ing what he hears_. Until he can do
this his voice will have no character. His voice will be as indefinite
as his tone concept, and it will not improve until his concept, which is
his taste, improves. Inasmuch as everything exists first as idea, it
follows that everything which is included in the rightly produced voice
and in interpretation are first matters of concept. The singer uses a
certain tone quality because he mentally conceives that quality to be
right. He delivers a word or phrase in a certain way because that is his
concept of it.

A word at this point on imitation. One faculty of a musical mind is that
of recording mentally what it hears and of producing it mentally
whenever desired. Most people possess this in some degree, and some
people in a marked degree. Almost any one can hear mentally the tone of
a cornet, violin, or any instrument with which he is acquainted. In the
same way the vocal student must hear mentally the pure singing tone
before he can sing it. It is the business of the teacher to assist him
in forming a perfect tone concept, and if he can do this by example, as
well as by precept, he has a distinct advantage over the one who cannot.

Arguments against imitation are not uncommon, and yet the teachers who
offer them will advise their students to hear the great singers as often
as possible. Such incongruities do not inspire confidence.

On this human plane most things are learned by imitation. What language
would the child speak if it were never allowed to hear spoken language?
It would never be anything but

"An infant crying in the night.
And with no language but a cry."

There are but few original thinkers on earth at any one time. The rest
are imitators and none too perfect at that. We are imitators in
everything from religion to breakfast foods. Few of us ever have an
original idea. We trail along from fifty to a hundred years behind those
we are trying to imitate.

When there is little else but imitation going on in the world why deny
it to vocal students? The argument against imitation can come from but
two classes of people--those who cannot produce a good tone and those
who are more interested in how the tone is made than in the tone itself.

The following are the qualities the teacher undertakes to develop in the
student in preparing him for artistic singing. They are fundamental and
must be a part of the singer's equipment no matter what method is
employed. They are w