f being in a room
filled with tobacco smoke and was unable to sing for at least two
months. I also think that it is a bad plan to sing immediately after
eating. The peristaltic action of the stomach during the process of
digestion is a very pronounced function and anything which might tend to
disturb it might affect the general health.

The singer must lead an exceedingly regular life, but the exaggerated
privations and excessive care which some singers take are quite
unnecessary. The main thing is to determine what is a normal life and
then to live as close to this as possible. If you find that some article
of diet disagrees with you, remember to avoid that food; for an upset
stomach usually results in complete demoralization of the entire vocal
system.

SOME PRACTICE SUGGESTIONS

No matter how great the artist, daily practice, if even not more than
forty minutes a day, is absolutely necessary. There is a deep
philosophical and physiological principle underlying this and it applies
particularly to the vocal student. Each minute spent in intelligent
practice makes the voice better and the task easier. The power to do
comes with doing. Part of each day's practice should be devoted to
singing the scale softly and slowly with perfect intonation. Every tone
should be heard with the greatest possible acuteness. The ears should
analyze the tone quality with the same scrutiny with which a botanist
would examine the petals of a newly discovered specimen. As the singer
does this he will notice that his sense of tone color will develop; and
this is a very vital part of every successful singer's equipment. He
will become aware of beauties as well as defects in his voice which may
never have been even suspected if he will only listen "microscopically"
enough.

Much of the singer's progress depends upon the mental model he keeps
before him. The singer who constantly hears the best of singing
naturally progresses faster than one surrounded by inferior singing.
This does not recommend that the student should imitate blindly but that
he should hear as much fine singing as possible. Those who have not the
means to attend concerts and the opera may gain immensely from hearing
fine records. Little Adelina Patti, playing as a child on the stage of
the old Academy of Music in New York, was really attending the finest
kind of a conservatory unawares.

The old Italian teachers and writers upon voice, knowing the florid
style in which