n only by
keeping the larynx low." He tries again with the same result and awaits
further instructions. I take another tack and say to him, "Your tongue
rises every time you sing and impairs the form of the vocal cavity. Keep
it down below the level of the teeth, otherwise your vowels will be
imperfect. You should practice a half hour each day grooving your
tongue." I say these things impressively and take the opportunity to
tell him some interesting scientific facts about fundamental and upper
partials, and how different combinations produce different vowels, also
how these combinations are affected by different forms of the vocal
cavities, leading up to the great scientific truth that he must hold the
tongue down and the throat open in order that these great laws of
acoustics may become operative. He seems very humble in the presence of
such profound erudition and makes several unsuccessful attempts to do
what I tell him, but his tone is no better. I tell him so, for I do not
wish to mislead him. He is beginning to look helpless and discouraged
but waits to see what I will do next. He vexes me not a little, because
I feel that anything so simple and yet so scientific as the exercises I
am giving him ought to be grasped and put into practice at once; but I
still have resources, and I say to him, "Bring the tone forward, direct
it against the hard palate just above the upper teeth, send it up
through the head with a vigorous impulse of the diaphragm. You must
always feels the tone in the nasal cavities. That is the way you can
tell whether your tone is right or not." He tries to do these things,
but of necessity fails.

This sort of thing goes on with mechanical instructions for raising the
soft palate, making the diaphragm rigid, grooving the tongue, etc.,
etc., and at the end of the lesson I tell him to go home and practice an
hour a day on what I have given him. If he obeys my instructions he will
return in worse condition, for he will be strengthening the bad habits
he already has and forming others equally pernicious.

This is a sample of teaching by direct control. It is not overdrawn. It
is a chapter from real life, and I was the victim.

You will have observed that this lesson was devoted to teaching the
student how to do certain things with the vocal mechanism. The real
thing, the tone, the result at which all teaching should aim was placed
in the background. It was equivalent to trying to teach him to do
so