The Child-Voice in Singing | Page 6

children up to the age
of puberty, at least in class or chorus singing, should use the thin or
head-register only.
1st. It is from a physiological standpoint entirely safe. The use of this
register will not strain or overwork the delicate vocal organs of
childhood.
2d. Its tones are musical, pure and sweet, and their use promotes the
growth of musical sensibility and an appreciation of beauty in tone.
3d. The use of the thick or chest-voice in class-singing is dangerous. It
is wellnigh impossible to confine it within proper limits.
It is unnecessary to discuss the second point. Anyone who has noted
the contrast between the harsh quality of tone emitted from childish
throats when using the chest-voice, and the pure, flute-like sound
produced when the head-tones are sung will agree that the last is music
and the first noise, or at any rate very noisy, barbaric music.
The third point, if true, establishes the first, for, if the chest-voice
cannot be safely used, it follows that children must use the
head-register or stop singing. It must be said, before proceeding further,
that it is not denied that the thick voice can be used by children without
injury, if properly managed; that is, if the singing be not too loud, and
if it be not carried too high. It is also fully recognized, that, when
theoretically the head-voice alone is used, it yet, when carried to the
lower tones, insensibly blends into the thick register; but if this
equalization of registers is obtained so completely that no perceptible

difference in quality of voice can be observed, why then the whole
compass is practically the thin or head-register.
Now, can the thick voice be used in school-singing, and confined to the
lower notes? And is it fairly easy to secure soft and pure vocalizations
in this register? Let the experience of thousands of teachers in the
public schools of this and other lands answer the last question.
It would be as easy to stop the growth of the average boy with a word,
or to persuade a crowd of youngsters to speak softly at a game of
baseball, as to induce them, or girls either for that matter, to use the
voice gently, when singing with that register in which it is possible to
push the tone and shout.
There should be some good physiological reason for the habitual
recourse to the strident chest-voice so common with boys, and nearly as
usual with girls. And there is a good reason. It is lack of rigidity in the
voice-box or larynx. Its cartilages harden slowly, and even just before
the age of puberty the larynx falls far short of the firmness and rigidity
of structure, that characterize the organ in adult life. It is physically
very difficult for the adult to force the chest-voice beyond its natural
limits, which become fixed when full maturity of bodily development
is reached, but the child, whose laryngeal cartilages are far more
flexible, and move toward and upon each other with greater freedom,
can force the chest-voice up with great ease. The altitude of pitch which
is attained before breaking into the thin register is with young children
regulated by the amount of muscular exertion they put forth. Even up to
the change of voice, boys can often force the thick register several
notes higher than women sopranos.
It must be borne in mind that the thick voice is produced by the full,
free vibrations of the vocal bands in their entire length, breadth and
thickness.
Imagine children six years of age carrying tones formed in this manner
to the extreme limit of their voice; yet they do it. The tone of infant
classes in Sunday-schools, and the tone of the primary schools, as they
sing their morning hymns or songs for recreation, is produced in nine

hundred and ninety-nine cases out of a thousand in exactly the way set
forth. If the vocal bands of children were less elastic, if they were
composed of stronger fibres, and protected from undue exertion by firm
connecting cartilage; in short, if children were not children, such
forcing would not be possible. If it were not for the wonderful
recuperative power of childhood, serious effects would follow such
vocal habits.
We are now prepared to understand that common phenomenon of the
child-voice, termed the "movable break." Every public school teacher
who has had experience in teaching singing must be familiar with the
meaning of the term, though possibly unaware of it. Allusion has
already been made to the fact that, in primary grades, the thick quality,
if permitted, will be carried as high as the children sing, to
[Music: e'']
for example. If they are required to sing the higher tones lightly, then
the three or four tones, just