THUS far, you have been studying what is popu­larly known as the Cultivation of Personal Mag­netism—meaning, it teaches and explains various exercises which, when put into practice, generate the force of personal magnetism. It is a founda­tion book. It shows you how to develop the quality. But it does not, beyond a limited degree, go into details for using personal magnetism. This subject is as broad and vast as life itself. It would require many great books of instruction to cover the countless uses of the power. Such elaborate and revealing systems have been arranged by the author of this volume.

However, we will here go into details of one of the major uses of magnetism. It will be that phase which charges the spoken or sung word with the fire and attraction of magnetism. If you have faithfully followed instructions up until now, you have learned how to generate and charge your body with that energy or electrical quality which we term magnetism. 'And in this Step in our course we will show you how to use it in all word-contact with others. The instructions will take the form of forty-five brief, pithy lessons.

THE MAGNETIC VOICE

Must Please * * Attract * * Win * * Hold

"To Please."—Not one voice in a thousand is pleas­ing. It may even be said that not one in ten thousand is capable of giving genuine pleasure to those who hear it. The first great step is to find out why the voice is not pleasing, and then ascertain the way by which it can be made a source of pleasure to others.

"To Attract."—Having accomplished the first great step in this work, the power of a pleasing voice to attract others should next be acquired. As this has been done many times in the past by the method taught in this book, it is certain that it can be done again in every case where the stu­dent is determined to achieve so great an end.

"To Win."—It is our creed that there is nothing worth while in this life unless it can win. We all wish to win the respect of others; but that is not enough. Our character and personality should be lovable; our social relations sincere and estimable; our business dealings of the highest standard; and our habits cleanly and pure. But, added to these traits, there should be constant activity of the most useful kind and a steady mental improvement. These bring social and finan­cial success in many lives; yet they may fall far short of win­ning true success if the voice be repellant, as it is in most men and women. There are many instances where a magnetic voice has won the greatest degree of success in life, in spite of almost everything else being absent that should make a person attractive; because the voice is the one greatest agent of communication. But let a magnetic voice be coupled with all the other splendid traits, and success is more than doubly assured.

It is grand to win friends. It is grand to win social dis­tinction. But the burdens of life are many and are heavy, and it is necessary to win the means of support, and the bank account that shall stand between old age and want when the days of activity are over. If, therefore, the magnetic voice can be turned to substantial earnings, it is one of its legitimate goals. This course of lessons shows the many and wonder­fully varied ways in which such earnings are made possible.

1. A clergyman can increase his salary and accomplish vastly greater results in his profession.

2. A lawyer can increase his income in his office practice, and in his work before judge and jury.

3. A physician can increase his earnings and his influence over his patients for their good.

4. All professional men of every grade and rank can at­tract greater patronage and win larger earnings.

5. All business men can double in a short time their effec­tiveness.

6. All clerks who sell goods, and all employes who deal with others, can rise in value to their employers and secure better compensation.

7. Friends and social advantages are more readily won by a magnetic voice than by any other power.

8. School teachers can add to their value by their better control over their pupils, and by their increased skill in teaching.

"To Hold."—There are persons who possess what seem like pleasing voices, who cannot hold their power over others. There is something in the voice that tires after a certain time. The ability to please, to attract and to win, should be supplemented by an enduring magnetic quality that never is lessened. This comes best from training.

TEACHINGS OF THIS COURSE

A few advance thoughts will be in place here:

1. Mere sound is never pleasing. Most voices are far from pleasant. They serve for a while as a means of com­munication in business or social use, then the hearer is glad when they cease.

2. Some voices are considered pretty and even beautiful that soon tire the listener. Ninety-nine persons in every hun­dred use the same part of the vocal scale when they converse. Now suppose you have a friend whose voice is actually rich, and she sings always on one note; or suppose you have a musical instrument with the most beautiful tone ever produced, and it is played on one note all the time; can your brain long endure that sameness ?

3. A voice must not only be pleasing, but there must be brought into it a subtle quality known as magnetism, in and of itself. That which is magnetic is more than pleasing; it must attract, win and hold. We heard a lawyer address a jury for an hour, and everybody was exhausted; as he had tired them out, and had weakened their vitality by the strain necessary to follow him and understand what he had in mind. On the other hand, we listened to another lawyer who was defending a hopeless case of great moment, and he talked all day and all night. There was never a moment when any lis­tener was tired of his voice. He knew when he had won his jury, and not till then did he cease talking.

4. Above all, there must be naturalness in the voice. A musical instrument is not natural, although it may have fine tones. The kind of magnetism that will serve on the stage, will not do in oratory, nor will either kind do in business or social usage. The thoroughly flexible voice responds readily of itself to all the operations of the mind and heart, and thus it becomes natural. Flexibility, therefore, must be acquired to a very high degree of efficiency; and the time spent in such acquisition will be more than amply rewarded.

5. In securing perfect flexibility of voice, this faculty comes, incidentally, into its natural gift of reproducing any sound that can be made in nature; not always with the force of the latter, but in all other respects in the exact likeness.

LESSON 1: "NATURAL VOICE"

A reader is a person who expresses aloud his own thoughts and feelings or the feelings of another. This is the technical meaning as used in this work.

Some persons think that a reader is one who reads written or printed matter; but the word "read" means many other things. Thus it is a common remark that you can read in the face of another person the thoughts that are in the mind. You are able to read the intentions by the actions.

In music, reading means not only the ability to under­stand but to render the notes; and the reader, therefore, is the player or the singer. The dictionary says that reading is "explaining or interpreting." In music, reading is defined as "to render vocally or instrumentally the notes," according to the dictionaries. Another meaning is "to give warning, or to advise." When a mother says to her daughter, "I wish to read a little sense into your head," as a well known novelist makes one of his characters declare, the reading is done by a bit of strong oral advice; and this follows correctly the meaning given in the dictionary.

It was said of Edwin Booth that he was the best reader on the modern stage of the thoughts of Shakespeare; but his reading consisted of the manner in which he rendered the words of that great author. Booth did not stand with a book in his hands and read the play, but he gave action and voice to the words. This is true reading.

LESSON II: "THE MEANING"

Cold type does not express the meaning.

It rarely does this. Any line can be rendered by some per­son in an ordinary manner and seem to have but little thought in it. Some other person will make it full of meaning. But a man or woman with a perfectly flexible voice will make the thought stand forth in a most amazing power, and the tones employed may be quiet and wholly unassuming.

What does the following statement mean:

"The man would have died if you hadn't cut his foot off."

You can read it in such a way as to make the man alive ; or in such another way as to make him dead; and it certainly is important to know which fact you desire to convey. There is a great difference between a live man and a dead man.

Put your mind behind the words and think that the man is alive.

Think that the operation saved his life. Think that, if the foot had not been cut off, he would not have lived, but would have died because the foot was left on. In so thinking, you will do something more than emphasize the word died; the flexible voice will not depend wholly on emphasis. The object point of the voice is the word died in the reading, "The man would have died if you hadn't cut his foot off." Try it fifty times or more until you are able to read the thought that he is alive.

Now try to execute him.

This is done by the human voice. Think that the man died. Think that he would have died any way. Think that the operation of removing his foot was of no avail; that he was sure to die anyway; and that he "would have died if you hadn't cut his foot off."

After making your voice perform this execution, repeat it fifty times, always on the same man. Repetition gives a flexible voice. If you can read the above line skillfully so as to make the man alive or dead at will, you are then well advanced on your way to a successful attainment in this course.

If you cannot do this, then call in some friends to help you solve the problem. But if you can do it fairly well, keep on the practice of repeating until the meaning stands out more and more day by day. No one is perfect in such prac­tice.

LESSON III: 'THE INTENTION"

In the preceding lesson we have dealt with the meaning. Now we seek to read the purpose or intention of the thought. Imagine yourself seated in an outer room, and that in the next room there are two persons, one a wife, the other a husband. The wife says to the husband:

"Will you ride to town today?" What does she intend?

But instead of putting it that way, she says:

"Will you ride to town today?"

Does not the first inquiry clearly indicate that she desires to know whether any one is going to town today? And does not the second inquiry take it for granted that some one is going, but is he the one?

Instead, however, of either inquiry, suppose she had asked:

"Will you ride to town today?" Would not the inten­tion shift completely? Someone is going, and you are the per­son; but how will you go? The town is two miles away. Will you walk, ride or fly?

Another meaning is brought out in the following ques­tion :

"Will you ride to town today?" You sometimes go into the town, or as far as the town; and often go in that direc­tion, and not to the town itself.

Here is still another intention:

"Will you ride to town today?" This asks whether you are going mere, or elsewhere, perhaps into the country.

There are six words in the sentence. One remains to receive attention.

"Will you ride to town today?" Here the purpose shifts in the most startling manner from the other five intentions. Is today the time of your visit to town?

The acute thinker will note that, when one word is made to carry the idea, all the others are taken for granted. This is a very important fact. In court a witness is held account­able for all ideas so taken for granted; and, as every man and woman is likely to come to the witness stand some day, it is well to know to what extent the human voice is committing its owner.

Thus, when the wife asks: "Will you ride to town to­day?" she may not think that she is assuming as admitted truths all the other facts suggested in the sentence; but she does so in her form of inquiry.

If the husband were to enter the room and say to his wife, "I will ride to town today," he would know, or ought to know, that she understands that he is going, that his visiis to be to the town, and today is the time, as well as the other minor ideas to be as stated; but that he will not walk, as he has decided to ride.

But the real object of this lesson is to teach you to form the habit of expressing exactly what you have in mind.

The voice becomes natural and flexible by specific prac­tice. Thus, if you were to repeat each of the above inquiries fifty times, or a total of three hundred times, you would find your voice much improved in its powers of expression. What you can do once, or a few times, is merely what you are in the habit of doing all the time. To grow more and more ex­pressive, is the chief object of vocal practice. Repetition does wonders. Great actors have been known to repeat a single line many thousands of times, and so they have become great in so doing.

Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

LESSON IV: "THE PLEASING VOICE"

Not more than one voice in a thousand is pure in its mechanical quality. Some musical instruments, by wear and tear, develop what is called in art a mongrel tone. A dog that is neither one thing or another in breed, is a mongrel; and when it is mean in its habits and nature, it is known as a mongrel cur. Such a dog does not appeal to the best tastes of the community.

The human voice is constantly subjected to influences that destroy its purity of quality. The singer knows, or soon comes to know, that the everyday habits of life take the value out of the voice; and so there are exercises that restore the purity of the quality. Some musical instruments have ex­quisitely beautiful tones. Some horns of gold alloy are ex­ceedingly rich in tone-value; some of silver are almost as rich; some of brass are more blatant; and so the quality fol­lows the metal. On the other hand, there are methods of construction that help make the tones richer. The sounding board of a piano has much to do with the excellence of the soundsto be produced. All other parts exert some influence. The instrument that today attracts by its fine tones, may in the course of time give forth a sound like an "old tin pan." The same deterioration that takes place in a piano is certain to occur in the human voice.

That the latter is rarely ever found in a pure quality is a well recognized fact.

The vocal chords are made rough and coarse by the use of vinegar, acids, spices, tea, coffee, tobacco and alcohol. Excessive meat-eating generates a poison in the blood that reaches the throat in its circulation.

Inhaling through the mouth is the most injurious of all habits. It is always better to breathe in through the nose. The out-going breath does not affect the vocal chords. Mouth-inhalation brings dust and germs to the throat, and also chills its walls; these combined influences often introduc­ing contagion into the system.

The larger the lung capacity becomes, the more readily the vocal chords will respond to any method of improving them. Therefore deep breathing daily is necessary to voice development. This may be done without interfering with other duties. You must breathe all day long, and it takes no more time to breathe deeply than in the usual shallow manner.

LESSON V: "THE PURE VOICE"

If you have absorbed the lesson next preceding this, you may go on with the work of securing a vocal quality that is called pure. In so doing, you drive out all the accumulated roughness and crudeness of years of growth. Just think of the value of a musical instrument, the notes of which are clear, sweet, rich and pure. Listen to the piano that sounds like an "old tin pan" and compare it with the new piano every tone of which pleases because of its mechanical purity.

A simple exercise will bring vast results.

Learn what the vowel "ah" is and how and where it is made. We have been told that it is the most open of all sounds. This really means that it can be readily made the most open. In fact, it is possible to make it with the lips al­most closed. It is possible to make it on the front of the mouth, at the lips, on the tongue, or in the throat.

If you make it on the lips, your voice will not improve, for lip sounds are never pleasing. The vocal cords are in the throat, in what seems to be the bottom of the throat-well. Imagine the throat to be a deep well, and that you are to pro­duce the sound from the lowest part of that well. Open the mouth at the lips, at the tongue, in the middle, at the back of the palate, and down deep in the throat. Then say "ah."

The latest and most approved method of voice production is that which starts the tone in the deep throat and projects it at the front upper teeth. This quickly leads to purity and clearness. The process is as follows, and if duly employed, the results will soon be marvelous:

1. Utter the sound "ah" in the manner just stated, and try to make it as clear as possible. Think of the place of origin which is always at the bottom of the throat-well, and at the same time think of the point of attack which is at the front upper teeth. Keep these two locations always in mind. Never release your attention from them.

2. Having mastered the two points as just stated, and having made yourself capable of executing the tone as re­quired, try to prolong the sound of "ah" for five seconds. In doing this, depend on the expert acuteness of your ear; for your ear will tell you what character of tone your voice is producing. Your ear is to be your mentor, your guide, your dictator; and you must encourage its good work.

3. Listen to the tone you are producing. It is getting clearer? If so, then prolong it for ten seconds by your watch.

4. Then produce it for fifteen seconds.

5. Then for twenty seconds; and so keep on, adding five seconds at a time until you are able to prolong a good tone for sixty seconds in one breath.

6. When you rest, start over again with five seconds. Never, after a rest, try to see how long you can maintain a tone. Always begin with five, then let the breath out, inhale, and go to ten seconds, and so continue. The real progress comes in the habit of beginning over with five seconds. It would be waste of time, or nearly so, to try to go a long period, say twenty or more seconds, at the start. Build up, five seconds at a time, and progress will be rapid.

7. The ear is to detect the growing purity of the voice. That will soon find improvement, and then it must insist on the continued bettering of the tone until it rings true and clear as a flute note.

LESSON VI: "THE FLAT VOICE"

Few persons realize that the voice is either round or flat.

As the voice is produced by the vocal chords which are located in the throat, the character of the tone must of neces­sity depend on the shape of the chamber through which it is compelled to pass; the throat giving that shape just as the musical instrument determines the character of the sound that is developed in it. A trombone emits a tone quite dif­ferent from the cornet or the flute.

By changing the shape of the throat and mouth, a nasal effect is produced that often causes laughter or ridicule. By other shapes the throat is made to give out a guttural growl which disagreeable men are too often guilty of; or hard, dis­tressingly crude tones that repel. Yet these same throats may be so shaped that in time their sounds will be pleasing and even beautiful.

The two great divisions of the shapes of the throat are:

1. The flat.

2. The round.

Every time you swallow, you assume a flat throat; and, as you swallow hundreds of times a day, you are constantly training the throat to take on its flat shape. Habits are the great master of the voice. Nature employs the same throat for eating as it does for singing. The act of eating is more important than that of singing; but persons who live to eat, instead of eating to live, lose much of the real pleasure of existence.

In swallowing food, it is necessary that the throat shut it off tightly and send it down to the stomach by a slightly convulsive action which produces the flat shape at the loca­tion of the vocal chords. It is this bad shape that all singers and most speakers of ability train themselves to overcome. It is very easily changed to the proper condition with a little practice.

LESSON VII: "PRACTICE! PRACTICE! PRACTICE!"

It is not necessary to practice much.

Nature sets things to rights very quickly. Habits take a long time to make them wrong. It is knowing how, that counts.

One minute a day will keep the voice in fine shape after once you get it so. But do not be ashamed to practice. All great singers look after their diet, their daily habits of living, and their little tests of vocal condition.

No great orator ever became great unless he practiced. Most of them discovered instinctively the need and the way of practicing. Demosthenes probably invented his own scheme, but history is very clear on the point that he did spend time in making his voice right. The same fact is shown in other biographies. Patrick Henry made use of every empty schoolhouse he could find; Henry Clay was often dis­covered in cornfields, and Daniel Webster, by the testimony of Edward Everett and others, built up his voice by practice. Justice Brown, when on the Supreme Court of the United States, told the writer that he practiced on his voice in a schoolhouse in Detroit. All the great men of this art of speaking have been willing and glad of the opportunity to practice. It is the little men who are above it.

Hon. Roscoe Conkling, United States Senator and lead­ing lawyer in his State, had one of the richest and most pleasing voices we ever listened to. When he died, no one knew the combination to the lock on his safe. "Did he have any favorite word?" asked the expert. "Yes," said a young man in the office, "I have often heard him ring out his voice on the word Rome, when he was alone in this room." The word Rome furnished the key to the combination, and the safe was quickly unlocked.

History and public as well as private biographies are full of incidents connected with the practice indulged in by great men to keep their voices in good shape. It pays. It even pays for the salesman and the clerk; for improved voices mean better work and more effective results. A pleasing voice, even though quiet, draws people; while crude, harsh, flat voices repel them. Add to the pleasing voice, the charms of personal magnetism, and there is no better investment in the world.

LESSON VIII: "ROME! ROME! ROME!"

All natural habits are good or bad.

The drift of things, left to themselves, is to the bad.

What is called a natural gift, is an accidental drift to the good; often stimulated by ambition or earnest effort.

Any drift can be cultivated. That which is cultivated, if it coincide with a natural drift to the good, is as natural as if it had come about of itself. True art everywhere is a cultivated drift toward the better things; and, the more it coincides with nature, the greater is the bond of union be­tween the cultivated and the natural gifts. In fact that which is cultivated is far more valuable, because it outlives the accidental drift of habits.

Between the flat voice, which is the drift to the bad, and the round voice, which is the voice of art and cultivation, there is as much difference as between a golden-toned piano and an old tin box. People who meet those they seek to impress, have enough instinct to drop the flat voice and as­sume the round tones in part; although in small part. This proves that effort is able to control the character of the voice even among persons who lack all desire for culture. What has been called the "Sunday voice" in a preceding lesson, is an example of what instinct may accomplish. The woman who would employ the flat voice that her family hears con­stantly to a visitor for whom she had great regard, would utterly fail in making herself pleasing. She would repel.

Women often wonder why the men who attracted them before marriage are so quickly tiresome after the honeymoon is over. Wives maintain their "Sunday voices" for a longer period after marriage than men do theirs, but it is all over sooner or later; and the dreadful commonplaces fill all their hours together. Once in after years the husband has the old kindness in his manner and tones, and the wife says: "Harry, your voice sounds now as it used to sound when we were engaged."

Why go through life with the flat voice?

While habit and special effort will make it partly round at times, art alone can fill out the full quality. Short cuts in art are as good as long and expensive journeys.

The quickest way of reaching the round voice is to prac­tice with the word so constantly used by Conkling: "Rome! Rome! Rome!" Not he alone, but many others have em­ployed the same word. It was the favorite tone of David Garrick, the greatest actor of all time.

LESSON IX: "MAKING RAPID PROGRESS"

It is possible to do a right thing wrong.

Any person can speak the word "Rome" with a flat throat. But it is such a word as will respond more quickly to the attention of the mind than any other that can be found.

The mind and the ear should be combined; or, in other words, the mind should give constant attention to the ear, so that the latter may note the right utterances. The voice is ready at all times to obey the ear and mind, if both work together.

Of course a round tone is made by a round throat. But there is no necessity of going through a long period of prac­tice to learn how to make the throat round. A "gape" will do it at once, if a person is able to gape or imitate the action of gaping. The process consists in lowering the "Adam's apple," or vocal box of the throat, which always goes way down during the gape, and rises way up during the swallow.

Gaping is not a good habit to establish, but all singing artists have been compelled to use it as a starter; then, when once the open throat is secured, the muscles will repeat it afterwards as desired. If you have ever noticed any great singer, you will at once recall the position of the throat.

Any sound of "O" will tend to make the throat round in shape. Any liquid word containing "O" will do likewise. "Lo" is a liquid word. So is "Mow." So is "No." So is "Ro." So are words made of these consonants: as "More," "Roar," "Lower," and others. Words containing "M" and "N" tend to free the voice from the offensive twang called the nasal defect. "R" tends to make the tongue flexible as it is a tongue consonant of the liquid kind. Hence there is no word quite as good as "Rome" for practice. The word "Roll" is used a great deal by actors and singers, and orators, in their private practice which they carry on in their room; but it lacks the resonant value of "Rome."

It does no real good to utter the word "Rome" without the aid of the ear and the attention of the mind. The latter should make sure that the throat is in the open position, as its first duty, and that the sound is pure and round; while the ear should note the various kinds of tone-characters produced, and select that which is most pleasing. Friends often meet for practice, and mutual criticism, and as this is the most important culture in human life, it should be given first place over all other duties.

Like a beautiful flower garden that is capable of bearing exquisite gems if kept in a condition of culture, but that goes to rank weeds when left to itself, the voice responds to careful attention or drifting neglect; being the agent of the mind, the heart and the soul in their communication with humanity.

LESSON X: "THE UGLY FLAT TONES"

A badly shaped musical instrument will emit badly formed and unpleasing tones. A flat throat is badly shaped for song and speech. It is the result of natural drift. A bad disposition accentuates the flat voice. In fact, humanity, like the canine species, is disposed to growl at things it does not like. You are so used to hearing the growl and snap, in var­ious degrees, that you pay little attention to them, although they instinctively repel you when you are able to get away from them.

If you are a clerk or employe, you would prefer to work for a man who has a kindly voice rather than for one who closes his throat into a guttural tone. If you have read the story of "Christmas Carol," by Dickens, you will recall the kind of man Scrooge was, as therein depicted. Dickens, himself, when giving public readings in America from which he made nearly one million dollars, used the flat voice in very close form for the character of Scrooge, until the change had come over the tight-fisted man; then the kindly tones fell from a beautifully rounded voice.

We have had many reports from phonographs of the ut­terances of men and women whose dispositions have not been pleasant, and who have therefore developed the flat voice in excess, which means that the throat comes closer together in the act of speaking. These tones are very near to the growl of a dog, which is made with a flat shape of the throat.

If you can speak as many persons about you speak, and will take the trouble to reproduce their tones, you can carry them into the growl without much change of throat.

When people disapprove of some act of their fellow be­ings, as when the New York public hissed the players of their own team for unsportsmanlike conduct during a game, the throats were closed flat, and the tongue was made flat also, thus throwing forth the tones of dislike, the same as the cat does when it is in an ugly mood. The growl of the dog and the hissing of the cat, are both made with flat throats, and evince a hateful disposition at the time.

In art, the hiss in a tone is called aspiration, and the growl is called guttural. You will hear them both, in one degree or another, all about you. For purposes of imitation, they may be learned and used; for they will help you to avoid them if you are able to make them and drop them when you like.

LESSON XI: "FAULTS CURE FAULTS"

The old saying in the practice of medicine that like cures like, is never better proven than in the art of using the voice. To overcome an error it is necessary to see the error. The exhibition of it may cause shame, but this is unnecessary, as all that is required is an ambition to drive the fault out. We recall the case of a United States Senator who was not at one time an effective speaker. We showed him the cause. His voice was rasping and flat. When he heard it, and came to know it by ear, he soon mastered the trouble. After he had acquired the round voice, his influence on his hearers changed and he became a pleasing orator.

The question is often asked, will the practice of the faults of voice develop those faults or establish them ? The answer is in the negative. Impersonators and imitators indulge in them to a great extent and seem to improve their voices by the practice. To know how to make many kinds of voice is to know how to make the better kinds at will; and the use of the faults will serve to make the contrast all the sharper.

In fact all impersonations are of faults. If people had no shortcomings, the imitators would be out of business. You cannot impersonate that which is normal. Our advice is to learn all the vocal faults possible; and in so doing you will soon find yourself able to assume the voices of others at will, and this can be turned to account in a hundred differ­ent ways.

But the most valuable of all results is the naturalness that will come into your own voice and always be at your command.

LESSON XII: "MEANING OF MODULATION"

The word modulation in speech means variation in pitch, although it may be made to include change of force and time in utterance.

But the chief and important meaning of modulation is variation in the pitch of the voice.

Most persons who try to give an offhand definition of pitch call it force. It has no relation to loudness or softness, or any of the uses of force; but applies wholly to range of voice, up or down, in the musical scale. Thus a tenor has a high pitch voice; and if he converses in the same general part of the scale that he uses in singing, he will talk in a high pitch. The bass singer generally talks in a low pitch. Those who sing in the middle part of the vocal range, or scale, talk in the middle pitch. It is proper to say that you pitch the voice high or low; but it is not proper to say that you pitch it loud or soft. In the roof of a house the pitch is the declivity or steepness, not the strength.

We attended church for a year, listening to two sermons a day, and in that time we heard thirty-eight different clergy­men whose voices were pitched in one part of the range, and rarely ever departed from that part. As two and two make four, so we felt sure that such preachers could not have great success in their work; and we ascertained the facts to be accordingly.

The human brain becomes weary of sameness.

In singing, the different pitches are called notes of the musical scale. In speaking, the different pitches are called degrees of the vocal range. Keep this distinction in mind.

Singing differs from speaking in that the former has few or no rising or falling movements to the tones, while every spoken syllable either flats or sharps the tone, and generally rises or falls through a number of tones. This ex­planation is technical and we promised not to be technical, so you may leave it for others to understand.

LESSON XIII: "TIRESOME VOICES"

Nature gave to every man and woman a two-octave speaking range, and even greater range than this can be cul­tivated, and is cultivated year after year by thousands. Yet most men and women use in conversation only a small part of one octave, and generally only one note. There are mil­lions of one-note talkers in the world, and they wonder why they are not attractive in business or socially.

Even a beautiful voice that is used on one note, or on only a few, will tire. The human brain will not long endure peacefully the constant hammering at one kind of sound. The nerves rebel.

If you have a fine piano and strike one key all the time, how long will your neighbors put up with it? One refrain has driven people crazy. Not long ago a man rushed out of a house with a smoking revolver having killed a girl who was playing a few bars of a strain that she had caught and sought to fix. No mind is wholly sane and sound; and it is not diffi­cult to make it lose its self-control. Nature steps in and re­lieves the brain from monotony by sleep in a majority of cases; and this accounts for the ease with which monotonous preachers will put a congregation into a state of slumber or close to it. But what can be said of the calling of the man who will thus fail in his great work ?

All about you are one-note speakers, or one-note talkers, and they are failures. We have rescued many of them in the past twenty-five years, and we hope that these lessons will rescue millions more. The human voice has the greatest opportunities of all the faculties, and is the most used, but the worst used.

One note is the climax of monotony; but even two notes will not give relief. Nor will three or four. If nature provided fifteen or more, let them all be developed into actual use. Some singers who are able to exceed this range in song, talk in a monotonous pitch when they converse; showing that the mere possession of a large range is not enough. The habit of use is necessary.

LESSON XIV: "RANGE OF VOICE"

The term Range of Voice is well understood to refer to the compass or extent of pitch. This, by some authors, is divided into registers, and called the Upper, Middle and Lower.

The Upper register is said to embrace the highest third of the vocal compass of a thoroughly developed voice.

The Middle register embraces the middle third.

The Lower register the lower third.

The highest third, sometimes called the head register, indiscriminately, is best represented by the vowel sound of E, as in the word meet.

The middle third, sometimes called the throat register, is best represented by the vowel sound of Ah, as A in father.

The lowest third, sometimes called the chest register, is best represented by the vowel sound of O, as in roll.

These divisions may be mental ones, at least, and will somewhat assist the pupil in practice.

The development of pitch is absolutely necessary to the singer, and to the reader or orator it is an exceedingly valuable acquisition. Many singing voices are developed by the exer­cises of this book, yet nothing of the technique of music is here attempted. A person may be ignorant of music and re­main so, yet understand, perform, and master all these exer­cises. For speaking and reading it is not necessary to pre­serve minute distinctions of pitch or be musically exact.

LESSON XV: "DEGREES OF PITCH"

Voices limited in range will not be able to make the divi­sions given in this exercise; but persistent practice will soon show great improvement Those who understand music may make the nine pitches one whole note apart, if their vocal range admits of it; or a half note apart, if very limited in compass; or a note and a half apart if the range is compara­tively extensive; or two whole notes apart, if possible.

Rule.—Arrange the pitches so that their range, from the very highest to the very lowest degrees, may be a little greater than the ability of the voice to produce, and then work to pro­duce them perfectly.

The Nine Degrees of Pitch

An extra No. 9 pitch may be made by crying "Boat ahoy," holding the last syllable as long as can be done easily, as "Boat aho-------------y."

An extra No. 1 pitch may be made by pronouncing the word "Swear" in a deep, sepulchral tone, as described in the next exercise.

Incessant practice in the quotations will accomplish more in cultivating a wide and extended range than would seem possible. The Rule must be observed strictly.

LESSON XVI: "MEANING OF PITCH"

Every part of the vocal range has a meaning of its own as will be seen in the following:

Quotations for Practice in the Nine Degrees of Pitch

LESSON XVII: "HOW TO PRACTICE"

Some years ago a prominent man came to us, having been sent by a famous teacher of singing; the purpose being to extend his range of voice. He could sing in about an octave and a half, and the teacher had exhausted every method to increase his range.

At the same time, a Congressman came to us who had almost no range at all; his voice being pitched on the note above the middle, and remaining there during his entire ef­forts at speaking. He was very tiresome, but his wealth had given him a term in Congress and he felt that it would not repeat for him.

To both these applicants for lessons, we gave the follow­ing rules of practice. The singer in the course of time ac­quired a full octave beyond that which he possessed when he began the exercises in range that are given here. The Con­gressman acquired a two-octave range, and was elected for sixteen years. He connected himself with our institution as a result of his interest in the good work being done.

The practice consists in speaking, not in singing, each quotation of the table in the preceding lesson.

Begin with the middle, or fifth quotation. Say the words, "A vision of beauty appeared on the clouds," in the easiest pitch in which you can speak, and make it conversational in style. Say this a number of times, always aloud, but not loudly.

If you have a piano or musical instrument nearby, find how many notes you have in your voice, and speak the above quotation in the note that is about midway between the highest and the lowest.

Then speak the next quotation below the fifth, which will be as follows: "Friends, Romans, countrymen!" This should be given in a rather serious vein, and the pitch should be close to the middle, but not quite up to it. Follow with the next quotation, "And this is in the night, most glorious night," giving the words in a pitch lower than the fourth. Then pro­ceed to the lowest pitches in turn. After this, repeat the fifth, "A vision of beauty appeared on the clouds," in the middle part of your range, and then take the sixth, and so on up to the top or last one, which is the ninth.

It is first necessary to establish the nine degrees of range, then to extend them gradually as practice gives you greater security in the production of them.

LESSON XVIII: "CAUTIONS"

Caution 1.—Commence always at Pitch No. 5, which should be at all times in the middle of the voice. Run down the pitch to No. 1; then commence at No. 5, and run up to No. 9; then commence at 5, and give the degrees in the fol­lowing order: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9; then com­mence at 5, and pursue the following order: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Caution 2.—Preserve a monotony of pitch while giving the quotation that belongs to the degree which is being pro­duced ; that is, if the degree is No. 5, the quotation would be, "A vision of beauty appeared on the clouds," and every word of this line must be on the No. 5, or middle pitch. So if the degree is No. 3, and the quotation, "And this is in the night, most glorious night," every word of this line must be in a No. 3 pitch.

Caution 3.—Using the No. 5 as a starting pitch, make each succeeding low degree distinctly lower than its predeces­sor ; thus a 4 must be clearly lower than a 5, a 3 lower than a 4, and so on. It will be hard to do this at first; but both for speaking and singing, this exercise is unparalleled in its effect, for the purpose sought.

Caution 4.—Using the No. 5 as the starting pitch, make each succeeding high degree distinctly higher than its prede­cessor, after the manner described for the low degrees of caution 3.

LESSON XIX: "THE LOW NOTES"

The higher the pitch rises, the more vibrations there are in a second of time. These occur at the vocal chords. The lower the voice descends, the fewer are the vibrations. These relieve the ear and brain of the listener; for which reason the magnetic tones are more often effective in the low notes than in the high ones.

After acquiring the number one pitch of the table of range as given in these lessons, try to drop below that by speaking the word "oh" and then the word "swear" in a still lower note. These words suit the effort. Imagine the throat to be a very deep well and in that well utter the word "awe" very solemnly a number of times, trying to get it lower each time. All three words help, but some voices respond better to one word than to another.

The Convenient Low Note

This exercise is somewhat peculiar, chiefly on account of its simplicity. It is very effective, however.

In the low register of the voice there are some notes that are weak, especially the extremely low ones.

If the pupil attempts to reach the very lowest note of which the voice is capable, it will be found to lack strength and fullness. A little farther up the range, perhaps a single note or two, will be found one that is quite full and strong. It is this note that the present exercise has reference to; it is called the "convenient low note," because it is the lowest that can easily be produced.

For the purpose of this exercise, and this alone, let the pupil practice as long as convenient, say not less than five minutes at a time, in holding this note upon a vowel sound. By the expression "five minutes at a time" is meant to devote that time to the repeated prolongation of the vowel sound, taking sufficient pauses for rest and breath.

The vowel O is the best; next to that comes Ah, as in "father."

A valuable variation of this exercise is to attempt to pro­long the sound clearly and evenly for forty-five seconds, or as near that as possible.

Another valuable variation is to attempt to swell the last end of the tone without raising the pitch. These variations are more fully described in later exercises.

Constant practice on the lowest note of the voice that can be made easily will soon result in the next note below it acquiring strength and fullness by sympathy owing to its proximity to the note that is being used so much.

The note next below, then, will be the "convenient low note." This should receive the attention of the pupil just as soon as it is full and strong. Remember to wait until the full­ness has come to it through sympathy, not to force it.

When the new "convenient low note" has been practiced for months as its predecessor was, it in turn, by sympathy, will cause strength and fullness to creep into the note next below, and so on down the scale the voice will extend itself in range.

This method is called the "Anti-force process," because no attempt is made to force the voice. It is an excellent method.

The Convenient High Note This is similar to the last exercise, the upper end of the range being taken in place of the lower.

LESSON XX: "MEANING OF FLEXIBILITY"

An attractive voice must be:

1. Natural.

2. Modulated.

3. Flexible.

We have thus far learned what faults produce the un­natural voice. We have also just learned how to modulate the voice so far as pitch is concerned. Uses of these basic lessons will be made to a very large extent farther on in this course of training.

We must now take up the basic study of flexibility.

In a speaking or natural sense a singing voice wholly lacks flexibility except in the slurs. An intoned voice is sense­less, as it lacks sufficient mental presence to make it intelligent. In proportion as there is a departure from the singing notes, which takes place as the slides develop into glides, the mind enters the tones, and the voice becomes flexible. But this quality is merely present in most voices. In geniuses of ex­pression it is exceedingly full on every word and syllable. The ability to increase the meaning of words is the ability to increase the flexibility of the voice.

All these facts are wonderful.

They show a mighty mind back of humanity that has lifted the human mind to a tremendous distance above and beyond the nearest of the brutes. And man's mind is not yet placed on the highest Alps of life. Between him and the master force that has uplifted him, there is a distance to be traveled that art alone can span.

What is there so marvelous in these slides of sound?

Their absence is the absence of the mind. Their pres­ence is the presence of the mind. And they are only slides. But why is it that there are degrees of pitch in the human voice? Why is it that the vocal chords by tightening and shortening gradually are able to change the register from a low to a high one; and by loosening and lengthening are able to reduce the pitch? Song is made possible by the fixed changes of these chords, which give all the different notes. Modulation is made possible by the power of speech to spread its words throughout the range of pitch. But why are the vocal chords endowed with the ability to shift gradually, not in fixed changes, but in slipping variations, through the parts of pitch, and so produce the smooth slides?

With this power at hand, then comes the question, why is it made the tool of the mind?

The nine pitches furnish the key of all progress. From them can be developed more results than from any other faculty, except the muscles of the mouth which produce all the words of the great dictionaries.

LESSON XXI: 'TONE COLOR"

In more than ninety-nine per cent, of all people, the great defects of voice are:

1. Monotony of pitch.

2. Flatness of tone.

3. Lack of glide value.

4. Absence of color.

Even a beautiful voice may be uninteresting after a few utterances.

Color of tone is the presence of feeling in the tone.

Persons are often unable to give expression to their real feelings from lack of color-development in the voice. For in­stance, a voice that has never been employed, except to express the merest common-places of life, would find it impossible to put any other color into the nobler or more beautiful thoughts, unless a systematic course of practice, like that given in these lessons, should be adopted.

Without color all expression is mechanical and artificial. It is art without nature. Yet by the rules of art we can dive down into the hidden recesses of nature, and bring to the sur­face her most precious secrets; then, by practice, adopt and wear them as our own, for they are ours by heritage.

Our purpose is to provide a series of exercises for acquir­ing all the colors of the voice, by special practice, until they become natural.

Having said this much, we now invite the pupil to com­mence the most fascinating practice known in the art of ex­pression. It is well to keep a record of the number of times each color is repeated, for all practice counts something, even if but once a week or month. It is only after repeated trials that the ear begins to recognize the real color; it may not be until after hundreds of repetitions that the color will be recog­nized; but when it comes, as come it surely will, a delicious feeling of pleasurable satisfaction is experienced.

While these lessons are not intended to include instruction in singing, hundreds of singers with colorless voices have applied for them during the last twenty-five years and have been greatly benefited by them.

All persons who speak, read, converse, or sing should develop tone color.

LESSON XXII: "TONE COLOR EXERCISES"

The feelings are many, and their colors should be made to harmonize with them. The greater number of colors you acquire, the more magnetic will be your voice.

Some colors are easily developed. They happen to coincide with your common moods. Others must be brought into your voice by placing your mind and feelings in the realm of existence that the thought seems to describe or indicate. Make no two colors alike.

(Only the words in quotation marks are to be colored. Colors that seem alike are quite different.)

1st Color.—Mild Determination. Color words: Impos­sible; cannot.

"It is impossible, I cannot." 2nd Color.—Strong Decision, Negative, Color word: Not.

"I will not." 3d Color.—Strong Decision. Affirmative. Color words: Will; bond.

"I will have my bond." 4th Color.—Petulance. Color words: Peace, peace, peace.

"Peace, peace! Mercutio, peace!" 5th Color.—Surprise. Color words : Gone; married.

"Gone! to be married!" 6th Color.—Surprise, with Disappointment. Color words: Not coming.

"Martha not coming!" 7th Color.—Wonder. Color word: Wonderful.

"Oh, a wonderful stream is the River Time!" 8th Color.—Amazement. Color words: There; look; steals.

"Why, look you there! look, how it steals away!" 9th Color.—Common Colloquial. All the words are equally colored.

"Jack, I hear you've gone and done it,— Yes, I know, most fellows will." 10th Color.—Didactic Colloquial. All the words arc equally colored.

"Never read to others what you do not thoroughly; understand."

11th Color.—Common and Pure Colloquial. All the words are equally colored.

"O, good painter, tell me true: has your hand the cun­ning to draw shapes of things that you never saw?"

12th Color.—Pure Colloquial. All the words are equally colored.

"Perhaps you may have seen, some day, Roses crowding the selfsame way, Out of a wilding, wayside bush."

LESSON XXIII: "TONE COLOR EXERCISES"

13th Color.—Beauty. Color words: Heaven; thick; patines; bright gold.

"Look, how the floor of heaven is thick inlaid with pa-tines of bright gold."

14th Color.—Grandeur. All the words are equally colored.

"Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean, roll."

15th Color.—Pride. Color words: Inch; king. "Ay, every inch a king."

16th Color.—Arrogance. Color words: Like; myself.

"I have no brother, I am like no brother, I am myself alone."

17th Color.—Defiance. Color word: Defied.

"I tell thee, thou'rt defied. 18th Color.—Begging. Color words: Pity; poor; give. "Pity the sorrows of a poor old man. * * * Oh! give relief, and heaven will bless your store."

19th Color.—Flippancy. All the words are equally colored.

"Sir Harcourt fallen desperately in love with me? With me! Ha! ha! ha! that is delicious!"

20th Color.—Dignity, Grave. Color words: God; come.

"Sir, before God, I believe the hour has come!"

21st Color.—Dignity, Earnest. Color words: This;

self; true; any.

"This, above all, to thine own self be true, and it must follow as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man."

22d Color.—Courage. Color words : Free; host; lib­erty ; man.

"Now, my brave lads,—now are we free indeed! I have a whole host in this single arm. Death or liberty! We shall not leave a man of them alive!"

LESSON XXIV: "TONE COLOR EXERCISES"

23d Color.—Eagerness. Color words: Early; early. "You must wake and call me early, call me early, mother dear."

24th Color.—Joy. Color words: Queen; May; queen; May.

"I'm to be queen of the May, mother, I'm to be queen of the May."

25th Color.—Ecstasy. Color words : Happy; rapture.

"My happy heart with rapture swells." 26th Color.—Gloom. Color words : Midnight; dreary.

"Once upon a midnight dreary." 27th Color. Sadness. Color words: Melancholy; sad­dest.

"The melancholy days are come, the saddest of the year." 28th Color.—Freezing. Color words: Freezing; cold.

"The night was freezing cold." 29th Color.—Meekness. Color words : Obey; you.

"I shall in all my best obey you." 30th Color.—Tenderness. Color words: Tenderly; care; slenderly; so.

"Take her up tenderly, lift her with care; Fashioned so slenderly, young and so fair."

31st Color.—Affection. Color words: Wear; core; heart; thee.

"Give me that man that is not passion's slave, and I will wear him in my heart's core, ay, in my heart of hearts, as I do thee."

32d Color.—Greeting to a Friend. Color words : Glad; twenty; years.

"Well, Tom, I'm right glad to see you! It's twenty years since last we met."

33d Color.—Greeting to Country. Color words: Crags; peaks; again; you; still.

"Ye crags and peaks, I'm with you once again. I hold to you the hands you first beheld, To show they still are free."

34th Color.—Coldness. Color words: Unwelcome; extend.

"Sir, you are unwelcome here! I do not wish to extend our acquaintance."

35th Color.—Jealousy. Color word : Mistrust. "I do mistrust thee, woman."

LESSON XXV: "TONE COLOR EXERCISES"

36th Color.—Indignation. Color word: Leave.

"You may leave this house." 37th Color.—Shame. Color words: Shame; blush.

"Oh, shame! where is thy blush!" 38th Color.—Anger. All the words are equally colored.

"What do you mean, sir!" 39th Color.—Caution. Color words: Hush; silence; word; word; lives.

"Hush! Silence along the line there! Not a word—not a word, on peril of your lives!"

40th Color.—Anxiety. All the words are colored alike. "Alack! I'm afraid they have awakened, and 'tis not done."

41st Color.—Melancholy. Color words : Seems; is; not. "Seems, madam! Nay, it is. I know not seems."

42d Color.—Sarcasm. Color words: Dead; myself; you; honorable.

"I rather choose to wrong the dead, to wrong myself, and you, than I will wrong such honorable men."

43d Color.—Satire. Color words : Dog; money; cur; ducats.

"What should I say to you? Should I say, hath a dog money? Is it possible a cur can lend three thousand ducats!"

44th Color.—Irony. Color words: Tenderer; pity; lonely.

"I know nothing in this world tenderer than the pity