ter greetings were over, the singer settled herself among the silken
cushions of her divan ready for our talk.

"I believe I always wanted to sing, rather than do anything else in the
way of music. I studied the piano a little at first, but that did not
exactly appeal to me. I also began the violin, because my father is fond
of that instrument and wanted me to play it. But the violin was not just
what I wanted either, for all the time I longed to sing. Singing is such
a part of one's very self; I wanted to express myself through it. I had
no idea, when I started, that I should ever make a specialty of it, or
that, in a comparatively few years I should be singing all over the
country. I did not know what was before me, I only wanted to learn to
sing.

"Now I cannot tell just how I do the different things one must do to
sing correctly. I know that, if I have to master some subject, I just
sit down and work at that thing till I can do it--till it is done. My
teacher knows every organ in the anatomy, and can describe the muscles,
bones and ligaments found in the head, face and throat. She can make a
diagram of the whole or any part. Not that such knowledge is going to
make a singer, but it may help in directing one's efforts."

TONE PLACEMENT

"Can you describe tone placement?" she was asked.

"For the deeper tones--as one makes them--they seem to come from lower
down: for the middle and higher tones, you feel the vibrations in facial
muscles and about the eyes, always focused forward, just at the base of
the forehead, between the eyes. It is something very difficult to put
into words; the sensations have to be experienced, when making the
tones. The singer must judge so much from sensation, for she cannot very
well hear herself. I do not really hear myself; I mean by this I cannot
tell the full effect of what I am doing."

WHEN TO PRACTICE

"No doubt you do much practice--or is that now necessary?"

Miss Case considered this thoughtfully.

"I never practice when I am tired, for then it does more harm than good.
It is much better for the voice to rest and not use it at all, than to
sing when not physically fit. One must be in good condition to make
good tones; they will not be clear and perfect if one is not strong and
in good health. I can really study, yet not sing at all. For the whole
work is mental anyway.

USING FULL VOICE

"When I work on the interpretation of a song, in the quiet of my music
room