resonance chambers of the body, together with the
sympathetic vibration of the walls of these chambers and the bony
framework that supports them.

In respect to resonance, as in other respects, the human voice is far
superior to all other instruments, for their resonators are fixed and
unchanging, while the human resonator is flexible,--in Helmholtz's
words "admits of much variety of form, so that many more qualities of
tone can be thus produced than on any instrument of artificial
construction."

We are now prepared to realize the error of the common notion that
loudness of tone is due entirely to increase of breath pressure on the
vocal cords. Simple experiments with the tuning-fork have shown that
while the volume of sound it gives forth is due in part to the
amplitude of its vibrations, its loudness is _chiefly_ due to the
character of the _resonance_ provided for it.

The larger the resonance chamber the greater is its reinforcing
capacity. The largest air chamber in the body is the chest, which
serves not only as a wind-chest, but as a resonance chamber. The
necessity for chest expansion, therefore, is not, as generally
supposed, merely for air, but to increase its size as a resonance
chamber.

In view of the laws of tone, how great is the common error of speaking
of the larynx as if it alone were the vocal organ, when the principal
vibrations are _above_ the vocal cords in the chambers of _resonance_!

Since the musical value, the beauty of tone, as well as its volume,
comes only from right use of the resonator, our principal business
must be the acquiring control of the vibratory air current _above the
larynx_. The acquirement of this control involves the proper focusing
or placing of the tone, with the free uncramped use of all the vocal
organs; power will then take care of itself.

CHAPTER VII

HEAD AND NASAL RESONANCE

Of the four component factors in the production of speech and song,
the first, the _motor_, has been considered in Chapter III, and the
second, the _vibrator_, in Chapter I.

In one respect there is marked contrast between these two factors.
Until right habits are so thoroughly formed that the singer's
breathing is automatically controlled, conscious effort is necessary,
while the action of the vibrator, the vocal cords, is involuntary, not
subject to conscious control.

The subtle adjustments of the delicate mechanism of the larynx belong
to the realm of reflex action--t