rcises, frequently apply the hand and,
when more practised, the more exacting flame test.

The first of the above exercises may be represented to the eye by a
continuous straight line; the second by straight lines with short
spaces between them.

In all these exercises there must never be any sort of _push_
anywhere, neither in the chest nor throat. Such methods are absolutely
wrong, because so wasteful of energy. The tone should come as
spontaneously and inevitably as the gas from a soda-water bottle when
the cork is slightly loosened, or, if this illustration be too strong
(it is employed because gas, air, is concerned in each case), let us
say, as water from the pipe of a waterworks' system when the tap is
turned. _The tone should come, the breath must tarry._

If the student does not feel ease, certainty, and inevitableness in
result, he has not made a good attack. If he cannot sustain the tone
for a few seconds, he should conclude that his method of using his
breath is wasteful. In time a tone should be easily held for at least
ten seconds.

The purpose of the second exercise is to give still more fully
breath-control, and to lead the voice-user to realize how important is
breathing for intonation.

The student may ask: "Why not begin, as is often done, by the singing
of scales?" Really useful scales are too complex; they imply the use
of a series of tones formed according to the principles insisted upon
above. The first thing is to get one perfect tone--to use the vocal
mechanism under simple conditions; and _that tone should be chosen
which the voice-user can produce of best quality and with greatest
ease, with least expenditure of energy_. It should never be selected
from the extremes of the subject's range. From the favorite or best
tone he should work down and up the scale. After this the scale comes
easy, and all actual singing is scale singing--the use of
intervals--and all speaking the same thing; so that, from every point
of view, this exercise should be the first in intonation, and the
student will do well not to leave it till the conditions above
prescribed can be fully met. Some singers have continued such
exercises throughout a long artistic career.

It is to be understood always that the exercises, etc., recommended in
this work are intended for all voice-users, whether they are singers
or speakers. It is easy for a speaker to pass from such prolonged
tones to the shorter ones required in spea