f
speaking with the channel only half open is quickly formed, and the
voice becomes shrill and harsh. You have noticed that the more emphatic
one grows in argument the higher and harder the voice becomes, and,
incidentally, the less convincing the argument. This is true of all
excitement; the nervous tension accompanying it constricts the throat,
and the result is a closed channel. To learn instinctively to refer this
tension for registration not to the throat, but to the diaphragm, is a
part of vocal training. This can be easily accomplished with children,
and the habit established of taking a deep breath under the influence of
any emotion. This breath will cause the throat to open instead of shut,
and the tone to grow full, deep, and round, instead of high and harsh.
The full, deep, round tone will carry twice as far as the high, harsh,
breathy one. The one deep breath resulting in the full, deep tone
may--nay, will--often serve the same purpose as Tattycoram's "Count
five-and-twenty," and save the angry retort.

It is useless to regret, on either ethical or aesthetic grounds, that we
were not taught in childhood to take the deep breath and make the deep
tone. But let us look to it that the voices and dispositions of our
children are not allowed to suffer. Meanwhile, in correcting the fault
in the use of our own instruments, we shall go far toward establishing
the proper condition with the next generation, since the child is so
mimetic that, to hear sweet, quiet, low tones about him will have more
effect than much technical training in keeping his voice free and
musical. In the same way, the child who hears good English spoken at
home seems less dependent upon text-books in grammar and rhetoric to
perfect his verbal expression than the child who is not so fortunate in
this respect.

To insure the registration of nervous tension in the muscles controlling
the diaphragm and not the throat--that is, to form the habit of
breathing deeply when speaking under the influence of emotion, is our
problem. The present fault in registration will be found to be different
with each one of us, or, at least, will cause us "to flock together"
according to the place of registration. Each must locate for himself his
own difficulty, or go to a vocal specialist and have it located. The
tension may be altogether in the muscles governing the throat, or it
may be in those about the mouth. There is the resultant, _breathy_ tone,
the _hard_ t