s given, the
unbelievable things students are made to do with lips, tongue and larynx
as a necessary preparation to voice production. In this as in everything
else there are extremists. Some have such an exquisite sense of detail
that they never get beyond it. At the other extreme are those who trust
everything to take care of itself. Both overlook the most important
thing, namely, how the voice sounds.

It requires much time, study and experience to learn that voice training
is simple. It is a fact that truth is naturally, inherently simple. Its
mastery lies in removing those things which seem to make it difficult
and complex. Training the voice, this so called "voice placing," is
simple and easy when one has risen above that overwhelming amount of
fiction, falsity, and fallacy that has accumulated around it, obscuring
the truth and causing many well intentioned teachers to follow theories
and vagaries that have no foundation in fact, and which lead both
teacher and pupil astray. If there is any truth applicable to voice
training it has an underlying principle, for truth is the operation of
principle. If we start wrong we shall end wrong. If we start right and
continue according to principle we shall reach the desired goal.

=Voice training has its starting point, its basis, its foundation, in
beautiful tone.= This should be the aim of both teacher and pupil from
the beginning. To produce something beautiful is the aim of all artistic
activity. Beautiful tone, as Whistler said of all art, has its origin in
absolute truth. That which is not beautiful cannot possibly be true, for
real nature, which is the expression of Infinite Mind, is always
perfect, and no perfect thing can be ugly, discordant, or inharmonious.
The imperfection we see is the result of our own imperfect understanding
of the real universe.

A _tone is something to hear_, and =hearing is mental=. An old French
anatomist once said: "The eye sees what it is looking for, and it is
looking only for what it has in mind." The same is true of the ear. We
hear the tone mentally before we sing it, and we should hear it as
distinctly as if it were sung by another. A tone first of all is a
mental product, and its pitch, power, and quality are definite mental
entities. When we wish to convey this tone to another we do it through
the sound producing instrument which nature has provided for this
purpose.

That everything exists first as idea has been the teaching