Show THAT BY CARL during a recent performance of the metropolitan opera co a well known fashionable late comer drew to herself much attention she was so graceful in her manner and so at tired that for a moment even the famous caruso was eclipsed the stirring beauty of his voice horev er quickly cast its spell again it was at the close of the first act and caru so had just finished an entrancing I 1 theme when a harsh nasal voice broke the silence oh john I 1 wish you could sing like that so beau ticul a wish but so discordant a tone caused all eyes to turn in that diorec alon the unmusical voice belonged to the beautiful lady her fashion circle was visibly disappointed and she probably wondered why her social aspirations were never realized AI though she possessed all other assets necessary tor social supremacy she lacked that most important personal onal asset a pleasing voice it nordica sang in her throat the clearness of her beautiful voice would disappear she produce her tones right on the lips it ou watch her lips move you will see that she grips the tone vibrations with them if the tone formed in the throat Is driven to the outside air through the flesh of the neck and face we rob the voice of its natural power nordica davs that every tone must be pro deuced right out on the very edge of the lips the throat is tor another pur pose in the throat there are two little cords that vibrate the breath when this vibrated breath reaches the lips they form it into sound if you force the throat to perform a wrong duty you hamper it in performing the right one brilliant tone is pos sible only when the tone wave is so formed that it can move on without obstruction the lips the teeth and the tip of the tongue are amply sufficient to form all consonant and all vowel I 1 sounds when you whisper words as sea bee pea tea fee you find that you form the sounds at the lips and teeth try it by whispering the fol lowing sentence nobody ever thinks of whispering in the throat in fact it Is quite impossible whether you know it or not nature has endowed you with a singing and speaking voice which ought to be an asset to you both in business and in social life lou can cultivate our voice with but little effort and a great deal of pleasure when you once know what tone really is application is energy wasted it you try to do or make a thing without learning first the principles that govern it it the german count who is spend r ing his life time in building air ships discovers the law s that will make it possible for us to navigate in the air the building of air ships for our daily use and pleasure will become a simple matter in order to develop your voice it is just as necessary first for you to know the laws through which tone finds its existence when you once know the laws you can easily apply them in practice in fact you should give them practical applina tion else your knowledge of them Is of no use development demands two things the knowledge of the law and its practical application let us now find out the law that governs the existence of tone or sound sound is an ai wave when you speak or sing you disturb the par tides of air about you when one lit tie molecule of air is disturbed it in turn disturbs the next one and so on but when the next molecule puts the one farther from it in motion it has lost a little in energy place tour marbles in a row give the first one a push it will strike and start the sec ond the second will start the third and the third the fourth the force however to start another marble rolling each time lessens the energy by so much therefore it Is that you see the last marble amov ing slower than the first so it la with the particles of air that push along the sound wave the energy of the sound wave must finally die out and the sound cease at a certain distance were this not so the chirp of a bird could be heard around the world i air carries sound by forming itself in a aye motion throw a pebble in a placid pool of water try it in your basin at home and you will see little ripples form in even circular motion the ripple near the edge of the pool Is much shallower than the one in the center it the pool Is large enough the wave motion may disappear before it reaches the edge because it takes a certain amount of energy to set so much water in motion wave motion in water illustrates wave motion in air only in air the waves travel apher icalla 1 e about you on all sides if the air did not move spherically your listener would have to stand at tain angles in order to hear you but you know that no matter where your listener stands in any radius about you he can hear what you say you know now how the air carries sound it you should try to make a noise in a vacuum you would find that you could make no sound therefore tone after all Is nothing but an air wave that travels to all sides the difficulty in singing and speak ing arises when we try to make air waves carry sound a great distance it Is this difficulty that bars the way to success for most singers and speak ers the unsuccessful singer or speak er finds that the energy of his tones dies out too quickly to make those farthest away hear him how to form sound baies with enough energy to make them reach the farthest listener is a secret which many public singers and speakers would like to know ring a silver bell in a room where there are no obstructions directly about the bell the sound will be clear efow wrap a cloth around the bell and ring it again the sound o 0 hear Is no longer clear but mut fled and clouded you have placed an obstruction between the object that produces the sound and the air wave which transmits he sound the cloth breaks the sound vibrations the waves that reach your hearing nerves are the broken waves outside the cloth and therefore you get a muffled sound but what has this to do directly with singing and speaking you ask alen the tones 0 the voice can vl brate immediately upon the air with out encountering an obstruction they reach the ear of the listener as clear sounds the obstruction that the tones ot the singer or speak er usually find Is right within the mouth the face acts like the cloth about the bell when the face becomes an obstruction it Is because the tones are formed in the throat in stead of on the lips when tone Is formed by an opening between the lips the outside air can immediately ly take up the vibrations the sound waves then will reach the ear of the listener unhampered and unbroken watch yourself when ou talk let the front part of our mouth do all the work make the consonants pop out the words apply this idea in your daily business talks and keep it in mind whenever you speak or sing your voice will quickly gain in power and you will gain an ease of espres slon but your greatest gain will come through the musical quality that is bound to result when the tone Is produce I 1 brilliantly A musical voice every one knows Is one of the greatest assets that a personality can possess either in busl ness life or in the social world copyright by joseph bowles |