register for the speaking voice. I take them at nine years of age, sometimes younger if they can read fairly well, and my first effort is to suppress the thick register altogether in singing. If they were encouraged to use it they would most certainly abuse it by carrying it far beyond its proper range. Soft singing is the only effective plan I know of for removing the tendency to use the thick register. This I insist on in modulator voluntaries and time exercises. The time exercises are always laa'd on or above . [Listen] In modulator work I at first avoid beginning in the lower keys where the thick register would naturally be used. By thus constantly cultivating the thin register, never allowing faulty intonation to pass unnoticed, and always checking the natural tendency of boys to sing coarsely; together with a free use of ear exercises, in which they are taught to recognise tones by their mental effect, I succeed at last in getting fairly good tone. It is, however, a work of time and difficulty, on account of the daily surroundings of the boys, and the habitually coarse way in which they are allowed to sing in school. To avoid flattening, I believe the course I have indicated to be the best remedy, as eye, ear, and voice are cultivated simultaneously.

"In training the thin register special care must be taken that the Upper Thin is brought out at [Listen] and it is often better that the C also should be taken in the Upper Thin. A strained Lower Thin on C sharp or D will be sure to induce flattening, while if the Upper Thin is properly used there is no difficulty whatever in using the high D and E within reasonable limits as the reciting note in chanting. When the music moves about stepwise in close proximity above and below the breaks, we have another cause of flattening. As most of our country choirs consist at the best of but partly-trained voices, composers and choirmasters should bear this in mind. It must not be supposed that boys are the sole cause of flattening. Far from it, they are too often the victims of an untuneful tenor or bass.

"From the first moment a boy comes under my care he is encouraged to take the Tonic Sol-fa certificates, and few leave the choir without having passed the Intermediate. I am of course now speaking of those boys who remain with us till they are no longer of use as boys."

I append an extract from a letter by Mr. J. C. E. Taylor, master of the Boys' National School at Penzance, and choirmaster of St. Mary's Church, which is interesting as showing the extent to which singing by ear can be carried:—

"The children here, as in most Cornish towns, are fond of music, and have a quick ear. I pick my boys from a school of nearly 400. I choose them by the way they read in school. They are generally of Standard V., and between ten and eleven years of age. If younger the Psalms puzzle them. I try a new boy's voice at the choir practice. If he has a sweet tone, and can reach F sharp, however faintly, I accept him, and keep him on probation at the practices. About half-a-dozen are so kept, and the best lad fills any vacancy occurring in the choir. I have no trouble as regards discipline, as a fine, or the knowledge that their places can be instantly filled by the probationers, keeps the choristers well in their places. At the choir practices I begin with running up and down the scales with their voices together, beginning soft, and allowing the voices to increase as the scales ascend, and diminish on descending, but holding on to the top-most notes whilst I play a chord or two on it. Then with a nod of my head they descend. At times one note is given them on which to cres. and dim., for breathing exercise. Not one lad knows his notes except as to their rise and fall and values. They depend on their ear entirely, even in the most difficult fugues."

At this church anthems and settings of the Canticles are sung every Sunday evening. The men are voluntary; the head boys get from 30s. to 40s. a year, the solo boys receiving 3d. or 6d. as an encouragement after rendering a solo or verse part.

In spite of all that can be written on the subject of voice-training, the art is one most difficult to communicate. Some teachers succeed; others fail. A remarkable instance of this came under my notice lately. The headmaster of a school asked me to pay his boys a visit in order, if possible, to discover the reason of the great falling-off in their singing. His previous singing-teacher had brought the boys to a high pitch of excellence. When he left, the singing was placed under the charge of an undermaster, who had for a year or more heard all the singing lessons given by his predecessor, who used the same voice exercises with the same boys in the same room. Surely, one would have thought the results must be the same. But the singing had deteriorated; flattening, and a lifeless manner had overcome the boys. The causes, so far as I could discover, were first that the new teacher wanted the magnetic, enthusiastic way of the old, and second, that he had not so quick an ear for change of register, and allowed the lower mechanism of the voice to be forced up higher than its proper limits.

This chapter focuses a large amount of valuable experience, but amid the many hints which are given, two ways of securing right tone stand out with marked prominence. They are, soft singing, and the downward practice of scales.