which will enable the reader to strike
out a safe and direct path, avoiding much useless drudgery, and leading
to eminently satisfactory results. As it is not my object to supply a
singing manual, but simply to point out the way of treating the voice
upon scientific principles, I shall not attempt to deal separately with
the different classes of voices, or to go into minute details; but it
will rather be my aim to lay down general principles, leaving my readers
to carry them into practice, and to elaborate them according to
individual circumstances. It must also be borne in mind that the
exercises I am going to recommend will here be taken as they suggest
themselves, while passing in review the various parts which unitedly
form the mechanism of the human voice. Therefore, in the actual process
of training a voice, they will have to be taken in a different order
from that in which they are discussed here, in accordance with the
general plan of this book.

The movements of the pyramids with the vocal ligaments attached to them
are governed by two sets of muscles pulling them either together or away
from each other. These have been fully described under the names of the
"Closing Muscles" and the "Opening Muscles;" and the reader will at once
see the importance of devising a set of exercises which shall call these
opening and closing muscles into play, thereby making them powerful, and
bringing them under the control of the will.

This is, fortunately, a very simple matter; for all we have to do is to
sing a series of short tones, each tone to be followed by a short
inspiration. We have learnt that every time we strike a tone the vocal
ligaments are made to approximate; by so doing we therefore exercise the
closing muscles. Every time we take an inspiration the vocal ligaments
are separated; by so doing therefore we exercise the opening muscles. It
is plain from these explanations that, by practising in the manner just
indicated, we shall gain the same results in five minutes which it
would take us half an hour to obtain by singing sustained tones after
the usual method of teaching.

Let me now give as clear a description of the exercise as possible. Find
the pitch of your speaking voice, which we will say is _F_. Then sing
the following:--

[Illustration: musical notation

_o_ _o_ _o_ _o_
_ah_ _ah_ _ah_ _ah_
_ai_ _ai_ _ai_ _ai_

Strike the tone firmly and clearly, avoiding alike the _check_ of the
glottis and