Public Speaking | Page 8

purely artificial or arbitrary treatment or method. Rightly
understood, it is the following of nature. Its value is that it emphasizes

the constancy of this one of the constant factors in voice. Its result is a
certain kind and degree of monotony; without that particular kind of
monotony the voice is faulty. When the tone is forced out of its proper
place, it is dissipated and more or less lost. A student once told the
writer, when complimented on the good placement of his voice, that he
learned this in his summer employment as a public crier at the door of a
show tent. He said he could not possibly have endured the daily wear
upon the voice in any other way. Voices are heard among teamsters,
foremen on the street, and auctioneers, that conform to this and other
principles perfectly. We may say that in such cases the process of
learning is unconscious. In the case of the untaught student it was
conscious, and was exactly what he would have been instructed to do
by a teacher. The point is that many cannot learn by themselves, and
our more unconscious doings are likely to become our bad habits.
Just what this voice placement is can perhaps be observed simply by
sounding the letter "m," or giving an ordinary hum, as the mother sings
to the child. It is merely finding the natural, instinctive basal form of
the voice, and making all the vowels simply as variations of this form.
The hum is often practiced, with a soft pure quality, by singers. It is
varied by the sound of "ng," as in "rung" or "hung," and the elemental
sound of "l." The practice should always be varied, however, by a fuller
sounding of the rounder vowels, lest the voice become too much
confined or thinned. The speaker, like the singer, must find out how, by
a certain adjustment all along the line from the breathing center to the
point of issue of the breath at the front of the mouth, he can easily
maintain a constant hitting place, to serve as the hammer head; one
singing place for carrying the voice steadily through a sustained
passage; one place where, as it were, the tone is held in check so it will
not break through itself and go to pieces,--a "placing of the voice,"
which is to be preserved in every sort of change or play of tone,
whether in one's own character or an assumed character; a constant
focus or a fixed center of resonance, a forming of tone along the roof of
the mouth and well forward in the head, the safeguard and, practically,
the one most effective idea in the government of voice.
And now it should be hastily stated that this excellent idea, like other
good things, may be easily abused. If the tone is pushed forward or
crowded into the head or held tight in its place, in the least degree,

there is a drawing or a cramping in the throat; there is a "pressing" of
the voice. It should be remembered that the constancy of high
placement of tone depends upon the certainty of the tone foundation;
that, after all, the voice must rest upon itself, and must not sound as if it
were up on tip-toe or on stilts; that tone placement is merely a
convenient term for naming a natural condition.
As a final word on this part of the discussion, the student should of
course be impressed with the idea that though these three features of
vocal mechanism have been considered separately, all ideas about
voice are ultimately to become one idea. The voice is to be thought of
as belonging to the whole man, and is to become the spontaneous
expression of his feelings and will; it should not draw attention to any
particular part of the physical man; whatever number of conditions may
be considered, the voice is finally to be one condition, a condition of
normal freedom.
A lack of freedom is indicated in the voice, as in other kinds of
mechanism by some sign of friction--by a harsh tone from a
constrained throat; by a nasal or a muffled tone, from some obstruction
in the nasal passages of the head, either because of abnormal physical
conditions, or because of an unnatural direction of the breath, mainly
due probably to speaking with a closed mouth; by a bound-up, heavy,
"chesty" tone, resulting from a labored method of breathing.
Voice in its freer state should be pure, clear, round, fairly musical, and
fairly deep and rich. Its multitude of expressive qualities had better be
cultivated by the true purpose to express, in the simplest way,
sentiments appropriated to one's self through an understanding and a
comprehensive appreciation of various passages of good