ld include simple exercises, vocalises with and without words, songs
of every description, arias of the lyric, dramatic, and coloratura type,
and recitatives, as well as concerted numbers of every description. All
these compositions should be graded, according to the difficulties they
present, both technical in the vocal sense, and musical. For every stage
of a pupil's progress the teacher should know exactly what composition
to assign for study.

Every composition used in instruction, be it simple exercise or
elaborate aria, should be first of all melodious. For the normally
gifted student the sense of melody and the love of singing are almost
synonymous. Next to the physical endowments of voice and ear the sense
of melody is the vocal student's most important gift. This feeling for
melody should be appealed to at every instant. Students should not be
permitted to sing anything in a mechanical fashion. Broken scales, "five
finger exercises," and mechanical drills of every kind, are altogether
objectionable. They blunt the sense of melody, and at the same time they
tend to induce throat stiffness. Beauty of tone and of melody should
always be the guiding principle in the practice of singing.

All the elements of instruction,--musical education, ear training, and
the acquirement of facility in the use of the voice,--can be combined in
the singing of melodious compositions. While the teacher should know the
precise object of each study, this is not necessary for the student.
Have the pupil simply sing his daily studies, with good tone and true
musical feeling, and all the rest will take care of itself.

Every vocal teacher will formulate his method of instruction according
to his own taste and judgment. There will always be room for the
exercise of originality, and for the working out of individual ideas.
His own experience, and his judgment in each individual case, must guide
the teacher in answering many important questions. Whether to train a
voice up or down, whether to pay special attention to enunciation, when
to introduce the trill, what form of studies to use for technique and
ornament,--these are all matters for the teacher to decide in his own
way.

Above all else the teacher should seek to make the study of singing
interesting to his pupils. This cannot be done by making the idea of
method and of mechanical drudgery prominent. Singing is an art; both
teacher and student must love their art or they cannot suc