ueezed out or forced out instead of tone
flowing or floating out, as described in a previous paragraph. This
difficulty is, of course, most obvious in singing the higher tones;
and one remedy within the reach of the choral conductor is to test all
voices carefully and not to allow anyone to sing a part that is
obviously too high. But in addition to this general treatment of the
matter, it will often be possible for the director to urge upon his
chorus the necessity of relaxation in producing tone, thus reminding
those who tighten up unconsciously that they are not singing properly,
and conveying to those who are ignorant of the matter at least a hint
regarding a better use of their voices.

[Sidenote: VOCAL REGISTERS]

A vocal register has been defined as "a series of tones produced by
the same mechanism." This means that in beginning with the lowest tone
of the voice and ascending the scale, one comes to a point where
before going on to the next scale-tone, a readjustment of the vocal
organs is necessary, this change in the action of the larynx and vocal
cords being _felt_ by the singer and _heard_ by the listener. The
point at which the readjustment takes place, _i.e._, the place where
the voice goes from one register into another, is called the _break_;
and one of the things the voice trainer tries to do for each pupil is
to teach him to pass so skilfully from one register to another that
these breaks will not be noticeable to the hearer--the voice
eventually sounding an even scale from its lowest to its highest tone.
There is considerable difference of opinion as to the number of
registers existing in any one voice, but perhaps the majority of
writers incline to the view that there are three; the chest or lower,
the thin or middle, and the small or head. It should be noted,
however, that the readjustment in the action of the vocal cords
referred to above probably takes place only when passing from the
lowest register to the next higher one, and that such changes in
action as occur at other points are more or less indefinite and
possibly even somewhat imaginary. Authorities differ as to just what
the change in mechanism is in passing from the chest register to the
middle one; but the most plausible explanation seems to be that in the
lowest register, the change in pitch from a lower tone to the next
higher one is accomplished at least partly by _stretching_ the vocal
bands more tightly, and that when the limit of t