with practice anybody can learn it. Dip the head forward as if you were very weary, almost fast asleep; let every muscle of the face drop down, and then begin to shake the head gradually. Let all the effort be in the neck. Remove all tension from the muscles in the face and throat. Then increase the head shaking until you have succeeded in getting the jaw to move independent of the head. This will give you a relaxed jaw. Note how it feels so you can tell when you

do it again.

Another test that will help you appreciate how these muscles ought to feel when relaxed is to yawn. If you can yawn genuinely, you will notice at the finish just how the muscles of the jaw ought to feel when they are thoroughly relaxed. If you cannot yawn genuinely, you can at least go through the motions, and after a while get much the same effect. Now, with the jaw thoroughly relaxed, make the sound of "hu" as in "hut," allowing no muscular exertion except from the abdomen. If you will make sure to prevent the throat from squeezing or pinching this tone in any way, exerting no pressure except from the diaphragm, you will be using voice with a relaxed and open throat. This will promise you an acceptable quality.

2. Steadying the Tone.-Next, the voice may be free from rasp and raucousness, yet may lack that control that makes a tone smooth. This is a matter of coördination between breathing and vocalization. When the breath is defective in controlling the tone, there will be a quavering, shaking effect in the note. When a speaker or singer is affected with this weakness, there is a constant tendency to "squeeze the tone into submission" by means of the muscles of the throat. If you will observe the way in which a tight-throated person makes his tones, you can fairly feel the muscles of the throat closing in behind the tone and forcing it out. The result inevitably is what is called "throatiness," the sound being made too much from a faulty shape of the cavity to suit the vowel and pitch used.

The cure for unsteadiness of tone is: (1) Make sure to get an open throat; (2) practice the vowel sounds to find ways of steadying the tone in the making of each vowel. There is

no patent process whereby a teacher can place a satisfactory tone into the student's mouth, and no fortunate way by which the teacher can show the student how to hold the muscles of the throat so as to make a given tone correctly. Like every other learning process, it rests upon both inherited mechanisms and habits. In other words, there must be considerable "cut and try" on the part of the student who would correct tightness of throat, a matter of experimentation and observation.

3. Criticism.-Exercise your judgment, through your ear, as to whether the tone gets better or worse. Tune in on your own voice. Then when you have found a tone that sounds better, discover how you did it and try to do it again. Cultivate your auditory and your muscle-sense imagery. This is the only possible way of learning the kind of action with which we are dealing. Consistent trials will bring final success. First you will hit it accidentally; ultimately you will be able to reproduce the acceptable sound at will.

Most students need the guidance of a competent critic. After a person has lived with his voice for eighteen or twenty years he is not likely to be a satisfactory judge as to whether it is good or bad, and is also pretty likely to think that any change from that old familiar voice is a mistake and only wrong. Beware of being enamoured of your old voice or of flying to it as a safe refuge in time of trial-especially during practice. By and large, the best vocal work is done under the direction of a good critic.

SUMMARY OF EXERCISES

1. Aspirate the ha sound, taking particular pains to notice whether the tone is free from quavers or breaks. You cannot keep a "tight throat" when aspirating freely. Use all the vowel sounds thus. Repeat this exercise until you can get control over the tone and can free it from wavering. Vary the exercises by changing the length of time for holding the sound.

2. Cultivate the loose jaw by the method pointed out on pages 156 and 157.

3. Vocalize vowel sounds in the following order: u as in

but, oo as in took, a as in father, i as in mind, a as in all, e as in eve, o as in tone, a as in hay, u as in mute. In this exercise make sure that you do not continue repeating a defective sound. If your voice is badly constricted at first, do not attempt to get much beyond the u and a as in father. When you have made a sound, observe it carefully to see that it is worth repeating; if you cannot call it good, by no means repeat that same sound if you can help it. Let your progress be slow and sure. A constant watch must be kept to make sure to avoid cultivating new bad habits.

4. Having gained some degree of mastery over these vowel sounds so that they can be made with an open throat, practice with them so as to prolong the length of time they are held. The test here is to start with an open throat and keep it open throughout a prolonged tone.

5. Utter these same vowel sounds with an upward slide of the voice, making sure to hold the tone open all the way; then utter them with a downward slide of the voice, again observing the openness of the tone. It will be found by most students that it is much more difficult to hold the tone open during the downward slide then during the upward.

6. Read selections like "The Recessional" by Kipling; "Break, Break, Break," by Tennyson, "Evangeline on the Prairie" by Longfellow.

III. TREATMENT OF SPECIAL AILMENTS

A. THROAT TOO TIGHT

This is quite the typical American voice. It is raspy, thin, harsh, and penetrating. It is found in men and women both; maybe more often in men. It seems to come from two prevalent American psychological mannerisms: (1) the disposition to smile and be known as either amiable or funny, even as a "wise-cracker," and (2) the American religion of success, the mood of the "go-getter," which makes us go through life with jaw set like a steel trap. Either one, the smile or the set jaw, pulls the voice resonator out of shape and perverts the sound of the various vowels and even of some of the consonants. Sounds like a as in all, o as in low, a as in far, oo as

in tool, ow as in cow, cannot be made accurately with the jaw set or expanded into a smile or grin. This position gives forth e as in meat much better, also a as in sat, e as in met, and i as in it.

The cure is first to stop broadening the face: lengthen it rather. Consider the opposite of your man of good cheer, the man so solemn people say he is in danger of stepping on his chin. He is pictured with a long face, but also with deep, resonant voice. No doubt of it, solemnity makes for an open throat and good resonance. Maybe we Americans are not so solemn as we might be with profit; assuredly we can learn to free our jaws and mouths enough to let out a tone that is pure and open instead of the one so characteristically tight, flat, and grating to the ear.

To improve such a voice, work to deepen and lengthen the resonating cavity of mouth and pharynx. Yawn two or three times to get the feel of a deep cavity in the mouth. Keep your mouth feeling thus relaxed, and then say the vowels a, e, i, o, u; and the others.

EXERCISES

1. Hold these vowel sounds on an even level of pitch. Listen and notice the "feel" of the throat muscles till you are sure you are making the right vowel sound. Note that four of these are diphthongs, and so will demand a change of shape in the resonator to match the change in vowel. Work to get the tone free from rasp and unpleasant tightness. Do this by finding the right shape of mouth and throat.

2. Pronounce the vowels with a downward slide. Change the shape of the resonator to fit the needs of the change of pitch. You will probably have to thrust the head forward and then back to do this. Do it as if you were telling some one very earnestly what the sound is. Head gestures help to get the sound right.

3. Study to find out what movements and shapes are needed to get the right cavity to make the tone as clear and steady as possible.

4. Find out how to move the muscles in order to increase the

general resonance of the tone. This is a trial-and-error process. Only yourself can find out how to get the best results with your particular head and neck. Utter elaborately and resonantly these sentences; use plenty of muscle action in lips, cheeks, jaw, tongue:

"Ring out, wild bells!"

"Make the sound ring through this room."

"Rome, Rome, thou hast been a tender nurse to me!"

"The wind moans and howls among the trees on the mountains."

"Round and round the waters streamed."

"Borne on the wings of time he came."

"Boomlay, boomlay, boomlay, boom!"

5. In extreme cases, or if the above treatment does not get results, imitate the pompous, hollow-voiced man who is puffed up with pride and bombast. If your throat is noticeably tight, there is no danger that you will actually sound like such a one. But you can profit by trying to do-a thing hard for you-what he does all too easily. The ensuing sounds will probably sound ridiculous to you; but almost inevitably in proportion as it seems strange to you it will seem like an improvement to others. It will sound strange because you have got so used to the old tone that you do not hear it accurately. Probably if you ever had heard it aright, you would have found ways long ago of getting over it!

In any case for this voice enlarge the cavity; deepen and lengthen it.

B. VOICE TOO HOLLOW

The voice referred to next is the one that sounds too far down in the throat, too much of an empty, booming sound as of a barrel or cistern, the opposite of the one just discussed. For this reduce the size of the cavity. The muscles that pull the pharynx downward and outward are too dominant and the muscles of the cheek and lips are not flexible enough.

a. Shape the resonator so that the sound seems to come