ANY INFLUENCES contribute to the making of a winning voice; and many more detract from its value. In this lesson we shall discuss both classes of influences; for we can learn more by looking at what should be avoided at times than by dealing only with the qualities that are desirable. To know what is wrong is half the battle. Then to know how to remedy the wrong is another step in the progress to be made; while the climax is reached by the actual process of effecting the remedy.

"THE MEANING"

Cold type does not express the meaning.

It rarely does this. Any line can be rendered by some person in an ordinary manner and seem to have but little thought in it.

Some other person will make it full of meaning. But a man or woman with a perfectly flexible voice will make the thought stand forth in a most amazing power, and the tones employed may be quiet and wholly unassuming.

What does the following statement mean:

"The man would have died if you hadn't cut his foot off."

You can read it in such a way as to make the man alive; orin such another way as to make him dead; and it certainly is important to know which fact you desire to convey. There is a great difference between a living manand a dead man.

Put your mind behind the words and think that the man is alive.

Think that the operation saved his life. Think that, if the foot had not been cut off, he would not have lived, but, would have died because the foot was left on. In so thinking, you will do something more than emphasize the word died; the flexible voice will not depend wholly on emphasis. The object point of the voice is the word died in the reading, "The man would have died if you hadn't cut his foot off." Try it fifty times or more until you are able to read the thought that he is alive

Now try to execute him.

This is done by the human voice. Think that the man died. Think that he would have died anyway. Think that the operation of removing his foot was of no avail; that he was sure to die anyway; and that he "would have died if you hadn't cut his foot off."

After making your voice perform this execution, repeat it fifty times, always on the same man. Repetition gives a flexible voice. If you can read the above skilfully so as to make the man alive or dead at will, you are then well advanced on your way to a successful attainment in this course.

If you cannot do this, then call in some friends to help you solve the problem. But if you can do it fairly well, keep on the practice of repeating until the meaning stands out more and more day by day. No one is perfect in such practice.

"THE INTENTION"

In the preceding lesson we have dealt with the meaning. Now we seek to read the purpose or intention of the thought. Imagine yourself seated in an outer room, and that in the next room there are two persons, one a wife, the other a husband. The wife says to the husband:

"Will you ride to town today?" What does she intend?

But instead of putting it that way, she says:

"Will you ride to town today?"

Does not the first inquiry clearly indicate that she desires to know whether any one is going to town today? And does not the second inquiry take it for granted that some one is going, but is he the one?

Instead, however, of either inquiry, suppose she had asked:

"Will you ride to town today?" Would not the intention shift completely? Someone is going, and you are the person; but

how will you go? The town is two miles away. Will you walk, ride or fly?

Another meaning is brought out in the following question:

"Will you ride to town today?" You sometimes go into the town, or as far as the town; and often go in that direction, and not to the town itself.

Here is still another intention:

"Will you ride to town today?" This asks whether you are going there, or elsewhere, perhaps into the country.

There are six words in the sentence. One remains to receive attention.

"Will you ride to town today?" Here the purpose shifts in the most startling manner from the other five intentions. Is today the time of your visit to town?

The acute thinker will note that, when one word is made to carry the idea, all the others are taken for granted. This is a very important fact. In court a witness is held accountable for all ideas so taken for granted; and, as every man and woman is likely to come to the witness stand some day, it is well to know to what extent the human voice is committing its owner.

Thus, when the wife asks: "Will you ride to town today?" she may not think that she is assuming as admitted truths all the other facts suggested in the sentence; but she does so in her form of inquiry.

If the husband were to enter the room and say to his wife, "I will ride to town today," he would know, or ought to know, that she understands that he is going, that his visit is to be to the town, and today is the time, as well as the other minor ideas to be as stated; but that he will not walk, as he has decided to ride.

Here the meaning changes with every repetition.

But the real object of this lesson is to teach you to form the habit of expressing exactly what you have in mind.

The voice becomes natural and flexible by specific practice. Thus, if you were to repeat each of the above inquiries fifty times, or a total of three hundred times, you would find your voice much improved in its powers of expression. What you can do once, or a few times, is merely what you are in the habit of doing all the time. To grow more and more expressive, is the chief object of vocal practice. Repetition does wonders,

Great actors have been known to repeal, a single line many thousands of times, and so they have become great in so doing Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

"THE PLEASING VOICE"

Not more than one voice in a thousand is pure in its mechanical quality. Some musical instruments, by wear and tear, develop what is called in art a mongrel tone. A dog that is neither one thing or another in breed, is a mongrel; and when it is mean in its habits and nature, it is known as a mongrel cur. Such a dog does not appeal to the best tastes of the community.

The human voice is constantly subjected to influences that destroy its purity of quality. The singer knows, or soon comes to know, that the everyday habits of life take the value out of the voice; and so there are exercises that restore the purity of the quality. Some musical instruments have exquisitely beautiful tones. Some horns of gold alloy are exceedingly rich in tone-value; some of silver are almost as rich; some of brass are more blatant; and so the quality follows the metal. On the other hand, there are methods of construction that help make the tones richer. The sounding board of a piano has much to do with the excellence of the sounds to be produced. All other parts exert some influence. The instrument that today attracts by its fine tones, may in the course of time give forth a sound like an "old tin pan." The same deterioration that takes place in a piano is certain to occur in the human voice.

That the latter is rarely ever found in a pure quality is a well recognized fact.

The vocal cords are made rough and coarse by the use of vinegar, acids, spices, tea, coffee, tobacco and alcohol. Excessive meat-eating generates a poison in the blood that reaches the throat in its circulation.

Inhaling through the mouth is the most injurious of all habits. It is always better to breathe in through the nose, The out-going breath does not affect the vocal cords. Mouth-inhalation brings dust and germs to the throat, and also chills its walls; these combined influences often introducing contagion into the system.

The larger the lung capacity becomes, the more readily the vocal cords will respond to any method of improving them. Therefore deep breathing daily is necessary to voice development. This may be done without interfering with other duties. You must breathe all day long, and it takes no more time to breathe deeply than in the usual shallow manner.

"THE PURE VOICE"

If you have absorbed the lesson next preceding this, you may go on with the work of securing a vocal quality that is called pure. In so doing, you drive out all the accumulated roughness and crudeness of years of growth. Just think of the value of a musical instrument, the notes of which are clear, sweet, rich and pure. Listen to the piano that sounds like an "old tin pan" and compare it with the new piano every tone of which pleases because of its mechanical purity. A simple exercise will bring vast results. Learn what the vowel "ah" is and how and where it is made. We have been told that it is the most open of all sounds. This really means that it can be readily made the most open. In fact, it is possible to make it with the lips almost closed. It is possible to make it on the front of the mouth, at the lips, on the tongue, or in the throat.

If you make it on the lips, your voice will not improve, for lip sounds are never pleasing. The vocal cords are in the throat, in what seems to be the bottom of the throat-well. Imagine the throat to be a deep well, and that you are to produce the sound from the lowest part of that well. Open the mouth at the lips, at the tongue, in the middle, at the back of the palate, and down deep in the throat. Then say "ah."

The latest and most approved method of voice production is that which starts the tone in the deep throat and projects it at the front upper teeth. This quickly leads to purity and clearness. The process is as follows, and if duly employed, the results will soon be marvelous:

1. Utter the sound "ah" in the manner just stated, and try to make it as clear as possible. Think of the place of origin which is always at the bottom of the throat-well, and at the same time think of the point of. attack which is at the front upper teeth. Keep these two locations always in mind. Never release your attention from them.

2. Having mastered the two points as just stated, and having made yourself capable of executing the tone as required, try to prolong the sound of "ah" for five seconds. In doing this depend on the expert acuteness of your ear; for your ear will tell you what character of tone your voice is producing. Your ear is to be your mentor, your guide, your dictator; and you must encourage its good work.

3. Listen to the tone you are producing. Is it getting clearer? If so, then prolong it for ten seconds by your watch,

4. Then prolong it for fifteen seconds.

5. Then for twenty seconds; and so keep on, adding five seconds at a time until you are able to prolong a good tone for sixty seconds in one breath.

6. When you rest, start over again with five seconds. Never, after a rest, try to see how long you can maintain a tone Always begin with five, then let the breath out, inhale, and go to ten seconds, and so continue. The real progress comes in the habit of beginning over with five seconds. It would be a waste of time, or nearly so, to try to go a long period, say twenty or more seconds, at the start. Build up, five seconds at a time and progress will be rapid.

7. The ear is to detect the growing purity of the voice. That will soon find improvement, and then it must insist on the continued bettering of the tone until it rings true and clear as a flute note.

The pure voice in a man is a resonant, clear, beautiful tone suited to the manliness of the individual; while in a woman it is free from any of the blemishes that mar a perfect voice. It is not confined to one part of the vocal range, but sustains the same quality in each and all of the pitches. It is sometimes attained and very speedily, by the process of elimination. This means to first get rid of the throaty character by learning to open the throat to its full capacity, thus allowing the tones to come through to the front upper palate. Another fault to be eliminated is that of unvocalized air passing through the mouth mixed with the tones. This occurs in both speaking and singing, and is called partial aspiration. The ear can detect it and lead to its disappearance. The nasal twang can be likewise overcome.