may be some ground for the belief that students are apt
to fall into bad vocal habits while singing in the chorus. But this risk
is entirely avoided by the teacher having his pupils sing in his own
chorus, under his own direction.

Another important feature of the musical education is the hearing of
good music artistically performed. Vocal students should be urged to
attend the opera and the orchestral concerts. They should become
familiar with the different forms of composition by actually hearing the
masterpieces of music. Chamber music concerts, song recitals, and
oratoric performances,--all are of great advantage to the earnest
student. When students attend the opera, or hear the great singers in
concerts and recitals, they should listen to the singers' tones, and not
wonder how the tones are produced.

_Ear Training_

No special exercises can be given for the training of the ear. The sense
of hearing is developed only by attentive listening. Every vocal
student should be urged, and frequently reminded, to form the habit of
listening attentively to the tones of all voices and instruments. A
highly trained sense of hearing is one of the musician's most valuable
gifts. A naturally keen musical ear is of course presupposed in the case
of any one desiring to study music. This natural gift must be developed
by exercise in the ear's proper function,--listening to sounds.

Experience in listening to voices is made doubly effective in the
training of the ear when the student's attention is called to the
salient characteristics of the tones heard. In this regard the two
points most important for the student to notice are the intonation and
the tone quality.

Absolute correctness of intonation, whether in the voice or in an
instrument, can be appreciated only by the possessor of a highly
cultivated sense of hearing. Many tones are accepted as being in tune
which are heard by a very keen ear to be slightly off the pitch, or
untrue to the pitch. This matter of a tone being untrue to the pitch is
of great importance to the student of music. Many instruments, when
unskilfully played, give out tones of this character. The tones are
impure; instead of containing only one pitch, each note shades off into
pitches a trifle higher, or lower, or both. This faulty type of tone is
illustrated by a piano slightly out of tune. On a single note of this
piano one string may have remained in perfect tune, the second may have
flatted by