o great that only one lesson a week with the professor is
possible. There is no chance for language or diction study, or piano
lessons; yet all these she ought to have. And one vocal lesson a week is
entirely inadequate. The old way of having daily lessons was far more
successful. The present way vocal teachers give lessons is not conducive
to the best development. The pupils come in a hurry, one after another,
to get their fifteen or twenty minutes of instruction. Yet one cannot
blame the teacher for he must live.

THE IDEAL WAY

"The ideal way is to have several lessons a week, and not to take them
in such haste. If the pupil arrives, and finds, on first essay, that her
voice is not in the best of trim, how much better to be able to wait a
bit, and try again; it might then be all right. But, as I said, under
modern conditions, this course seems not to be possible, for the teacher
must live. If only vocal lessons could be free, at least to the
talented ones! It seems sad that a gifted girl must pay to learn to
sing, when it is a very part of her, as much as the song of the bird.
Ah, if I had plenty of money, I would see that many of them should have
this privilege, without always looking at the money end of it.

AMOUNT OF DAILY PRACTICE

"It seems to me the young singer should not practice more than two
periods of fifteen or twenty minutes each. At most one should not use
the voice more than an hour a day. We hear of people practicing hours
and hours daily, but that is probably in books. The voice cannot be
treated as the pianist or violinist does his fingers. One must handle
the voice with much more care.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE YOUNG SINGER IN AMERICA

"The chances for the American singer to make a career in concert and
recital are abundant. In no other country in the world do such
opportunities exist. If she can meet the requirements, she can win both
fame and fortune on the concert stage.

"In opera, on the other hand, opportunities are few and the outlook
anything but hopeful. Every young singer casts longing eyes at the
Metropolitan, or Chicago Opera, as the goal of all ambition. But that is
the most hopeless notion of all. No matter how beautiful the voice, it
is drill, routine, experience one needs. Without these, plus musical
reputation, how is one to succeed in one of the two opera houses of the
land? And even if one is accepted 'for small parts,' what hope is there
of rising, when some of the gr