Purity
To secure purity of voice, no particle of breath must be allowed to escape unvocalized. A persistent effort should be made to produce this quality, at first "feeding" the breath very gently to the vocal cords and increasing the volume only after long practise. i ' He is the best speaker, says Lennox Browne, "who can control the expiration, that the least possible amount of air sufficient to cause vibration is poured with continuous effect upon the vocal organs.''
- Sing oo in gentle, smooth voice, avoiding unnecessary
muscular effort.
- Sing ah, with mouth well opened, aiming at purity,
depth and smoothness. Sustain and repeat on various
pitches.
- Repeat with o.
- Gradually change singing o to ah, maintaining a
uniform quality throughout.
- Repeat with oo-o-ah.
- Practise various musical scales.
- Pronounce e, a, aw, ah, 6, do, prolonging each ten or
more seconds.
- Repeat with rising, falling, and circumflex inflection.
- Practise shock of the glottis in gup, ge, ga, gaw, gah,
go, goo.
- Repeat in hup, he, ha, haw, hah, ho, hoo.
- Repeat with rising slide and with falling slide, aim
ing at great clearness.
- Count very deliberately one to fifty, inhaling after
each number.
- Count to fifty, ten to each breath.
- Repeat last two exercises in loud whisper.
- Project by slight waves of sound woo-woo-woo-woo.
- Toss the sounds e, a, aw, ah, oh, oo.
- With mouth closed hum a mental maw. The vibration should be felt on the lips and in the facial resonators.
- Repeat with bright and with sad vibrations.
- Repeat in very low pitch.
- Commence a humming tone as before, allow the
lower jaw to drop gently, "focus" the voice on the lips
and maintain as much facial resonance as possible.
- Sing le, la, law, lah, lo, loo, singly and in combina tion.
- Yawn e, a, aw, ah, o, oo,
Flexibility
Flexibility means vocal responsiveness, or the ability to produce any tone or variation that may be required. The use of a piano in these
exercises is desirable.
- Sing e, a, aw, ah, o, oo in chromatic scale, from the lowest to the highest pitch.
- Repeat with trill.
- Repeat with tremolo.
Brilliancy
To secure brilliancy or a musical quality of voice, practise daily upon exercises containing long vowel sounds:
Hear the mellow wedding bells- Golden bells!
What a world of happiness their harmony foretells!
Through the balmy air of night
How they ring out their delight From the molten-golden notes,
And all in tune!
Oh, from out the sounding cells, What a gush of euphony voluminously wells! How it swells!
How it dwells on the future! How it tells Of the rapture that impels
To the swinging and the ringing Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells- To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells!
- Inhale deeply, force the breath against the closed lips until they burst open on the word "bell," prolonging the "1" as long as possible and allowing the tone to gradu ally die away in imitation of bell vibrations.
- Repeat with variations.
Laughing exercises will add brilliancy and strength to the voice.
- Practise m-m-m-m-m-m-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo~hoo-hoo-ho-ho-ho- %o-ho-ho-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha.
- Aim to produce a hearty, spon taneous laugh.
- Practise with varied feeling, such as merry, rippling, polite, silly, angry, appreciative, sad, scornful, etc.
- Practise the following with great freedom: Hurrah! Hurrah Hurrah! Hurrah!
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