tube, does he direct the vibrations into that resonating
cavity? No. Neither is it necessary to try to drive the voice into the
cavities of the head. Such instructions are of doubtful value. They are
almost sure to result in a hard unsympathetic tone. They increase rather
than diminish the resistance. The only possible way to place the tone in
the head is to let it go there. This will always occur when the
resistance is destroyed and the channel is free.

In numerous instances the resistance in the vocal cords is so great that
it is impossible to sing softly, or with half voice. It requires so much
breath pressure to start the vibration, that is, to overcome the
resistance, that when it does start it is with full voice. In a majority
of male voices the upper tone must be taken either with full chest voice
or with falsetto. There is no _mezza voce_. This condition is abnormal
and is responsible for the "red in the face" brand of voice production
so often heard.

Of this we may be sure, that no one can sing a good full tone unless he
can sing a good _mezza voce_. When the mechanism is sufficiently free
from resistance that a good pianissimo can be sung then the conditions
are right to begin to build toward a _forte_.

Further, when the mechanism is entirely free from resistance there is no
conscious effort required to produce tone. The singer has the feeling of
letting himself sing rather than of making himself sing.

The engineer of a great pumping station once told me that his mammoth
Corliss engine was so perfectly balanced that he could run it with ten
pounds of steam. When the voice is free, and resting on the breath as it
were, it seems to sing itself.

An illustration of the opposite condition, of extreme resistance was
once told me by the president of a great street railway system that was
operated by a cable. He said it required eighty-five per cent of the
power generated to start the machinery, that is, to overcome the
resistance, leaving but fifteen per cent for operating cars. It is not
at all uncommon to hear singers who are so filled with resistance that
it requires all of their available energy to make the vocal instrument
produce tone. Such singers soon find themselves exhausted and the voice
tired and husky. It is this type of voice production rather than
climatic conditions, that causes so much chronic laryngitis among
singers. I have seen the truth of this statement verified in the
complete and pe