If these two rules are correctly applied in each grade, if pupils sing softly enough, and carry their tones neither too high nor too low, always taking into account the grade or average age of the class, then the voice will be used only in the thin or head-register, and the tones of the thick or chest-register will never be heard. But the two rules must be as one, for if soft singing be carried too low with infant voices, they are forced to use the thick tones; and children of all ages, even if singing within the right compass of voice, will use the thick register if permitted to sing too loud.
There is nothing particularly original in insisting upon soft singing from children. The writer has never seen a book of school music that does not mention its desirability, nor hardly a reference to the child-voice in the standard works or writings of the day of which this idea has not formed a part.
The general direction “Sing softly” is good so far as it goes, but is, first, indefinite. Softly and loudly are relative terms, and subject to wide diversity of interpretation. The pianissimo of a cultivated singer is silence compared to the tone emitted by vocalists of the main strength order, when required to produce soft tone. Secondly, the direction is seldom or never found coupled with instruction upon the vocal compass of children. Hence, it does not seem very strange that the injunction “Sing softly” has not corrected vocal errors in school singing.
It is not easy, it is even impossible, to accurately define soft singing, and no attempt will be made further than to describe as clearly as may be the degree of softness which it is necessary to insist upon if we would secure the use of the thin or head register.
The subject of register has already been discussed, but it may not be amiss to repeat just here that in the child larynx as in the adult the head-register is that series of tones which are produced by the vibration of the thin, inner edges of the vocal band. If breathing is natural, and if the throat is open and relaxed, no strain in singing this tone is possible. It is evident in a moment that children with their thin, delicate vocal ligaments can make this tone even more easily than adult sopranos, whose vocal ligaments are longer and thicker; and it is also perfectly evident that no danger of strain to the vocal bands is incurred when this voice is used, for all the muscles and ligaments of the larynx are under far less tension than is required for the production of tones in the thick register.
It must also be remembered in connection with this fact, that children often enter school at five years of age, and that according to physiologists the larynx does not reach the full growth in size, incidental to childhood until the age of six years. We must then be particularly careful with infant classes—for the vocal bands of children prior to six years of age are very, very weak. Speaking of infant voices, Mr. W. M. Miller, in Browne and Behnke’s afore-mentioned work, “The Child-Voice,” is quoted as saying; “Voice-training cannot be attempted, but voice-destruction may be prevented. Soft singing is the cure for all the ills of the vocal organs.” It would be hard to find a more terse or truthful statement than the first sentence of the above as regards the voices of little children from five to seven or eight years of age. It is unmitigated foolishness to talk about vocal training as applied to children of that age. The voice-culture which is suited to little children is that sort of culture which promotes growth—food and sleep and play. As well train a six months’ old colt for the race track, as attempt to develop the voice of a child of six or seven years with exercises on o, and ah, pianissimo and fortissimo, crescendo, diminuendo and swell. Their voices must be used in singing as lightly as possible. This answers the question, how softly should they sing?
Children during the first two or three years of school-life may be permitted to sing from
or if the new pitch is used from
