Dr. Van Baggen, in the breathing-exercises which he describes as beneficial for restoring a voice impaired by misuse, lays emphasis on the control of expiration and on the brief retention of the breath before exhaling it. In his first exercise the abdomen is pushed forward and contracted, the idea of breathing being excluded in order to concentrate attention upon making the movements correctly.
The second exercise consists of these same movements, but now combined with inspiration and expiration through the nostrils. When first started, the exercises are limited to a few minutes four or five times a day. When this method of breathing has become natural to the patient, there is added the brief retention of the breath and expiration under control—that is, gradual expiration. This constitutes the third exercise.
In this it is recommended to inhale slowly through the mouth, which should be in position to pronounce
f, that is, not too open. Hold the breath while mentally counting three. Exhale, pronouncing a prolonged s and finishing on t. The pronunciation of f during inhalation and of s and t during exhalation is advised in order to provide evidence that inhalation and exhalation are carried out evenly and without shaking or breaks.
Built upon this is the exercise for teaching the vocalist to inhale quickly, hold his breath a brief space, and exhale as slowly as possible, as must be done in singing. The inspiration now is through the nostrils; the pause is not quite so long, but the expiration on s and t is longer—say as mentally counting 40 would compare with counting 10.
Whoever has read carefully the chapters on breathing in this book will have discovered by this time that the breathing-exercises just described lead up to the principles of artistic breathing set forth in those chapters; and that whoever has read them and will carry them out never will require breathing-exercises to correct misuse of the voice from that source, because his breathing will be absolutely correct. The same is true of the exercises given by Dr. Van Baggen to make the breathing-muscles coöperate with the articulation and vocal muscles. Nevertheless, since there are people who do not read
carefully, or who go along in the same old faulty way until brought up suddenly by the dire effects of misusing the voice, I may add that Dr. Van Baggen's exercises for articulation will be found in detail in the pamphlets mentioned.
When a singer who is suffering from misuse of the voice comes to a specialist for treatment, the specialist must for the moment become a singing-teacher and instruct the singer in the artistic coördination of breathing, articulation and vocal muscles. The patient, having gained proper breath-control and having had impressed upon him the importance of forward placement and of the normal position of the tongue to correct articulation of consonants, is ready for correction of the faulty action of the vocal cords. This faulty action is due chiefly to faulty attack—a faulty coup de glotte—manifest mainly on initial vowels in an audible stroke, shock or check and in the emission of unvocalized breath. This latter is the so-called spiritus asper, because the emission of unvocalized breath which precedes phonation gives an aspirated or h sound, so that, instead of ah, we hear haa. The spiritus asper is caused by a too slow contraction of the vocal cords and their too gradual approach for phonation.
In the audible shock of the glottis (sometimes called the "check glottid") the vocal cords are pressed together and the retained breath causes a shock or explosion. Dr. Van Baggen says that the vowel which is thus formed might be called an articulated vowel, which accurately describes the effect, the vowel being enunciated with the circumstance of the articulated consonant instead of with the ease of the phonated vowel.