Expressive Voice Culture | Page 3

the mouth. Many
so-called "humming tones" are given for practice, but in accepting them
observe whether the foregoing principle is obeyed.
The controlling center of consciousness is the extreme limit of the
nares anteri. The tone should be thought of as outside. Keep the mind
upon results, just as one would hold the thought of a certain figure
which one might desire to draw. If one wishes to inscribe a curve, he
thinks of the curve as an object of thought, not of the muscles which act
in executing it. So with the voice. A tone is not a reality until its form
of vibration reaches the outer air. One should always think of the tone
one wishes to make--never listen to one's own execution. If the ideal is
not reached by the effort it will be known by the sense of
incompleteness.
Why is the nares anteri the ruling center of tone direction? The
dominant or ruling center of any organism is that point which, if
controlled, will involve the regulation of all that is subordinate to it. For
example, the heart is the dominant center of the circulatory system; the
brain is the dominant center of the nervous system; the sun is the
dominant center of the planetary system. In all these systems, if the
center be affected, the system is proportionately influenced. If any
other part than the dominant center be affected, it is true that all other
parts may also be affected, but the desired unity in result will not be
secured.

The voice will follow the thought as surely as the hand will reach the
object aimed at. The extreme anterior part of the nares, or head cavity,
is the chamber of resonance farthest from the vocal cords. Therefore, if
the voice be directed through that chamber of resonance all the others
must be passed in reaching it, and hence all must be accessible to the
vibrating column of air. It is a law of acoustics that any given cavity of
resonance will resound to that pitch to which its size corresponds, and
to no other. This law of sound secures the appropriate resonance for
every pitch much more accurately than it could be secured by an effort
to develop chest, middle, and head registers through calculating the
differences. Again, we need the higher chambers of resonance to
reinforce even the low pitch, because every note has its overtones that
enrich it, and if these cannot find their proper resonance the tone is
impoverished. It may be well to explain our use of the term "overtone."
This word "overtone" is used unscientifically by many. The
significance of its use is somewhat varied among teachers, but it
generally means head resonance, or a tone "sent over" through the head
cavities. The term is used here technically, not arbitrarily. Overtones
are not confined to the voice, but are those constituent parts of any tone
which are produced by the vibrating segments into which any vibrating
cord will divide itself.
Any cord, or string, stretched between two given points, when struck
will vibrate throughout its entire length in waves of a certain length and
with a certain degree of rapidity, according to the tension of the string.
This vibration of the entire length of cord gives forth the tone heard as
the fundamental pitch or tone. Besides this fundamental or primary
vibration, the movement divides itself into segments, or sections, of the
entire length. These sections also have vibrations of their own which
are of shorter length and more rapid motion. The note given off by
these subdivisions is, of course, on a higher pitch than that produced by
the fundamental vibration of the cord; hence, they are higher tones, or
overtones. It will be remembered that pitch depends upon the rapidity
of the sound waves or vibrations. This subdivision of the vibrations is
incalculably multiplied, so that it may be said to be impossible to
determine the number of overtones accompanying the fundamental tone.

What the ear hears is the fundamental pitch only; the overtones
harmonize with the primary or fundamental tone, and enrich it. Since
this is a law of vibration, it is unscientific to speak of giving an
overtone, for all tones contain overtones. Where these overtones are
interfered with by any imperfection in the instrument the result is a
harsh or imperfect sound.
In relation to the voice it should now be clearly understood that since it
is the overtones which enrich or give a harmonious sound to any tone,
and since all tones (low as well as high) have overtones as constituent
parts of their being, therefore the whole range of the resonant cavities
of the voice should, for the production of pure tone, be open to all
degrees of pitch, in order that the