"After telling you the things I forbid, I must enlighten you as to our plan of study.
"The secret of correct tone emission is entire relaxation of the lips. I tell the pupil, the beginner, at the first lesson, to sing the vowel Ah as loudly and as deeply as possible, thinking constantly of relaxed lips and loose lower jaw. Ah is the most natural vowel and was used exclusively in the old Italian school of Bel Canto. Long sustained tones are too difficult. One should sing medium fast scales at first. If we begin with the long sustained tone, the young singer is sure to hold the voice in his throat, or if he lets go, a tremolo will result. Either a throaty, stiff tone or a tremolo will result from practicing the single sustained tone.
"Singing pianissimo in the beginning is another fallacy. This is one of the most difficult accomplishments and should be reserved for a later period of development.
"The young singer adds to scales various intervals, sung twice in a breath, beginning, not at the extreme of the lower voice, but carried up as high as he can comfortably reach. I believe in teaching high tones early, and in showing the pupil how to produce the head voice. Not that I am a high tone specialist," he added smiling, "for I do not sacrifice any part of the voice to secure the upper notes. But after all it is the high portion of the voice that requires the most study, and that is where so many singers fail.
"The young student practices these first exercises, and others, two half hours daily, at least two hours after eating, and comes to me three times a week. I suggest she rest one day in each week, during which she need not sing at all, but studies other subjects connected with her art. As the weeks go by, the voice, through relaxed lips and throat and careful training, grows richer and more plentiful. One can almost note its development from day to day.
"When the time comes to use words, the important thing is to put _the words in the voice, not the voice in the words_, to quote Juliani, the great teacher, with whom I was associated in Paris. More voices have been ruined by the stiff, exaggerated use of the lips in pronouncing, than in any other way. When we put the words in the voice, in an easy, natural way, we have bel canto.
