"The
Child-Voice," have collated a large number of answers from distinguished
singers, teachers and choir-trainers to various questions relating to
the subject. The following citation is from this interesting work,
p. 39: "The necessity of limiting the compass of children's voices is
frequently insisted upon, no attention whatever being paid to
_registers_; and yet in finitely more mischief is done by forcing the
registers than would be accomplished by allowing children to exceed the
compass generally assigned to them, always provided that the singing be
the result of using the mechanism set apart by nature for different
parts of the voice."

There can really be no doubt that the use of the chest or thick voice
upon the higher tones is injurious to a child of six years, or ten
years, or of any other age. The theory that in the child-voice the
breaks occur at higher fixed pitches than in the adult is shown to be
untenable. The fact would seem to be that comparisons between the
registers of the child and the adult voice are misleading, since the
adult voice has fixed points of change in the vocal mechanism, which can
be transcended only with great difficulty, while the child-voice has _no
fixed points of change in its vocal registers_. This point must not be
overlooked. It is the most important fact connected with the child-voice
in speech or song. It is the fundamental idea of this work and is the
basis for whatever suggestions are herein contained upon the management
of the child-voice. The rigidity of the adult larynx, the strength of
the tensor and adductor muscles and the elastic firmness of the vocal
ligaments, are to those of the child as the solid bony framework and
strongly set muscles of maturity are to the imperfectly hardened bones
and soft muscles of childhood. Nature makes no fixed limits of the vocal
registers until full maturity is reached. A fixed register in a childish
throat involving a completely developed larynx would be a startling
anomaly. The laryngeal muscles of childhood are not strong. They are
weak. Most of the talk about strength of voice in children is utter
nonsense. When the muscles and other parts concerned in tone-production
perform their physiological functions in a healthy manner, that is, in
such a way that no congestion, or inflammation or undue weariness will
result, the singing-tone of the child will never be loud. High or low,
under these conditions it must perforce be soft, and if