Theocratic Aid To Kingdom Publishers

Lesson 15

VOICE IMPROVEMENT

Without air, there is no life, no voice, no tone, no strength. This focuses consideration of voice improvement first on breathing. The volume control in a modern radio set is comparable to the breath-control used by a speaker and, of course, also by a singer. The result of a combination of

both air and breath-control (with a few other things, which will be mentioned later) is a full, deep, round and pleasing tone that carries. This cannot be attained without correct breathing.

What is correct breathing? It is diaphragm breathing; also called diaphragmatic breathing. Contrary to general conception, the largest part of the lungs is not at the top of the chest. What makes this part of the torso appear wide are the shoulders. The lung is narrowest there and widest just above the diaphragm. The narrowest part of the lungs is cased in by the ribs, but there is a wide open space above the diaphragm where the lungs can expand by pressing down the diaphragm. This is the part of the lungs that should first be filled by a speaker. By using first this part of the lungs, which is the largest part thereof, he presses the diaphragm down and out. By such breathing the speaker assures himself of an abundance of air supply. This will mean strength and volume for his voice.

The filling of the lungs is only the first step to voice improvement. The second is breath-control by preventing the air from escaping with a rush. If one lets the air escape with a rush after he has filled up the lungs to the full capacity, what is the result? A breathy, muffled tone without carrying power. He has squandered his wind. One will ask now, How can I control that great air pressure which I have created in my lungs by filling them from the diaphragm? Only by gentle muscle pressure on the expanded diaphragm. One must learn how to control muscle pressure on the diaphragm; it must be gentle, gradual. Only thus can a long passage be rendered with proper phrasing and without chopping the sentence unduly, without throwing it out in installments.

The first tendency of a beginner is to control the breath by tightening the throat while the lungs are full. This will cause a hoarseness, tiredness and fatigue before he is through half of his talk. The throat should not have a thing to do with breath-control. A speaker must be not

only mentally relaxed, but also physically relaxed, and this includes his throat muscles. More singing and speaking voices have been ruined by strain than through any other cause. A hoarse voice, a rasping voice, a thin voice, a shrill voice can be cured by teaching the speaker to relax his throat muscles entirely. The best way to relax the throat is by thinking that the throat is nothing but a chimney, through which the air current from the lungs ascends in a column of air, entirely unobstructed. Obstruct the column of smoke ascending from a chimney, and you know what the result is —coughing. The same is true of the speaker's "chimney", the throat. If he clogs up the "chimney" by narrowing the opening to his windpipe, the result will be a hoarse throat and coughing. The throat must be kept wide open, which is also essential for good tone quality.

How can the throat be kept wide open? Think of a yawn. Refrain from inhaling. The need for more breath usually causes a yawn. In the moment before the yawn breaks, the throat is wide open and relaxed. What is tense is not the throat, it is just the diaphragm. Even small voices, nasal voices, can be made to sound round and full by teaching them how to open their throats and let the tone come out unobstructed.

Another requisite for good tone production is a widely opened mouth. The result of a nearly closed mouth and of a rigid jaw, both of which are bad habits and must be overcome, is either a forced tone squeezed through the teeth and therefore hard and thin, or a muffled and indistinct tone. Besides, a stiff jaw causes a clumsy tongue. The only way to obtain command over a rigid jaw is, again, complete relaxation.

The last fundamental of good tone production to be mentioned is resonance. Resonance is produced by using the body as a sounding board for the voice, much in the same way that the body of a stringed instrument amplifies and beautifies the tones produced by a musician on the

strings of his instrument. The initial human voice, or tone, is produced by the vocal cords in the larynx, but the tone reverberates against the bony structure of the chest, the teeth, the roof of the mouth, the nasal cavities and the sinuses. This reverberation gives to the voice its most important quality. The problem is not to speak with resonance; one has spoken with resonance all his life. He could not be heard ten feet without it. The task is to speak with increased resonance. How shall we set about it?

The best way to increase resonance is by humming tunes. This will be of no benefit if one's jaw, lips, throat and facial muscles are held rigid. One must loosen up his entire body before starting such exercises. He has to keep his face in the same position as in a state of complete repose, or while sleeping. The lips should be only lightly united and not pressed hard together. Thus, the tone vibrations will not be deadened by obstructing muscles, nor forced through the nose by the strain. Instead, they will resonate. A relaxed body is so important for the production of good resonance. If the body is tense, then it cannot work with the tonal vibrations. The body must be relaxed in order to vibrate with the voice. If one places a weight on a violin as it is played the sound is deadened. It must be free to vibrate. Practice resonance by repeating words, dwelling with prolonged resonance on the ng, m, n, and l sounds. Let the words ring like a bell in the nasal cavity.

Resonance will enable one to reach a large audience with ease, without great effort, without strain of the voice. The following illustration will make that clear: A blacksmith, pounding a piece of iron with a hammer, makes a disagreeable and deafening noise near by. But this clanging sound, strange as it may seem, does not carry far, while music half as loud as this hammering can be heard at a distance, even through a racket of noises. Why? The instrument makes a harmonious and resonating sound. The hammer, striking the iron, makes a discordant clangor

without resonance. Resonance carries, and for this reason it is so important to speak with resonance by placing the lone well forward in the mouth.

Practice daily and apply in daily speaking these principles of good tone production.