toward the nose. The soft palate placed
toward the nose offers a resonating surface for the tone.

The reason why teachers tell their pupils so little of this is that
many singers are quite ignorant of what nasal singing means, and are
tormented by the idea of "singing toward the nose," when by chance
they hear something about it. They generally regard the voice as one
complete organ acting by itself, which is once for all what it is.
What can be made of it through knowledge of the functions of all the
cooeperating organs they know nothing of.

Blind voices are often caused by the exaggerated practice of closing
off the throat too tightly from the head cavities; that is, drawing
the pillars of the fauces too far toward the wall of the throat. The
large resonating chamber thus formed yields tones that are powerful
close at hand, but they do not carry, because they are poor in
overtones. The mistake consists in the practice of stretching the
pillars too widely in the higher vocal ranges, also. In proportion as
the pillars are extended, the breath spreads over the entire palate,
instead of being concentrated on only one point of it, and bringing at
the same time the resonance of the head cavities into play. The soft
palate must first be drawn up to, then behind, the nose, and the
attack of the higher tones be transferred thither. The pillars of the
fauces must necessarily be relaxed by this action of the soft palate.
Thereby breath is introduced into the cavities of the head to form the
overtones, which contribute brilliancy and freshness to the voice.

Many singers persist in the bad habit here described, as long as
nature can endure it; in the course of time, however, even with the
most powerful physiques, they will begin to sing noticeably flat; with
less powerful, the fatal tremolo will make its appearance, which
results in the ruin of so many singers.

[Illustration: Red lines denote vocal sensations of soprano and tenor
singers.]

[Illustration: The singer's nasal tone.

Red line denotes:

The soft palate raised high in the back, for further progression with
the head tone.

Vocal sensation.

Red line denotes:

Soft palate drawn toward the nose, for a descending progression.

Vocal sensation.]

SECTION IX

THE HEAD VOICE

The head tone signifies, for all voices, from the deepest bass to the
highest soprano,--excepting for the fact that it furnishes the
overtones for each single tone of the