At the close of the number we were greeted with bravos and
applause that lasted for some time. It was the crowning reward for my
weeks of patient training and careful watchfulness. I never taught her
after that evening and I heard she had several other instructors. I
heard, however, that she had never returned to the tremolo after I had
once placed her voice in the right path. Had she been a student I
think the state of California would have been proud to have claimed
her, but she lacked stability in her work. She still sings but I have
not heard her for years. This was my first experience.
In the year 1907 I cured twenty-five young people, both girls and
boys, of this dreadful habit, which seems to be the death knell of all
of our California young singers. Every one of these became addicted to
this habit through wrong instruction by persons who were not teachers
at all in the true sense of the word, not knowing the construction of
the voice themselves so as to lead the pupil into the proper channel,
having lost their own voices by these methods they were not competent
to instruct others. How is it possible for them to guide the young
singer when they cannot give a pure tone example themselves for the
pupil to follow? Freshness and steadiness are the most valuable
properties of a voice, but are also the most delicate and easily
injured and quickly lost. When once really impaired they can never be
restored. This is the condition of a voice which is said to be lost.
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