ters. This is accomplished by singing up and down
the scales of C, D, and E to the syllable "ah." Each tone is taken with
decision, and is followed by a slight pause. The same scales are
afterwards sung to "oh" and "oo." This exercise should not last longer
that ten or fifteen minutes. Staccato scales to "ah!" "oh!" and
chromatic passages are introduced later.

Mr. G. Bernard Gilbert, F.C.O., of West Ham Parish Church, is an
exceptionally skilled trainer of boys' voices. He meets his boys
half-an-hour before each of the Sunday Services and "tunes them up," an
admirable plan, which cannot be too widely imitated. The first thing he
does in training boys is to teach them to attack and leave sounds with
precision, neatness, and proper register or quality of voice. He gives
chief attention to the sounds between [Illustration: here the author
expresses a range from the F above middle-C (or F4) to the C above
middle-C (C5) by inserting a staff] and first practises them. If beauty
of tone is to be obtained, it is of the utmost importance that these
sounds should be given in the thin register. Mr. Gilbert has cultivated
this register in his own voice, and is able to give the boys a pattern
in the right octave, which he thinks of great use. The change from upper
thick to lower thin takes place between E and F. The boys should intone
in the thin register. Flattening while intoning is almost entirely due
to boys using the thick register. Mr. Gilbert uses the vowels as
arranged by Mr. Behnke, oo-o-ah-ai-ee, practised first with a slight
breath between each, afterwards all in one breath, _piano_ and
_staccato_. Consonants preceding these vowels are of little value, as
they only disguise a wrong action of the glottis, without removing the
fault. He uses also sustained sounds, and short major or minor arpeggi,
and last of all scale passages. If due attention be given to the
intonation of the arpeggio, the scale should not be, as it too often is,
all out of tune. The arpeggio is its skeleton or framework. Mr. Gilbert
alternates this work with the singing of intervals and the practice of
time rhythms. He attaches great value to the vowel "e" in practising
sustained notes, scales or arpeggi, though other vowels must receive due
attention. "E" has the advantage of bringing the vocal cords very close
to together, thereby effecting a greater economy of the breath than is
possible with the other vowels. He has constantly succeeded in making
b