The Head Voice and Other Problems | Page 6

voices are still thick, harsh and unsteady?
There is nothing in the tone world so beautiful as the male or female
head voice when properly produced, and there is nothing so
excruciatingly distressing as the same voice when badly produced.
The pure head voice is unique in its beauty. It is full of freedom,
elasticity, spiritual exaltation. It seems to float, as it were, in the upper
air without connection with a human throat. Its charm is irresistible. It
is a joy alike to the singer and the listener. It is the most important part
of any singer's equipment. Why is it so difficult and why do so few
have it? Various reasons are at hand.
The spirit of American enterprise has found its way into voice teaching.
It is in the blood of both teacher and pupil. The slogan is "Put it over."
This calls for big tone and they do not see why they should not have it
at once.
The ability to use the full power of the upper voice when occasion
demands is necessary and right, but merely to be able to sing high and
loud means nothing. All that is required for that is a strong physique
and determination. Such voice building requires but little time and no
musical sense whatever; but to be able to sing the upper register with
full power, emotional intensity, musical quality and ease, is the result
of long and careful work under the ear of a teacher whose sense of tone
quality is so refined that it will detect instantly the slightest degree of
resistance and not allow it to continue.
The ambitious young singer who has been told by the village oracle
that she has a great voice and all she needs is a little "finishing," balks
at the idea of devoting three or four years to the process, and so she

looks for some one who will do it quickly and she always succeeds in
finding him. To do this work correctly the old Italians insisted on from
five to eight years with an hour lesson each day. To take such a course
following the modern plan of one or two half hours a week, would have
the student treading on the heels of Methuselah before it was
completed.
It is not always easy to make students understand that the training of
the voice means the development of the musical mentality and at best is
never a short process. To most of them voice culture is a physical
process and as they are physically fit, why wait?
Now the fact is that there is nothing physical in voice production save
the instrument, and a strong physique has no more to do with good
singing than it has with good piano playing. Voice production is a
mental phenomenon. It is mentality of the singer impressing itself on
the vocal instrument and expressing itself through it. The idea that the
vocal instrument alone without mental guidance will produce beautiful
tone is as fallacious as that a grand piano will produce good music
whether the one at the keyboard knows how to play it or not.
Let it be understood once for all that it is the mentality of the individual,
not his body, that is musical or unmusical. Both teacher and student
must learn that there is much more to do mentally and much less to do
physically than most people suspect. They must learn that a musical
mentality is no less definite than a physical body, and is at least equally
important; also that right thinking is as necessary to good voice
production as it is to mathematics.
At this point there will doubtless be a strenuous objection from those
who assert that tone cannot be produced without effort, and that a
considerable amount of it is necessary, especially in the upper voice.
It will be readily admitted that the application of force is required to
produce tone, but how much force? Certainly not that extreme physical
effort that makes the singer red in the face and causes his upper tones to
shriek rather than sing. Such a display of force discloses an erroneous
idea of how to produce the upper voice. When there is the right relation

existing between the breath and the vocal instrument, when there is the
proper poise and balance of parts, no such effort is necessary. On the
contrary the tone seems to flow and the effort required is only that of a
light and pleasant physical exercise.
The pianist does not have to strike the upper tones any harder than the
lower ones in order to bring out their full power. Why should the upper
part of the voice require such prodigious effort?
Now all voices should have a head register. It is a