n public, is a wary one. It may be possible to advertise
worthless gold mining stock in such a way that thousands may be swindled
before the crook behind the scheme is jailed. But it is impossible to
sell our public a so-called golden-voiced singer whose voice is really
nothing more than tin-foil and very thin tin-foil at that.

Every year certain kinds of slippery managers accept huge fees from
would-be singers, which are supposed to be invested in a mysterious
formula which, like the philosopher's stone, will turn a baser metal
into pure gold. No campaign of advertising spent upon a mediocrity or an
inadequately prepared artist can ever result in anything but a
disastrous waste. Don't spend a penny in advertising until you have
really something to sell which the public will want. It takes years to
make a fine singer known; but it takes only one concert to expose an
inadequate singer. Every one of the artists represented in this book has
been "through the mill" and every one has triumphed gloriously in the
end. There is one road. They have defined it in remarkable fashion in
these conferences. The sign-posts read, "Work, Sacrifice, Joy, Triumph."

With the multiplicity of methods and schemes for practice it is not
surprising that the main essentials of the subject are sometimes
obscured. That such discussions as those included in this book will
enable the thinking student to crystallize in his own mind something
which to him will become a method long after he has left his student
days, can not be questioned. One of the significant things which he will
have to learn is perfect intonation, keeping on the right pitch all the
time; and another thing is freedom from restriction, best expressed by
the word poise. William Shakespeare, greatest of English singing
teachers of his day, once expressed these important points in the
following words:

"The Foundations of the Art of Singing are two in number:

"First: (A) How to take breath and (B) how to press it out slowly. (The
act of slow exhalation is seen in our endeavor to warm some object with
the breath.)

"Second: How to sing to this controlled breath pressure.

"It may be interesting at this point to observe how the old singers
practiced when seeking a full tone while using little breath. They
watched the effect of their breath by singing against a mirror or
against the flame of a taper. If a note required too much pressure the
command over the breath was lost--the m