Whether or not the head cavities act as resonators is one of the many
mooted points in voice training. Those who believe they do are much in
the majority, but those in the minority are equally confident they do
not. What are the arguments? That there is a sensation in the head
cavities when singing in the upper part of the compass no one can deny.
Does it affect tone quality? The minority offers the argument that it
cannot do so because the soft palate automatically rises in singing a
high tone, thus closing the passage through the nose. On the other side
it is argued, and rightly, that the soft palate can be trained to remain
low in singing high tones. But whether the soft palate is high or low
does not settle the matter. It is not at all necessary that breath
should pass through the nasal cavities in order to make them act as
resonators. In fact it is necessary that it should not. It is the air
that is already in the cavities that vibrates. All who are acquainted
with resonating tubes understand this. Neither is it necessary that the
vibrations should be transmitted to the head cavities by way of the
pharynx and over the soft palate. They may be transmitted through the
bones of the head. John Howard proved this, to his satisfaction at
least, many years ago.
I recall that in working with Emil Behnke he used an exercise to raise
the soft palate and completely close the channel, yet no one can deny
that his pupils had head resonance. There are certain facts in
connection with this that are hard to side-step. Plunket Greene once
told me that at one time he lost the resonance in the upper part of his
voice, and on consulting a specialist he found a considerable growth on
the septum. He had it removed and at once the resonance returned. Other
equally strong arguments could be offered in support of the claim that
the head cavities do act as resonators. At any rate the high or low
palate is not the deciding factor.
Too much cannot be said on the subject of interference, or resistance.
So long as there is any of it in evidence it has its effect on tone
quality. It is the result of tension, and tension is a mental impulse of
a certain kind. Its antidote is relaxation, which is a mental impulse of
an opposite nature. It is necessary for most singers to work at this
until long after they think they have it.
In preparing the head voice the student must begin with a tone that is
entirely free from resistance and build from that. In a large majority
of voices it means practicing with a light, soft tone. A voice that
cannot sing softly is not rightly produced. While the student is working
for the freedom which will give him a good half voice he is preparing
the conditions for a good full voice. The conditions are not right for
the practice of full voice until the last vestige of resistance has
disappeared. The light voice is as necessary to artistic success as the
full voice. The singer must have both, but he must never sacrifice
quality for power.
In the female voice the readjustments of the mechanism known as changes
of register usually occur at about [Illustration: Figure B].
In many lyric soprano voices I have found the same readjustment at the B
and C above the staff [Illustration: Figure C].
I have also noted in many bass voices a similar change of adjustment at
the E and F below the bass clef [Illustration: Figure D].
It would seem therefore, that in a majority of voices until an even
scale has been developed, that these readjustments appear at about the E
and F and B and C throughout the vocal compass. The exceptions to this
rule are so numerous however, that it can scarcely be called a rule.
Some voices will have but one noticeable readjustment, and it may be any
one of the three.
In some voices the changes are all imperceptible. In others, due to
wrong usage, they are abrupt breaks. In every instance the teacher must
give the voice what it needs to perfect an even scale. There should be
no more evidence of register changes in the vocal scale than in the
piano scale.
Leaving the lower two changes for the moment, let us consider the one at
the upper E and F. This one is so common among sopranos that there are
few who have not one, two, or three weak tones at this point. To avoid
these weak tones many are taught to carry the thicker tones of the
middle register up as far as they can force them in order to get the
"big tone" which seems to be the sole aim of much modern voice teaching.
The victims of this manner of teaching never use the real head voice,
and one thing happens to them all. As time goes on the upper voice grows
more and more difficult, the high tones disappear one by one, and at the
time when they should be doing their best singing they find themselves
vocal wrecks. Some of them change from soprano to alto and end by that
route.
Now these are not instances that appear at long intervals. They are in
constant evidence and the number is surprisingly large. The cause is
ignorance of how to treat the upper voice, together with an insane
desire for a "big tone" and a lack of patience to await until it grows.
The incredible thing is that there is a teacher living whose ear will
tolerate such a thing.
Now there is a way to develop the head voice that gives the singer not
only the full power of his upper voice, but makes it free, flexible and
vibrant, a sympathetic quality, a perfect _messa di voce_, and enables
him to sing indefinitely without tiring his voice. He must learn that it
is possible to produce a full tone with a light mechanism. This is the
natural way of producing the head voice. Further, the light mechanism
must be carried far below the point where the so called change of
register occurs.
Every voice should have a head register, and it may be developed in the
following way. With altos and sopranos I start with this exercise
[Illustration: Exercise No. 1]
Altos should begin at A.
The student should neither feel nor hear the tone in the throat.
Therefore he should begin with a soft _oo_. The throat should be free,
lips relaxed but slightly forward. There should be no puckering of the
lips for _oo_. The tone should seem to form itself around the lips, not
in the throat. In the beginning the exercise must be practiced softly.
No attempt must be made to increase the power, until the tone is well
established in the light mechanism. When the _oo_ can be sung softly and
without resistance as high as E flat use the same exercise with _o_.
The next step is to blend this light mechanism with the heavier
mechanism. It may be done in this way,
[Illustration: Exercise No. 2]
Sing this descending scale with a crescendo, always beginning it _pp_.
It should be practiced very slowly at first, and with portamento.
Carrying the head voice down over the middle and the middle down over
the lower will in a short time blend all parts of the voice, and lay the
foundation of an even scale. The exercise should be transposed upward by
half steps as the voice becomes more free until it reaches F or F sharp.
The next step is the building process. Use the following:
[Illustration: Exercise No. 3]
Altos should begin at A. In practicing these swells great care must be
taken. Tone quality is the first consideration, and the tone must be
pressed no further than is possible while retaining the pure singing
quality. Where voices have been forced and are accustomed to sing
nothing but thick tones this building process is sometimes slow. The
student finds an almost irresistible tendency to increase the resistance
as he increases the power of the tone. Therefore the louder he sings the
worse it sounds. This kind of practice will never solve the problem.
When the student is able to swell the tone to full power without
increasing the resistance the problem is solved.
The progress of the student in this, as in everything in voice training,
depends upon _the ear of the teacher_. The untrained ear of the student
is an unreliable guide. The sensitive ear of the teacher must at all
times be his guide. The belief that every one knows a good tone when he
hears it has no foundation in fact. If the student's concept of tone
were perfect he would not need a teacher. He would have the teacher
within himself. Every one knows what he likes, and what he likes is of
necessity his standard at that particular time, but it is only the
measure of his taste and may be different the next day.
All things in voice training find their court of last resort in the ear
of the teacher. All other knowledge is secondary to this. He may believe
any number of things that are untrue about the voice, but if he have a
thoroughly refined ear it will prevent him from doing anything wrong.
His ear is his taste, his musical sense, and it is his musical sense,
his musical judgment, that does the teaching.
So in building the head voice the teacher must see to it that musical
quality is never sacrificed for power. A full tone is worse than
useless, unless the quality is musical and this can never be
accomplished until the vocal instrument is free from resistance.
Exercise No. 3 should be transposed upward by half steps, but never
beyond the point at which it can be practiced comfortably.
As tension shows most in the upper part of the voice the student should
have, as a part of his daily practice, exercises which release the voice
as it rises. Use the following:
[Illustration: Exercise No. 4]
Begin with medium power and diminish to _pp_ as indicated. The upper
tone must not only be sung softly, but the throat must be entirely free.
There must be no sense of holding the tone.
Transpose to the top of the voice.
[Illustration: Exercise No. 5]
No. 5 is for the same purpose as No. 4 but in an extended form. Begin
with rather full voice and diminish to _pp_ ascending. Increase to full
voice descending.
Continue the building of the upper voice using the complete scale.
[Illustration: Exercise No. 6]
Thus far in preparing the head voice we have used the vowels _oo_ and
_o_. We may proceed to the vowel _ah_ in the following way. Using Ex.
No. 6 first sing _o_ with loose but somewhat rounded lips. When this
tone is well established sing _o_ with the same quality, the same focus,
or placing without rounding the lips. It amounts to singing _o_ with the
_ah_ position. When this can be done then use short _u_ as in the word
_hum_. This gives approximately the placing for _ah_ in the upper voice.
When these vowels can all be sung with perfect freedom transpose upward
by half steps.
[Illustration: Exercise No. 7]
In No. 7 when the crescendo has been made on the upper tone carry the
full voice to the bottom of the scale.
[Illustration: Exercise No. 8]
This is another way of blending the different parts of the voice. It
should be sung portamento in both directions. When sung by a female
voice it will be Middle, Head, Middle as indicated by the letters M, H,
M. When sung by the male voice it will be Chest, Head, Chest as
indicated by the letters C, H, C. Transpose upward by half steps.
When the foregoing exercises are well in hand the head voice may be
approached from the middle and lower registers in scale form as in the
following:
[Illustration: Exercise No. 9]
[Illustration: Exercise No. 10]
[Illustration: Exercise No. 11.]
[Illustration: Exercise No. 12.]
[Illustration: Exercise No. 13.]
The fact that male voices are more often throaty in the upper register
then female voices calls for special comment.
The following diagram showing the relationship of the two voices will
help to elucidate the matter.
[Illustration: Figure E]
I have here used three octaves of the vocal compass as sufficient for
the illustration. Remembering that the male voice is an octave lower
than the female voice we shall see that the female voice is a
continuation, as it were, of the male voice; the lower part of the
female compass overlapping the upper part of the male compass, the two
having approximately an octave G to G in common. Further it will be seen
that both male and female voices do about the same thing at the same
absolute pitches. At about E flat or E above middle C the alto or
soprano passes from the chest to the middle register. It is at the same
absolute pitches that the tenor passes from what is usually called open
to covered tone, but which might better be called from chest to head
voice. There is every reason to believe that the change in the mechanism
is the same as that which occurs in the female voice at the same
pitches. That there is oftentimes a noticeable readjustment of the
mechanism in uncultivated voices at these pitches no observing teacher
will deny, and these are the voices which are of special interest to the
teacher, and the ones for which books are made. It will be observed that
this change in the male voice takes place in the upper part of his
compass instead of in the lower, as in the female voice. This change
which is above the compass of the speaking voice of the tenor or
baritone, adds greatly to its difficulty. For this reason the training
of the male head voice requires more care and clearer judgment than
anything else in voice training.
In treating this part of the female voice we have learned that if the
heavy, or chest voice, is carried up to G or A above middle C it weakens
the tones of the middle register until they finally become useless. Then
the chest tones become more difficult and disappear one by one and the
voice has no further value. Identically the same thing happens to the
tenor who, by reason of sufficient physical strength forces his chest
voice up to G, A, or B flat. He may be able to continue this for awhile,
sometimes for a few years, but gradually his upper tones become more
difficult and finally impossible and another vocal wreck is added to the
list.
In restoring the female voice that has carried the chest voice too high
it is necessary to carry the middle register down, sometimes as low as
middle C until it has regained its power. The tenor or baritone must do
essentially the same thing. He must carry the head voice, which is a
lighter mechanism than the chest voice, down as low as this c
[Illustration: Figure F] using what is often called mixed voice. When
the pitches [Illustration: Figure G] are practiced with a sufficiently
relaxed throat the tone runs naturally into the head resonator with a
feeling almost the equivalent of that of a nasal tone, but this tone
will be in no sense nasal. It will be head voice.