pon the individual. It is never
too early for him to start in acquiring his musical knowledge.
Everything he might learn of music itself, through the study of the
piano or any other instrument would all become a part of his capital
when he became a singer. Those singers are fortunate whose musical
knowledge commenced with the cradle and whose first master was that
greatest of all teachers, the mother. Speaking generally, it seems to be
the impression of singing teachers that voice students should not
commence the vocal side of their studies until they are from sixteen to
seventeen years of age. In this connection, consider my own case. My
first public appearance with orchestra was when I was fourteen. It was
in Bristol, England, and among other things I sang _Ora Pro Nobis_ from
Gounod's _Workers_.

I was fortunate in having in my first teacher, D. W. Rootham, a man too
thoroughly blessed with good British common sense to have any "tricks."
He had no fantastic way of doing things, no proprietary methods, that
none else in the world was supposed to possess. He listened for the
beautiful in my voice and, as his sense of musical appreciation was
highly cultivated, he could detect faults, explain them to me and show
me how to overcome them by purely natural methods. The principal part of
the process was to make me realize mentally just what was wrong and then
what was the more artistic way of doing it.

LETTING THE VOICE GROW

After all, singing is singing, and I am convinced that my master's idea
of just letting the voice grow with normal exercise and without excesses
in any direction was the best way for me. It was certainly better than
hours and hours of theory, interesting to the student of physiology, but
often bewildering to the young vocalist. Real singing with real music is
immeasurably better than ages of conjecture. It appears that some
students spend years in learning how they are going to sing at some
glorious day in the future, but it never seems to occur to them that in
order to sing they must really use their voices. Of course, I do not
mean to infer that the student must omit the necessary preparatory work.
Solfeggios, for instance, and scales are extremely useful. Concone,
tried and true, gives excellent material for all students. But why spend
years in dreaming of theories regarding singing when everyone knows that
the theory of singing has been the battleground for innumerable talented
writers for ce