Every singer should be an earnest student of poetry. There are minds to which poetry does not appeal as does the practical prose. But in all minds there is enough of latent love of...
Advice of friends is a source of value or injury to the singing student. Advice has its influence. Every word spoken about one's voice and singing helps or injures. If placed in a...
A musical library should be a possession of every singer. There are less than two hundred books on music printed in English, on subjects directly connected with music and singing....
Sustaining perfectly the reservoir of air is the greatest desideratum in using the voice. Acquiring ability to do so is a puzzle often to students. The reason is in the fact that n...
A very good reason, but one which individuals can attend to, why we have so few artists among singers, is that so few take time to gain experience. There must be many appearances b...
Every song or other vocal composition should be analyzed as the first step in its study. The first theme noted, and the second also, if such there be; the connecting bars; the poin...
The teacher who does not live in high thought, and who does not attempt to attain a high ideal, does poorer work than he thinks he does. It is an easy matter to settle into a rut a...
All vocal tone used in singing when produced at the vocal bands is small and probably always about alike. The tone which we hear is "colored", "re-inforced" etc., on the way from t...
Personal freedom of action must for a time be surrendered by pupil to teacher but it should be for limited time only. The impress of the teacher's mind can be made upon the pupil i...
Every shade of tone has a meaning which is either artistic or inartistic and one who has developed his appreciation of artistic rendition can so use his tone that just the right ef...
Nature seldom moves by jumps, and a student who reaches the best use of his voice learns that he must do that through natural laws. In other words, that he must acquire all things...
Singers seem to think but little of the tools with which they carry on their life work. That is the rule. Now and then a singer takes the opposite course and becomes unreasonably c...
When selecting songs for study for beginners, only those which have smooth and well defined melodies should be selected. Modern composers seek by the strangest harmonies, following...
While singing, words and tone should agree. What does that mean, asks one. It can be well stated when we consider how they do not agree. If one sings "Sing ye aloud, with gladness,...
Fortunately, no two persons are exactly alike. If they were, the result would be the same and the everyday acts leading to a result would be the same. Nature, acquiescing in the Di...
Mannerisms give knowledge to the observing person of our character and intellectuality, and, on that account, are to be studied and used to our advantage. Such as would prepossess...
Parents see the necessity of providing the means for their children to learn to take care of themselves. A fortune left to a son frequently, if not generally, proves a curse. A "go...
Singers cannot afford to miss the chance to be among great men. As a class, musicians are narrow and that arises from the necessity of giving so much time to technical study. When...
Next to him who makes no mistakes, is he who recovers from and disguises the errors. At best a performance full of errors of pitch, word, tone and quality is but a patched garment....
Educing is bringing out or causing to appear. Teachers impart and call that educating. The reverse of the common way is best. Instead of imparting all the time to the pupil seek to...
The culture of the voice has come to be looked upon as a great and serious undertaking, and of such magnitude that but few have time for it, and those only should attempt it who ha...
The phraseology of newspaper criticism often disturbs musicians, especially those who are very sensitive, and sometimes arouses their ire so that they make reply. In doing so they...
All true art is delicate. Music is the most delicate of all arts. Music is expressed through thought and emotion. In this, music has much the advantage over sister arts. The sculpt...
"It is the regularity of the laws of nature which leads us to put confidence in them and enables us to use them." Thus writes Dr. McCosh and he was a keen observer of men and thing...
A teacher cannot do better for himself and his work than to occasionally close the office door and sit quietly by himself for a half-hour. At such time crowd out the thought of all...
We may say with Emerson that "Time has his own work to do and we have ours," and with Wood, "Labor is normal; idleness, abnormal," but in music there must be times of cessation fro...
In these days of invention, discovery and progress, no one need be ashamed of changing his opinions. In vocal music the ideas most commonly held twenty years ago are being exchange...
The man makes the musician as does the musician make the man. The rules of life which make men better make the musician better. There is a constant call in life to "Come up higher!...
When singing before an audience in a hall, do not look on the music. A glance at it may be made from time to time but keep the eyes off. A singer appears very ridiculous if he look...
Perhaps no one chooses to question the statement that length of human life is greater in our generation than it was in the last, and much greater than it was one or two centuries a...