PN 4162 
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 Copy 1 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 
 
 Chap. Copyright No. 
 
 SheltP.N 4> t? ^ 
 
 ^Vz\ 
 
 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
THE VOICE 
 
 Speaking and Singing. 
 
 A TREATISE 
 
 Self- Instruction and Teaching Others 
 
 The True Art of Vocal Culture. 
 
 Rev. John S. Parker, A. M., 
 
 Conductor of the Viroqua Chautauqua Assembly, 
 Viroqua, Wis. 
 
 *'7<W 
 
 Publisher, I,. R. GOTT, 
 Treasurer of the School Board, Viroqua, Wis. 
 
 PRICE: TWENTY-FIVE CENTS. 
 
 'Copyright Secured by the Author, 1895. 
 
The Voice 
 
 IN 
 
 Speaking and Singing. 
 
 The Principles At the Foundation of 
 
 Proper Voice Production, 
 
 arranged in ten lessons 
 
 Ten Successive Weeks of Teaching or Practice. 
 
 AUTHOR : 
 
 Rev. John S. Parker, A. M., 
 
 Conductor of the Viroqua Chautauqua Assembly. 
 Viroqua, Wis. 
 
 Publisher, L,. R. Gott, 
 
 Treasurer of the School Board. 
 
 Viroqua, Wis. 
 
 PRICE: TWENTY-FIVE CENTS. 
 
 Copyright Secured by the Author, 1895. 
 
•T*7 
 
IMPORTANT INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 
 
 After years of teaching, both East and West, 
 without meeting a pupil in whose case the instruc- 
 tions have been unsuccessful, the author puts his 
 system before the public. It is not the discovery of 
 a new method of voice production, but an original 
 arrangement of exercises, so that, one naturally 
 following another, the correct practice of each one, 
 where needed, being tested by readily observed phy- 
 sical movements, the true method of voice production 
 may be mastered without a teacher. 
 
 The first five exercises train the organs which must 
 be used in all proper vocalization, and should be 
 practiced in the order given, taking one week for 
 each lesson. 
 
 A THOROUGH MASTERY OF THE SECOND FIVE EXER- 
 CISES, taking one week for each lesson, 
 
 Saves unnecessary wear upon lungs and vocal 
 chords ; 
 
 Gives the means of breaking up a monotonous 
 delivery ; 
 
 Enables one who is hoarse from cold to speak or 
 sing, for an ordinary performance, without irritating 
 the organs of speech ; 
 
4 THE VOICE IX SPEAKING AND SINGING. 
 
 Gives command of that range of tones which fits 
 the speaker, with perfect ease and readiness, to adapt 
 the voice to the requirements of emphasis, and the 
 variations in the size of auditoriums and the numbers 
 of audiences ; and 
 
 Makes it possible for the singer to use the required 
 volume for any building, without changing the key 
 to be employed in rendering the piece as written. 
 
 The treatise is especially recommended for use 
 
 by:— 
 
 Those who employ what arecalled "head tones "; 
 
 Any who use pitch for emphasis and sustained 
 passages ; 
 
 All who find it difficult to make themselves heard 
 before large audiences ; 
 
 Persons whose vocal organs have failed them 
 because of wrong methods of voice production ; 
 
 Those who use the proper method but who do not 
 know how they came to do so, nor how to instruct 
 others concerning its use ; and 
 
 Teachers who would gladly have a systematized 
 plan of teaching, which can not fail to render their 
 instruction successful. 
 
 The following practical suggestions are of- 
 fered :— 
 
 Stand erect, as one would stand against the wall, 
 touching it at every possible point of contact, from 
 head to heels. 
 
 Before speaking or singing in public take no food 
 within two hours preceding the performance, and 
 then not more than the white of an egg thoroughly 
 beaten with a little sugar, a cup of tea or coffee, or a 
 
THE VOICE IN SPEAKING AND SINGING. 5 
 
 glass of milk or water, hot or cold, and a small piece 
 of bread and butter. 
 
 After an evening performance take a very light 
 lunch. 
 
 For temporary hoarseness use "Frog in Your 
 Throat? " Hance Brothers & White, Phila., Pa. 
 
 If delivery is affected by chronic nasal catarrh, 
 cleanse the nostrils daily, and especially an hour 
 before speaking, with a douche of warm salt water, 
 in the proportion of a teaspoonful of salt to a half 
 pint or a pint of water. 
 
 If an elongated palate troubles, gargle a solution 
 of a tablespoonful of saleratus in a glass of cold 
 water daily, and especially an hour before the public 
 use of the voice. 
 
 The daily practice of the physical exercises laid 
 down in Blakie's " How to Get Strong and How to 
 Stay So," by strengthening the whole body, will in 
 many cases tone up the organs of speech. 
 
 The exercises of the ten lessons following may not 
 properly be practiced by ladies who persist in tight 
 lacing. 
 
 All the exercises of these lessons should be taken, 
 after the first ten weeks, daily, if possible, through- 
 out life. 
 
THE VOICE IN SPEAKING AND SINGING. 
 
 TEN WEEKS' PRACTICE. 
 
 LESSON FIRST. 
 
 Stand erect, do not bend the arms either at wrists 
 or elbows, slowly raise and lower the shoulders one 
 hundred times. This exercise strengthens the upper 
 muscles of the chest and back, and makes it possible, 
 eventually, to sit and stand with ease in the erect 
 position. 
 
 Practice upon arising in the morning, before din- 
 ner and upon retiring at night. 
 
 LESSON SECOND. 
 
 To the first exercise add each time the following 
 practice : — 
 
 Extend the arms horizontally in front of the chest, 
 letting the palms meet, then swing them backward, 
 as nearly horizontally as possible, till, without turn- 
 ing at the wrists, thebacks ofthe hands meet. Repeat 
 this movement fifty times at each practice. This gives 
 strength to the muscles which raise the chest, as re- 
 quired in the next lesson. 
 
 LESSON THIRD. 
 
 Three times daily add to the exercises previously 
 given the following : — 
 
 By a purely muscular movement, without taking 
 a breath each time, rapidly throw the chest upward 
 and forward. Repeat this fifty times at each prac- 
 tice. In this exercise, when the chest is moved upward 
 and forward, the abdominal muscle is drawn in 
 toward the backbone. 
 
THE VOICE IN SPEAKING AND SINGING. / 
 
 The dotted line in Fig. I shows the outline of the 
 front of the body when this takes place. This is the 
 position in which the chest should be retained, not 
 only while speaking and singing, but also when the 
 organs of speech are at rest. 
 
 LESSON FOURTH. 
 
 Three times daily add to the exercises previously 
 given the following: — 
 
 Stand erect, throw the chest upward and for- 
 ward, as in Lesson Third, retain it in that position, 
 and alternately move the abdominal muscle in, toward 
 the backbone, and out, away from it. The greatest 
 movement of the abdominal muscle, in this exercise, 
 should not be low down, but as near the waist line 
 as possible. This exercise is constantly used in all 
 speaking, singing and breathing, properly executed, 
 and must be mastered. It is a discouraging practice 
 
8 THE VOICE IN SPEAKING AND SINGING. 
 
 because of the temporary soreness it occasions ; but 
 at the end of a week or two of faithful, and not too 
 severe, practice, the soreness passes away, and it will 
 then be as eas}' to move the abdominal outline, at 
 the waist line, from two to three inches, backward 
 and forward, as to move the fingers. 
 
 It is impossible to accomplish this practice with- 
 out a slight accompanying movement of the chest. 
 This is also true in its practical use in speaking, 
 singing and breathing. But it must be observed this 
 accompanying movement is not that heaving of the 
 chest which accompanies the inhalation and exhala- 
 tion of air in " chest" as distinguished from " abdom- 
 inal " breathing. (See Lesson Fifth.) 
 
 The dotted lines in Fig. II show the extremes of 
 the inward and outward outline of the abdomen, at 
 the waist, in this practice. Repeat this exercise not 
 more than twenty times at each practice. 
 
 'i 
 
THE VOICE IN SPEAKING AND SINGING. 9 
 
 LESSON FIFTH. 
 
 Three times daily add to the exercises previously 
 given the following : — 
 
 Stand erect, throw the chest upward and forward 
 as in Lesson Third, retain it in that position as in 
 Lesson Fourth, expel the air from the lungs, not by 
 lowering the chest, but by drawing in the abdominal 
 muscle as in Lesson Fourth ; then inhale all the air 
 possible, not by raising the chest, for that is already 
 raised to the highest position, but by moving the 
 abdominal muscle forward, as, also, in Lesson Fourth. 
 Continue this exercise of alternately expelling and 
 inhaling the air, as explained, one hundred times at 
 each practice. After this week's practice make this 
 the constant method of breathing. It makes easy 
 work for the lungs in all vocal exercise and saves the 
 strain otherwise put upon the organs of speech. The 
 inward and outward motion of the abdominal 
 muscle causes a corresponding upward and down- 
 ward motion of the diaphragm; consequently, the 
 real work of voice production is accomplished by this 
 upward motion of the diaphragm forcing the air past 
 the vocal chords, which are simply held in the posi- 
 tion for the production of the sound desired, when 
 the air shall thus pass upward; while inhalation 
 becomes, simply, not a drawing in, but an inrush, of 
 air as the diaphragm is lowered, when the air has 
 been expelled. If there be difficulty in acquiring this 
 method, it will be easy to conquer by lying on the 
 back, on couch or bed, placing one hand on the 
 abdominal muscle at the waist line, and, by gentle 
 downward pressure, assisting in the expulsion of 
 
10 THE VOICE IN SPEAKING AND SINGING. 
 
 the air, leaving off the pressure as the air again rushes 
 in and the abdominal muscle rises in the act of an- 
 other inhalation. This must be mastered. 
 
 LESSON SIXTH. 
 
 The first four lessons should hereafter be practiced 
 at least once daily for the remainder of life. The fifth, 
 as already stated, is to be the constant habit, walk- 
 ing, running, sitting, waking, sleeping, silent or using 
 the voice, from this time forth. The lessons, from 
 the Sixth to the Tenth, inclusive, should be practiced 
 daily, at the most convenient time and place, and 
 when the stomach is not full of food. The Sixth is a 
 test lesson, antf, if mastered, the way to easy sound 
 production is at command. 
 
 Take the position of Lesson Third, arrange the 
 lips and vocal chords for uttering the pure, orotund 
 "O" sound, on the lowest key at command; expel 
 the air as in Lesson Fifth, and the sound produced, 
 if the directions have been accurately followed, will 
 be the pure sound required. 
 
 There are two physical tests of correct practice in 
 this exercise. 
 
 First : If the sound produced be the proper one, 
 the so called " Adam's apple" will move as far as 
 possible down the neck and remain there until the 
 sound has ceased. This may be observed by touch- 
 ing it with the finger tips. 
 
 Second: When this sound is properly produced 
 there will be no harsh, rasping, irritating sensation 
 in the throat. 
 
 Once having it at command, begin it at the com- 
 mencement of exhalation and continue it as long as 
 
THE VOICE IN SPEAKING AND SINGING. 11 
 
 there is any air in the lungs, and practice it one hun- 
 dred times daily. Use the tone frequently by repeat- 
 ing in it such a sentence as the following : " Eternity, 
 thou awful, dreadful thought." Always use this tone 
 in laughing, rather than the falsetto, so common, 
 even among men. 
 
 After this week make this the tone of ordinal 
 conversation, with, of course, as soon as possible, the 
 required variations in volume and pitch, as taught 
 later. Notice violations of, and conformities to, the 
 rule in self and others, and intelligently make needed 
 corrections. An important method of determining 
 whether this lesson has been conquered is to read in 
 a whisper. If the throat be not strained and wearied 
 by the effort it is ordinarily an evidence that the true 
 method is used, and if scrained and wearied, a certain 
 indication that this Sixth Lesson has not been mas- 
 tered. If there is great difficulty in accomplishing 
 the practice of this lesson, turn the end of the tongue 
 upward and backward so that the tip points to the 
 palate; then, with the tongue in this position, make 
 an effort as though about to swallow the tongue. 
 The " Adams' apple" will at once move down to the 
 position required . Retaining the tongue and ' 4 Adam's 
 apple" in these positions, make the " " sound re- 
 quired. After a few efforts thus made, the sound may 
 be produced in the ordinary manner. 
 
 LESSON SEVENTH. 
 
 To lea\c the subject of drill at the point of mastery 
 of Lesson Sixth would be to leave the student with 
 an easy method of voice production, yet the produc- 
 tion of a voice, which, from its monotony, would be 
 
12 THE VOICE IN SPEAKING AND SINGING. 
 
 unpleasant to the hearer. While, in these lessons, we 
 do not treat of expression, emphasis, inflection, nor 
 adaptation of voice to the character of the passage 
 delivered, we place at command the tones to be used, 
 under the requirements of proper heed to these points, 
 whose rules and exercises are to be learned under the 
 direction of competent teachers and good text books. 
 There are three general principles on which depends 
 the variations required in the vocal art of speaking 
 and singing. 
 
 These are volume, force and pitch. 
 
 While volume and force arc applicable to any pitch, 
 it is well to practice first on the lowest pitch or Im- 
 possible. 
 
 Each day, after practicing Lesson Sixth, produce 
 the sound as many times as possible, making it a 
 very little louder each time than the preceding, until 
 the organs refuse to make it any more loudly. Be 
 careful in this exercise not to change the pitch or ke}\ 
 
 Working always on the same key , there will usually 
 be twenty degrees of loudness attainable. This is 
 called "volume." As an appeal to the eye. the fol- 
 lowing may be helpful : 
 
 •oooOOOOOO 
 
 ooooOOOOO 
 
 00< 
 
 '23*567 8 9 10 II 12 13 I* IS 16 17 18 19 20 
 
 This principle mastered will place at command, 
 instead of a high, screaming tone, a large, firm voice, 
 (with no danger of breaking), for emphasis and sus- 
 tained passages. Such a voice will £11 the auditorium 
 instead of being lost among the rafters. 
 
 One who has these twenty- degrees of volume at 
 
THE VOICE IN SPEAKING AND SINGING. 13 
 
 command will be able to adapt the voice, with no 
 extra strain upon the vocal chords, to the numbers 
 of the audience and the size of the building. 
 
 Deaf people, in the social gathering or the public 
 audience, hear these tones much more distinctly than 
 those of higher pitch. 
 
 In buildings with good acoustic properties, every 
 seat being occupied, while the volume marked " one, " 
 above, is that for ordinary social conversation, in 
 addressing an audience of five hundred volume num- 
 ber four should be the smallest used ; one thousand, 
 volume number eight; two thousand, volume num- 
 ber twelve, and so on, in each case using larger vol- 
 ume, as needed, for emphasis and sustained passages. 
 In all this operation the only extra exertion in using 
 the larger volumes will be a stronger inward pull on 
 the abdominal muscle. With this there will be a 
 greater rigidity of this muscle, and where the greatest 
 volume is used, this muscle will be drawn far in 
 toward the backbone, and to the touch will have the 
 feeling of solidity belonging to all well developed 
 muscles when in most active service. 
 
 To use the method of this lesson, produce sound, 
 alone, as the abdominal muscle is moving inward, 
 and recover breath, not by cutting sentences into 
 panting spaces between every three or four words, 
 heaving the chest, catching a short breath and so on 
 continually ; but at the end of each sentence, or during 
 rhetorical pauses, let the abdominal muscle fly for- 
 ward, always keeping the chest well up, when the air 
 will rush into the lungs as into a vacuum. Practice 
 the following exercise, using at present the lowest 
 
14 THE VOICE IN SPEAKING AND SINGING. 
 
 key, and employing the volume indicated by the num- 
 bers employed, securing the effect of emphasis by 
 pause after the chosen word. 
 
 The numbers here employed indicate the volume 
 for an audience of five or six hundred. 
 
 44 Up the street came the rebel tread, 
 
 4 
 
 Stonewall Jackson riding ahead ; 
 
 4 
 
 Beneath his slouched hat he glanced, left and right; 
 
 4 6 4 
 
 The Old Flag met his sight. 
 18 4 
 
 'Halt!' and the dust browned ranks stood still. 
 
 18 4 
 
 4 Fire! ' Outblazed the rifle blast. 
 
 10 8 
 
 4 Who touches a hair of yon gra} r head, 
 12 1C 19 4 
 
 Dies like a dog! March on !' he said. " 
 
 LESSON EIGHTH. 
 
 Force, as stated above, is another method of 
 variation in the vocal part of an address. It is the 
 use of the required volume, delivered in a quick and 
 explosive manner, and is accomplished by a sudden 
 drawingin ofthe abdominal muscle, and a consequent 
 quick expulsion of the air from the lungs past the 
 
THE VOICE IN SPEAKING AND SINGING. 15 
 
 vocal chords held in proper position for the required 
 sound. 
 
 It is used in giving orders where sudden action is 
 required, and also where anger, or fright, or pain, 
 cause sudden exclamations. As an example, deliver 
 the command of " The Douglas, " in "Lord Mar- 
 mion " explosively, using the volume indicated : 
 10 10 12 4 16 17 
 
 "~<Warde"n! Hoi Let The port-culli? fall!'" 
 
 Practice each day, after the practice of Lessons 
 Sixth and Seventh, the quick, explosive effect of force 
 on each of the twenty degrees of volume above. 
 
 LESSON NINTH. 
 
 Pitch is one of the most important methods of 
 varying the effect of vocal performance. Its varia- 
 tions are used by the orator in conversational deliv- 
 ery, in imitating sounds given forth by animals, men 
 and other sound producers, and it is that which 
 makes a musical scale a possibility. Some seem natu- 
 rally to properly employ its variations and some 
 only upon the most careful drill under competent 
 teachers. 
 
 Beginning with the lowest pure sound, of Lesson 
 Sixth, raising the pitch a very little at each effort, 
 twenty different degrees of pitch may be produced. 
 
 Produce, again and again, after each practice of 
 Lessons Sixth, Seventh and Eighth, twenty different 
 degrees of pitch, from the lowest to the highest, using, 
 each time a sound is produced, the in ward abdominal 
 pull as in all the previous vocal exercises. 
 
 The "Adams' apple" will move from the lowest 
 
16 THE VOICE IN SPEAKING AND SINGING. 
 
 position in the neck slightly higher each time the pitch 
 is raised, till at last it will be at the highest point 
 possible when the highest pitch is reached. 
 
 LESSON TENTH. 
 
 Each one of the twenty different degrees of pitch 
 of Lesson Ninth may be uttered in the twenty differ- 
 ent degrees of volume of Lesson Seventh, without 
 varying the ke\' in the slightest. In this way four 
 hundred different degrees of sound are easih r at com- 
 mand, it being no more difficult, when this lesson is 
 mastered, to produce the twentieth volume in the 
 twentieth degree of pitch, than the first volume in 
 the lowest degree of pitch, as in Lesson Sixth. This 
 statement need not be considered a startling one, 
 since it is claimed the fibers of Corti are 3,000 in 
 number, rendering it possible to distinguish as many 
 varieties of sound from various sources. A speaker 
 may make use of this practice in breaking up the 
 monotony of delivery, as suggested in Lesson Sev- 
 enth, by occasionally delivering a few words or sen- 
 tences in a higher key, but with the volume which 
 would be used were this change not made. The mas- 
 tery of this exercise is of especial value to singers. 
 The singer who has five hundred in audience will 
 strike the first note of the song in the fourth volume, 
 and 3 r et use the very key in which the music is writ- 
 ten, singing the whole piece in this volume, yet with- 
 out changing the key of a single note. Should the 
 audience be larger the volume alone will be changed 
 as in Lesson Seventh. 
 
 In the practice of this Tenth Lesson, and in its 
 practical application in speaking and singing, the 
 
THE VOICE IN SPEAKING AND SINGING. 17 
 
 voice must be produced in the same manner as in all 
 the previous exercises. 
 
 Daily, after the practice of the foregoing lessons, 
 beginning at the lowest note in the scale of pitch of 
 Lesson Ninth, produce the pure " " sound in twenty 
 degrees of volume, as in Lesson Seventh in the case of 
 the lowest degree of pitch, in each one of the twenty- 
 degrees of pitch at command. 
 
 The habitual use of the method outlined in these 
 lessons, in every day conversation, will make it a 
 second nature to those who have needed to master it, 
 and thus, without especial thought, it will eventually 
 become the method upon the platform, before the 
 public audience. 
 
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