ere are numbers of vocalists who leave us in
doubt as to whether the words they sing are English, French, Italian, or
German; while the number of those who mispronounce words in a deplorable
manner is legion.

FORCING THE REGISTERS.

The next factor which has much to do with voice failure is forcing the
registers beyond their proper point of change. The erroneous belief
appears to exist that, by carrying up the registers a few notes beyond
their natural limits, the tones thus produced are fuller and richer. But
if in training a voice this practice be followed the result will be
serious injury to the vocal organ.

This is not a theoretical statement; we can easily see with the
laryngoscope the great amount of congestion of the vocal ligaments
immediately caused by thus forcing up a register; and not only are these
affected by the strain put upon them, but the whole interior of the
throat becomes blood-red, and looks irritated and inflamed. As soon as
the change to the right register is made the vocal apparatus returns to
its normal state.

Now we all know the effects of undue strain on muscles in other parts of
the body, and have felt the pain and weakness arising therefrom; but far
worse results follow the damage to the throat caused by the strain of
forcing up the registers, by both speakers and singers. The quality of
the voice becomes impaired, and actual loss of notes follows. In some
extreme cases which I have had under my care, there has been entire
absence of voice both in speaking and in singing, and much suffering has
been experienced from granular inflammation of the throat brought on by
this faulty voice use.

Another method of forcing the voice is the almost universal endeavour to
acquire "top notes" which do not belong to the singer's compass. Because
of the high notes in some voices exceptionally endowed by nature, it
seems as though all singers, no matter what their natural range, have
made it the one object of their training to strive after a vocal
attainment whose rarity appears to be almost its only justification to
be considered as an artistic merit. Why should these ever vanishing
"top notes" be so much craved and striven for? Can it be said that, as
regards each individual voice, these notes are higher in a scale of
excellence than the rest? What merit does their acquisition promise as a
set-off to the deterioration of the voice and its inevitable ultimate
failure? A high note, _per se_, is