Los Angeles herald., 1909-12-19

with strap drawn tightly around his
throat, what you would hear would not
be his natural voice. 1t would be moth
ing more than a forced sound.
If you should happen to be in the
next room, not knowing the circum-
stances, you would Immediately con-
clude that the man had no voice.
And yet you would not be right in
this conclusion, for with the strap re-
moved he would produce the most
beautiful of tones.
Neither are you right in concluding
that the average person has no voice,
for what you hear in the average case
is not the natural voice, but a forced
sound, caused by a stiffening of the
tongue, Jaw. face and throat, which
is Just as disastrous to the singer as
a strap being drawn around the throat.
So you see 1t is quite possible Tor
one TO have a beautiful voice, and yet
never produce anything more than the
ugly sound caused by stiffenlng of the
parts just mentioned.
What, then, you will ask, is the
cause of this contraction of throat that
prevents so many musically inclined
people from singing?
My answer is that it is due somewhat
to nervousness and lack of confidence,
but principally to wrong conception
of effort.
You will Immediately wish to know
how this wrong effort can be over
come.
The remedy lies in mastering the
right effort.
In my attempt to tell you what this
right effort is, l am going to compare
the vocal instrument to the violin, but
only in a general way.
In playing the violin the bow is
drawn across the strings which pro-
duce the original vibrations.
In singing the breath is sent across
the vocal ligaments which produce the
original vibrations.
In playing the violin. the body OF
the violin constitutes the resonator
and reinforce the original vibrations.
In singing the nose, pharynx roof
of mouth and other cavities constitute
the resonator and reinforce the orig
inal vibrations.
In playing the violin, the arm,
which controls the bow, constitutes the
effort or motor power.
In singing, the breathing muscles,
which control the breath, constitute
the effort or motor power.
You will observe that the breath and
the bow are used for the same pur-
pose, that is, to produce the original
vibrations; so that we must accept the
power that controls the breath as the
power that controls the voice.
Nature has provided certain mus
cles for controlling the breath, the
principal ones being the intercostal
and abdominal muscles and dia-
phragm.
It is the action of these muscles
which constitutes the right effort that
should be used in singing, the master
ing of which is the only way of doing
away with the wrong effort, which is
the cause of most of the trouble.
We shall now proceed to see how
these muscles are employed in controll-
ing the voice.
The first proposition that confronts
you in singing is the taking of the
breath.
AS you expand a bellows, the air
rushes in and fills it.
AS you expand the chest, the air
rushes into the lungs, filling them.
This expansion of chest is brought
about by the action of the intercostal
muscles which are assisted by the
diaphragm as 1t contracts and fiattens
out.
The next thing that confronts you Is
control of voice during singing.
AS you know, in singing, you can
not let all the air out at once; you
must allow it to escape in slow, uni
form flow.
This means that 1t must be held back
as we'll as forced out.
So that you really have two powers
employed in voice production.
Let us see, then, what these two
powers are, and how their action Is
employed in giving perfect control
over the voice.