Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-01-25

Il
/ ing voice and the singing voice. q do not
speak of mems voices; only of those Of women
and children.) The speaking voice is at the
bottom of the scale or compass of vocal tones.
b, just below middle @. In this part of the
scale the thick tones legitimately belong The
singing voice is a very different thing, extend
| ing one and half or two octaves above this;
and the thick voice belongs only at the bottom
/ of 1t. The two may be and should be blended
! together; but to accomplish this the only safe
way is to begin at the top and sing down.
Public-school singing at present is all done in
the speaking voice. Speaking and singing are
different things. and therefore should be done
| in different voices
The two great faults in singing that have
| described, forcing the registers and cramping
| the throat, can be almost entirely overcome by
any ordinary school-teacher who will carry out
the following directions: Begin anywhere from
b fiat to ID. and have the children sing the
| scales down (never up) very softly, with the
mouth wide open. Then take each successive
higher scale down. Not until you have reached
the smaller register will you be perfectly sure
| OF getting the right tone, and then only when
| the tone is given softly and very low in the
| throat. 1t is those scales that begin in the
| small register, on and above, that are the
most useful to practice. Some children will
| not be able to sing these high tones at
| first, and they must be told to join in on
| a lower tone. But most children can sing
| + with ease when they do it properly, and
many can go much higher. As TO the syllables
| 10 be sung. never begin with the old-fashloned
| oh. 1t is a time-honored custom to sing oh or
Ia; but never do it with beginners, because
on these syllables the tongue almost always
| rises at the back, and the tone, instead of COM
| ing out of the mouth, is forced up through the
| nose. Instead of this, make the children begin
| by singing q, like in may. Tell them to keep
the mouth well open, to sing way down in the
| throat, not up in the nose, TO keep the tongue
well forward. touching the lower teeth, and to
| sing very softly indeed. The tone must not be
| confined in the mouth but must come directly
through the mouth through tube. Some
| people imagine that singing low in the throat
makes cultural tone. This is not so. gut
| tural tone is made when the tongue slips back
into the throat and fills it up. To tell person
! to sing low in the throat makes him keep his
lynx from rising. Constantly urge the schol-
airs to keep their Threats wide open, to keep
the tongue stretched forward out of the throat,
and not to sing through the nose.
After considerable practice on a. have the
children sing 90, but be careful that the mouth
be not too much closed. Ii it be. the voice will
De confined IN the mouth. and Will be thin and
poor. Generally when children play steam
cars" and say hoo, hoo. they make "a very good.
full tone. The other vowels NAV be practsed
somewhat. but and 90 are the easiest to make
well. Ee makes a very good tone when prop
erly sung. but the voice is very apt to be con-
fined in the mouth. The tongue must be kept
very far forward, and on the high tones the
mouth must be wide open. If children do not
open their Threats well on the low tones, tell
them to sing in trhispr. This almost always
produces the proper result If they have failed
to understand before. Not that you want them
to give breathing instead of tone; but the
idea of a whisper seems to give them the idea
of open throat and open tone. But be careful
that there be no breathiness of tone. This is q
fault very often noticeable in weak voices, and
sometimes even in strong ones. 1t is sound
like the rustling of the leaves on the trees
when the wind blows. 1t is caused by using
too much breath.
A subject which ought to receive consider
able attention Is the manner of taking breath
Singers should use the lower part of the lungs
as much as possible and not puff out the chest
and raise the shoulders every time they inhale
This Is not only awkward, but it has tendency
to cramp the throat muscles. The best way to
teach class to breathe properly is to make
them stand with their hands clasped behind
their backs, with the elbows stiffened, and then
to tell them to draw their shoulders down and
back. In this position IL is easier to breathe
low down and keep the chest from rising.
Never urge the scholars to take long breath
and never allow them to take breath audibly
The singer who breathes so that he can be heard
all over the room makes great mistake.
When it is desired to give the children songs
to sing. do not choose low songs, as has always
been the mistaken custom. Choose high songs
always. and If possible those that begin above
G on the staff. 1t is better for beginners not
to have songs of great compass, and they ought
not to contain many notes below f on the first
space; but when the children fairly under
stand how to sing properly they can sing low
tones perfectly well if they do not sing them
too loud.
But let me protest. Teachers should not
pitch tunes or allow children to pitch tunes en-
tirely at random. The result must often be
that the voices are carried too high or too low
There seems to be no reason why all teachers
ShOnlH q Wi itch
that the tunes may be set properly. Another
very serious mistake made in schools is that of
allowing and sometimes forcing boys TO sing
after their voices begin to change. This NAV
happen at any age between thirteen and seven
teen. No boy ought to sing at this time; it may
cause the ruin of his voice for life.
am advocating a very radical change in
the treatment of children's voices. II is not
original with me, though many will learn of it
for the first time through these pages Many
people have been unwilling to adopt this
method because it seemed to them an innova-
ton without correct foundation. One gentle
man, well-known professional musician said
to me recently: ITO make children sing high
songs Is great strain for the voices: it is lust
as bad az making them play on the piano with
cramped fingers; give the hand freedom Of
action and You make playing easy and pleas
ant This gentlemans own comparison sug-
gests the answer to his objection. "Cramped
muscles is the text of the whole sermon that
1 have been preaching. If children are to 90
on singing with cramped throat muscles, then
singing high songs is as bad as playing with
cramped hands. Children who sing in this
way always find the high notes hard
to reach, and if they succeed in reach
ing them at all, it is only in very
weak, though much sweeter voice, which they
have been obliged to break into. OF course in
any method voices may be taken too high No
one should sing so high that he cannot make
good pure tone. There are women and chill
dren too, who ought not to sing higher than
ID Fourth line); but either they are altos or
else they have very weak voices. Real altos
among children are rare, though many may be
allowed to sing an alto part. But the fact
which ought to be recognized among teachers
Il that childrens voices are at least as high as
women's voices, while very little chiIdren's are
apt to be higher. This stands to reason: the
woman's voice is higher than the mans be-
cause the iarynx is smaller; the child's larynx
Is smaller than the woman's. with the same
natural result. The fact that little children
are generally made to sing low songs is no
proof that they have not high voices. On the
contrary, this forcing of the low tones is the
chief cause of the great lack of musical voices
among our children.
III it be objected that there is not time to
train the voice in school, Irepeat that it seems
TO me much more important than to teach
vocal reading, for who cares to hear vocal read
ing IN a disagreeable voice? Moreover. this
teaching takes very little time But if no time
at all can be given to it. simply to make the
children sing high tunes in a soft voice. instead
OF low tunes in a loud voice, would do much
toward efipctlnO a heat