Scientific Singing

Cover of "Scientific Singing", with the author's EST monogram at lower right

In his book Scientific Singing, E. Standard Thomas wastes no time in getting to his point:

Do you realize that you can sing? Do you realize that to sing is a normal expression of your spiritual nature? Do you realize that song has a place in every life?

Clearly, Thomas was a singing teacher, and this book was his manifesto. In his next breath, he confronts your fears:

Why don’t you sing? Because I have no voice. Why do you say you have no voice? You have never proved it.

The real reason why you do not sing is because you do not appreciate the value singing will be to you. You do not realize that in your everyday life singing is of actual worth. Singing is not a great mystery. It is but the expression of ideas you are conceiving every day. The gift of song is possessed by all. It is within your grasp. You can appreciate it. You can attain it. You can express yourself in song.

Title page of "Scientific Singing", including a photograph of the author's studio

Edgar Standard Thomas—surely one of the best author names in all of Paul Elder’s catalog—was the son of Mr and Mrs J. W. Thomas of Berkeley. The San Francisco Call society pages of 6 August 1911 reported that “Mrs Thomas and her son, Edgar Standard Thomas, have returned to their North Berkeley home after an absence of two months in the east. The Thomas home, ‘La Loma,’ has been one of the show places of Berkeley for 30 years. Mrs Thomas recently built her son a studio overlooking San Francisco Bay.” (What a nice thing to have your parents build you a music studio!) A photograph of that studio appears on the frontispiece.

Scientific Singing, page 56-57