We shall now seek to illustrate two contrasting qualities of tones,
between which lies that quality which I sought for so long. The desired
quality is not a compromise, but seems to be located half way between
two extremes, and may best be brought to the attention of the reader by
describing the extremes.
The first is a dark quality of tone. To get this, place the tips of the
second fingers on the sides of the voice box (Adam's apple) and make a
dark almost breathy sound, using "u" as in the word hum. Do this without
any signs of strain. Allow the sound to float up into the mouth and
nose. To many there will also be a sensation as though the sound were
also floating down into the lungs (into both lungs). Do not make any
conscious effort to force the sound or place it in any particular
location. The sound will do it of its own accord if you do not strain.
While the sound is being made, there will be a slight upward pulling of
the voice box, a slight tugging at the voice box. This, of course,
occurs automatically, and there should be no attempt to control it or
promote it. It is nature at work. The tongue, while making this sound,
should be limp, with the tip resting on the lower front teeth. All along
it is necessary to caution the singer not to strive to do artificial
things. Therefore do not poke or stick the tip of your tongue against
the front teeth. If your tongue is not strained it will rest there
naturally. Work at this exercise until you can fill the mouth and nose
(and also seemingly the chest) with a rich, smooth, well-controlled,
well-modulated dark sound and do it easily,--with slight effort. Do not
try to hold the sound in the throat.
The second sound we shall experiment with is the extreme antithesis of
the first sound. Its resonance is high and it is bright in every sense.
Place the fingers on the joints just in front and above holes in the
ears. Open the mouth without inhaling and make the sound of "e" as in
when. As the dark sound described before cannot be made too dark this
sound cannot be made too strident. It is the extreme from the rumble of
the drum to the piercing rasp of the file. I have called it the animal
sound, and in calling it strident, please do not infer that the nose, or
any part of the mouth or soft palate, should be pinched to make it
nasal, in the restricted sense of that term. When I sing this tone it is
accompanied with a sensation as though the tone were being reflected
downward from the voice box over to each side of the chest just in front
of the arm-pits and then downward into the abdomen. Here the great
danger arises that the unskilled student will try to produce this
sensation, whereas the fact of the matter is that the sensation is the
accompaniment of the properly produced tone and cannot be made
artificially. Don't work for the sensation, work for the tone that
produces such a sensation. At the same time the tone has a sensation of
upward reflection, as though it arose at the back of the voice box and
separated there, passed up behind the jaws to the points where your
fingers are resting, entering the mouth from above, as it were from a
point just between the hard and soft palates, and becoming one sound in
the mouth.
The uvula and part of the soft palate should be associated with the dark
sound. The hard palate and part of the soft palate should be associated
with the strident tone.