Peer Gynt," they went to hear Patti
and see Mansfield, and what they rendered was only incidental to the
fact that they were Patti and Mansfield, people in whom the public was
interested. But while they were listening to these artists they became
acquainted with the better works.
So leave it to the "finished artist" to produce the great works. You are
an amateur and have your little share to do in educating the masses.
Don't begin by giving a difficult program. Sing something simple, that
you are perfectly familiar with, and don't be afraid of the new
compositions. It is surprising that even old singers fear a new song.
Select something with pretty melody and rhythm and you are perfectly
safe.
Always be on the lookout for something you can identify with yourself,
just as the artists all have some favorite song.
HINTS AND HELPS.
Get out in the fresh air at least once a day, summer and winter.
If you are in good health, =walk= in preference to riding.
Get plenty of sleep. It is better than all other tonics.
If you are "out of sorts," try a little "new thought," or "mental
science." It may be all you need.
Sponge your neck, chest and back with cold water every morning.
Girls, accustom yourselves to wearing your waists minus collars.
Boys, wear your collars loose. The artists all do.
Never bundle your neck in winter. A light covering will do.
Eat what agrees with you, and avoid going on diets, if possible.
If you desire to gain weight or put on more flesh, you must eat plenty
of nourishing food at least three times a day, drink plenty of pure
fresh water, good rich milk, ale, malt extracts, and everything that
agrees with you.
Should you desire to reduce your weight, eat sparingly--a shredded wheat
biscuit, some dry toast with a cup of coffee in the morning. At noon eat
one or more oranges, and nothing else. For dinner take only one kind of
meat or fish, a vegetable, a fruit, a salad, some dried toast, with a
cup of black coffee or tea. Use no potatoes, butter or cream.
There is no special diet for singers. It is only necessary to keep in
good health, take plenty of exercise, and eat and drink only those
things which agree with you.
Pose your speaking voice low, as it not only benefits the voice, but it
denotes refinement.
Robusto tenors are high baritones with the head tones developed.
Saddle riding, walking, physical culture, fencing, dancing, elocution,
the study of any instrument will all be of some value in helping you to
become an artist.
Use your brains more than your throat.
Don't be impatient because things do not come your way at once. Rome was
not built in one day.
Let your study of music cultivate within you a sympathy and love for all
that is artistic.
Do not be unjustly prejudiced against good music because you do not
understand it. Hear that class of music more, and it will overcome your
prejudice.
Acquaint yourself with the old masters and works before you take up the
novelties.
Keep young in mind and thought, and the body will not grow old.
Think for yourself and =think=.
Don't worry, for worry is born largely of misdirected ambition.
When someone is singing, do not shrug your shoulders and assume a pained
expression, so as to impress those who may be sitting near you that you
are a great critic.
Have you ever thought what a desolate place this world would be without
music?
Never neglect an opportunity to hear a great singer. If your means are
limited, subdue your pride, for it is far better to sit in the gallery
and be able to hear ten "artist concerts" than to sit in the orchestra
and be able to hear only one.
Be willing to sacrifice much for your music.
Associate as much as possible with people who =know more= about music than
you do. Read everything you can find on the subject. You will find =some=
truth in all of it.
When you attend a concert look forward for the best only--don't be a
pessimist, be an optimist, and you will derive much more benefit. Don't
criticize audibly when someone is singing. =An artist never does.=
Before going to hear an artist sing, acquaint yourself as much as
possible with the program.
While under one instructor, do not run around to other studios to have
your voice tried. It is undignified, and reflects on your teacher, as
well as upon yourself.
Become a sight reader by reading at sight.
You can break yourself from clearing your throat by not clearing it. You
will be surprised to find it was only a habit.
Punctuality at the studio is essential. Ten minutes early for your
lesson is better than two minutes late.
If there is anything about your lesson that you do not understand, ask
questions. You are paying for information.
Practice systematically if you expect to make a success.
Beginners should practice only fifteen minutes at a time.
The scales are the backbone of music study.
Remember your consonants are of as great value as your vowels.
In singing, you must use both your nose and mouth for breathing.
Always stand up when practicing your exercises.
Memorize all your songs.
When asked to sing, sing songs with which you are perfectly familiar.
Stand on both feet and let your chest, not your stomach lead.
If you expect to sing well, leave the tight collar, the tight corset and
the tight shoes at home.
It is better to stand too near the footlights than too far back.
If you are not an expert at handling a train on the stage, don't wear
one.
While waiting for the introduction to be played, don't count the
footlights or the stars, but look out beyond the audience, rather in
with your eyes and nose.
When holding music, never hold it high enough to cover your face from
the audience.
Sing =to= your audience, not =at= it.
Try and look pleasant, even if you don't feel that way. The audience
can't help it.
Never fail to give a smile or word of encouragement to other beginners
who may be on the same program with you.
It is certainly appalling to know how many good singers have bad stage
manners.
A man must never put either one or both hands in his trouser pockets,
nor stand with his feet spread far apart while singing. Both of these
faults denote improper training.
If you are ever so warm, use your handkerchief only before or after you
leave the stage.
Correct dress is essential.
For a man, for informal entertainments, black suit, black shoes, white
shirt, collar and cuffs, with either a black or white tie. For concert,
only evening dress is appropriate.
For girls, the nicest thing to wear is a gown; if you do not wear one,
try to have your waist and skirt correspond in shade. The so-called
shirtwaist effect, which is produced by waist and skirt of different
colors, is not effective on the stage.
Wear hose and slippers of the same color if possible.
Amateurs when on the stage frequently rearrange a tie or smooth back a
stray curl, etc.; this is but a form of nervousness and looks bad.
Finish your toilet at home.
For ease and grace take dancing lessons.
The graduate from dancing and dramatic schools never appear ill at ease
before company.
WHAT AND HOW TO PRACTICE.
It is not so much =what=, but =how= you practice. The average beginner takes
up his practice in an aimless sort of way. Every action should have some
result in view. After taking your lesson, if you find you are not
positive as to the proper course to be pursued at home, you must ask
your teacher the questions necessary to put you on the right path. You
should have all your work laid out for you and go about it in a
systematic manner. Only in this way can you hope to achieve any degree
of success.
A beginner should not practice much more than five minutes at a time on
each construction, neither would much less than that be sufficient to
accustom that set of muscles to that one construction. Never practice
your limit tones at either end of your range as much as you do your
middle register. What I mean by middle register is low enough to
produce chest and high enough to produce head tones. If you can produce
a fine middle register, the high tones will naturally follow in time.
Melba says, "On days when my high tones do not come easily in practice,
I do not sing them." Do not show or cover your teeth because you have
seen some singers do so; individual construction differs.
Pronounce your words naturally and distinctly, never forgetting the
consonants at the end of the words. Don't think because you are singing
from a Marchesi book that you are studying her method. You are getting
the method of the teacher with whom you are studying. There are but two
ways of singing--"right" and "wrong"--and it makes little difference
from what instruction book you are taking your lesson, they are all good
and all constructed on the same principles. The main thing is knowing
=what= you are trying to do.
Many pupils who are poor readers worry through several exercise books,
and at the end of that time have only memorized the notes and made no
progress whatever on the main point--tone.
The pupil should learn to use the ear, mind and memory, and a great deal
of time would be gained in tone placing which should be taken up before
using an exercise book. If you are not a sight reader, take up this
study at once, preferably in class work, as it is absolutely necessary
that you should be able to read music at sight.
Antiquated and complicated systems of sight reading are responsible for
many poor readers. We need more ear =training= and ability to =think=. Avoid
the use of the do-re-me syllables unless you are already proficient in
that system. Practice with the pitch names, A, B, C, D, and with the
scale numbers, 1, 2, 3, 4, in order to acquire a relationship of the
tones of the scale, otherwise the syllable "la" or any other syllable
will do.
If you have an "off day," when all the work seems to go wrong, don't
practice. Mechanical work is of no value whatever in singing. Even the
artists have their "off days," but don't allow these days to become too
frequent.
The best position for practice is to stand naturally, clasp your hands
in front or let them hang carelessly and naturally at your sides.
Clasping your hands behind your back or resting them on your hips, are
both bad positions for singing.
When you practice do not simply kill fifteen minutes' time. Mere
practice makes a mechanical gymnast, while study produces a musician.
In taking up your exercises use the instrument as little as possible.
For illustration we will take the arpeggio.
Play the arpeggio until you are perfectly familiar with the
construction, then =sing= it once =with= the piano, then play only the chord
or keynote and sing the arpeggio =without= the piano; continue in this way
in all the keys within your range, getting your pitch from the chord or
keynote; this manner of practice is of the greatest value, as you can
stand in a natural singing position and as you do not have to give part
of your thought to the music or instrument, you pay more attention to
the pitch and tone, so that when you come to arias with recitatives
=without= accompaniment, you will not have as much difficulty staying on
pitch as those who invariably depend on the support of the instrument.
In songs you should pursue the same course, play the most difficult
passages, "memorize them" before you attempt to sing them; in this way
you do not unnecessarily tire the voice. Memorize all your songs; it is
only after you get away from the reading that you are capable of doing
your best work. Always practice before a mirror and you will not be so
liable to acquire facial contortions and would soon overcome the very
bad habit of lifting the shoulders when you "see yourself as others see
you."
Pupils frequently ask why it is so much easier to sing an exercise on
"ah" than to sing a sentence. In the "ah" you only have one vowel, while
in the sentence there are both vowels and consonants. By diligent
practice you will soon find that the tone helps the word, and the words
help the tone.
Another complaint frequently heard in the studio is this: "I sang this
exercise perfectly at home, and can't see why I am unable to sing it
now." How many times did you sing this exercise perfectly at home. Don't
consider an exercise learned until you can sing it ten times in
succession =without an error=.
Lillie Lehmann says: "I expended ten years in perfecting the trill which
every voice must master," and yet some pupils become discouraged
because they can not master the art of singing in a few months!
Many singers complain of a contraction (hardness under the chin). This
is frequently found where they have been taught to place the tip of the
tongue against the back of the lower teeth to keep the tongue down.
Leave the tongue limp and speak your vowels and consonants perfect and
distinct, and the tongue will take care of itself.
Those who are working to produce low tones will find that in the
morning, immediately after rising, the lower tones respond most readily
and may help you to find a way of increasing the lower range.
Don't neglect the scales. Many years ago Madame Patti, while on a
concert tour, was awakened from her early morning sleep by the sound of
a piano in a room close to hers. It was slow scale practicing and was
maddening to the singer. She rang the bell, and demanded that the
practice be at once discontinued. What was her astonishment to learn
that the player was not some beginner as she had supposed, but the great
artist, Hans Von Bulow.
Why is the so-called Italian method supposed to be the correct method of
singing? Partly because the Italian "a" (as you would pronounce "ä") is
the most natural sound that can be sung, and as the "ä" is the sound
used in two-thirds of the words in the song you sing, it plays an
important part in singing.
Very few beginners realize that it is not only the words "law," "raw,"
"saw," "tall," "hall," etc., that contain the Italian "ä," but also the
words "light," "bright," "might."
In the word "night," the beginner usually dwells on the "ee," making it
"na-=ee=t," while it =should be= pronounced "n=aw=-eet," dwelling on the "ä."
The Italian vowels cover the sound, tone color and pronunciation of the
Latin, English, Italian and German, with the exception of the German "o"
and "ü."
With the French it is quite different. The sound and production stands
by itself. A French singer does not so readily sing the other languages,
neither does an American in the same length of time master the French as
well as the other languages. The French insist on =perfect diction=, and
one of our grand opera singers who delights the New York opera goers by
her singing of "Faust," "Carmen," etc., in the French, would not be
tolerated at the opera in Paris on account of her diction.
As the French is the diplomatic language of the world, it would be well
to take up this language first. Then study your Italian for your singing
and you will find the Spanish, Latin and German can be easily mastered.
Study only those songs which have merit. "After the Ball" was composed
within the past twenty years, and over 3,000,000 copies have been sold,
yet this song is both dead and buried, while the "Earl King," by
Schubert, composed in 1798, is today found upon practically all the
programs of our noted singers.
When taking up a new song read the words over carefully and get an idea
what you are going to sing about before you try to sing it. Never
breathe in the middle of a word, or break a sentence by taking a
breath.
THE BREATH.
The foundation upon which you have to build your voice is the =breath=,
and like all other foundations, it must be properly laid, or the
structure will be a failure. It is imperative that you have absolute and
perfect =control= of the breath. An athlete once said to me, "If breath is
the foundation of good singing, I certainly should make a fine singer,
as I have the largest chest expansion and can hold my breath the longest
time of anyone in the college." The truth is, a small girl, weighing
ninety-six pounds, who had less than one-fifth of his chest expansion,
had twice the volume of sound-carrying power in tone, and could sustain
a tone three times as long as he.
To practice breathing is not practicing singing, and the teacher who
keeps a pupil indefinitely on "breathing lessons" is either "killing
time" or is not a proficient instructor of voice culture.
It should be taken for granted that all healthy persons breathe
properly.
It is not the breathing, but the power of control, which is of vital
importance. It may be that after taking "breathing lessons" for a period
of six months that you will still be far from able to control the breath
=on the tone=. It is the way you practice, rather than the length of time
which brings proficient results.
You will find by referring to the chapter on "Practical Exercises" that
I demonstrate the matter thoroughly.
A good tone should have =resonance=, or what we call "vibration," but not
"tremolo." Many young singers confuse these two. Undoubtedly it is just
as bad to sing with a straight, cold, unmusical tone as it is to produce
an exaggerated "vibrato" or "tremolo."
If you are unable to make the distinction between these two, do not fail
to consult someone who can do so, that you may not enter the pitfalls,
which it takes months to overcome.
You cannot realize =how little breath= is necessary =on the tone=; we sing
with a great amount of =pressure=, but with =very little breath=. Have you
ever taken a covered head tone without scarcely taking any breath, and
found that you could sustain it for a practically unlimited period?
I found one of my pupils who had elsewhere taken a course in =breathing=,
in taking a tone, would push her breath out so hard that you heard more
=breath= than =tone=. In singing a tone or short sentence, her chest would
collapse and she would become, as she termed it, "All out of breath."
She would give me all kinds of wonderful breath demonstrations, but
could not connect the =breath= and =tone=.
I requested her to speak in a natural way the sentence, "This is a very
beautiful day." I asked her if she could hear a lot of escaping breath?
She answered, "No." I then asked her to place one hand across the ribs
and one across the chest and center her thoughts directly at these two
points to see if she could ascertain what was taking place there, while
once again in a natural speaking voice she repeated the sentence. She
did so, and found she was =not= "out of breath," and that her chest did
=not= collapse and she did not feel any discomfort. I then asked her to
repeat the sentence on the medium tone "E" above middle "C," then on
"F," then on "G," directing her each time to think she was merely
=speaking= the sentence, and then for the first time in her life she was
able to understand =control of breath=. During the next lesson we were
able to begin "tone placing" without the least trouble in connecting the
breath and tone. =Try it yourself.=
All kinds of athletics, breathing lessons or exercises in moderation
are beneficial, but they are not voice culture. As your breath plays a
most important part in =tone placing=, the breath and tone should start
together, hand in hand, from the very beginning. In the following
chapter I shall give some practical exercises that will give the BREATH
and =tone= a chance to become acquainted with each other.
A FEW PRACTICAL EXERCISES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
Stand erect, but not in a strained position. Place the palm of your
hands over your ribs, pointing the fingers forward. (See Figure 1.)
=Exhale= by blowing slowly through the closed lips, very much as though
you were blowing on embers to make them burn. In doing this, you will
find that your finger tips will almost meet in front. (See Figure 2.)
Keep your hands in the same position and =inhale= through the nose. You
will notice a large space in front between your hands. (See Figure 3.)