e at which, as a rule, any work can best be carried out is
during the early hours of the day, so that if it is possible, practice
should be begun early, and after some preliminary exercise for the
good of the body generally--_e.g._, a short walk, during which the
lungs may be filled with pure air. As the muscles of the chest, etc.,
are to be used in voice-production, such a walk or other form of
general exercise should not be lengthy. Energy should be reserved for
the muscular activities involved in vocal practice.

2. The principle that guides in all use of the muscles, all exercise,
is that it be taken under the most favorable circumstances and short
of fatigue, even of weariness; hence the question whether the student
should practise five minutes or one hour is one that he himself, and
he alone, can determine, provided he is old enough and observant
enough to know when he begins to feel weary in his vocal mechanism,
whether it be in the respiratory organs, the larynx, or the
resonance-chambers. With some there is a weak spot, and this settles
the question for all other parts. As a rule, beginners will do well
not to practice, at first, for longer at one time than five minutes,
not only because of the possible weariness, but because at the outset
it is difficult to keep the attention fixed. The ear and brain tire as
well as the muscles.

Naturally, the condition of the student at the time has much to do
with the length of a practice, but all things are determined by the
sensible application of that principle which science and experience
alike show to be a safe guide.

Naturally, as in other exercises, the duration of an exercise may be
gradually lengthened with experience. One singer may find an hour a
day sufficient, if she be already perfectly trained in every
respect--be "in good form," or "fit," as the athletes say--and have
only light or _coloratura_ parts to sing; but would this suffice to
form a singer to sustain the heaviest dramatic parts for hours
together before a large public audience? The training of a
hundred-yards sprinter should not be the same as that prescribed for a
long-distance runner or a wrestler.

[Illustration: FIG. 54. The above is a diagrammatic representation of
a highly magnified section (or very thin slice) through the outermost
or most superficial part of the great brain (cortex cerebri), and is
inserted to help the reader to form some idea of the complexity of
structure of the most