e or whose faith shall be thus exalted,
each one is a Gibraltar and the only perceptible result is an
enlargement of the individual ego. And so it endeth.

WHY TEACHERS DISAGREE

Voice teachers are divided into two general classes--those who make a
knowledge of vocal physiology the basis of teaching and those who do
not. The members of the first class follow the teachings of some one of
the scientific investigators. Each one will follow the scientist or
physiologist whose ideas most nearly coincide with his own, or which
seem most reasonable to him. In as much as the scientists have not yet
approached anything resembling an agreement, it follows that their
disciples are far from being of one mind.

The members of the second class hold that a knowledge of vocal anatomy
and physiology beyond the elements has no value in teaching, and that
the less the student thinks about mechanism the better. The scientific
voice teachers usually believe in direct control of the vocal organs.
The members of the opposite class believe in indirect control. This
establishes a permanent disagreement between the two general classes,
but the disagreement between those who believe in indirect control is
scarcely less marked. Here it is not so much a matter of how the tone is
produced, but rather the tone itself. This is due entirely to the
difference in taste among teachers. The diversity of taste regarding
tone quality is even greater than that regarding meat and drink. This
fact seems to be very generally overlooked. It is this that so mystifies
students. After studying with a teacher for one or more years they go to
another to find that he at once tries to get a different tone quality
from that of the first. When they go to the third teacher he tries for
still another quality. If they go to a half dozen teachers each one will
try to make them produce a tone differing in some degree from all of the
others. The student doubtless thinks this is due to the difference in
understanding of the voice among teachers, but this is not so. It is due
entirely to their differing tastes in tone quality. The marvelous thing
is that the voice will respond in a degree to all of these different
demands made upon it; but it forces the student to the conclusion that
voice training is an indefinite something without order, system, or
principle.

So, in studying the conditions which obtain in voice teaching at the
present time it must be admitted that the ev