s school is excellent, but on a
given day there will come, as it were, a mood over the boys which makes
it impossible for them, try as they will, to avoid sinking. Sometimes,
but not always, this will happen in warm weather. He has more than once
abandoned the singing lesson, and taken up some other study because of
it. One day recently the boys were most attentive, and their vexation
and disappointment with the flattening was evident. Another day it does
not trouble them in the least. This is a school where voice-training is
exceptionally well looked after.

Several correspondents have favoured me with experience on this point,
and I now proceed to quote their letters. Mr. W. W. Pearson, of Elmham,
writes:--

"Ordinary flat singing is the result of want of practice and experience.
Chronic flat singing is incurable, as it is due to a defective ear. A
new lot of choir boys will be liable to sing flat, and to lower their
pitch at any time for the first year or so; but after they have been in
training for a considerable time, I never find that there is any
inclination to sing flat. The notes most liable to be sung flat are the
third and sixth of the scale, or any high note that requires courage and
increased effort. One of these, having been sung flat, is taken by the
singers as a new departure, and being used as a standard, the pitch is
lowered, and all succeeding notes are flat.

"When I first formed my present choir I was very much plagued with flat
singing, but I am seldom troubled in that way now, and I think the
reason is that a large proportion of the members have been under
training for a long time.

"I used to find flattening prevail more in muggy, damp, or cold
weather, and in heated rooms. I never allowed the choir to go on in this
way, but stopped them at once, making them begin again after singing the
scale of the key a few times. This, of course, refers to practice. In
church I used to play the organ louder when I heard the pitch going
down; or I would put on a powerful solo stop for the melody, and
slightly prolong the final note of a cadence, in order that when the
choir ceased singing they might hear the difference. When flattening
occurred in the concert room I used to stop the accompaniment, which is,
I think, about all that can be done under those circumstances. When the
choir have been hopelessly bad in a hot practice room I have cured them
by bringing them out into a cold room adjoining."

Mr. C