Resonance in Singing and Speaking | Page 3

a good tone when they
heard it, and many taught much better than they knew, so that the
public did not have to wait for the development of accurate knowledge
of the subject before hearing excellent singing and speaking. Yet many
singers had their voices ruined in the training, and their success as
vocalists made impossible; while others, a little less unfortunate, were

still handicapped through life by the injury done by mistaken methods
in early years. Jenny Lind's perfect vocal organs were quite disabled at
twelve years of age by wrong methods, and they recovered only after a
protracted season of rest. As a consequence her beautiful voice began
to fail long before her splendid physique, and long before her years
demanded. Singers taught in nature's way should be able to sing so long
as strength lasts, and, like Adelaide Phillips, Carl Formes, and Sims
Reeves, sing their sweetest songs in the declining years of life. Martel,
at seventy years of age, had a full, rich voice. He focused all his tones
alike, and employed deep abdominal breathing.
The whole matter of voice training has been clouded by controversy.
The strident advocates of various systems, each of them "the only true
method," have in their disputes overcast the subject with much that is
irrelevant, thus obscuring its essential simplicity.
The "scientific" teachers, at one extreme, have paid too exclusive
attention to the mechanics of the voice. The "empiricists" have gone to
the other extreme in leaving out of account fundamental facts in
acoustics, physiology, and psychology.
The truth is that no purely human function, especially one so subtle as
singing, can be developed mechanically; nor, on the other hand, can the
mere ipse dixit of any teacher satisfy the demands of the modern spirit.
PRINCIPLES ADVOCATED
The positions here advocated, because they seem both rational and
simple, are:
=1. That the singing and speaking tones are identical, produced by the
same organs in the same way, and developed by the same training.=
=2. That breathing is, for the singer, only an amplification of the
correct daily habit.=
=3. That "registers" are a myth.=

=4. That "head tones, chest tones, closed tones, open tones," etc., as
confined to special parts of the range of the voice, are distracting
distinctions arising from false education.=
=5. That resonance determines the quality and carrying power of every
tone, and is therefore the most important element in the study and
training of the voice.=
=6. That the obstacles to good speaking and singing are psychologic
rather than physiologic.=
=7. That, in the nature of things, the right way is always an easy way.=
CHAPTER I
THE VOCAL INSTRUMENT
Since the vocal organism first became an object of systematic study,
discussion has been constant as to whether the human vocal instrument
is a stringed instrument, a reed instrument, or a whistle. Discussion of
the question seems futile, for practically it is all of these and more. The
human vocal organs form an instrument, sui generis, which cannot be
compared with any other one thing. Not only is it far more complex
than any other instrument, being capable, as it is, of imitating nearly
every instrument in the catalogue and almost every sound in nature, but
it is incomparably more beautiful, an instrument so universally superior
to any made by man that comparisons and definitions fail.
ELEMENTS
The human vocal instrument has the three elements common to all
musical instruments,--a motor, a vibrator, and a resonator; to which is
added--what all other instruments lack--an articulator.
1. The respiratory muscles and lungs for a =motor=.
2. The vocal cords for a =vibrator=.

3. The throat, mouth, and the nasal and head cavities for a =resonator=.
4. The tongue, lips, teeth, and palate for an =articulator=.
These elements appear in as great a variety of size and proportion as do
the variations of individual humanity, and each element is, moreover,
variable according to the will or feeling of the individual. This
susceptibility to change constitutes a modifying power which gives a
variety in tone quality possible to no other instrument and makes it our
wonder and admiration. The modification and interaction of these
various parts produced by the emotions of the singer or speaker give
qualities of tone expressive of the feelings, as of pain or pleasure, grief
or joy, courage or fear.
[Illustration: FIGURE 1.--Section of the head and throat locating the
organs of speech and song, including the upper resonators. The
important maxillary sinus cannot well be shown. It is found within the
maxillary bone (cheek bone). The inner end of the line marked Nasal
cavity locates it.]
TIMBRE
The minute differences in these physical conditions, coupled with the
subtler differences in the psychical elements of the personality, account
for that distinctive physiognomy of the voice called =timbre=, which