no clear evidence
that the breath can be directed toward the hard palate in the
neighborhood of the teeth, as the drawings sometimes published would
indicate.

It has already been many times urged that when breathing is
satisfactory, breath does not escape to any considerable extent into
the mouth cavity, but that the expiratory blast is used to set the air
of the resonance-chambers into vibration. The changes that must be
made in these cavities, to lead to certain effects, are accompanied by
characteristic sensations, and these, and not the direction of the
breath, are largely responsible for the ideas on which the above
expressions rest.

As before shown, the soft palate is constantly being used more or
less, and when it and the tongue unite in action so as to cut off the
mouth cavity, or, more strictly, the anterior portion of it, from the
nasal chambers, a very pronounced modification in the tone results,
and, of necessity, such actual escape of breath as occurs takes place
through the nose. In reality, there is a special modification of the
shape of the resonance-chambers for every tone produced, and
especially when the color or quality is changed, as well as the pitch.
There is, therefore, not only "forward" and "backward" but also middle
production, though, in reality, these terms at best but imperfectly
describe, even for practical purposes, what happens.

It is to be feared that with some teachers of both singing and
speaking "forward production" has become a sort of panacea for all
vocal ills; but it is not, and just the reverse teaching is required
in certain cases. If a voice be brilliant, yet hard, it will be
improved by a more backward production, judiciously employed, and in
this way the French language is often to be recommended to such
singers, as it favors this backward production, with such use of the
nasal resonance as mellows the tones. The tenor who has not learned
the use of the nasal resonance, to give richness to the tones of his
middle and upper range, has missed a valuable principle. On the other
hand, for voices that are too soft, lack brightness, and fail in
carrying-power, a more forward production will often improve the
quality of the voice greatly. But a little consideration must convince
the student that if he is to be master of his voice-production
throughout, if he is to produce tones of every shade of quality, he
must be able to shift that voice about in every quarter as occasion