into the next register above. All these
things, and a great many besides, you will notice if you observe
carefully, and by a little steady practice you will acquire easy control
over the movements of your soft palate, the beneficial results of which
will soon be manifested in the improved quality and the better
management of your voice.

This leads me to remark that the soft palate should, as a matter of
course, be in a perfectly healthy condition, or it cannot perform the
infinite variety of movements required from it. In many cases however,
it is in a very different state, the arch being congested, the uvula
elongated, and the tonsils greatly enlarged. People with a soft palate
like this are handicapped. They might as well try to run a race with a
heavy weight on their shoulders as to sing or speak with such
impediments in their throats. They should at once put themselves in the
hands of a properly qualified medical practitioner, who may probably
recommend clipping of the uvula or excision of the tonsils. Either
operation is a slight one, and in suitable cases nothing but good can
follow from it.

Another obstacle to the forward production of tone is often caused by
that great movable plug called the tongue. We have it on the highest
authority that the tongue is an "unruly member." It is sometimes
difficult to keep it under proper control, and with some people it is
continually running away altogether. As under ordinary circumstances, so
in singing. Instead of peacefully assuming the position necessary for
the production of the various vowels, the tongue rises in rebellion; it
arches up, stiffens and defies all attempts to keep it in order. The
tone is consequently more or less impeded and shut in, with the result
of making it guttural or throaty. Here again singing before the mirror
as described above will enable the student to master his tongue and to
improve his voice to a wonderful extent. All voice trainers, as I have
said before, agree that tone should be allowed to come well forward, and
the best plan to bring about this desirable end is to sing _oo_, then to
allow _oo_ to dwindle into _o_, and finally to allow _o_ to dwindle into
_ah_.

In some cases these _oo-o-ah_ exercises are insufficient because the
throatiness of tone is partly brought about by a stiffening of the
throat in general. The _oo-o-ah_ must then be preceded by staccato
exercises upon the syllable _Koo_, which have the effect not only of
th