SELECTING A TEACHER.

IT IS not always that the best read man on voice culture makes the best teacher; in fact, we find that teachers, who have not been singers themselves, but who have devoted years to the study of the physical and technical side of the question have turned out very few good singers.

In order to make a good teacher, one must first have command of his own voice in order to make perfect demonstrations which are essential to the beginner. Further, a teacher in order to be successful must have practical experience with the world and singers. No two voices can be treated in the same manner. Therefore, the teacher with the practical experience is naturally far better equipped to teach than the one who has merely studied the mechanism of the throat.

It is positively harmful for a teacher to make any attempt to explain the technical side of the voice to a beginner. Better develop the ear and memory. A teacher must have patience and tact in order to be able to deal with the different natures, dispositions and moods that are encountered in the studio. One word of kindness and encouragement will invariably do more toward putting a pupil at his ease and secure the best results from his work than any number of severe sermons and sarcastic criticisms.

The pupils are paying for their lessons and are entitled to courteous treatment. Avoid the nervous, irritable teacher. The teacher who becomes impatient or ruffled because a pupil cannot instantly grasp his meaning, walking up and down the floor with clenched fists chastising the air, and in every way displaying his own nerves and lack of self-control, is not a teacher, but a fool. Such a person has either forgotten his own earlier struggles or had never studied.

Avoid the teacher with a hobby. There is nothing so barren in the world as one idea, spring from one idea, nourished by one idea and aiming at one idea. This includes the teacher who believes in keeping the pupil on one tone for six months. While your tone needs more than six months to become perfect, dwelling on that one tone alone for that length of time would be decidedly wrong.

We frequently accept students who have acquired numerous bad habits in breathing or singing. They often know their trouble and ask how long it will take to undo this work and get back into the right way. They seem to think it is a matter of a certain time working back to the beginning and then starting over again. This is not true. It is a matter of beginning now and beginning right. The thoughts of a pupil should be advance, not retreat. You must not think of what you have done, but what you must do.

Avoid the teacher who advances theories and mechanical contrivances. A laryngoscope in the hands of a physician might save many lives, but in the hands of a singing teacher may ruin many voices. The perfect teacher uses the simplest demonstrations, realizing that technical terms go entirely over the heads of the beginner. The following suggestions are entirely useless:

Sing the tone forward.

Sing the tone on the teeth.

Sing over your larynx.

Sing that tone with the epiglottis lowered, the palate raised, and on the end of the breath.

I have personally heard these instructions given to pupils, and I assure you the pupil did not gain anything by it.

It is positively absurd to insist on a beginner knowing the structures of the vocal chords, neither will the patting, pinching or massaging of the neck and facial muscles, that some teachers advocate, make you sing any better. It is undoubtedly of some benefit to "wrinkles," but not to the voice.

Garcia, admitted to be one of the greatest singing masters of his time, said, regarding the position of larynx being higher or lower or the more or less raising of the palate, that the singer need only follow natural effects, and larynx, palate and the rest will take care of themselves. Do not complicate it with theories.

A new pupil went into the studio of a well-known teacher for a hearing. She took with her a popular song—the only song which she knew. The teacher cried "Trash," and would not even talk the matter over. This was foolish, selfish and unreasonable.

Every voice which comes under our care includes the personality behind the voice, and is of distinct and special interest. This pupil's environment had undoubtedly been such that she was not further developed and could hardly be expected to love and understand the music, which the teacher was accustomed to perform or teach. However, many a singer, who first brought the popular song, has developed into a successful church and concert singer. This was not brought about by reprimands and unkind criticisms of their short-comings, but by patient consideration and gradual development. Give the pupil a chance to learn to perform good music before you demand that they should appreciate it. A good teacher will encourage questions. If there are any questions pertaining to the study of voice culture that he cannot answer it is time he should know.

Unless a teacher is a perfect accompanist, so that he can keep his eyes away from the keyboard, he should employ an accompanist, for the teacher should see as well as hear the pupil sing the finished numbers.

And last, but not least, select a teacher who tries to understand you, who makes you feel at ease, and who shows as much interest in your voice as in your pocketbook.