you may detect any imperfection in its quality. This will educate the ear as well as the voice, an important matter, as that organ gives us the highest standard, and at the same time is the only practical guide as to quality, pitch, and movement. In this exercise, never force the voice into a higher or lower pitch than it can easily reach, and always keep the tone pure, smooth, and agreeable. Whenever the voice breaks into a rough, aspirated, throaty, or other disagreeable quality, stop at once; then let go the muscles of the throat, drop the jaw, let the tongue lie flat and perfectly relaxed, take a comfortable breath and begin again.

2. In a pure and resonant voice, give ah on the same notes as in the above exercise. Let each tone be preceded by a full breath taken in by the expansion of the abdominal muscles. Commence gently, gradually increase the sound to the middle, and as gradually diminish it to a delicate finish. Remember to control the voice by the muscles of breathing, and not with the throat, and have the increase and diminish of the tone equal.

In this practice, the student should aim to get a large and free opening of the throat. To do so, it is necessary that the tongue be relaxed, and trained to lie flat in the lower jaw. One of the best means to accomplish this is to think the gape while intoning the vowel or syllable, and at the same time be conscious of a proper relaxation of all the parts about the throat.

The gape depresses the base of the tongue and elevates the uvula and the soft palate, thus giving the widest passage possible from the mouth to the pharynx -or "back mouth." By thinking the gape, these results will be obtained to a sufficient degree without the extreme contraction of the parts necessary for the actual gape-conditions which would interfere with the production of pure tone.

Considerable practice may be required before the trick of "making the tongue lie down" can be properly performed, and still more before the tongue can be taught to habitually lie down. But the above exercises, if properly and faithfully practiced, will best aid the student of music and of elocution in the attainment of these desirable results.

In all exercises for the improvement of the voice, it should be the aim of the student to transfer the effort from the throat to the waist-from the organs of vocality to the organs of breathing. If possible, let him forget, at times, that he has a throat, thinking only of the correct action of the abdominal muscles and of the quality of the tone to be produced. The tone should always be pure and resonant, and the action of the waist-muscles gentle and yet firm, gradually increasing in their contraction with the demand for increased fullness and loudness.

3. Vary the foregoing exercises by shoving out the voice with energy on the first part of the sound, and letting it gradually diminish to a close. Observe the same conditions as to breathing, to relaxing the muscles of the throat and tongue, and to the "trick" of thinking the gape (not gaping), as in the preceding exercise. Then, instead of "ah," give the seven monophthong vowel sounds, in the order found in the Table of Elementary Sounds. Commence on middle "C," as in the exercises just given, and run to the "C" above, giving each succeeding vowel on a higher pitch, thus: e, a, a (as in air), ah, aw, o, 00, e. A repetition of "e" is necessary to complete the octave. Then run from middle "C" down to "G," as e, a, a, ah-and return on the other vowels (aw, 0, 00), back to "C.”

4. From "C" (or from any note about the middle pitch) down, chant on each note in a full and resonant voice, and with as distinct an articulation as possible, the following sentence:

HOW HOLLOW GROANS THE EARTH BENEATH MY TREAD!

The following is also a good sentence for similar practice:

HOW THE WILD WAVES ROLL!

5. From "C" up, chant the following two stanzas from the "Psalm of Life," giving the lines on successive notes in a very distinct and recitative manner:

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream !
For the soul is dead that slumbers,

And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!

And the grave is not its goal : "Dust thou art, to dust returnest," Was not spoken of the soul.

6. Tennyson's "Bugle Song" makes an interesting and profitable exercise when practiced in the following

manner:

Give the first four lines of each stanza on the same notes and in the same way in which the first stanza of the "Psalm of Life" was given. Use only these words of the chorus" Blow, bugle, blow!"-giving them as follows: Blow (G), bu (E) -gle (C), blow (G)-prolonging the "ow" on the slide down the octave to "G" below, and then back to "C," in one continuous sound and breath.

In the second stanza, the first few words should be given short (staccato), and the whole in a more or less subdued voice :

THE BUGLE SONG.

I.

The splendor falls on castle walls And snowy summits old in story; The long light shakes across the lakes, And the wild cataract leaps in glory. Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying, Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.

II.

O hark, O hear! how thin and clear,
And thinner, clearer, farther going!
O sweet and far from cliff and scar

The horns of Elf-land faintly blowing !
Blow, let us hear the purple glens replying :
Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.

III.

O love, they die in yon rich sky,

They faint on hill or field or river :

Our echoes roll from soul to soul, And grow forever and forever. Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying, And answer, echoes, answer, dying, dying, dying.

7. Exercises in the "glottis stroke" will be found the very best for developing clearness, vivacity, and strength of voice. Though the term "glottis stroke" be a misnomer, it is understood to mean that strong and abrupt action of the vocal ligaments, produced by the quick and sudden breaking through of the compressed aircolumn. It is this that gives to speaking and singing a sprightliness and sparkle that is best appreciated by contrasting it with its opposite the drawl. Let the vocal exercises in the "glottis stroke" be preceded by a short and abrupt whisper of the syllable "hu"" u," as in "up." This breathing exercise is called "puffing the breath." Puff the syllable hu three times, then pause and replenish the lungs; again, three times, pause and replenish the lungs, and so continue. If dizziness ensues, rest awhile. Practice until the lungs can be replenished in the shortest possible time.

Then vocalize the same syllable in a clear, ringing, and abrupt tone, with the least expenditure of breath and with as short quantity as possible, on each note of the octave from "middle C" up, and then down to "G below,"-giving it "three times three," as follows: (Breathe) hu, hu, hu,-(breathe) hu, hu, hu,-(breathe) hu, hu, hu-u—и—и, —prolonging the tone on the last syllable in a full and resonant voice. Other syllables

may be used as well as hu.

8. After practicing the above for some time, the following is a good variation.

Instead of giving the last syllable in the repetition in a continuous or a gradually diminishing tone, give it with three prolonged impulses that is, in "the swell," using the syllable ho, (the long ō shortened), instead of hu, thus: Ho, ho, ho; ho, ho, ho; ho, ho, ho—0—

It may be found necessary to take a short breath just before the last syllable. As in all the vocal exercises, keep the throat free, and control the voice by the action of the diaphragm and the abdominal muscles.