public schools in as convincing a way as
is possible. Now the best, and in fact the only way to secure the assent
of our educators to a new idea in school work, is to prove its truth.
"It is useless to dispute about tastes," and so the less said about
harsh tone to a teacher accustomed to hear it daily, and to like it,
the better; but prove to this teacher that the harsh tone is physically
hurtful to the child, and that for physiological reasons the voice
should be used softly and gently, and you have won a convert, one, too,
who will quickly recognize the aesthetic phase of the change in voice
use. The author knows from observation and experience that children in
the public schools can, under existing conditions, be taught good habits
of voice use. There are wonderful possibilities of musical development,
in the study of music in schools, and the active interest of every
musician and music lover should be exercised to the end that its
standard may be kept high.

PREFACE.

It will be generally admitted by those who are able to judge, that the
singing of children is more often disagreeable than pleasant, and yet
the charm of childhood and the effect of custom are so potent that many
who are keenly alive to any deficiency in the adult singer, listen with
tolerance, and it would seem with a degree of pleasure even, to the
harsh tones of children.

This tolerance of rough, strident singing by children is as strange as
the singing. It cannot be right for children to sing with the coarse,
harsh tone that is so common, and it is not right, although there is a
prevalent idea that such singing is natural, that is, unavoidable.

This idea is false. The child singing-voice is not rough and harsh
unless it is misused. The truth of this statement can be easily
demonstrated. If it were not true it would be difficult to justify the
teaching of vocal music in schools, or the employment of boy sopranos in
church choirs.

It seems to the author that the chief difficulty experienced by teachers
and instructors of singing, in dealing with children, lies in the
assumption, expressed or implied, that their voices are to be treated as
we treat the voices of adults-- adult women; but the vocal organs of the
child differ widely from those of the adult in structure, strength and
general character. As a consequence, there is a marked difference in
voice.

Vocal music has been very generally introduced into the schools of our
coun