home methods of voice-production are those we
are most likely to carry with us through life, and, unfortunately,
little attention is given to the subject.

Sometimes a love of sweet sounds may be a hidden cause for much that
would otherwise be inexplicable in an entire career, as in my own
case. It led to an early study of singers and actors and their
performances; it gave rise to an effort to form a voice that would
meet the requirements of an unusually sensitive ear; it led to the
practice and teaching of elocution, and, later, to much communion with
voice-users, both singers and speakers. In the meantime came medical
practice, with speedy specialization as a laryngologist, when there
were daily consultations with singers and speakers who had employed
wrong methods of voice-production; this again led on to the scientific
investigation of voice problems, with a view of settling certain
disputed points; then came renewed and deeper study of music, both as
an art and as a science, with a profound interest in the study of the
philosophy of musical art and the psychological study of the musical
artist, all culminating in this attempt to help those who will listen
to me without prejudice. I do not think I know all that is to be
known, but I believe I do know how to form and preserve the voice
according to physiological principles; I at least ask the reader to
give my teachings and recommendations a fair trial. He shall have
reasons for what is presented and recommended to him.

Once more let it be said that I do not deny that good practical
results may follow teaching that is not put before the pupil as
physiology; but what is claimed for physiological teaching is that--

1. It is more rational. The student sees that things must be thus and
so, and not otherwise.

2. Faults can be the better recognized and explained.

3. The student can the more surely guide his own development, and meet
the stress and storm that sooner or later come to every professional
voice-user.

4. Injured voices can be the more effectively restored.

5. The physical welfare of the student is advanced--a matter which I
find is often neglected by teachers of music, though more so in the
case of instrumental than vocal teachers.

6. The student can much more effectively learn from the performances
of others, because he sees that singing and speaking are physical
processes leading to artistic ends. This is perhaps one of the most
valuable resu