Duval asserts: "Long, sustained tones are too difficult for the young voice. One should sing medium fast scales at first."
It may be helpful to know about how much time the artists devote to daily study, especially to technical practice. It is understood all great singers work on vocalizes and technical material daily.
Caruso is a constant worker. Two or three hours in the forenoon, and several more later in the day, whenever possible. Farrar devotes between one and two hours daily to vocalizes, scales and tone study, Lehmann counsels one hour daily on technic. Galli-Curci gives a half hour or so to vocalizes and scales every morning. Martinelli practices exercises and vocalizes one hour each morning; then another hour on repertoire. In the afternoon an hour more--three hours daily. Easton says: "It seems to me a young singer should not practice more than an hour a day, at most, beginning with two periods of fifteen or twenty minutes each." Anna Case says: "I never practice when I am tired, for then it does more harm than good. One must be in good condition to make good tones. I can study and not sing at all, for the work is all mental anyway." Muzio states she gives practically her whole day to study, dividing it into short periods, with rest between.
Frieda Hempel says: "I do about two hours or more, though not all of this for technic. I approve of a good deal of technical study, taken in small doses of ten to fifteen minutes at a time. Technic is a means to an end, more in the art of song than in almost any other form of art. Technic is the background of expressive singing."
Sophie Braslau is an incessant worker,--"at least six hours a day. Of these I actually sing three hours. The first hour to memory work on repertoire. The second hour to vocalizes. The rest of the time is given to repertoire and the things that belong to it." Barrientos states she gives about three-quarters of an hour to vocal technic--scales and exercises--each day. Duval advises the young student to practice two half hours daily, two hours after eating, and rest the voice one day each week, during which she studies other subjects connected with her art. Oscar Saenger says: "One should practice in fifteen-minute periods, and rest at least ten minutes between. Sing only two hours a day, one in the morning and one in afternoon."