en the part of the ring cartilage may
disappear.

When singing in what is called chest-voice the voicebox rises gradually
with each higher tone. Changing the mode of tone production, and
singing--say an octave higher--in falsetto, the voicebox makes quite a
leap upwards, and then again rises gradually with each higher tone,
just as in chest-voice, but in a lesser degree. The voicebox, however,
does not stand so high for the lowest falsetto as for the highest chest
tones.

It is possible, of course, to limit these movements to a minimum,
but a teacher who insists upon his pupils keeping their voice-boxes
perfectly still commits a serious mistake, because it is always
injurious to do violence to nature. It is one thing to keep the
voicebox steady, thereby facilitating the working of some of those
muscles which act immediately upon the vocal ligaments; it is quite
another thing, as will be seen below, to attempt to prevent
movements which have to serve a great purpose.

In _whispering_, the voicebox occupies a different position in the
throat for each vowel. I invite the reader to try the following curious
experiment. Let him take the larynx gently between the thumb and the
first finger, and then _whisper_ OO (as in "food,") OH, AH, A (as in
"name,") and E (as in "bee"). He will find that the voicebox rises with
every succeeding vowel until at last it has completely slipped away from
between the finger and thumb. Each one of these _whispered_ vowels has,
as first ascertained by Helmholtz, its exact pitch, whether uttered by a
little child or by an old man, and the effect of the rising of the
voicebox is to shorten the resonator, whereby the raising of the pitch
is produced.

I stated on page 41 that the vocal ligaments were capable of being
stretched by the ring-shield muscles, and that the pitch of the tones
produced by their vibrations depended mainly on their tension. As we
are now taking note of such movements of the voicebox as may be either
seen or felt in the throat, we will take the opportunity of trying
whether my statement can be verified. Let the reader, therefore, do as
follows:--(1) Place the finger on the shield cartilage, and press it
vigorously backward. (2) Sing loudly any high tone that is well within
your compass. Hold this tone steadily, and _be quite sure you do not
alter its pitch_. (3) Now suddenly remove your finger, continuing to
sing as before. What is