er voice, but makes it free, flexible and
vibrant, a sympathetic quality, a perfect _messa di voce_, and enables
him to sing indefinitely without tiring his voice. He must learn that it
is possible to produce a full tone with a light mechanism. This is the
natural way of producing the head voice. Further, the light mechanism
must be carried far below the point where the so called change of
register occurs.

Every voice should have a head register, and it may be developed in the
following way. With altos and sopranos I start with this exercise

[Illustration: Exercise No. 1]

Altos should begin at A.

The student should neither feel nor hear the tone in the throat.
Therefore he should begin with a soft _oo_. The throat should be free,
lips relaxed but slightly forward. There should be no puckering of the
lips for _oo_. The tone should seem to form itself around the lips, not
in the throat. In the beginning the exercise must be practiced softly.
No attempt must be made to increase the power, until the tone is well
established in the light mechanism. When the _oo_ can be sung softly and
without resistance as high as E flat use the same exercise with _o_.

The next step is to blend this light mechanism with the heavier
mechanism. It may be done in this way,

[Illustration: Exercise No. 2]

Sing this descending scale with a crescendo, always beginning it _pp_.
It should be practiced very slowly at first, and with portamento.
Carrying the head voice down over the middle and the middle down over
the lower will in a short time blend all parts of the voice, and lay the
foundation of an even scale. The exercise should be transposed upward by
half steps as the voice becomes more free until it reaches F or F sharp.

The next step is the building process. Use the following:

[Illustration: Exercise No. 3]

Altos should begin at A. In practicing these swells great care must be
taken. Tone quality is the first consideration, and the tone must be
pressed no further than is possible while retaining the pure singing
quality. Where voices have been forced and are accustomed to sing
nothing but thick tones this building process is sometimes slow. The
student finds an almost irresistible tendency to increase the resistance
as he increases the power of the tone. Therefore the louder he sings the
worse it sounds. This kind of practice will never solve the problem.
When the student is able to swell the tone to full power without
in