think, very inadequately linked in the minds of
learners, if not also of teachers.

In producing a vowel sound the end aimed at is, on the one hand,
purity, on the other, as a result, the easy and effective use of
mechanisms--_i.e._, the technique. In every case the breath must be
used without waste--just enough, and no more; the laryngeal apparatus,
the vocal bands, must be so adapted as to set the air of the
resonance-chambers into perfect vibration, which only occurs when the
expiratory blast is applied in the correct way and at the right moment
to the properly adjusted vocal bands. This latter we have defined as
the attack. It implies giving a good start to the tone. It is not all,
but it is a large half, in the artist and for the auditor.

RECONSIDERATION OF THE RESONANCE-CHAMBERS

We shall now give further attention to some of the more important
parts of the resonance-chambers, in so far as they bear directly on
voice-production.

In singing and speaking, the larynx should be _steadied_, but not held
rigidly fixed in any one position. It will be remembered that to this
part of the vocal mechanism are attached, below, the trachea, and
above, the tongue, indirectly through the hyoid bone and the
thyro-hyoid membrane, as well as certain muscles which influence the
relative position of these various parts, so that to maintain the
larynx in the same position, absolutely, must be against Nature's
methods. The tongue alone must in its movements tend to alter the
position of the larynx, as we have before pointed out. At the same
time, the laxness and lack of control which some singers permit in
their vocal organs, under the mistaken idea that all the parts of the
"throat" cannot be too free, prevents them from getting the effects
they desire, with that vigor and certainty the public so much admires,
and rightly so. The golden mean should be observed; between undue
tension, which implies inability to control, whether it be in the
larynx or the breathing apparatus, and a looseness inconsistent with
neat and certain results, the voice-producer must choose, with that
common sense so indispensable to success in all undertakings, but
which will never be adequately encouraged till students look more
frequently for the reasons of the procedures recommended to them, and
teachers strive to gain influence with their pupils by showing them
that what they recommend lies beyond their own minds--that it, in
fact, has its foundati