vocal ability,
but that it is simply a form of exercise you take with religious
regularity. Naturally if you can secure the opportunities associated
with a musical education you are to be congratulated, and musical
training largely devoted to vocal culture is far more valuable in its
influence upon physical and mental powers than when limited to
instrumental work.

Even apart from singing a good voice represents capital of great value.
Any efforts that you make with a view to developing the singing voice
will improve the speaking voice to a similar degree. Effective speakers
do not always have musical voices, but all good singers possess good
speaking voices. Therefore the work that you may do with a view to
improving your singing voice will surely add to your vocal capital.

Furthermore, all the time spent in the development of your voice should
be looked upon as a recreation. If you can make voice culture a hobby,
so much the better. There is really no better means of taking one "away
from oneself." You will find no more effective means of diversion from
exhausting mental responsibilities, since you cannot think of something
else while devoting your entire attention to singing.

Your mental attitude makes considerable difference in the results.
Singing, as I have previously explained, is an expression of joy. To
sing properly you should really be influenced by joyous emotions, and,
though your musical efforts may be forced and mechanical in the
beginning, you will usually find that the delight ordinarily associated
with vocal expression will soon appear as a result of the physical
and mechanical efforts involved in the training of the voice.

Naturally it is advisable to use the singing voice in the most
advantageous manner, if possible, and it would therefore be well to
secure the advice of competent instructors if you can, or at least to
gain what helpful information there is in books on the subject. It is,
of course, impossible to give any detailed advice in this short
chapter, but I may say that I am engaged in the preparation of a book
on vocal culture which will deal with the subject in an unusually
practical manner. Voice culture, in many instances, is a mysterious and
intricate study that even many of its teachers do not seem to
understand in every detail. It is a notorious fact that many so-called
vocal instructors, including some of the highest-priced members of t