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SEED THOUGHTS FOR SINGERS.

FRANK HERBERT TUBBS,

NEW YORK,

FRANK H. TUBBS, 121 WEST 42D STREET. 1897.

PREFACE

Thought is a substance which, as such, is only in our day being fully investigated. It is the expression of an idea and is the direct cause of all action. The slightest movement is made possible only through thought on perceived or unconscious mental activity. The more thoroughly directed actions are the expression of considered thought. Habit and movement by intuition are expressions of undirected thought. Changing from the latter condition to that of planned or considered action makes all action stronger and more definite. The thinking man becomes the leader of men.

"Seed-thoughts" are such as produce other thoughts. Hardly have we reached the realm of ideas. It is a step--not long, yet well-defined--from thought to idea. This little volume does not propose to take that step. It is content to stop, in all modesty, at that place. Its suggestions are sent out to busy teachers and students to lodge in mind as plantings in good mental soil. That they will take root, spring up and bear fruit, is fondly hoped. What the harvest of thought in others may be is idle to speculate upon, but the hope exists that there may be two or three times the amount used in planting when all shall have been gathered in. In this hope the "Seed-thought" is sent on its mission.

Every one Can Sing, 43; Sustain Perfectly, 44; Care of Body, 45; Friends Can Help, 48; Renew Thought, 49; Speaking and Singing, 50; Associates, 51; Purity of Method, 52; Mental Recovery, 53; Profession or Trade, 53; Heart and Intellect, 54; Time Ends Not, 55; Power of Thought, 56; Nature Seldom Jumps, 58; Be Perfect, 59.

Analyze Songs, 79; Fault Finding, 80; Recover from Mistakes, 80; Songs for Beginners, 81; Criticism, 82; Wait for Results, 83; All Things are Good, 84; Little Things Affect, 85; Musical Library, 86; Change of Opinions, 87; Reputation Comes Slowly, 88; Study Poetry, 89; Mannerisms Show Character, 90; Provide for the Young, 91; There are no Mistakes, 93; Regularity, 94; Assert Individuality, 96; Educing, 97.

Vocal Tone, 101; True Art is Delicate, 104; Words and Tone Should Agree, 105; Preparation for Teaching, 108; Experience, 111; Before an Audience, 112; Come Up Higher, 113; Crude Voices Express no Emotion, 114.

SUCCESS.

SEED-THOUGHTS FOR SINGERS.

SUCCESS.

A few decades ago a clumsy, lank, raw-boned boy roamed over the hills of the State of Ohio. He was not marked with the talent of many, nor was he noted for anything in particular except, perhaps, an aptness in "doing sums." Bare-footed, and with scanty clothing, he appeared at a school in a village near his home and begged admission. At first he was refused. Persistence overcame the opposition and he entered, becoming in a short time by his application, the leading spirit in the school. The course of study there being completed, he went to an office across in Delaware as a clerk. That year, the Representative to Congress from Delaware, when about to appoint a youth to enter the Naval Academy at Annapolis, announced a competitive examination. The country lad competed and secured the prize. Friends whom he had made raised funds for the necessary uniforms. At the end of his course a good appointment in the navy followed. Visits to various countries gave him command of three languages. A change to shore duty permitted him to study law. At a recent courtmartial trial at Brooklyn he served as advocate for the Government so acceptably that he has been offered and has accepted, membership in one of the largest law firms in New York. The change from the rough lad to the cultured advocate indicates success.

On a bench in an old-fashioned shoe shop sat a young man working at his trade. A singing teacher, passing along, noticed the rich voice of the young man, singing as he worked. The teacher inquired where he sang in church and if he sang in public. Learning that the young man sang no-where, had had no instruction or education, and lacked even the clothes necessary to a respectable appearance, he interested himself in the youth and lived to see him become the leading oratorio basso of America. Success! You will say these two had great natural gifts, all their faculties, and had friends. Another case: A boy at six, was left as a result of scarlet fever, stone blind. Nor has he since seen a ray of light. A necessary faculty to success gone, is it? To-day that young man is one of the best musicians and singers; getting ,500 for his choir singing. Success.

Attributes of mind lead always in the direction of progress. Ego, mind, real self, is God within us. "He breathed in his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul." That "breath of life" is God. That cannot tend downward. The attributes of God are the attributes of the ego. Love, thought, sympathy, ambition, helpfulness, desire for refinement, culture, expansion--these are such attributes. Is any mind lacking these? If we say yes, look within ourselves and see if they are lacking in us. Accord the same faculties or attributes of mind to each of our fellow men. These attributes cultivated will cause growth of the ego as surely as it is that God liveth and we are in Him. But this growth makes the ego greater and by its reaching out after the things of the world and taking them to itself, produces that which we term success. Understand, then, the ego. Grow it. Reach and possess. These attributes are the forces within each and these forces are the elements of success.

But, asks one, what is the bearing of this on our study and on our singing. It has been plain to me as a teacher, and it grows stronger every year, that all success in singing arises from a comprehension of the ego within us, and the cultivation of these attributes bearing directly upon singing and music. Three only of those attributes may be considered now.

First,--ambition. What would you become? Yes, a musician and singer. Consult one who knows your body better than you and enough of your mind to judge well, and if he says you may become one, plan your life work to making your ambition gratified. Aim high. But few persons lack the capacity of singing well. The goal of most is that, to sing well. At home only, it may be. For friends, and for self-pleasure. Others would become professional artists. Aim at the highest and best. No ambition is too high and, provided we will cultivate the ego, no ambition will remain ungratified. Do not be modest in expectancy. Nothing is too good or too high, too great or too noble for the God within us. Therefore plan large things.

In mind I hear some one say, this is good theory and a beautiful picture. What of it is practical enough for my mind. Let us turn for a few minutes to a darker side and then again to the brighter, and see if a practical word does not exist for each. What prevents success, and is there false success?

The thousand things which might be well said in connection with the subject must be left. Recapitulation and application to the individual singing student show these:

How long, ask you, will it take to become an artist? No one knows. Two minds differ--in fact, no two are alike. A few months suffice to make the crudest student an adept singer; or rather, is time enough to make him sing as well as his mind wishes. From that time on the voice grows better only as the mind grows and comprehends how to further use the voice. So, then, as soon as one can sing so as to acceptably please friends, it is a duty which the pupil owes himself to sing for those whom he pleases. The effort gives him experience and prepares him to meet the next circle. As the ability grows, seek to sing before greater artists, and with the best singers. The time will come--it may be one year, two years, three years, or even more--when it is best to go before the best artists of the world and secure their commendation and their co-operation to further for you the prosecution and completion of your pre-arranged plan regarding your music. What matters it how long this takes. Life is, if you are using it aright, a perfection of a plan of existence which will end only when we pass over the River. A portion, more or less long, used in making a musician and an artist, is but a part of the whole, and a development of the talent lent us by the good Father, and which we, by our effort, eventually return to Him, added to, and made beautiful because of the Heavenborn Art--music--which we have absorbed to ourselves. Nor is this all, for in the development of our own talent we have carried the whole world unconsciously upward nearest the pure, the beautiful and the true.

DESULTORY VOICE PRACTICE.

DESULTORY VOICE PRACTICE.

European schools and teachers stand aghast at what American pupils demand and at their expectations. Accustomed to the years of attention to detail and to seeing their own students willing to wait long years before good results are achieved, they naturally think the American students wild. These Americans want to do in one year what Europeans are willing to use three or four years for. Those teachers say it cannot be done and set down American students as conceited fools. While at first glance the teachers appear right, may they not be wrong? America to-day has more inventions in use, more quick ways of working in all lines of life, and can show quicker results in all lines of activity than any other nation. Methods and ways have been devised and adapted to American speed in all branches. May such not apply to study? So this item is prepared in the interest of American students, living under American conditions. It is useless to say, "we live too fast." Take facts as they are and adjust our custom to the day, place and situation.

It is patent to every one who intelligently teaches that the road followed during the last few generations lacks these short roads to success. One asks, and with justice, if we have now found the royal road to learning which it has ever been said does not exist. If that means the road by which, at one bound, we reach perfection, the answer must be that no royal road has been found. There have been planned, however, ways of procedure which must shorten the trip. I know not when man first practised dentistry but this I do know, that the doctor of dental science who works on lines of even one generation back is valueless. To-day the terrors of the dentist's chair are reduced to a minimum, if not entirely removed. Photography, a science of our day, has swiftly grown to an art. I recall a photographer who in 1870 was noted for perfect work. He was so satisfied with himself and his work that he neglected to use the new ways which were being discovered. In 1880 his work was considered so bad as to be condemned by all and his studio was forsaken. Printing by the sun had not been discarded but how to use the science had been carefully advanced--wasteful and slow method discarded, and surer and better results obtained. Is a musician less keen of perception and adjustment to circumstances than the dentist and photographer? Pride rebels against an affirmative answer. Then the natural deduction is that he has learned to apply new ways and methods, by and through which he can produce surer and more beautiful results than could his predecessor in his profession. As a first step toward progress he recognised the faults of the old way and sought a change from them. The chief of the faults lay in seeking to cultivate a sound. He said in substance, then, that "since cultivating a sound is wrong I consider that no such thing as sound exists. It cannot be perceived by any of the senses. It cannot be seen, tasted, smelt, felt, or even heard." Since none of the five senses can bear upon sound, for cultivating it, sound, or tone if you wish to call it so, is worthless. This then which the old teachers watched for years, was intangible, and to watch it to-day and to try to form singers by manipulating so subtle a thing, produces wastefulness, and desultory practice. Go to the foundation. What produces voice? Vibration of air reservoirs. What governs the air and gives the vibration? Muscle. What are muscles, where are they, how can they be managed? They are contained within the portion of the body between the waist and the eyes, and form, while used in voice production, about all of that portion of the body, and they can be managed by the understanding and command of the mind. The general understanding of vocal anatomy, and the positive control of that anatomy that it may do just what the will demands is the foundation of voice practice. Such positiveness makes possible the rapidity of vocal development akin to the surety of the dentist's art and the certainty of the photographer. The prime fault of old methods is, at one stroke, cut away. A new growth on the foundation appears.

You have a voice. Every one has. Yours, you know, is a very good one. You want in the quickest time to make it do just what you conceive a fine singer should do. Then, know what is to be done, understand how to do it, and do it. The boys say "One to make ready, two to prepare, and three--." But you stand around making ready, preparing so long. Why? Do you know what is to be done? Ask the teacher, and don't let him evade positive instruction. Garcia, when asked the cause of Jenny Lind's great success, replied "She never tried to do anything 'til she knew how. More than once she has come to my house of an evening and said 'I did not fully understand what you told me to-day. Will you explain it again?' After that she never needed to be told again." At a lesson understand what is taught. Don't pretend you do when you do not. After going home from each lesson, write in a book kept for that purpose what has been said at the lesson. Read that book often. This will fix in mind, as well as preserve for reference, the instruction, and make sure the understanding of it. Then it is for you to do it. Once the pianist played scales by the hour to limber the hand; now he thinks only of the muscle which causes each finger to strike, and makes that muscle work at once. What formerly took months to do he now does in days. Desultory practice is avoided. A teacher in a certain city complained that another teacher got pupils by advertising quick method. Cut off desultory practice, apply mind where brute force has formerly held sway, and quick method is the result.

Instruction which is not practical is little worth. You are interested in improving yourselves vocally. To you let me plan a first step toward preventing desultory voice practice. Under four headings. Practical ones.

ALERE FLAMMAN.

ALERE FLAMMAM.

Everyone Can Sing.

The culture of the voice has come to be looked upon as a great and serious undertaking, and of such magnitude that but few have time for it, and those only should attempt it who have exceptionally fine voices. This is a mistake. Nearly everyone can sing, and if all would attempt to improve the voices they have by observing a few common-sense rules, it would soon be apparent that there are many more good singers among the masses than it is supposed exist, and these singers will learn how much can be done to add to their own comfort, by a little outlay of thought. Culture of the voice has been made a mystery by charlatan teachers and for a purpose. Think out how the conversational voice works and then consider what difference there should be between that and the singing voice. Nature planned the speaking voice and in doing it, gave us the line of development to follow in bringing into use the singing voice. The change from speaking to singing voice is where the quack enters with his mystery. There is no mystery. Use the voice as in speaking but pitch it at higher and lower points than are used in speaking. This is the foundation of the singing voice. Only one caution is needed. Never strain the throat. If, after a little practice, fatigue is felt or the tone is husky, stop practice. Do not try to do it all at once. A little each day added, will, in a few months, do all that is wanted. Do not expect, however, that any amount of study by one's self will make an artist. One can sing, by self-study, so as to get much pleasure, and so as to give pleasure to friends; but something more serious and extended is needed to make the artist.

Sustain Perfectly.

Care of the Body.

Singers seem to think but little of the tools with which they carry on their life work. That is the rule. Now and then a singer takes the opposite course and becomes unreasonably careful of his tools. In that case he is worse off than the careless. The "happy medium" is in all things the desirable state.

Our tools as singers are enclosed within the body and are the body. To have the body ready to respond to the musical demands it must be well and strong. To keep it well should be our first care. Happily we are so made that by following a few simple rules of living the body goes on through a long term of years without getting seriously out of order. Some persons can boast that they are never ill while many report but one sickness during a decade. The needed attention to the bodily wants, has, in these cases, been properly given. If all were as careful to do the same and not overdo the matter, perfect health would be the rule and not the exception.

The body needs nourishing food, clothing to preserve nearly uniform temperature, sufficient sleep, generous exercise, and thorough cleansing. Nothing more. Neglect of these, or as is more often the case, overdoing some of the first, is cause of disorder and disease. A singer cannot afford to have the tools of his employment other than in first-rate condition. If he does he enters his work, unnecessarily handicapped.

General advice regarding the eating and drinking is often given. Making it more specific, we would say, eat only such food as is easily digested and insist that it shall be thoroughly cooked. Supply the body with enough such for its maintenance only. The singer, again, cannot afford to eat what is not needed, be that of kind or amount. Most persons in running a furnace will feed fuel twice a day, at night and morning. In specially cold weather giving the fire a little extra fuel at noon. This is a good rule for feeding the body. Avoid over-feeding. The object of eating is to nourish the body and not to gratify appetite. It makes little difference whether the palate is pleased or not. The body could be nourished on food which does not taste so good as some other. Eating, to most people, is more palate gratification than anything else. In doing so, the body is overfed and clogged. Singers cannot afford that.

Sleep. To recover the waste of body at each days' work, quiet restful sleep is needed. Eight hours, or better nine, out of each twenty-four. In a cool room where possible and with plenty of fresh air. People who eat rationally need not fear taking cold by sleeping in a room with a draught of air through it. Fresh air, fresh, good food and cleanliness are necessary to the best results in singing study.

No rule can be given about bathing. Some students can stand a thorough bath every day. Others, only once in ten days. A sponge bath, if no other, should be had daily, that the pores of the body may be kept open and clear.

Clothing should be sufficient to keep the temperature of the body even. No need of wrapping the throat even when going into the open air, if the temperature of the body generally is even. We do pamper our bodies and think we are uncomfortable. In one sweeping sentence, be vigorous and good-natured and the body will the better serve us. A long walk each day in the fresh air adds to that vigor, and also to our good-nature.

Friends Can Help.

Advice of friends is a source of value or injury to the singing student. Advice has its influence. Every word spoken about one's voice and singing helps or injures. If placed in a circle which condemns every effort we make we are held back by that very influence from doing our best. Every judicious word of praise helps us upward. A pupil who is struggling by himself, without a word of cheer in his own home circle has a hard fight of it. For that reason it is very necessary that pupils whose desires are similar, and whose aims are toward the highest, should be gathered together. They help by their words, and often by their looks, the anxious student. "Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together," applies. After a pupil's recital, a judicious teacher will tell his pupils the kind things which the others have said. If unkind things should be said he will keep those to himself, guiding himself, however, by those comments in the future treatment of that criticized pupil. In this connection, a word to the members of the family of the student. A mother, who steps into the practice-room occasionally when she hears good singing and says, "That was good. I see you are improving," aids the student as much as a half-dozen lessons will aid. A brother who banters his sister about her singing when he really enjoys it, knows not, oftentimes, that his banter hurts and harms. To be sure, the partiality of the home circle may foster false hopes, but since nearly every one can learn to sing well if rightly trained, that will do less harm than cold indifference and cruel banter.

Renew Thought.

The teacher who does not live in high thought, and who does not attempt to attain a high ideal, does poorer work than he thinks he does. It is an easy matter to settle into a rut and to follow certain lines. These wear themselves out. New ways of imparting time-honored teaching, although they may not change the principles of teaching, must be constantly sought. They will only come to mind by keeping the thought in the highest realm of intellectual possibility to that teacher. One who contemplates with restful care, in that higher realm, the beautiful in music, the way of influencing mind, and the most direct way of causing students to attain that which they need, will ever renew his method of teaching. Such renewal will contain something better than he had before. Unless constant renewal, or at least frequent renewal, takes place, the rut will be entered upon. The longer one follows it, the deeper he becomes settled in it, and the harder is it to get out from it.

Speaking and Singing.

The basis of good singing is good speaking. The speaking voice in common use during conversation covers a range of five or six notes. Frequently lower and higher notes are called into use, but the high and low notes of the singing voice are seldom used in conversation. The organs which produce voice, from their constant use respond involuntarily to the will. They also do correct work. It is seldom that a person, unless he has deformity, has trouble to pronounce any word or syllable, while talking. Would this were true of singers. The student would greatly lessen the amount of his labor and also reduce the cost of his musical education if he were able to speak the words as correctly and as easily while singing as while speaking. It is toward this imitation of the speaking voice that one must constantly strive if he would make rapid progress in voice development. When he has reached the point where he can sing every vowel and consonant perfectly, and with as little effort as when speaking, on every tone of his singing voice, and then have that voice loud enough to be well heard in any hall, the voice is completely and well cultivated.

Associates.

Singers cannot afford to miss the chance to be among great men. As a class, musicians are narrow and that arises from the necessity of giving so much time to technical study. When the chance to meet and associate with men of broad minds comes, take advantage of it. Even if the contact be not close some of the light shining from the great mind will illumine us, and will make us brighter. The great mind is drawing from inspired source, maybe, and the light which comes from that mind drives out darkness from whatever it covers. Light and darkness cannot remain together. Let the mind be thrown open to receptivity when one is in the presence of the acknowledged leader and good clear light, it may be from heaven, will flood the mind and illumine it.

Purity of Method.

Purity of vocal method must not be departed from by teachers. The introduction of new ideas is at best a hazardous undertaking. In the routine of teaching week after week and month after month the teacher finds himself casting about for a new idea. He finds something which pleases him and tries it on his pupils. Most teachers can look back at experiments which have failed. Better decide on a few basic principles and cling to them. The desire to try something new is very liable to be the result of fatigue from overwork. Better take a holiday; go away from the classroom and rest. Come back to first principles again and go to work. The result at the end of the year will be better. Every teacher as he grows older resolves his ways of cultivating the voice into something very simple but which, as it condenses, becomes more powerful. There is only one right way and deep thinkers settle on that alike in time.

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