Chapter 3 - Voice Culture

Purity | Flexibility And Compass | Brilliancy | Resonance | Volume

PURITY

To secure purity of voice, no particle of breath must be allowed to escape unvocalized. A persistent effort should be made to produce this quality, at first "feeding" the breath very gently to the vocal cords and increasing the volume only after long practise. i' He is the best speaker, *y says Lennox Browne, "who can control the expiration, that the least possible amount of air sufficient to cause vibration is poured with continuous effect upon the vocal organs.''

1. Sing oo in gentle, smooth voice, avoiding unnecessary muscular effort.
   
   
2. Sing ah, with mouth well opened, aiming at purity, depth and smoothness. Sustain and repeat on various pitches.
   
   
3. Repeat with o.
   
   
4. Gradually change singing o to ah, maintaining a uniform quality throughout.
   
   
5. Repeat with oo-o-ah.
   
   
6. Practise various musical scales.
   
   
7. Pronounce e, a, aw, ah, 6, do, prolonging each ten or more seconds.
   
   
8. Repeat with rising, falling, and circumflex inflection.
   
   
9. Practise shock of the glottis in gup, ge, ga, gaw, gah, go, goo.
   
   
10. Repeat in hup, he, ha, haw, hah, ho, hoo.
    
    
11. Repeat with rising slide and with falling slide, aiming at great clearness.
    
    
12. Count very deliberately one to fifty, inhaling after each number.
    
    
13. Count to fifty, ten to each breath.
    
    
14. Repeat last two exercises in loud whisper.
    
    
15. Project by slight waves of sound woo-woo-woo-woo.
    
    
16. Toss the sounds e, a, aw, ah, oh, oo.
    
    
17. With mouth closed hum a mental maw. The vibration should be felt on the lips and in the facial resonators.
    
    
18. Repeat with bright and with sad vibrations.
    
    
19. Repeat in very low pitch.
    
    
20. Commence a humming tone as before, allow the lower jaw to drop gently, "focus" the voice on the lips and maintain as much facial resonance as possible.
    
    
21. Sing le, la, law, lah, lo, loo, singly and in combination.
    
    
22. Yawn e, a, aw, ah, o, oo,

FLEXIBILITY AND COMPASS

Flexibility means vocal responsiveness, or the ability to produce any tone or variation that may be required.

1. Sing e, a, aw, ah, o, oo in chromatic scale, from the lowest to the highest pitch. The use of a piano in these exercises is desirable.
   
   
2. Repeat with trill.
   
   
3. Repeat with tremolo.
   
   
4. Eepeat in speaking voice, with short, medium, long and very long rising inflection. Eepeat in falling and circumflex inflection.
   
   
5. Bepeat with gradually increasing force, and with gradually diminishing force.
   
   
6. Repeat with swell, one pitch at a time, then combined with change of inflection both rising and falling.
   
   
7. Commence the following upon a low pitch, reading each successive line in the next highest pitch:

O thou that roll’st above,
Round as the shield of my fathers!
Whence are thy beams, O sun!
Thy everlasting light?

BRILLIANCY

To secure brilliancy or a musical quality of voice, practise daily upon exercises containing long vowel sounds.

1. Hear the mellow wedding bells Golden bells!

What a world of happiness their harmony foretells! Through the balmy air of night How they ring out their delight From the molten-golden notes,

And all in tune! Oh, from out the sounding cells, What a gush of euphony voluminously wells! How it swells! How it dwells On the future! how it tells Of the rapture that impels To the swinging and the ringing Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,

Bells, bells, bells To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells!

2. Inhale deeply, force the breath against the closed lips until they burst open on the word "bell," prolonging the "1" as long as possible and allowing the tone to gradually die away in imitation of bell vibrations. Repeat with variations.

3. Laughing exercises will add brilliancy and strength to the voice.

Practise m-m-m-m-m-m-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo~hoo-hoo-ho
-ho-ho-%o-ho-ho-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha. Aim to produce a hearty, spontaneous laugh. Practise with varied feeling, such as merry, rippling, polite, silly, angry, appreciative, sad, scornful, etc.

4. Practise the following with great freedom:

RESONANCE

Resonance is the increase of sound by reflection or the co-vibration of other bodies. Exercises should be selected containing a redundance of open vowels.

1. Open the mouth and throat as wide as possible, in hale deeply, close the lips only, and endeavor to keep the throat open. Imagine the body a deep well and commence at its lowest depth a soft rumbling sound. Practise at first on low pitch; force and high pitch are to be added only after some time.
   
   
2.  Repeat with rising inflection awe, ah, e, noting the change in register. The first is a chest-tone, the second a throat-tone and the third a head-tone. Begin at low pitch and aim at smoothness. Repeat with falling and circumflex inflection.
   
   
3. Hum b, I and m, singly and in combination.
   
   
4. ronounce the following words on various pitches, bringing out the head resonance as much as possible: Bingle, dingle, jingle, mingle, ringle, single, tingle, Mingle.

VOLUME

Volume depends upon the extension and regularity of expiration, energy and resonance combined in a given tone. The voice grows with use, and daily practise is therefore necessary to acquire roundness and volume. The abdominal muscles should be developed by daily respiratory and physical exercises.

1. Inhale deeply, and with an abrupt action of the abdominal muscles explode the voice upon be, ba, baw, bah, bo, boo. Avoid using much force at first.

2. The following should be combined with the same vowel sounds, first in loud whisper, then in loud voice, exhausting the breath on each sound: P, t, d, v, k, bl, br, ch, dr, dw, fl, fr, gl, gr, hi, kr, pi, pr, si, sm, sn, sp, sq, sk,
sh, st, sw, tr, th, tw, wh.

3. In calling tone repeat:
Ship ahoy!
Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State.
Forward the Light Brigade!
Charge, Chester, charge!
On, Stanley, on!
Katherine, Queen of England, come into the Court.
Stand by the wheel five minutes yet and we will reach the shore.
Oyez! oyez! All-persons-having-business-to-do-with-the-Circuit-Court-of-the
-United-States-for-the-Southern-district-of-New-York-
draw-near-give-your-attention-and-you-shall-be-heard.
Char-coal. Char-co-al. Char-coooooooo-al.

4. Project the following:

5. Repeat the following with gradually increasing force:

The war must go on! We must fight it through.
 
Independence now and Independence forever! Now for the fight, now for the cannon peal. The foe! they come! they come!

Ye guards of liberty, I'm with you once again. I call to you with all my voice.

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