would be in their conversation. Others have
received an equivalent intellectual training in other ways. The young
singer, who thinks that in the future he can "get by" without such a
training, is booked for disappointment. Get a college education if you
can; and, if you can not, fight to get its equivalent. No useful
experience in the singer's career is a wasted one. The early
instrumental training of Melba, Sembrich, Campanari, Hempel, Dalmores,
Garden, and Galli-Curci, shows out in their finished singing, in
wonderful manner. Every singer should be able to play the piano well. It
has a splendid effect in the musical discipline of the mind. In European
conservatories, in many instances, the study of the piano is compulsory.

YOUR PHILOSOPHY OF SINGING

The student of singing should be an inveterate reader of "worthwhile"
comments upon his art. In this way, if he has a discriminating mind, he
will be able to form a "philosophy of singing" of his own. Richard
Wagner prefaced his music dramas with lengthy essays giving his reasons
for pursuing a certain course. Whatever their value may be to the
musical public at this time, it could not have been less than that to
the great master when he was fighting to straighten out for his own
satisfaction in his own mind just what he should do and how he should do
it. Therefore, read interminably; but believe nothing that you read
until you have weighed it carefully in your own mind and determined its
usefulness in its application to your own particular case.

The student will find the following books of real value in his quest for
vocal truth: _The Philosophy of Singing_, Clara Kathleen Rogers; _The
Vocal Instructor_, E. J. Myer; _The Psychology of Singing_, David C.
Taylor; _How to Sing_, Lilli Lehmann; _Reminiscences of a Quaker
Singer_, David Bispham; _The Art of the Singer_, W. J. Henderson.

The student should also read the biographies of famous singers and keep
in touch with the progress of the art, through reading the best
magazines.

THE HISTORY OF SINGING

The history of singing parallels the history of civilization. Egypt,
Israel, Greece and Rome made their contributions; but how they sang and
what they sang we can not definitely know because of the destruction of
the bridge between ancient and modern notation, and because not until
Thomas Edison invented the phonograph in 1877, was there any tangible
means of recording the voices of the singers. The wisdom of So