Expressive Voice Culture | Page 4

method of practice, we will proceed to give some essential exercises for practice.
EXERCISE FOR SECURING FREEDOM OF TONE
This is the foundation of all voice culture.
1. Take position in accordance with directions given in
Chapter I
.
2. Take humming tone as indicated in the preceding chapter,--_m, n, ng,_--idealized and pure. The mouth should be opened and closed without changing the tone.
3. Endeavor to concentrate all consciousness upon the conception of a tone emanating from the nares anteri and floating in ideal forms of vibration in the surrounding air. Those forms may vary in their definite nature, but must always obey the principle of curves and radiation. One should never reach up to a tone, but should seem to alight upon it from above, as a bird alights on the branch of a tree. The mind must never lose sight of the result--the ideal aimed at. The knowledge of processes leads us to a right conception of aims, and enables us to judge of their correctness. We should know what processes are normal (natural and healthful) and what objects of thought will induce them.
While taking the above exercise no effort should be made in the throat. The voice should seem to find its way without effort. The tone should not be loud or sharp.
If the student finds it difficult to produce the tone alone, some word ending in ing should be practised, as _ring-ring-ring-ng_.
FORMING OF ELEMENTS
First Exercise. Start the humming tone as indicated in the first lesson, and maintain the same focus while forming certain elements. Take the syllable _n-?-m_, allowing no break while going from _n_, the nares sound, to the vowel sound of _o_, and returning to the nares sound of m. This is perhaps the best element to begin upon, because of its definiteness, but the same principle can be applied to other elements of speech, as _Most-men-want-poise-and-more- royal-margin_. Form each syllable with the utmost care. Concentrate the mind upon the ideal sound. First be sure that the pronunciation is accurately conceived. Then enunciate clearly and try each time to make the form more perfect. The principle of thinking is the same as that involved in striving to make a perfect circle, or to execute any figure with more and more beauty. The effort of the mind will bring the result, if the conception of the element to be formed be correct. The sentence given--"_Most men want poise, and more royal margin"_--is composed of such alternation of elements as will tend to bring forward those that might be formed too far back by their association with those elements that are necessarily brought to the front. For example, the word_poise._ The first and last elements are distinctively front. That helps to bring out what is between.
The constant recurrence of the nares tone, as in _m, n,_ etc., may serve as a regulator of tone. The object of this step in practice is to form elements with beauty, and to form them with the same focus as that secured by the humming tone. In this stage of practice each element should be dwelt upon separately, but not in such a way as to mar its expression. For example, unaccented syllables should be lightly pronounced and the right shading carefully observed. Otherwise, when the elements are put together their harmony and smoothness will be wanting and the effect labored and mechanical, as is often the case where attention has been given to the practice of articulation. To make the effort of articulation a vital impulse in response to a mental concept,--this is the object sought. The principle is that the will should be directed toward the ideal to be reached, while the mind comprehends the means incidentally. The means may be considered as a matter of knowledge, useful in guiding the judgment but a hindrance when used as a trap to catch the conscious attention of the practising student.
The whole difference between the artist who is spontaneous and the artisan who is artificial is that the one recognizes the fact that the very existence of human expression proves that the mind awakens the instinctive response of the physical organism, while the other thinks that he can calculate that infinite harmony which makes unity of action, without reverting to the first cause of expression--the thought that created it. To reproduce the impulse born of the thought--this is the aim of a psychological method. This is secured only by right objects of thought; it is impossible to reach it by voluntary mechanics.
SMOOTHNESS AND HARMONY OF UTTERANCE
Having obtained the results sought in our last division, we should learn to manipulate the elements of speech fluently without breaking their relation to (harmony with) the primary focus, or direction of tone.
Practise the same sentence, "_Most men_" etc., striving to make every tone and the form of every element perfect,