o has said," continued Mr. Griffith, "that 'a perfect
start is our first and greatest assurance of a perfect finish.' And
nowhere is this precept more truly exemplified than in vocal tone
production. The tone must have the right beginning, then it will be
right all through. A faulty beginning is to blame for most of the vocal
faults and sins of singers. Our country is full of beautiful natural
voices; through lack of understanding many of them, even when devoting
time and money to study, never become more than mediocre, when they
might have developed into really glorious voices if they had only had
the right kind of treatment.

TONE PLACEMENT

"We hear a great deal about tone placement in these days; the world
seems to have gone mad over the idea. But it is an erroneous idea. How
futile to attempt to place the tone in any particular spot in the
anatomy. You can focus the tone, but you cannot place it. There is but
one place for it to come from and no other place. It is either emitted
with artistic effect or it is not. If not, then there is stiffness and
contraction, and the trouble ought to be remedied at once.

"Every one agrees that if the vocal instrument were something we could
see, our task would be comparatively easy. It is because the instrument
is hidden that so many false theories about it have sprung up. One
teacher advocates a high, active chest; therefore the chest is held high
and rigid, while the abdominal muscles are deprived of the strength
they should have. Another advises throwing the abdomen forward; still
another squares the shoulders and stiffens the neck. These things do not
aid in breath control in the least; on the contrary they induce rigidity
which is fatal to easy, natural tone emission.

IN THE BEGINNING

"When the pupil comes to me, we at once establish natural, easy
conditions of body and an understanding of the causes which produce good
tone. We then begin to work on the vowels. They are the backbone of good
singing. When they become controlled, they are then preceded by
consonants. Take the first vowel, A; it can be preceded by all the
consonants of the alphabet one after another, then each vowel in turn
can be treated in the same way. We now have syllables; the next step is
to use words. Here is where difficulties sometimes arise for the
student. The word becomes perfectly easy to sing if vowels and
consonants are properly produced. When they are not, words become
obstacles. Co