This ignoring of the psychological nature of the impressions of tone is not necessarily detrimental to successful instruction. On the contrary, the master's empirical insight into the vocal operations of the pupil would probably not be advanced by an understanding of the psychological process. It is sufficient for the teacher's purpose to hear that the pupil's voice is caught in the throat. What robs this hearing, or feeling, of all value is this: the master attempts to interpret the sensation as an indication of the need of some specific muscular action, to be directly performed by the pupil. To this end he cites the mechanical rule, assumed to be indicated by the pupil's faulty vocal action. This may be, for example, the opening of the throat to give room for the tone to expand. It seems so perfectly simple to the teacher;—the pupil narrows his throat, and so holds in the tone; let him expand his throat and the tone will come out freely. This conclusion seems so clearly indicated by the sound of the tones that the master almost inevitably gives the precise instruction: "Open your throat and let your voice come out." This sums up, to the master's satisfaction, everything the pupil need do to correct this particular fault of tone-production.
Other sets of sympathetic sensations, awakened by badly produced tones, are interpreted in the same manner. A tone heard to be held in the back of the throat is believed to indicate the need of bringing the voice forward in the mouth. Other forms of throaty production are taken to show a lack of support, a wrong management of the breath, a need of breath-control, a misuse of nasal resonance, or an improper action of the vocal cords. In all these attempts to interpret sympathetic sensations by means of mechanical doctrines the teacher naturally relies on those doctrines in which he believes most firmly. Sympathetic sensations are indeed sometimes cited in proof of certain theories of breath-control, and also of nasal resonance. Both these topics are worthy of separate attention.
Sympathetic Sensations and Nasal Resonance
One of the most widely accepted theories of the vocal action is that the higher notes of the voice are influenced by reinforcing vibrations located in the nose and forehead. Whether this idea was derived more from direct than from sympathetic sensations need not be determined now. It is at any rate certain that a perfectly sung tone gives to the hearer the impression of nasal influence of some kind. The exact nature of this influence has never been determined. It may be air resonance, or sounding-board resonance, or both combined. Satisfactory proof on this point is lacking. In the belief of the practical teacher, however, this impression of nasal influence is the strongest argument in favor of nasal resonance.
Turning now to the question of nasal quality, strictly speaking, tones of this objectionable character always awaken the sympathetic sensations of contraction somewhere in the nose. Why such a contraction should cause this unpleasant sound of the voice is a profound mystery. Perhaps wrong tension of the soft palate exerts an influence on the actions of the vocal cords; or it may be that the form of the nasal cavities is altered by the muscular contraction. This aspect of the vocal action has never been scientifically investigated. The sympathetic sensation of nasal contraction or pinching is at any rate very pronounced. Curiously, this sympathetic sensation is cited as an argument in favor of their respective theories, by both the advocates and the opponents of nasal resonance.
Sympathetic Sensations and Breath-Control
Certain forms of exaggerated throat stiffness are frequently held to indicate the need of breath-control. The faulty vocal action in question is analyzed by the breath-control advocates substantially as follows: "Owing to the outflow of the breath not being checked at the proper point, the entire vocal mechanism is thrown out of adjustment. The singer exerts most of his efforts in the endeavor to prevent the escape of the breath; to this end he contracts his throat and stiffens his tongue and jaw. His tones are forced, harsh, and breathy; they lack musical quality. His voice runs away with him and he cannot control or manage it. In the attempt to obtain some hold on his voice he 'reaches' for his tones with his throat muscles. The more he tries to regain control of the runaway breath the worse does his state become."
This extreme condition of throat stiffness is unfortunately by no means rare. So far as concerns the sympathetic sensations awakened by this kind of singing the condition is graphically described by the breath-control advocates. But the conclusion is entirely unjustified that this condition indicates the lack of breath-control. Only the preconceived notion of breath-control leads to this inference. The sympathetic sensations indicate a state of extreme muscular tension of the throat; this is about the only possible analysis of the condition.
Empirical impressions of vocal tones determine the character of most present-day instruction in singing. This means no more than to say that throughout all vocal training the teacher listens to the pupil's voice. The impressions of tone received by the teacher's ear cannot fail to inform the teacher of the condition of the pupil's throat in producing the voice. For the teacher to seek to apply this information in imparting the correct vocal action to the pupil is inevitable.
Almost every teacher begins a course of instruction by having the pupil run through the prescribed series of mechanical exercises and rules. Breathing is always taken up first. Breath-control, laryngeal action, registers, and resonance follow usually in this order. The time devoted to this course of training may vary from a few weeks to several months. This mechanical instruction is almost always interspersed with songs and arias. The usual procedure is to devote about half of each lesson to mechanical doctrines and the remainder to real singing.