tarting of the tone! The downright absurdity of this idea of singing
must be apparent to any one who has ever listened to a great singer.

Under the influence of the idea of mechanical vocal management there is
little room for choice between voice culture along empirical lines, and
the accepted type of scientific instruction. Modern empirical voice
training has little practical value. Describing to the student the
sensations which ought to be felt, does not help in the least. Even if
the sensations felt by the singer, in producing tone correctly, are
entirely different from those accompanying any incorrect use of the
voice, nothing can be learned thereby. The sensations of correct singing
cannot be felt until the voice is correctly used. An effect cannot
produce its cause. Correct tone-production must be there to cause the
sensations, or the sensations are not awakened at all. Nothing else can
bring about the sensations of correct singing, but correct singing
itself.

Further, these sensations cannot be known until they are actually
experienced. No description is adequate to enable the student to feel
them in imagination. And, finally, even if the sensations could be
described with all vividness, imagining them would not influence the
vocal organs in any way. This is true, whether the description is given
empirically, or whether it is cited to explain a mechanical feature of
the vocal action. Instruction based on the singer's sensations is
absolutely valueless.

It would seem that modern methods contain very little of real worth. The
investigation of the mechanical operations of the voice can hardly be
said to have brought forth anything of definite value to the vocal
teacher. But this is not the worst that can be said about the mechanical
doctrines of tone-production. When critically examined, and submitted to
a rigid scientific analysis, several of these doctrines are found to be
erroneous in conception. These are the theories of breath-control, chest
resonance, nasal resonance, and emission of tone. It will be observed
that these doctrines comprise more than half of the materials of the
accepted Vocal Science. Yet notwithstanding the fact that they are
accepted without question by the great majority of vocal theorists as
important elements of instruction in singing, each of these doctrines
involves a distinct misconception of scientific principles. An
examination of these doctrines is therefore the next subject to