Mind and Voice
Principles and Methods in Vocal Training (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Mind and Voice: Principles and Methods in Vocal Training

In all departments of education teachers are suffering from misuse of the voice. Aside from hindrance to the progress and injury to the health of pupils, most teachers fail to do their best work from lack of control of the organic instrument which all must use. Many preachers shorten their lives, to say nothing of the loss of efficiency, from causes which could be remedied by a little attention to vocal training and expression. Over thirty years ago I stood before an audience, in the middle of an address, unable to speak a word for some minutes. The horror of those moments has never been blotted from memory. That failure was a climax of several years, during which I had sought help from over twenty teachers. I determined to search still more diligently to find the cause of my condition. I made earnest studies in this country and in Europe. As I begun to grasp the problem, sufferers begun to come to me, and I was led to give my life to endeavors to do for others what was not done for me.

I owe much to my teachers - Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, who first inspired me with the possibility of a science of voice, and to his father, Alexander Melville Bell, who helped me to conquer many defects, and to the elder Lamperti, of Milan, who instilled into my heart the spirit of the old masters of song.

No one, however, must be held responsible for the views here expressed. Good or bad, they are the product of my own observations and experiences during thirty years of earnest study.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.