a

purpose
of this, as has been made evident, was to secure
complete ease and freedom of the throat, by taking the ten-
sion away from the muscles there and putting it at the dia-
phragm and waist muscle where it belongs. But in the
production of the best tone comparatively little breath is
allowed to pass out during vocalization. Clearness and pu-
rity of voice is determined largely by the amount of breath
held in reserve to support, or back up, the tone. When
you are able to breathe with free action of the diaphragm,
and to produce tone through a well relaxed throat, the fol-
lowing exercises may be undertaken :-

12. Stand in an easy upright position, with shoulders and arms
relaxed and head easily poised; take a fairly full breath,
hold firmly at the diaphragm, and prolong the vowel "ō"
on a note of middle pitch. Hold the tone ten seconds; fif-
teen seconds; twenty seconds; and so on, emptying the
lungs and taking a good breath after each trial. Hold the
back of the hand close to the mouth when making the tone,
and allow no breath to be felt blowing against it.

13. Sit, and, holding a full breath, speak "po-på" on a monotone, merging the first syllable into the second without interrupting the tone. Use about two seconds for the sounds. Hold back all the breath you can, and be sure that none escapes before tone is initiated. Relax and take a fresh breath after each couplet. Try the exercise on various notes of the scale. Now fill the lungs to their full capacity, have a sense of holding all you have taken, and repeat the couplet three times without replenishing the breath. Repeat on different pitches. When filling the lungs to their capacity, see to it that the shoulders are not raised or lowered. The shoulders should be held normally, never thrown back with an effort, and never allowed to rise and fall with inhalation and exhalation. Test yourself in this by repeating exercises and speaking before a mirror.

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14. Hold the vowel "o" (or "a") as long as you can on one note. Practice the sound on all notes of the scale within your easy range. If you are not accustomed to holding the

breath, you may be unable to hold the tone more than ten or fifteen seconds, at first. Try each day to increase the time. As you gain skill in reserving breath you will be able to hold the sound much longer, perhaps for thirty or forty seconds, or even a minute, but the effort should never be carried to a point of physical discomfort.

15. Read the following stanza, making clear, pure, mellow tones, wholly free from the sound of escaping breath. Relax and replenish the breath at the end of the first and second lines, and after "beyond" in the third. Repeat the lines several times, endeavoring each time to hold the breath better than before and to make the tones purer and clearer.

Above the pines the moon was slowly drifting,

The river sang below;

The dim Sierras, far beyond, uplifting

Their minarets of snow.

Bret Harte: Dickens in Camp.

16. Read the appended extract, sustaining the breath throughout each line. Speak the lines with spirit, making the tone clear, buoyant, and joyous.

Joy, joy, joy in the height and the deep;

Joy like the joy of a leaf that unfolds to the sun;
Joy like the joy of a child in the borders of sleep;
Joy like the joy of a multitude thrilled into one;
Joy, joy, joy in the deep and the height;

Joy in the holiest, joy evermore, evermore.

Richard Hovey: The Taliesin.

3. Resonance and fullness of tone, Voice does not issue X from the larynx full-formed and complete, but, as explained in a preceding chapter (pp. 203-04), quality, fullness, and richness of tone are largely determined in the resonance chambers of the throat, the mouth, and the nasal cavities. The best tone can be produced only when all resonance chambers of throat and head are roomy and free from obstruction. An attack of tonsillitis, or a cold in the head, interferes seriously with the voice. Much of the thinness,

flatness, shrillness, and nasality, so common in our speech, is attributable to constriction and narrowness of the pharynx and the mouth. The adjustment and action of the flexible muscles and tissues of these parts are within the control of the will. The following exercises have been found useful in establishing conditions favorable to normal

resonance:

17. Hold a mirror before you, draw in a full breath through the well-opened mouth, and see whether the uvula, or pendant portion of the soft palate, is visible. Can you see the walls of the throat back of this lobe of the palate when you exhale the breath in sounding the vowel "a"? If not, try saying "gå" two or three times with the mouth wide open. Repeat "a," prolonging the tone, several times, or until you are able to lift easily the uvula from the back of the tongue, and until you can see the back of the throat plainly. 18. Prolong the sound "koo," making the tone reverberate strongly in the upper part of the throat and the back of the mouth. Have a sense of enlarging the throat to its full capacity in sounding the tone. Sing the exercise up and down the scale, holding the tone three or four seconds. 19. Stand firmly on both feet, relax the shoulders, and let the arms hang at the sides; bend forward from the waist as far as you can, relax the muscles of the neck, and allow the head to hang down easily as far as it will While in this position, sound a prolonged "oo" (as in "boom"), making the tone full and round. While holding the sound raise the body to an upright position, and, as you do so, relax the jaw, open the mouth, and merge the "oo" into a strong "a."1

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go.

See that the mouth is opened enough to permit you to place two fingers, one above the other, between the teeth. Repeat

1 This is a good exercise for overcoming nasality, which is caused by allowing too much vibration in the nasal cavities, and not enough in the mouth and upper part of the throat. For remedying this fault try, also, the following: (1) hold the nose and speak the vowel sounds; (2) hold the nose and speak words or combinations of words not containing n or m. Continue such exercises until the resonance of your ordinary speech becomes more rich and normal.

the exercise slowly two or three times. Do not continue the exercise at any one time to the point of discomfort. 20. Speak "fō-fa," relaxing the jaw for the latter half of the

couplet so that two fingers may be placed, one above the other, between the teeth. Repeat the exercise many times and frequently until the muscles of the jaw are easily relaxed and become flexible.1

21. Sound the vowels ā ē ī ō ū, and open the mouth for each of them sufficiently to permit the placing of one finger between the teeth. Practice the scale in this way.

22. The tongue is sometimes an unruly and obstructive member, drawing itself back and ridging up, preventing the free, open utterance of the vowels. In forming the vowels, with possibly the exception of "e," which is not made in the same way by all persons, the tongue should lie flat in the mouth, with the tip touching the gums of the lower front teeth, as it lies after speaking "la." Try repeating "la-lalo" with continuous tone, using the tongue quickly and easily and allowing it to lie lightly in the bottom of the mouth for each vowel. Speak the following lines slowly, opening the mouth well and keeping the tongue low and well forward for the vowels.

"Over the rolling waters go."

"So all day long the noise of battle rolled
Among the mountains by the winter sea."

"I played a soft and doleful air,

I sang an old and moving story-
An old rude song, that suited well
That ruin wild and hoary."

4. Range and flexibility. Variety is the life of speech as truly as it is the spice of life. A voice of good range and flexibility, capable of responding to every shade of thought,

1 The mouth may be thought of as the natural megaphone of the voice, magnifying and reinforcing the tone as it opens. To test this 'close the teeth and say "a" loudly; then, without interrupting the sound, open the mouth so that two fingers may be placed between the teeth and note how the volume of tone is increased. Form the habit of opening the mouth well when you speak.

is essential to pleasing and effective speech of any kind. It is often found that the monotonous voice is associated with an unmusical ear. In such cases training of the ear should accompany training of the voice. With practice and perseverance the ear of persons who cannot distinguish Yankee Doodle from the Old Hundred may be educated to a considerable degree of accuracy in recognizing the pitch of tones, and at the same time the voice may be made flexible and responsive and its range notably extended. 23. If the ear is not quick to catch the pitch of a tone, sound a note on the piano or other instrument, close the eyes, shut out all other impressions, and listen attentively. When the sound possesses the ear and the mind, sing “ō” and approximate as closely as you can the pitch of the voice to that of the instrument. After this tone is secured, sound the one above, then the next above that, and so on. A teacher or friend may render valuable assistance here by indicating when the voice does or does not strike the tone sounded by the instrument. This practice should be continued, at frequent intervals, over a long period of time. Concentration and perseverance in practice will do much to render the ear sensitive and true to pitch.

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24. Speak the vowels in unbroken utterance, beginning low on the scale, and allowing the voice to rise through its whole range in speaking the series; begin high and descend the scale to the lowest tones.

25. Speak the vowels as before, beginning on a low note, giving the first vowel a long upward inflection and continuing the others on successive higher tones, as if asking a question,