e taken up. Some teachers insist on their pupils practising
singing for months on the vowels, before permitting them to sing even
the simplest songs with words. Others have the pupils sing words from
the beginning of instruction. As a rule, teachers begin to give songs,
and vocalises with words, very early in the course.

_Throat Stiffness and Relaxing Exercises_

Teachers of singing generally recognize that any stiffening of the
throat interferes with the correct action of the voice. Yet for some
strange reason vocal students are very much inclined to form habits of
throat stiffness. This constantly happens, in spite of the fact that
teachers continually warn their pupils against the tendency to stiffen.
On this account, exercises for relaxing the throat are an important
feature of modern instruction in singing.

Naturally, relaxing exercises are not thought to have any direct
bearing in bringing about the correct vocal action. They are purely
preparatory; their purpose is only to bring the vocal organs into the
right condition for constructive training. For this reason, the means
used for relaxing the throat are seldom mentioned among the materials of
instruction. But almost every vocal teacher is obliged to make frequent
use of throat relaxing exercises. Indeed, throat stiffness is one of the
most serious difficulties of modern Voice Culture. A student frequently
seems to be making good progress, and then without much warning falls
into a condition of throat stiffness so serious as to undo for a time
the good work of several months' study. In such a case there is nothing
for the teacher to do but to drop the progressive work, and devote a few
lessons to relaxing exercises.

Little difficulty is usually found in relaxing the throat, when once the
necessity becomes strikingly apparent. That is, provided progressive
study is dropped for a time, and attention paid solely to relaxing
exercises. But such cases are comparatively rare. A much more constant
source of trouble is found in the prevailing tendency of vocal students
to stiffen their throats, just enough to interfere with the (supposed)
application of the teacher's method.

The exercises used for relaxing the throat are fairly simple, both in
character and scope. They consist mainly of toneless yawning, of single
tones "yawned out" on a free exhalation, and of descending scale
passages of the same type. Although seldom recognized as a coordinate
topic of instr