sable to brilliant
execution, because they strengthen the muscles of the wrist and of the
fingers, and make them obedient to the will. It has even been found that
simple finger gymnastics, exercising separately different sets of
muscles, and making them independent of each other, are of the greatest
value, and save long hours of tedious and wearisome practising. In a
similar manner we may spare ourselves much trouble and gain our end most
readily by vocal gymnastics, calculated to bring into play the
stretching and slackening muscles of the larynx. There is no difficulty
about it. Sing F, the same tone from which we started when exercising
the opening and the closing muscles, and add to it G. The alteration of
the pitch is brought about by a contraction of the stretching muscles
overcoming the resistance of the opposing slackening muscles, thereby
_tensing_ the vocal ligaments. If you again sing F, the case is
reversed, and the new alteration in pitch is brought about by a
contraction of the slackening muscles overcoming the resistance of the
opposing stretching muscles, thereby _relaxing_ the vocal ligaments.

[Illustration: musical notation

_o_ _o_
_ah_ _ah_
_ai_ _ai_

The above is an example. Take great care to render it perfectly. Sing
every tone clearly and distinctly, but without jerking, at the same time
_uniting_ all the tones, but without drawling. Do not try how quickly
you can sing, but rather how distinctly. Commence slowly, and be in no
hurry to increase the speed. Raise and lower the exercise semitone by
semitone within the medium part of your voice. A variety of exercises
founded upon the same principles may be introduced, and will serve to
increase the flexibility of the voice in a very short time.

Now we come to the "Registers" of the voice. I have defined a register
as "a series of tones produced by the same mechanism." The five
registers of which the human voice, taken as a whole, consists, are
carefully described, and the means by which they are formed minutely
explained in a former part of this book. These registers, nevertheless,
continue to be a stumbling-stone to many, and the fact of the existence
in the throat of different actions for the production of different
series of tones has led some teachers into the deplorable mistake of
developing and exaggerating them, instead of, on the contrary, smoothing
them over and equalizing them. The result is that we often hear s