Advice to Singers

by Frederick James Crowest

Try and guard against the bad habit of pushing forward the chin when singing, otherwise the tone cannot fail to be faulty. The chin should be well down on the chest, and the larynx quite low, to lead to an easy and pure production of tone. To be constantly moving both the jaws for every note, continually displaces the larynx, impairs the purity of the tone, spoils the articulation of the words, and, what is worse than all, produces a hideous expression of the features, which latter fault would alone be sufficient to prejudice seriously the chances of any singing artists. The lower parts of the jaws, not the upper ones, should do the work; and when a high passage or note is before the singer, the lower parts of the jaws should be exercised to drop as the notes increase in height. The singer's face should be controlled, if no other member can be so regulated.

Singing in the Head.—There is, in all beginners, a tendency to sing too much in the head, that is, to have the foundation of the tones too high up in the throat. This fault is due to the difficulty experienced by beginners in keeping the larynx sufficiently below the mouth. The fulness of tone, the rich, round, and mellow quality which is so much admired in all good singers, is almost entirely owing to the voice being pitched low down, and not high up in the throat, towards the back of the head (as it appears to be).

A few trials of this will soon convince the student of the vast difference in the character and timbre of the tones of these two ways, and also of the economy of the plan here recommended, so far as regards the wear and tear of the voice in practice.

Throatiness.—Throatiness, or singing in the throat, is the common enemy of all English singers. Our language is the chief cause of this disagreeable habit, which we begin to acquire as soon as we learn to talk. Still, by diligence, the evil can be cured, and no better plan can be followed than to constantly practise singing the vowel-sounds Ah, A, E, O, throughout the compass of the voice, taking every possible care—and this is the point—never to allow the tone to vary, nor to leave the teeth, and not to screw up the throat, especially in high notes. It is impossible to produce a "throaty" quality of voice if the throat is well open, and the tone is firmly directed, and kept on the upper teeth and front of the mouth. On the other hand, if the student screws up the throat, rolls the tongue, or practises singing without being constantly on the look-out for the "voice on the teeth," the result must be a "throatiness," which is most disagreeable to all people who have any real knowledge of what singing should be.

Clearing the Throat.—Singers, good and bad, are often troubled with an apparent stoppage in the throat, and this inconvenience seems to be at its worst just at that moment when they wish to sing. To displace or to cure this stoppage, they begin hacking and coughing ("clearing the throat" as it is called), which proceeding, however, only makes bad worse for the time being, and finally grows into a habit, till at last such people cannot venture to open their mouths without first subjecting the throat to a series of these irritating "hacks." A good master will soon cure this complaint by refusing to continue the lesson whenever the pupil gives way to the bad habit. It is in many cases simply a nervous trick, and if the singer will accustom himself to swallow instead of coughing, whenever he feels the sensation of which we are speaking, he will soon get rid of it. If it results in any case from real weakness of the throat, it may be beneficial to gargle three or four times a day with moderately strong salt and water, especially before singing. This does no harm to the voice, and by bracing and strengthening the muscles of the throat renders them more obedient to the singer's will.

High Notes.—Many people find great difficulty in counting, with any degree of certainty, upon the top notes of their register. I know of no greater assistance towards bringing these out than that of well contracting the mouth and lips at the beginning of the passage in which these high notes occur, dropping the lower jaws, and securing a good play of the mouth as the highest note is reached, at the same time keeping the throat as open as possible, ejecting the sound to the audience with as much "lip-force" as can be secured, being careful that the tone is safe "on the teeth" before the note is "opened."

The Scale.—There can be no doubt whatever that the grand groundwork of all singing is the diatonic scale. On it is built all the graceful forms and figures which belong to the great artist. Yet how few seem to know and to appreciate this fact! To excel, the diatonic scale must be practised most seriously and assiduously in its plain and simple form; nor must it be left until the student can sing every note therein purely, without wavering or flutter, and with precision, in the soft, medium, and loud voices.

Forte, Mezzo-Voce, and Piano.—The singer will derive much advantage by bearing in mind that the voice has three main gradations which the Italians class as the forte, the mezzo di voce, and the piano. The management of these three is of vital importance, and the singer should certainly practise the scales in all three voices, and have each at command for every exercise and passage which he studies.

Tone.—The tone of the voice must never be vitiated or rendered impure from any cause whatever. There is always a danger of this in passages of great energy and passion, but it should be remembered that whatever be the effect aimed at, it cannot be attained by any means which involves a change in the tone of the voice. The first and chief consideration must always be to produce a good tone in the right manner. If the tone be not good, the singing cannot be agreeable; and if it be not produced in the right manner, you have no security that it will be equally good throughout the voice, or in passages of all kinds.

Chest, Falsetto, and Head Voice.—I have already said that there is a good deal of confusion existing as to the use of the terms "chest," "falsetto," and "head voice." And this is scarcely to be wondered at, seeing that nobody has yet decided how the three qualities of sound are produced, while everybody knows that the names are so far misleading, in that no sound whatever is really made in the chest or in the head, but that all are due to the passage of air through the larynx, in which are placed the vocal cords upon which the air plays. The changes of sound which are spoken of as "chest," "falsetto," and "head" voices are due to changes in the position of the larynx and its surroundings, and in the action of the vocal cords. What those changes are, and how or why they cause the results which we hear, has yet to be discovered: there are several theories, but no one has yet ventured to claim the certainty of truth for any one of them. There is an excellent article on "The Larynx" in Stainer and Barrett's "Dictionary of Musical Terms," to which I would refer those who wish to understand these various theories. For my present purpose it is sufficient to point out that each of the names is an utter misnomer. The "chest" voice is probably so called because the vibrations of the notes in that register may be distinctly felt in the chest; and because the breath passes directly from the chest, as it seems, without any opposition in the throat, producing the sound on its way. The "falsetto," or range of notes above the chest, is so called (and rightly so) because in that register of voice the tone feigns, or imitates, the tone of the "chest" notes below, although it is certain that the sounds are not produced in the same way, for the position of the vocal cords and their attendant parts is different, and changes suddenly on the passage of the voice from the chest to the upper register. A falsetto, rightly trained and used, is one, therefore, which is true to its name, and so well imitates the "chest," that the hearer cannot distinguish the "false" from the real "chest tone." The "head voice," which many people persist in confusing with the falsetto, is so called because to the singer it feels as though the notes so produced came from the head. This is due to the larynx itself rising up in the throat and approaching the back of the head. It comprises, in reality, all that part of the voice which lies above the "chest" register, all the lower part of it being shared by the "falsetto," exactly as the falsetto shares the greater part of the chest register. The falsetto, therefore, belongs to both, and its use is to carry, by its power of imitation, the tone of the lower or chest register into the upper or head register, so combining them that no audible change of quality, or "break," is perceptible.