Seed Thoughts for Singers

by Frank Herbert Tubbs

Hundreds of teachers of the voice in all parts of our land are teaching up to their light, hoping the time may come, and to most it does come sometime, when they may get away from the office and study still farther into voice and music, thus making better their ability. That class has already done much for singing and music. It might be said that all that has been done has come from that class, for no teacher feels that nothing remains for him to learn. Singing, too, is a subtle thing. A teacher feels every little while as if his good way were slipping from him, and if he cannot get out of his work and brush up with a master, he will lose all the ability he has. The best teachers do leave their work, go to some other teacher, may be not better than they are, and have their work inspected and made better. A salesman from a furniture house once put the matter tersely:—"When I go out from the house on a long trip, I start with a plan of what I will say and how I will make my sales. In a little while I get rusty, and saying the same things over and over again makes me hate them. Then my business falls off. I go into the warerooms again for a time, hear the firm talk up goods in a new way, meet other salesmen and hear how they talk, and off I go again on my trip fresh and bright."

No work gets into a groove more easily than teaching. When working in a rut the teacher produces small results. The successful teacher tries every expedient in his power to get all the result he can. Sometimes, it may be remarked incidentally, he is called by a pupil lacking in appreciation and discernment, an experimenter, because he changes his plan of working. But he can endure that provided he gets definite results from his teaching. The best way for the teacher who must plod on by himself through long years is that he should once in every few months sit quietly alone and think over what his voice method is, how he is applying it, and what the result is. Below is the thought of such an hour condensed into comparatively few words. The heading of this article indicates that this is the opinion of the writer at the present time. The thinking which may come in the next ten years may show he could have thought better now, but this is to him now, a perfect voice method.

The voice is produced by the body; it was originally planned for speech and not for singing; attributes of the voice are range, power, quality, and flexibility; into the voice can be injected, language; the action of all physical portions are under the command of the mind.

There are four portions of the body which are brought actively into use for the production and management of the voice, and these permit voice culture to be divided into four departments. These must first be brought into correct action. Natural action is correct action. What the world has considered as correct action may be wrong, for on most matters the opinion of the world is incorrect. A few clear-headed men have again and again appeared in various affairs and shown the world the mistake into which it had fallen. May be this is true of voice culture. It is safe to follow nature. The first department of voice culture is, as most persons admit, the respiratory department. Breathing. That goes on from the time we are born till we die. Generally as children we breathe well and correctly. When manhood arrives most of us have interfered with nature's way of breathing and have interposed something quite different from that we used earlier. This has come largely from faulty civilized eating, so that the organs of digestion are constantly troubling us. The stomach, liver, etc., exert decided influence on the diaphragm which is the chief organ of respiration. We, also, have grown nervous as years have come, because of the demands of active life upon us. That nervousness keeps all the muscles of the body in a state of unnatural strain, and this strain has even caused us to breathe differently from what nature planned. The very first step toward good voice method is to bring the breathing apparatus back to working order. As said above, the chief organ of respiration is the diaphragm, and that is a large muscle which cuts across the body at the edge of the ribs. Its centre, right in the middle of the body is constantly moving downward and upward. When it goes down the breath enters the body; when it comes up the breath comes out. Stop that muscle and breath is held. Stripped of all confusion that is all the description needed of inhalation, exhalation and breathing-holding. If some who read this would not say that this is too simple, and that they knew more than this article says, the subject would be dropped there. At most, all that can directly be added is to prolong the lowering and raising the diaphragm so that it is done by long strokes. Some one says we have been taught about spreading the sides, expanding the abdomen, filling the back, keeping the chest still, and a dozen more things. Examine the above, and if opposing effort to the free movement of the diaphragm in its upward and downward journey is avoided it will be found that all which is of good in inspiration and expiration is contained in the above. A most useful exercise for the development of strength in this organ of respiration is to slowly perform the act of panting in the same way that a dog pants.

But about holding the breath. That is the most important thing about breathing. It says above that if the movement of the diaphragm is stopped, the breath will be held. Sure enough. Then why can't we all hold the breath? We can. Holding the breath in that way a little while every day and caring to keep it so whenever using the voice will so complete the strength of the diaphragm that it will stay still a very long time, much longer than it takes to sing any phrase in music which is written. The majority of pupils—yes, all of us, teachers and pupils, when they seek to let the diaphragm stay still try to assist it to do so. We try to hold the breath by the muscles of the chest, by those of abdomen, or by shutting off the throat. Now these do not assist the diaphragm to stay still, and on the other hand, they prevent the diaphragm from staying still. They make it move. Some one says, or thinks if he doesn't say it, that unless the diaphragm moves when we begin to sing that no tone can be made. That is one of the mistakes of the world. Some teachers have even said that we must press the air upward as we sing, so that the vocal bands may make it into tone. That is absurd. Keep back all pressure from the vocal bands. If the slightest air pressure is put upon them they are over-worked. Hold still the diaphragm and the air is held loosely suspended throughout the chest, the bronchial tubes, the windpipe and the mouth. Then in this air the vocal bands work. They will help themselves to just the right amount of breath, to make into tone without any assistance from you. You can't make nature work. You can permit her to work in her own way.

When we speak of the vocal bands we are talking of something which pertains to the second department of voice culture—the throat. There can be, and need be, very little said to the pupil about the throat in its action during singing. Teachers do say many things. One thinks the larynx—the protuberance known as the Adam's apple—ought to be pressed down, and kept so. Another thinks it ought to be forced upward. Still another says it should be allowed to be low at one time and high at another. There is just one way of settling the matter. How is the action when we act naturally? Nature built the throat for conversational voice. If we are to use it for singing we can't do better than to follow the suggestions of nature as to the way the throat moves while speaking. Then on those ways let the throat act while singing. Sound several notes with the same vowel in the conversational voice and see what the larynx does. Some one suggests that this ceases to be conversation and becomes singing. But it doesn't. Conversation runs easily through an octave of tones. Generally we use three or four tones. When we are very quiet or are sad the voice lowers a few notes. If we are very merry or are angry the voice ascends. We talk at the "top of the voice," literally. If we do so in speaking, surely we may lop off the many vowels and the consonants and speak, conversationally—on several tones. It will be found that the larynx moves freely. That being the case, he is a very foolish man who could make the larynx go down and stay there. Again, with the tip of the finger on the larynx say the different vowels. It will be seen that the larynx changes position at each change of vowel. Let it so change when we sing. The great opponent of such action is the stiffening of the cords of the neck—the muscles on the sides of the neck. In connection with the work to be looked after in the third department, yet to come, the way of removing that stiffness will have mention. Within the larynx there are many delicate muscles which are performing their various functions. What they do, and how they do them has been the subject of study through several generations and the question is not solved. An eminent physician has for several years been photographing throats while producing tone. About four hundred different throats have been photographed. In an article published by him in January of this year, he says: "I have not yet permitted myself to formulate a theory of the action of the larynx during singing, for even now, after a large number of studies have been made, the camera is constantly revealing new surprises in the action of the vocal bands in every part of the scale." With that true, the only way open for us is to seek ease and comfort of action and never force any part of the throat to overwork.

The third department in voice culture relates to the pharynx, or back of the throat. It seems as if any thinking student would realize that in order to acquire a rich tone, resonant with pure sound, the pharynx must be allowed plenty of room, yet many shut it off making a very small chamber. Well, it is the teacher's work to find some way to open a roomy space. One of the best ways is to draw a picture of a cross-section of the mouth from the lips to the back wall of the throat, showing a large arch at the top of the section. Convey to the pupil's mind the idea of room and he will be most liable to produce the room. Sometimes, although it is of doubtful propriety to make any local application for special purpose, the use of the word oh, as an exercise, will permit the pupil to enlarge the pharyngeal chamber sufficiently for any need. This will come up later in connection with another thought. A very important branch of voice culture, the quality of tone, has to do with the pharynx. Not much can be said of it now but just a little in connection with a perfect voice method. When singing, we should express something. The emotion in mind must have its appropriate setting. That setting comes chiefly from the quality, and the quality arises from the shape of the pharyngeal cavity. As in all nature's plan we must not try to make the pharynx do anything. We may permit it, and if we do, nature will have her way and will do just right. The emotion of the mind expresses itself upon the face. A face plastic and delicate, changes expression a hundred times a minute, maybe. Just so, if we permit it, the emotion of mind expresses itself on the pharynx. We cannot see the expression of the throat as we can that of the face, but we can hear it. That the pharynx may be able to receive the expression of the mind it must be plastic and delicate. If so, just the right form will be assumed for the idea we would express, and the proper quality would be given the tone. We—many of us—don't permit this. We try to shape the pharynx. Stop trying and let the muscles of the back of the throat come to a state of rest. Then willing them to remain so, sing. Sing anything. Don't change the feeling, and good quality will fill the tone wherever the voice moves—whether it be high or low, loud or soft. So by this restful way of singing the stiffness of the cords of the neck will be removed and the larynx will move easily and flexibly. In fact, all rapid singing grows out of the restful singing. The use of all embellishments, too, comes through this restful singing. It is to be kept in mind that so long as we employ artificial methods of holding the air column, and so long as we force tones through rigid vocal bands, just so long will we be prevented from obtaining restful action of the pharynx. Each part must act correctly and no part must interfere with another.

The articulatory department is all which remains to be described. Singing employs words, and words are made up of letters. Letters are made up of consonant and vowel sounds. Consonant and vowel sounds, save one alone, are made by changing the tongue or lips, or moving the jaw. There are but few changes which may be made—less than a dozen. Six of those pertain to the tongue, one to the jaw and three to combination of tongue and lips. What these are need not be detailed now. Sufficient to say that any action made during conversation may be made while singing and must be made in the same way as in conversation. Two ideas advanced by some teachers which are very wrong should be noted. One is that the singer should practice with a spoon in the mouth to hold the tongue in place. As if nature didn't know what the tongue ought to do! The other is that the mouth should be widely opened, "to let out the tone," as old singing school teachers used to say. The tone doesn't come out of the mouth any more than out of the cheeks, chest or head. Allow the tone to be made properly, then given quality and resonance by a well arched pharynx and it will come out, no matter where or how. Someone asks if there is any real objection to widely opened mouth. Certainly, there is. Were it merely that the facial expression were destroyed, that would be enough, but that is not the worst of it. Opening widely the mouth destroys the shape of the pharynx and all richness is lost. Notice a bell. So long as it remains bell-shaped, it has resonant ring. Bend its shape so it resembles a pan and the ring is gone.

One thought more in connection with articulation. It used to be said that all attention should be given to vowels. Not so, in the light of to-day. Attend to the consonants and the vowels will take care of themselves. Correct speech in song, only, will make good singing. While watching the resonance of the tone as made in the pharynx note the delays made by thoroughly (not violently) sounding the consonants. Those delays, prolonged greatly, permit expansion of the pharynx, and perform the work mentioned before which was given the vocal sound, oh, to do.

To sum perfect voice method up into a sentence it is that by which we command with no apparent effort the column of air, keeping it away from the vocal bands, and, therefore, permitting the quality of tone in the pharynx to be pure; that by which the larynx acts freely, with no strain upon it; that by which thought may instinctively make its impression on the pharynx to give quality to the tone; and that by which we can make consonants and vowels in that pure tone, so that words conveying the thought of the mind may go out to our hearers.