inst them in all
its force. One need only see a picture of the vocal cords to
understand the folly of exposing these delicate little bands to the
explosive force of the breath. They cannot be protected too much; and
also, they cannot be too carefully exercised. They must be spared all
work not properly theirs; this must be put upon the chest tension
muscles, which in time learn to endure an out-and-out thump.

Even the vibrato, to which full voices are prone, should be nipped in
the bud, for gradually the tremolo, and later even worse, is developed
from it. Life can be infused into the tone by means of the lips--that
is, in a way that will do no harm. But of that later.

Vibrato is the first stage, tremolo the second; a third and last, and
much more hopeless, shows itself in flat singing on the upper middle
tones of the register. Referable in the same way to the overburdening
of the vocal cords is the excessive straining of the throat muscles,
which, through continual constriction, lose their power of _elastic_
contraction and relaxation because pitch and duration of the tone are
gained in an incorrect way, by forcing. Neither should be forced;
pitch should be merely maintained, as it were, soaring; strength
should not be gained by a cramped compression of the throat muscles,
but by the completest possible filling with breath of the breath-form
and the resonance chambers, under the government of the controlling
apparatus.

_Neglect of the head tones (overtones) is paid for dearly._

The more violent exertions are made to force them, and to keep them,
the worse are the results. For most of the unhappy singers who do
this, there is but one result: the voice is lost. How pitiful!

If the first and second stages of tremolo are difficult to remedy,
because the causes are rarely understood and the proper measures to
take for their removal still more rarely, the repair of the last stage
of the damage is nothing less than a fight, in which only an
unspeakable patience can win the victory.

SECTION XXI

THE CURE

There are no magic cures for the singer. Only slowly, vibration upon
vibration, can the true pitch be won back. In the word "soaring" lies
the whole idea of the work. No more may the breath be allowed to flow
uncontrolled through the wearied vocal cords; it must be forced
against the chest, always, as if it were to come directly out thence.
The throat muscles must lie fallow until they have lost the ha