Tone-Formation.
Beauty of tone implies absence of disagreeable qualities, and freedom from unpleasant sounds. Faulty tones are called nasal, guttural, palatal, throaty, muffled, and so on, the peculiar timbre of each suggesting the name. If the throat is relaxed, and if the soft parts of the vocal tube lying between the larynx and the teeth are kept out of the way, most of the disagreeable qualities of voice enumerated disappear. Certain requisites are necessary to good tone-formation.
First, a movable lower jaw.
It is astonishing that so many of young and old will, when they wish to open the mouth for song, try to keep it closed. Paradoxical as the statement is, it nevertheless describes a very common phenomenon—the “fixed jaw,” it may be called. As soon as the teeth are parted slightly, the muscles of the face and neck which control the movement of the lower jaw contract, holding it in a fixed position, and incidentally tightening the muscles of the throat until the larynx is in a grip as of rubber bands. The mouth must not be held open as if the jaws were pried apart. It is opened by the relaxation of the closing muscles and should hang by its own weight, as it were. If then the lower jaw drops easily, and with no accompanying muscular contraction of face or throat, the tone may be formed or shaped well forward in the mouth, unless the soft parts referred to obstruct it.
These soft parts are the tongue and the soft-palate. The soft-palate is a structure which hangs from the posterior edge of the hard-palate. The uvula, the pillars of the palate, and the tonsils are parts of the structure.
The tongue which, when the mouth is closed, nearly fills it, should in vocalization lie as much out of the way as is possible. If the tip be pressed against the lower teeth and its sides upon the molars, it forms a floor to the cavity of the mouth. If the tip turns toward the roof of the mouth, or if it is drawn back and under, so as to arch the tongue, tone is seriously interfered with, while if the root of the tongue is drawn backward, the tone is shut in.
If the soft-palate is not raised in singing, the tone is diverted into the cavities of the nose, and that color given to the tone called nasal. If the lower jaw is held too high, the tone is again forced through the nose. A nasal quality can be modified by opening the mouth. The muffled voice is sometimes the result of the tongue’s unruly behavior. The throaty, pinched voice, due to a stiff and pinched throat, will hardly appear if good conditions as regards position, breathing, soft tone, open mouth, etc., are maintained. The tone should not be swallowed nor, on the other hand, blown out of the mouth. It should be formed in the mouth and kept vibrating within it. When the right conditions are hit upon, the tone seems to sing itself. Whether soft or loud, the tone should fill the mouth, so to speak.
It must now be remembered that beauty of tone improves along with growth of thought and feeling. Encourage discrimination in tone-quality and help in any way advisable the growth of good ideals, and verily shalt thou be rewarded.