Part 5 (1/2)
PREPARATION FOR TEACHING.
There are many who become teachers of singing without knowing what they are doing. No one who wishes to enter the profession should be kept out of it. There is room in it for many times the number engaged. It is to be earnestly recommended, however, that he who intends to become a teacher should decide beforehand what kind of work he intends to do, and after he has begun, he should bend his energy to make that branch successful. There are, at least, three distinct specialties of the singing teacher. First, rudimental music; second, voice culture; third, artistic singing. He who thinks he can excel in all has very great confidence in his own ability. Perhaps most of those who become teachers have no adequate knowledge of what the profession is, but enter into it for the purpose of making a living. After becoming a teacher he discovers that something is wrong, and the last person whom he thinks wrong is himself. Probably he has never decided on a specialty and properly prepared himself for that. Thus we see men who know something about music, teaching singing. They know nothing of practical voice culture, but attempt to teach singing. They ruin voices and wreck their own happiness. The first duty of a singing teacher is to study enough of anatomy and physiology to enable him to know exactly what parts of the body enter into voice culture, where they are and how they work. The dentist makes his specialty, filling teeth. But he would not be given his diploma if he did not know anatomy. His course in the medical college is the same as that of the physician. It differs in degree, but not in kind. Such should be the education, to a certain extent, of the vocal teacher. This education cannot be had from any books now published. Plain anatomy can be given in books, but the student should also see the parts described in the subject. He should then examine, so far as may be, the action of these parts in the living body. He must then make his own deductions. It may seem strange that that is necessary, but such is the subtlety of voice culture, that hardly two theorists agree in their deductions. Until some recognized body of men decides on definite things in voice culture, reducing one's theoretical study to practical uses must stand.
As important as such study, too, is the preparation of the artist mind.
One can teach voice culture mechanically and obtain good result, but be very deficient in the art of music. It is often said that ”Artists are born, not made.” That is a mistake. No man was ever an artist by birth.
Some men may be more appreciative of beauty than others but all men have enough within them to serve as the basis of artistic education. That education should be carried to a considerable distance before teaching is commenced. Almost as soon as the voice is capable of making any tone, music must be put into study. Appreciation of music itself as an art, must be a part of the good teacher's preparation. Knowledge of greater and better music comes from that appreciation with the years of experience in teaching. If the artist mind has not begun to a.s.sert itself before business is attempted, business will be likely to absorb the teacher, and he stands the chance of never being an artist. One who combines scientific knowledge of voice culture and an understanding of the art of music is well equipped for entering the profession of teaching vocal music. Only such should enter it. With that as foundation, the experience of each year will make him a better teacher.
Without that as foundation he will probably remain, vocally and musically, about where he was when he began. Financial success may come, but musical success never can.
EXPERIENCE.
A very good reason, but one which individuals can attend to, why we have so few artists among singers, is that so few take time to gain experience. There must be many appearances before audiences before the _amateurishness_ is worn off. Singers often think, when they hear a noted singer, that they could do just as well as that and perhaps better, and yet they cannot get professional engagements. It may all be true, that they can do just as well as the artist, but in appearance and self-command they may be deficient. Experience cannot come in a day or a season. If it could what a crowd of singers would become noted. It takes much time--years of time. One cannot safely feel that he has had experience enough to place himself among the professional singers until he has appeared at least fifty times. How many of our readers have done that? Many visit the large cities and seek engagements who have great talent and have the probability of complete success in them, but who have had so little proper experience that their first appearance in the large city, would be a failure. Managers of experience perceive this state of affairs and refuse to give engagements on that account. Gain that appearance necessary to the artist by singing before public audiences everywhere, at church festivals, benefit concerts, parlor receptions, college recitals, anywhere where an audience can be entertained. Study your influence over your audience and learn how to so express your art in your voice and singing that your audiences are your subjects. Concert after concert must pa.s.s before you know your own power in song. Year after year will go bye, before it is safe to approach the critical audiences of large cities.
BEFORE AN AUDIENCE.
When singing before an audience in a hall, do not look on the music. A glance at it may be made from time to time but keep the eyes off. A singer appears very ridiculous if he looks on the page. A song is a story told by the singer in the singing voice. It is not a lesson read from a book. The story cannot be well told if the singer has only half learned it. If he is confined to his notes he attracts attention to himself and that spoils art and the artist. It is best to learn by rote the music to be sung, and when it can be done, to leave the music in some place out of the hands. If it must be carried, have it as much out of the way as possible. A singer of much fame, spoiled his evening's work recently by fixing his eyes on his music all the time while singing. This may have been an exceptional evening, but if he does that all the time, he is no artist, in spite of his repute, and ought not to receive engagements even if he has a fine ba.s.s voice.
COME UP HIGHER.
The man makes the musician as does the musician make the man. The rules of life which make men better make the musician better. There is a constant call in life to ”Come up higher!” He who has lost the sound of that call is at a standstill, or rather, since there can be no stopping, he is sinking from the place once gained. Get within the sound of that call and heed it. There are no heights so great, but that they form the base to heights beyond. Music is so rich and full that no man can understand it all and no man has reached the highest place in it. The call ever sounds ”Come up higher!” Music fills all which contains life, and uses all materials for its transmittance. The air, a subtle ether, is filled with a still finer ether, on which sound travels. That ether is filled with vibration. It is ever present. The connection with it can be made at any moment and the musical thought can be sent off into unlimited s.p.a.ce, to influence all within that s.p.a.ce. To be able to use this at its best the thought which is musical must be raised to divine thought. The possibilities in that are boundless.
Musicians cannot stop. The year may roll around and one may feel himself doing a great and good work, doing a work which seems to be well rounded; a work which leaves the musician, as the end of a season rolls around, exhausted from labor, and ready to say that the end of his work is reached, that he has gone to his greatest height. Not so, however.
Next year is a height to be ascended, and that of the present moment is but the base of that greater height. Music calls ”Come up higher.”
CRUDE VOICES EXPRESS NO EMOTION.
An untrained voice can never have correct emotion expressed in it. The voice responds as truly to the thought which pa.s.ses in the mind as does the leaf bend before the breeze. The singing voice is an extension of the speaking voice, and since nature planned only for speaking purposes, in order to have the organs which produce voice in proper condition for singing, there must be that degree of physical drill which makes the vocal apparatus able to convey in proper pitch and quality, the thought of the mind. The untrained voice will not do this. The throat becomes rigid, the pharynx strained and in-elastic. Emotion cannot be expressed when the vocal apparatus is thus held. One may have a beautiful natural voice and he may arouse the enthusiasm of certain of his hearers, but he cannot, without careful training do a t.i.the of what he is able to do.
That is sufficient reason for teachers to urge all who sing at all to place themselves under the best of tuition. All who talk pleasantly have the power to sing. The exceptions to the rule are so few that they amount to but a very small percentage. But all who do sing, if they would rightly use their gift should train themselves to do whatever they do, well.
CHAPTER VII.
AMBITION.
”Character is the internal life of a piece, engendered by the composer; sentiment is the external expression, given to the work by the interpreter. Character is an intrinsic positive part of a composition; sentiment an extrinsic, personal matter only.”
=Christiani.=
VII.
AMBITION.
The very first question to ask of an applicant for vocal lessons is ”what is your ambition?” By that, I mean, the teacher should know at the very start what purpose the pupil has in study, or if he has any purpose. The intention of the pupil should make a difference in the consideration given to the pupil in the matter of voice trial. If an applicant says he wishes to sing in Opera and the teacher sees that he lacks all capacity for such high position, he should frankly say so; if the applicant says that he wishes to learn to sing well that he may have pleasure in his own singing and give pleasure to his friends, that should be taken into account. Such person, provided he has any voice and musical instinct, can reach the height of his ambition and his study should be encouraged.
The first visit of an applicant to a teacher is a most important event in the life of the pupil. The importance of it is not appreciated. To very many persons it marks a change--a veritable conversion--in their lives. A mistake made by the teacher with regard to the future of the pupil is a serious matter. That visit gives the teacher his chance to plan his treatment and is akin to the diagnosis of the physician. The pupil places himself in the hands of the teacher as thoroughly as does the patient give himself over to the physician. The case a.s.sumes importance from this fact. Responsibility by the teacher is a.s.sumed. The musical future of the pupil is in his hands. It may be for the good of the pupil that he found his particular teacher and it may not be.
”What is your ambition regarding your music?” is the safeguard of the teacher. Knowing that, he can have a basis for examination and a ground for promises to the student. In the large cities, teachers are troubled with that which would be very amusing were it not for the sad part of it. Students of music come from the smaller cities and from the country and begin a series of visits to the different studios for the purpose of selecting a teacher. Everyone seems to recommend a new teacher and the student calls upon all. The result is surely disastrous to the pupil. He or she is left in doubt as to whom to go for study. The different promises made, the compliments paid, the hopes of ambition raised, are all enough to unbalance the judgment of older heads than those who usually seek the music studio. When a teacher is finally selected, it takes a long time to settle down into confidence in him so that the best result can be obtained. I said it would be amusing to the teacher were it not sad. I have known persons to boast that they had had ”as good as a lesson” from the different teachers visited. I even know men who are teaching voice culture and singing in this city who claim to teach certain methods, and all they know of those methods is what they picked up in the interviews which they pretended were to see about arranging for study. As if any man of experience would give (or could give) his instruction in a talk of ten or fifteen minutes! The men who have ways of teaching which are so good that they bring valuable renown are too shrewd to be caught in any such way as that. What shall be done about such persons? Nothing. Let them alone. They die out after a time. Were there any way to prevent other people from following their example it would be a most excellent thing. But as society is made up, as long as the flash of a piece of gla.s.s pa.s.ses for the sparkle of a diamond just so long will the cheater spring up, flourish and disappear.
A question more to the point is ”How can the racing from studio to studio be stopped?” I frankly say that I do not know. Generally I avoid bringing up a subject which has not in my own mind reached solution. I can suggest remedies if not cures.