d upon us! Mr.
Rumford and I have witnessed so much very hard and very earnest work
carried on by students who have no rational basis to hope for success as
singers, that we have been placed in the uncomfortable position of
advising young singers to seek some other life work.

WHEN TO BEGIN

The eternal question, "At what age shall I commence to study singing?"
is always more or less amusing to the experienced singer. If the
singer's spirit is in the child, nothing will stop his singing. He will
sing from morning until night, and seems to be guided in most cases by
an all-providing Nature that makes its untutored efforts the very best
kind of practice. Unless the child is brought into contact with very bad
music he is not likely to be injured. Children seem to be trying their
best to prove the Darwinian theory by showing us that they can mimic
quite as well as monkeys. The average child comes into the better part
of his little store of wisdom through mimicry. Naturally if the little
vocal student is taken to the vaudeville theatre, where every imaginable
vocal law is smashed during a three-hour performance, and if the child
observes that the smashing process is followed by the enthusiastic
applause of the unthinking audience, it is only reasonable to suppose
that the child will discover in this what he believes to be the most
approved art of singing.

It is evident then that the first thing which the parent of the musical
child should consider is that of teaching him to appreciate what is
looked upon as good and what is looked upon as bad. Although many
singers with fine voices have appeared in vaudeville, the others must be
regarded as "horrible" examples, and the child should know that they are
such. On the other hand, it is quite evident that the more good singing
that the child hears in the impressionable years of its youth the
greater will be the effect upon the mind which is to direct the child's
musical future. This is a branch of the vocalist's education which may
begin long before the actual lessons. If it is carefully conducted the
teacher should have far less difficulty in starting the child with the
actual work. The only possible danger might be that the child's
imitative faculty could lead it to extremes of pitch in imitating some
singer. Even this is hardly more likely to injure it than the shouting
and screaming which often accompanies the play of children.

The actual time of starting must depend u