The resonant voice is produced on the lower tones of the scale, the sound being forced into the nasal passages with a jerky explosive delivery of the breath. The parts against which the voice and the tongue should respectively strike may be felt by prolonging the sound of the letter n on a low note with the mouth nearly closed and the lower jaw drawn back a little as before. In this way utter the sentence, “Joe’s down here in the cellar!” and the words will sound deep and muffled and be accompanied by a resonant hum. Remember always to keep the lips and jaws immovable, even at the cost of mutilating your words. These will greatly improve by-and-by.
The practised ventriloquist can, of course, judge the effect he is producing, but the learner, as soon as he makes any progress, had better get a companion to criticize his efforts.
The falsetto voice is feminine and must be familiar to all. If spoken with the lower jaw drawn in and the mouth all but closed it will strike against the hard palate and produce a thin, metallic voice like that of a child. It can also be used for “distant” effects, according to the method set forth for voice No. 1. The falsetto voice is frequently used for “doll-talking”—a branch of the ventriloquial art concerning which, and polyphonism also, we shall have something to say presently. Meanwhile, devote a few minutes daily to each of the following exercises:—
(1) Singing the common musical scale to the vowel sounds, as well as to the syllables ha and coo. All good vocal exercises are an aid to ventriloquism.
(2) Practising the management of the breath as already described.
(3) Experimenting with the three ventriloquial voices.
(4) Studying all the peculiarities of voices and other sounds as they fall upon the ear.
The learner still finds it difficult, no doubt, to enunciate his words at all clearly without moving the lips and jaws, but this difficulty, though it will never quite vanish, may be greatly reduced. The vowels run smoothly enough, but the consonants give trouble, particularly the labials, b, p, m, and their first cousins, the spirants, v, f, w. As to the spirants, one may soon acquire the knack of sounding f fairly well, so this must be used for v also, unless one can hit upon that nearer substitute got by compounding g and f. To catch this sound with lips and jaws immovable, pronounce the word never as "negfer," quickly, with a light touch on the g. The sound of w is well represented by that of oo. For the labials, however, demanding as they do a positive closing of the lips, we must substitute the letters g, k, ng. Thus, the sentence, “Jim broke seven of Tom’s pens this morning,” would be rendered as “Jing groke se(g)fen of Tong’s kens this ng-orning,” and the query, “When am I to come up?” would become “Oohen ang I to cung uk?” Such sentences, though good for practice, are bad for exhibition, and must be carefully avoided in the preparation of dialogue. Nevertheless, they look much more imperfect here than they would sound in the mouth of an able ventriloquist; besides, as nobody expects to hear perfect words from a distant source, the audience readily accepts the performer’s mode of rendering them. In this connection it should be remarked that the performer may occasionally turn his face from view, and allow his lips free play, although, as a rule, either a side face, or a three-quarters face should be presented to the audience, and, pretty frequently, a front face also.
We have next to deal with ventriloquial perspective, which appertains to the gradual increase or decrease in the loudness of a sound as it approaches or recedes. Attention to this will give our assumed voices just the magic touch. For the receding voice, speak more and more gently, whilst gradually closing the mouth, until the sound is shut off. For an approaching voice, reverse the process, but in either case take care to maintain the original pitch. This is just where beginners stumble; they mostly alter the pitch at every step, graduating it from a growl to a squeak, or vice versa; nor do they observe how the words spoken by a receding voice grow less and less distinct until only the vowel sounds remain. The following presentment of these important matters may impress itself on the reader’s mind:—GOOD-NIGHT! Good-night! goo’-nigh’! ’oo’-nigh’! ’igh’!