1. Bee-boo-boh-baw-bah.2. Pee-poo-poh-paw-pah.3. Mee-moo-moh-maw-mah.4. Fee-foo-foh-faw-fah.5. Vee-voo-voh-vaw-vah.6. Dee-doo-doh-daw-dah.7. Kee-koo-koh-kaw-kah.8. Nee-noo-noh-naw-nah.9. Tee-too-toh-taw-tah.10. Lee-loo-loh-law-lah.
1. Bee-boo-boh-baw-bah.2. Pee-poo-poh-paw-pah.3. Mee-moo-moh-maw-mah.4. Fee-foo-foh-faw-fah.5. Vee-voo-voh-vaw-vah.6. Dee-doo-doh-daw-dah.7. Kee-koo-koh-kaw-kah.8. Nee-noo-noh-naw-nah.9. Tee-too-toh-taw-tah.10. Lee-loo-loh-law-lah.
Be careful not to blur the vowel sounds; each must be distinct and pure, and the change from one to the next must be made with a minimum of effort and without disturbing the focus of the tone.
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The divisions (aandb) of each of the above four variants may be regarded as distinct exercises or not. For further practice use as initial consonants any or all of the following:b,p,m,f,v,d,k,n,t, andl.
As in the previous exercises practise quietly with unvarying focus and aim to finish the phrase with breath unexhausted. Pitch the exercise to suit the voice.
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Sing this scale exercise in medium range, without blurring either the vowel sounds or the notes.
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The exercises thus far given have employed the five vowel sounds found most helpful in gaining a free resonance. These should now be supplemented by the use ofallthe vowel sounds. It is obvious that unless the singer is at home with every vowel and on any pitch in his vocal range perfect pronunciation is impossible. InChapter IIa Scale of Vowel Sounds is given. For convenience it is repeated here:
scale
Having so far mastered the previous exercises as to establish a free head and nasal resonance, take the Scale of Vowel Sounds and apply it to the now familiar exercises.
Next, as suggested inExercise X, use as initial consonants in connection with the Vowel Scale the consonantsb,p,m,f,v,d,k,n,tandl.
Keep before you the formula that articulation shouldseemto be done entirely with and through the upper lip;i.e., thethoughtshould be that the words are projected through the upper lip.
When by practise of the exercises given the voice has been focused and resonance established without any instrument,scale exercises and simple vocalises may be taken up with or without the piano.
In practising scales start each a semitone higher until theeasy limitof the voice is reached, and no farther. Gain will be more rapid by working to deliver the tones within the voice's normal compass. Then when occasional effort is made the organs will be found ready to deliver the highest pitch of which the voice is capable.
When sufficient progress has been made in mastering the execution of scales and easy vocalises, the pupil will be ready to begin the study of songs. If one foregoes the singing of songs during the few weeks occupied with primary lessons, results are obtained much more quickly.
While practising exercises or songs the less the pianoforte is used, except to compare the pitch, the better. Such practice increases the confidence of the performer. The instrument prevents the singer's listening to the tone he is producing and judging of its effectiveness.
Pupils with high or very low voices may continue their practice higher or lower as the voice is soprano, or bass, or contralto, but much practice on the extremes of the voice is unadvisable. If pure tones are produced in the medium range of the voice the highest or lowest tones will be found ready when called for. Therefore practise the extremes of the voice only enough to know the limits of the voice and to be assured the tones are there.
When the singer can perform the preceding simple exercises and know that the tones are all focused, or placed and delivered, precisely alike, he is ready to practise any scale, down or up, and to execute any musical exercise or song for which he is intellectually fitted.
Whatis the most frequent obstacle to good singing, the difficulty with which pupil and teacher most contend? Throat stiffness. What more than anything else mars the singing of those we hear in drawing-rooms, churches, and the concert room? Throat stiffness.
This is the vice that prevents true intonation, robs the voice of its expressiveness, limits its range, lessens its flexibility, diminishes its volume, and makes true resonance impossible.
This great interferer not only lessens the beauty of any voice, but directly affects the organ itself. The muscles of the larynx are small and delicate, and the adjustments they make in singing are exceedingly fine. When, however, the voice user stiffens his throat, these delicate muscles in their spontaneous effort to make the proper adjustments are compelled to contract with more than their normal strength. Every increase in throat stiffness demands a corresponding increase in muscle effort, an overexertion that persisted in must result in injury to the organ itself. Such misuse of the voice is bound to show injurious results. Every throat specialist knows this, and an untold multitude of those who, beginning with promise, have had to give up singing as a career, learn it too late.
Singers are so accustomed to the sound of their own voices as to be usually quite unconscious of their own throat stiffness, though they may recognize it in their neighbor.
Unfortunately throat stiffness by its very nature tends to aggravate itself, to constantly increase while the voice becomes less and less responsive to the singer's demands.
There are a number of contributing causes to throat stiffness, but the principal cause isthroat consciousnessand misplaced effort, due largely to current misconceptions regarding the voice. A common notion is that we sing with the throat, whereas we singthroughit. Akin to this error is the notion, as common as it is fallacious, that force of tone, carrying power, originates in the larynx, whereas the initial tone due to the vibration of the vocal cords is in itself comparatively feeble. As shown at length inChapters VIandVII, volume of tone, its color and carrying power, is acoustically and vocally a matter ofresonance.
Many there are who sing by dint of sheer force and ignorance, but their careers are necessarily short. The too common vulgar striving for power rather than for beauty or purity of tone induces unnatural effort and strain that both directly and sympathetically affect the throat with stiffness.
Unnatural effort in breathing, over-effort in breath control, as well as singing without adequate breath, all induce tension that is reflected at once in the sensitive throat.
Impatience of results, American hurry, beget unnatural effort and tension. "Unclasp the fingers of a rigid civilization from off your throat." The student of the violin or the piano soon learns that only by a long and patient preparation can he fit himself to entertain even his admiring friends. The embryo singer, on the contrary, expects with far less expenditure of time and effort to appear in public.
The human voice is a direct expression of the man himself; it registers spontaneously his mental and emotional states, even when he would wish them hidden. Mental conditions tinged with impatience, with fear, or with anything that begets tension of any sort are reflected instantly in the voice, robbing it of its better qualities and inducing stiffness in the throat.
Reduced to its lowest terms voice culture to-day is a struggle with throat stiffness.
The causes indicate the remedy. Foremost, then, is dropping all throat consciousness, all thought of the throat, all drawing of attention to it. The larynx must be left uncramped, unhindered to do its work in free unconsciousness,which it will do if not disturbed by tension in its neighborhood, or by misdirected thought.
The stream of consciousness must in singing be directed to the breathing which is below the throat, and to resonance and pronunciation which are above it. These functions are more or less consciously controlled until at last mastery makes their action automatic.
I would once more emphasize the fact that the free use of all the resonance chambers, and the recognition of the great function of resonance, will do more than anything else to set the voice free and emancipate the singer from all interfering rigidity.
Pupilsare constantly urged to sing and speak naturally, because the "natural" tone is correct. This is exceedingly indefinite. It is natural for a child to imitate the first sound it hears, whether it be correct or incorrect. In either case the child imitates it, and for that child it becomes the natural tone. The child reared in the wilderness, beyond the hearing of a human voice, will imitate the notes of the whip-poor-will, the chatter of the monkey, and the hoot of the owl, and for him they are natural tones.
To be natural is the hardest lesson to learn and it is only the result of imitation or prolonged discipline. Untrained naturalness is the perfection of awkwardness. The involuntary functions of organic life are the only ones naturally performed correctly. Nature's method of breathing, circulation, and digestion can be depended upon until disarranged by subsequent conditions, but unless proper vocalization is established by imitation and discipline this function is sure to be corrupted by false examples.
After the child begins to talk, the sooner his vocal education begins the better. Even at that early age he can be made to understand the merits of head vibrations and by simple exercises produce them, and once taught will never forget them. Vocalizing, like every other art, is most easily learned by imitation, and the advantage of the early years, when that faculty is most active, should not be lost. In olden times the importance of this was fully realized. More than three centuries ago, old Roger Ascham wrote: "All languages, bothlearned and mother tongues, are begotten and gotten solely by imitation. For as ye used to hear so ye learn to speak. If ye hear no other, ye speak not yourself; and of whom ye only hear, of them ye only learn." Nineteen centuries ago Quintillian wrote: "Before all let the nurses speak properly. The boy will hear them first and will try to shape his words by imitating them."
If the right way of using the voice is early taught it will be a guard against the contraction of bad habits which can only be corrected later with infinite trouble. It certainly would be unwise to put a young child under continued training; but even in the kindergarten the right method of voice production can and should be taught. Teachers of kindergarten and primary schools should be familiar with the principles of voice training and be able to start the pupils at once on the right road.
The sooner this branch of education is made a part of the curriculum of our common schools, the sooner shall we produce a race of good speakers and singers.
If, during the pupil's school life, proper attention is paid to these primary principles and tocorrect articulation, a large majority of students will graduate from our common schools prepared to advance in the art of elocution or of singing without being obliged first to unlearn a vast amount of error and to correct a long list of bad habits.
If each day in the public schools a few minutes only are devoted to the subject by a teacher who understands it and who will call the attention of the pupils to the proper applications of the principles in their daily recitations, it will be found amply sufficient to develop and establish a good speaking and singing voice.
If artistry is to be attained, every organ must be individually well trained. Yet, during performance, no one partshould be given undue prominence. The voice should be the product of all the organs equally well developed. Continued practice will enable the performer to correlate the whole—blend the strength of all in one.
It goes without saying that no one in singing or speaking should appear to be governed by a "method." During the early stages of education, pupils should be amenable to rules and methods, but they must not expect to be acceptable performers until able to forget their lessons and simply and unconsciously make use of all the advantages of their training. Even when the education is finished, and theprima donnahas made her successful debut, continued daily repetition of primary exercises is necessary to maintain excellence and insure the progress that every performer desires. Our best singers to-day are as diligent students of the technique of the voice as are the tyros struggling with the first elements.
Human life is divided into three periods:first, that of effort to get an education;second, of effort to maintain it; andthird, of effort to resist the natural decline which comes with advancing years. The singer and speaker must drill to develop the voice, must drill to keep it in condition, and must drill to resist the encroachments of senility. Eternal vigilance is the price of vocal success.
The application of the principles here discussed will show that a musical voice is not the product of mysterious systems, but a matter of scientific certainty. The essentials are good breathing, good focusing, good resonance, and good articulation. These four elements are so interdependent that one cannot be perfected without the other. With these attained, the intellect, the sentiment, and the emotion of the performer will culminate in artistic excellence.
The nervousness or fear which manifests itself in constraint and rigidity of the muscles and sometimes in stage fright is a serious hindrance to progress. The effectual offset to this painful condition is repose.
The art of inducing a condition of repose can be readily acquired by any one who will carefully and faithfully do as follows: Place yourself in an easy lying or lounging position in a quiet place, with fresh air. Physical repose prepares for and invites mental repose. Now allow the mind to work care free at its own sweet will without any attempt to control it. Close the eyes andbreathe slowly, gently, and deeply, with steady rhythm. In two or three minutes a sensation of quiet restful repose will be experienced, which may be continued for several minutes or may even lead to a natural sound sleep.
This result may not be attained at the first or the second trial, but a few repetitions of the exercise will insure success in almost every case. After the art is attained in this formal way, ability to induce the same repose when sitting upright, or while standing, will be quickly developed.
This repose is the fitting preparation for a lesson or a performance and may be induced during the progress of either, to allay any trepidation incident to the situation. A mastery of this simple art will make progress in the work of voice development much more rapid, and make attainable a degree of discipline that is impossible without it. It will prove for the beginner a sure prevention of stage fright and a great relief to the most chronic sufferer from this malady.
Thevibratois a rhythmic pulsation of the voice. It often appears in untrained voices; in others it appears during the process of cultivation. Some have thought it the perfection of sympathetic quality; others esteem it a fault.
The vibrato is caused by an undulating variation of pitch or power, often both. The voice does not hold steadily andstrictly to the pitch, and according to the amount of the variation a corresponding vibrato, or tremolo, is produced.
The action of stringed instruments illustrates this statement. The finger of the violinist vibrates on the string by rocking rapidly back and forth and the vibrato is the result.
The same is true of the human instrument. By variation of the tension, the vocal apparatus sends forth several tones in alternation, of a slightly different pitch, which together produce the effect.
Three sources are ascribed for the vibrato; one is a rapid, spasmodic vibration of the diaphragm, causing variation of breath pressure; another is the alternate tension and relaxation of the larynx and vocal cords; a third is that commonest of faults—throat stiffness. Either cause is possible, and variation in the pitch or intensity of the tone is the result. Sufficient investigations have not been made to make the matter certain, but tremolo, trembling of the vocal organs, and muscular stiffness, or unnatural tension, seem to go together.
It is quite possible in the early stages of culture so to train the voice as to use the vibrato or not at will, but if not early controlled this, like other bad habits, gains the mastery. Excessive vibrato has spoiled many good voices. It is not a fundamental quality of the voice. A little vibrato may occasionally be desirable when properly and skilfully used; more than this is to be shunned as a dangerous vice.
Mentalconception precedes execution. The picture must exist in the artist's mind before it can be drawn on the canvas. The architect must mentally see the majestic cathedral in all its details before he can draw the plans from which it can be built. In the field of physical activity no movement is made until the mind has gone before and prepared the way. A person's ability to do is in a great degree measured by his determination to do, but sitting in a rocking-chair and thinking will never make an athlete. Mental action is necessary, but only through trained muscular action can the mental action materialize in a finished performance.
So too the mind must anticipate the action of the vocal organs, but the organs themselves must be led to interpret the mental concept until such action becomes spontaneous. Action in turn quickens the mental process, and the mental picture becomes more vivid.
Note with emphasis that the mental conceptprecedesthe action and governs it. Therefore, instead of producing tone by local effort, by conscious muscular action of any sort, correctlythink the tone, correctly shape and color itmentally.Every vocal tone is a mental concept made audible.The beginner and the confirmed bungler alike fail in this prime essential—they do not make this mental picture of tone before singing it. Kindred to this is deficiency in hearing, in discriminating between good tone color and poor. The student must constantly compare his tone as it is sung with the picture in his mind. Training the voice is therefore largely a training of mind and ear, a developing of nicety in discrimination. Singing is mental rather than physical, psychologic rather than physiologic. Think therefore of the effect desired rather than of the process.
In considering the details of voice production analytically we are apt to forget that man, notwithstanding his complexity, is aunitand acts as a unit. Back of all and underlying man's varied activity is the psychical. In the advanced stages of the art of speech and song this psychical element is of pre-eminent importance.
The speaker who essays to give expression to his own thoughts must have his ideas sharply defined and aflame in order to so utter them that they will arouse his hearers to enthusiasm. The speaker or singer who would successfully interpret the thoughts of others must first make those thoughts his very own. When this is attained, then the voice, action, and the whole spirit of the performer, responding to the theme, will beget a like responsiveness in his audience.
Books upon books have been written on voice training, and will continue to be written. The preceding pages have been devoted to the fundamental subject of tone production, but it is time to suggest that back of the voice and the song is the singer himself with his complex personality. Back of the personality is the soul itself, forever seeking utterance through its mask of personality. All genuine impulse to sing is from the soul in its need for expression. Through expression comes growth in soul consciousness and desire for greater and greater self-expression.
Singing is far more than "wind and muscle," for, as Ffrangcon-Davies puts it, "The whole spiritual system, spirit, mind, sense,soul, together with the whole muscular system from feet to head, will be in the wise man's singing,and the whole man will be in the tone."
Of all the expressions of the human spirit in art form, the sublimated speech we call song is the most direct. Every other art requires some material medium for its transmission, and in music, subtlest of all the arts, instruments are needed, except in singing only.
In song the singer himself is the instrument of free and direct expression. Freedom of expression, complete utterance, is prevented only by the singer himself. No one hinders him, no one stands in the way but himself. The business of the teacher is toset freethat which is latent. His high calling is by wise guidance to help the singer to get out of his own way, to cease standing in front of himself. Technical training is not all in all. Simple recognition of the existence of our powers is needed even more. Freedom comes through the recognition and appropriation of inherent power; recognition comes first, the appropriation then follows simply. The novice does not know his natural power, his birthright, and must be helped to find it, chiefly, however, by helping himself, by cognizing and re-cognizing it.
No student of the most human of all arts—singing—need give up if he has burning within him thesong impulse, thehunger to sing. This inner impulse is by its strength an evidence of the power to sing; the very hunger is a promise and a prophecy.
The deterrents to beautiful singing are physical in appearance, but these are outer signs of mental or emotional disturbance. Normal poise, which is strength, smilingly expresses itself in curves, in tones of beauty.
Mental discordresults in angularity, rigidity, harshness.
Impatienceproduces feverishness that makes vocal poise impossible; and impatience induces the modern vice of forcing the tone. Growth is a factor for which hurried forcing methods make no allowance.
Excess of emotionwith its loss of balance affects the breathing and play of the voice.
Exertion, trying effort, instead of easy, happy activity induces hampering rigidities.
Intensity, over-concentration, or rather false concentration, emotional tension, involves strain, and strain is always wrong.
Over-conscientiousness, with its fussiness about petty detail, and insistence on non-essentials, is a deterrent from which the robust are free.Over-attention to the mechanicsof voice production is a kindred deterrent. Both deterrents prevent that prime characteristic of expression—spontaneity.
Anxietyis a great contractor of muscle, a great stiffener. Anxiety always forgets thepowerwithin, and falsely says to the song-hunger, "You shall never be satisfied."
Self-repressionis a great deterrent that afflicts the more sensitive, particularly those of puritanic inheritance. It is a devitalizer and a direct negative to expression, which is vital, islife.
All of these deterrents are negative and may be overcome by fuller recognition of the inner power that by its very nature must perpetually seek positive expression.
In conclusion, the student can perpetually find encouragement in a number of happy facts.
Man is endowed by nature, except in rare instances, with a perfect vocal apparatus. When abnormal conditions are found they are usually in the adult voice, and are due solely to misuse. In other words defects are not inherent but acquired andcan be removed.
By nature the human voice is beautiful, for the tendency of nature is always in the direction of beauty. Whatever is unlovely in singing, as in all else, isunnatural. True method is therefore never artificial in its action, but simple, because the natural is always simple.
Finally, no, not finally, but firstly and secondly and thirdly and perpetually, every student of singing and every teacher of it must constantly bear in mind the happy law:
THE RIGHT WAY IS ALWAYS AN EASY WAY