ssibilities seem to open, and the pupil
is on the road to perfection. B[b] and E[b] I found most convenient for
change. The Small Register must have been used, as my lads sang up to
C2 with the greatest ease and finish, though one of our foremost
teachers, in a conference I had with him on the subject, said he would
stake his reputation that the small register was not employed by them.
It received no name in our practices after that authoritative statement,
and ever afterwards I was in dread of being called over the coals for
allowing the Top register to get too high.

"Boy altos can be made to sing without flattening, though they
invariably give more trouble than trebles on account of their
willingness to let the lower register overlap the one above--to force
upward. They should practise with the trebles such exercises as:--

[Illustration: KEY E[b] s f m r d]

so as to strengthen this part of the voice, which may be termed their
flattening field."

CHAPTER IX.

ON THE TRAINING OF BOYS' VOICES.

By W. H. RICHARDSON, Formerly Conductor of the Swanley Orphanage
Choir.[A]

[A] Mr. Richardson has responded to my request for hints with such
fulness and weight that I devote a separate chapter to his essay. In
writing, he has specially had in view the difficulties of choir trainers
in rural districts.

All that a writer on the training of voices can do is to lay down
general lines, and give comprehensive suggestions. The teacher, to make
any use of them must be indeed a _teacher_, not a mere mechanically
automatic individual of only sufficient calibre to take the directions
of a writer, and give them again. He should be both enthusiastic in his
work, and willing to spend his strength in patience if he would have a
choir of boys to sing _reliably_ well. It is of the greatest importance
that work should be set out on right lines, and that a thoughtfully
prepared scheme should be arranged before commencing. I would here give
my experience of two choirs I had at different times in agricultural
districts, and in one of them I was well satisfied with the progress we
made, while in the other my work was completely thrown away. The reason
for the failure in the second instance (which I foresaw from the outset)
will be gathered from the following account of our plan of campaign. The
choir was a village one which met for rehearsal once a week. The
organist attended and presided at a harmonium, and, _nolens volens_, I