When a voice is not especially large, and its possessor wishes to please his audience, he must realize that he can do so only by using the voice at his command with perfect placement, feeling, artistry, and intelligence. He must endeavor to charm rather than to dazzle or astonish. I have said repeatedly and must say again that any straining, pushing, and tenseness in the body or in the vocal organs is definitely harmful to the singer. If such habits are persisted in for any length of time, they will subtract fifty per cent from the singing life of any voice.
One of the most usual reasons for forcing is that the vocalist is only able to hear himself to an uncertain extent. This applies not only to inexperienced singers, but to the most experienced as well, particularly when singing in a very large hall or an unaccustomed place. Few singers have a very sure idea of how they really sound. If we are speaking or singing correctly, our voices go out into space and into others’ ears. We seldom hear ourselves as others hear us.
The studio or practice room is ordinarily of medium size. A room with as few furnishings as possible is always preferable, because hangings, carpets, and draperies, or overstuffed furniture tend to absorb the tone and lessen the effectiveness of the tone the singer hears. But no matter how full or empty the practice room may be, it is always a comparatively small salon where the singer’s voice readily comes back to his own ears. On the other hand, in a large hall the voice has to travel far before it reaches the walls and rebounds to the singer’s ears so that he can hear himself. Thus it happens that the singer, accustomed to hearing his voice with a good deal of volume in the studio, thinks he is not singing loudly enough to be heard in all corners when he sings in a big hall or theater. He is, therefore, inclined to force his voice unnecessarily. The acoustics of the hall should take care of persons seated in the back rows, and extra volume is not needed if the voice is correctly placed.
This phenomenon must be understood, and in a strange place, the singer must sing by sensation alone, not attempting to hear himself as he would in the studio. Many a singer possessed of a really good and properly trained voice makes a success of singing in small communities. He then goes to New York and makes a failure of his audition in the large Metro.. politan Opera House, merely because he forces his voice in the quite unnecessary effort to make it carry, and loses all the ease and grace with which he formerly sang.
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