In order that man may enter into commerce with other men for the exchange of mental commodities he must have a medium of communication, and the greatest and noblest of all means is the human voice. We are thus admonished by one who was entitled to speak, for he knew how to convey his thought by word of mouth as well as by pen:
Remember that talking is one of the fine arts—the noblest, the most important, and the most difficult—and that its fluent harmonies may be spoiled by the intrusion of a single harsh note.[3]
Let all who would excel as public speakers heed this wise warning and seek to obtain voices capable of producing “fluent harmonies.”
What is voice? Voice is vocalized breath. It is formed in the larynx, or voice box, and is produced by the breath acting on the vocal cords and causing them to vibrate. Immediately as voice is produced it should pass from the larynx into the mouth and be converted into speech; one of the worst vocal faults, throatiness, arises from a failure to do this. Voice can be modulated; that is, its pitch can be raised and lowered, and the whole gamut of vocal tones can be played upon by means of the change in pitch. The pitch of the voice is regulated by the tension of the vocal cords and the distinctive resonance chamber into which the vibration is placed. There are three such chambers; the chest, the throat, and the head. Voice and resonance should not be confounded. Resonance is a part of voice, it is the spirit or essence, as it were, and enters into the different chambers and thus affects the tone of the voice; but the voice itself, the body of the sound, must be placed on the lips. There are three divisions to the speaking voice, the lower, the middle, and the upper, and by moving the tone from one division to another the voice is modulated. As before stated, the tension of the vocal cords and the chamber into which the resonance enters regulate the pitch of the voice. Tones on the lower register require a lesser tension of the vocal cords than do tones on the upper register, and the low tones require that the resonance be placed in the cavity of the chest, while the high tones necessitate the resonance being placed in the head. The speaker, however, must not allow his thought to dwell on the placing of the resonance; he must think only of getting the speech into the air, because the resonance, or the spirit of the voice, will enter the proper chamber if the passage is free and the speaker thinks of where he wishes the voice to go, and pays no attention as to whence it comes. The voice instantly obeys the thought, if the mechanism works properly, consequently it is well for the speaker to think of the end he has in view and not cumber the vocal machine by worrying about the means to be employed in accomplishing that end. While cultivating and disciplining the voice it is necessary to think of the means, and to make a conscious effort to use those means, but when in the act of producing speech no conscious thought should be directed toward that act. All effort used while in the process of producing speech must be subconscious, and entirely free from physical effort.
How to obtain a good voice. Mainly by ceasing to abuse it, for most of the vocal defects are acquired by bad habits. Improper breathing is responsible for work begin placed upon the larynx which nature never intended it to perform, and this overworking, or straining, of the larynx produces throaty tones and causes an irritation of that organ which finally develops into laryngitis. A failure to form the sounds on the lips is the cause of mouthing, and a lack of moulding the voice into correct sound deprives the sound of its carrying power, because of its exit being impeded. For instance, round sounds like o require a round mould to pass through, and if, instead of such a mould, a flat one is formed, the sound is barely able to squeeze through after having lost half of its vitality in the effort. Speak the word soul with the lips rounded while uttering the vowel o and then attempt to speak the same word with the lips flattened when producing that sound, and the necessity of moulding will be instantly apparent. Shakespeare says: “Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you trippingly on the tongue,” and if speakers would follow this splendid advice which Hamlet gives to the players, throaty tones would be abolished. But how are speakers to do this? By thoroughly developing the breathing muscles by proper exercise, so as to enable them to perform their functions correctly, thereby taking away the strain from the larynx and permitting the opening of the throat, bringing the voice forward and moulding it on the lips. These are the only means that will enable anyone to speak “trippingly on the tongue,” and the importance of so doing is forcefully expressed by Cardinal Newman, that master of English composition, in the following:
Our intercourse with our fellow men goes on, not by sight but by sound, not by eyes but by ears. Hearing is the social sense and language is the social bond.
How to Produce Speech Effects
The first duty of man is to speak, that is his chief business in this world, and talk, which is the harmonious speech of two or more, is by far the most accessible of pleasures. It costs nothing; it is all profit; it completes our education; it founds and fosters our friendships; and it is by talk alone that we learn our period and ourselves.[4]
Speech is the one great outward evidence that separates the human from the brute, and the more this faculty is cultivated the higher man rises in the scale of civilization. Speech permits man to clothe the immortal thought in palpable shape and present it to other minds exactly as it is perceived by the original thinker. It makes manifest that which otherwise would remain in the realm of the unseen, and permits of that communion of mind with mind which strengthens and uplifts mankind. It is the humanizing medium, the glorifying agent, and the magnifying reflector of the soul.
How is speech produced? Speech is produced by the organs of articulation acting on the voice, cutting it up, joining, blending, and moulding the separate sounds, until symbols are produced that represent thoughts.