Let him take care, however, that the higher the notes, the more
it is necessary to touch them with softness, to avoid screaming.
Tosi. (1647-1727) _Observations on Florid Song_.
That the development of the upper, or head voice, is the most difficult
as well as the most important part of the training of the singing voice,
will be readily admitted by every experienced singing teacher.
That the upper voice should be produced with as much comfort as the
middle or lower, is scarcely debatable.
That a majority of singers produce their upper voice with more or less
difficulty, need not be argued.
Why is it that after two, three or more years of study so many upper
voices are still thick, harsh and unsteady?
There is nothing in the tone world so beautiful as the male or female
head voice when properly produced, and there is nothing so
excruciatingly distressing as the same voice when badly produced.
The pure head voice is unique in its beauty. It is full of freedom,
elasticity, spiritual exaltation. It seems to float, as it were, in the
upper air without connection with a human throat. Its charm is
irresistible. It is a joy alike to the singer and the listener. It is
the most important part of any singer's equipment. Why is it so
difficult and why do so few have it? Various reasons are at hand.
The spirit of American enterprise has found its way into voice teaching.
It is in the blood of both teacher and pupil. The slogan is "Put it
over." This calls for big tone and they do not see why they should not
have it at once.
The ability to use the full power of the upper voice when occasion
demands is necessary and right, but merely to be able to sing high and
loud means nothing. All that is required for that is a strong physique
and determination. Such voice building requires but little time and no
musical sense whatever; but to be able to sing the upper register with
full power, emotional intensity, musical quality and ease, is the result
of long and careful work under the ear of a teacher whose sense of tone
quality is so refined that it will detect instantly the slightest degree
of resistance and not allow it to continue.
The ambitious young singer who has been told by the village oracle that
she has a great voice and all she needs is a little "finishing," balks
at the idea of devoting three or four years to the process, and so she
looks for some one who will do it quickly and she always succeeds in
finding him. To do this work correctly the old Italians insisted on from
five to eight years with an hour lesson each day. To take such a course
following the modern plan of one or two half hours a week, would have
the student treading on the heels of Methuselah before it was completed.
It is not always easy to make students understand that the training of
the voice means the development of the musical mentality and at best is
never a short process. To most of them voice culture is a physical
process and as they are physically fit, why wait?
Now the fact is that there is nothing physical in voice production save
the instrument, and a strong physique has no more to do with good
singing than it has with good piano playing. Voice production is a
mental phenomenon. It is mentality of the singer impressing itself on
the vocal instrument and expressing itself through it. The idea that the
vocal instrument alone without mental guidance will produce beautiful
tone is as fallacious as that a grand piano will produce good music
whether the one at the keyboard knows how to play it or not.
Let it be understood once for all that _it is the mentality of the
individual, not his body, that is musical or unmusical_. Both teacher
and student must learn that there is much more to do mentally and much
less to do physically than most people suspect. They must learn that a
musical mentality is no less definite than a physical body, and is at
least equally important; also that right thinking is as necessary to
good voice production as it is to mathematics.
At this point there will doubtless be a strenuous objection from those
who assert that tone cannot be produced without effort, and that a
considerable amount of it is necessary, especially in the upper voice.
It will be readily admitted that the application of force is required to
produce tone, but how much force? Certainly not that extreme physical
effort that makes the singer red in the face and causes his upper tones
to shriek rather than sing. Such a display of force discloses an
erroneous idea of how to produce the upper voice. When there is the
right relation existing between the breath and the vocal instrument,
when there is the proper poise and balance of parts, no such effort is
necessary. On the contrary the tone seems to flow and the effort
required is only that of a light and pleasant physical exercise.
The pianist does not have to strike the upper tones any harder than the
lower ones in order to bring out their full power. Why should the upper
part of the voice require such prodigious effort?
Now _all voices should have a head register_. It is a part of nature's
equipment, and this calls for a word on the classification of voices. It
ought not to be difficult to determine whether a voice is soprano, alto,
tenor, baritone or bass, but I find each year a considerable number that
have been misled. Why? A number of things are responsible. One of the
most common is that of mistaking a soprano who has a chest register for
an alto. This singer finds the low register easier to sing than the
upper, consequently she and her friends decide she is an alto.
Thereafter she sings low songs and takes the alto part in the choir. The
longer she follows this plan the less upper voice she will have, and
when she goes to a teacher, unless he has a discriminating and
analytical ear, he will allow her to remain in the alto class. There is
always something in the fiber of a tone, even though it be badly
produced, that will disclose to the trained ear what it will be when
rightly produced.
Again, the human voice can produce such a variety of tone qualities that
sometimes a soprano will cultivate a somber style of singing and a
majority of people will call her alto. It requires a trained ear to
detect what she is doing. The baritone also, because he often sings the
bass part in a quartet, tries to make himself sound like a bass; this he
does by singing with a somber, hollow quality which has little or no
carrying power.
Another mistake is that of classifying a voice according to its compass.
This is the least reliable method of all. The mere fact of having high
tones does not necessarily make one a soprano, neither is a voice always
to be classified as alto by reason of not being able to sing high. It is
_quality_ that decides what a voice is. Soprano is a quality. Alto is a
quality. The terms tenor, baritone, bass, refer to a quality rather than
a compass. These qualities are determined primarily by the construction
of the organ.
But when voices are properly trained there is not so much difference in
the compass as most people suppose. For example: the female head voice
lies approximately within this compass [Illustration: Figure A] and
altos who learn to use the real head voice will have no difficulty in
vocalizing that high.
At the lower end of the voice sopranos who have a chest register will
often sing as low as most altos. But whether they sing high or low it is
always the quality that determines the classification of the voice.
Many lyric sopranos have no chest register, and it would be a mistake to
attempt to develop one. In such voices, which rarely have anything below
middle C, the middle register must be strengthened and carried down and
made to take the place of the chest voice.
It must not be understood that there is but one soprano quality, one
alto quality, etc. The voice is so individual that it cannot be thus
limited. There are many soprano qualities between the coloratura and the
dramatic, and the same is true of alto, tenor, baritone and bass.
When the voice is rightly produced, its natural quality will invariably
appear, and there it must be allowed to remain. An attempt to change it
always means disaster.
It will be observed that the piano string diminishes in length and
thickness as the pitch rises, and the voice must do something which
corresponds to this. Otherwise it will be doing that which approximates
stretching the middle C string, for example, until it will produce its
octave.
In discussing the head voice it is the purpose to avoid as much as
possible the mechanical construction of the instrument. This may be
learned from the numerous books on the anatomy and physiology of the
voice. It is an interesting subject, but beyond an elementary knowledge
it is of little value to the teacher. A correct knowledge of how to
train the voice must be gained in the studio, not in the laboratory. Its
basis is the musical sense rather than the mechanical or scientific. All
of the scientific or mechanical knowledge that the world has to offer is
no preparation for voice training. A knowledge of the art of teaching
begins when the teacher takes his first pupil, not before. Therefore the
aim shall be to present the subject as it appears to the teacher.
We hear much of the value of vocal physiology as a guide to good voice
production. It is also claimed that a knowledge of it will prevent the
singer from misusing his voice and at the same time act as a panacea for
vocal ills. These statements do not possess a single element of truth.
The only way the singer can injure the vocal instrument is by forcing
it. That is, by setting up a resistance in the vocal cords that prevents
their normal action. If this is persevered in it soon becomes a habit
which results in chronic congestion. Singing becomes increasingly
difficult, especially in the upper voice, and in course of time the
singer discovers that he has laryngitis. Will a knowledge of vocal
physiology cure laryngitis? Never. Will it prevent any one from singing
"throaty?" There is no instance of the kind on record. In a majority of
cases laryngitis and other vocal ills are the direct results of bad
voice production and disappear as the singer learns to produce his upper
tones without resistance. These things are effects, not causes, and to
destroy the effect we must remove the cause. This will be found to be a
wrong habit and habits are mental, not physical. When a mental impulse
and its consequent response become simultaneous and automatic the result
is a habit, but it is the mental impulse that has become automatic.
The terms, _tension_, _rigidity_, _interference_, _resistance_, all mean
essentially the same thing. They mean the various forms of contraction
in the vocal instrument which prevents its involuntary action. If we
follow these things back far enough we shall find that they all have
their origin in some degree of fear. This fear, of which anxiety is a
mild form, begins to show itself whenever the singer attempts tones
above the compass of his speaking voice. Here is undeveloped territory.
The tone lacks power, quality and freedom, and as power is what the
untrained singer always seeks first, he begins to force it. In a short
time he has a rigid throat, and the longer he sings the more rigid it
becomes. By the time he decides to go to a teacher his voice is in such
a condition that he must take his upper tones with a thick, throaty
quality or with a light falsetto. Among female voices I have seen many
that could sing nothing but a full tone in the upper register, and that
only with an unsteady, unsympathetic quality.
Now a point upon which all voice teachers can agree is that the upper
voice is not properly trained until it has a perfect _messa di voce_
that is, until the singer can swell the tone from the lightest
pianissimo to full voice and return, on any tone in his compass, without
a break and without sacrificing the pure singing quality. How shall this
be accomplished? If the singer is forcing the upper voice it is safe to
say in the beginning that it never can be done by practicing with full
voice. Such practice will only fasten the habit of resistance more
firmly upon the singer. To argue in the affirmative is equivalent to
saying that the continued practice of a bad tone will eventually produce
a good tone.
There is but one way to the solution of the problem; the singer must get
rid of resistance. When he has succeeded in doing that the problem of
the head voice is solved. The bugaboo of voice placing permanently
disappears. The difficulty so many have in placing the upper voice lies
in this, that they try to do it without removing the one thing which
prevents them from doing it. When the voice is free from resistance it
places itself, that is, it produces without effort whatever quality the
singer desires. The term "head voice," doubtless grew out of the
sensation in the head which accompanies the upper tones, and this
sensation is the result of the vibration of the air in the air head
cavities. Many have taken this sensation as a guide to the production of
the head voice, and in order to make sure of it they instruct the
student to direct the tone into the head. This is not only an uncertain
and unnecessary procedure, but is almost sure to develop a resistance
which effectually prevents the tone from reaching the head cavities.
When there is no interference the tone runs naturally into the proper
channel. It is not necessary to use force to put it there.