ally like. You will presently begin to yawn after you have
done the exercise a couple of times. In yawning or in starting to drink
a sip of water the throat is widely open, and the sensation is a correct
one which the singer must study to reproduce.

I have noticed a great many actors and actresses in America who speak
with jaws tightly closed, or at least closed to such an extent that only
the smallest emission of breath is possible. Such a voice production
will never allow the actor to express any varying degree of emotion and
will also completely eradicate any natural beauty of tone which the
voice may have. However, this is a fault which can easily be overcome by
practicing this daily relaxation of the jaw and always when singing
breathing as if the jaw hung perfectly loose, or, better still, as if
you had none at all. When you can see a vocalist pushing on the jaw you
can be perfectly certain that the tone she is emitting at that moment is
a forced note and that the whole vocal apparatus is being tortured to
create what is probably not a pleasant noise.

Any kind of mental distress will cause the jaw to stiffen and will have
an immediate effect upon the voice. This is one of the reasons why a
singer must learn to control her emotions and must not subject herself
to any harrowing experiences, even such as watching a sensational
spectacle, before she is going to sing. Fear, worry, fright--stage as
well as other kinds--set the jaw. So does too great a determination to
succeed. A singer's mind must control all of her feelings if it is going
to control her voice. She must be able even to surmount a feeling of
illness or stage fright and to control her vocal apparatus, as well as
her breath, no matter what happens.

The singer should feel as if her jaw were detached and falling away from
her face. As one great singer expresses it: "You should have the jaw of
an imbecile when emitting a tone. In fact, you shouldn't know that you
have one." Let us take the following passage from "The Marriage of
Figaro," by Mozart:

[Illustration: Voi-che sa-pe-te-]

This would make an excellent exercise for the jaw. Sing only the vowels,
dropping the jaw as each one is attacked--"o, eh, ah." The o, of course,
is pronounced like the English o and the i in voi like e. The e in che
is pronounced like the English a. Sapete is pronounced sahpata. You now
have the vowels, o, ee, a, ah, a. Open the throat wide, drop the jaw and
pronounce th