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48 TRAINING THE SINGING VOICE
these are: breath instiffidency, breathy or aspirated voice, breaking, forced
or tight voice, faulty intonation, nasality, lack of resonance, lack o£ vibrato (white voice), tremolo, exaggerated jaw movement (mouthing) and exaggerated articulation. Samuels lists tremolo, breathiness, nasal twang, and "metallic," "hard/" "gutteraT and "weak voice/' as faults of vocal interference* [487, p. 18] Clippinger finds that "the singer's worst enemy is resistance [interference]/* [104, p. 8] Stults writes: "All beginning vocal training must be corrective . . . through seeking to restore Nature's original adjustment*' of all the vocal organs during phonation [596]; and he is seconded by MacBurney whose opinion is equally emphatic: "When the student can prevent interfering movements without inhibiting reactions he is ready to sing." [561]
Bartholomew observes that the vocal act "involves the inhibition of one of the most powerful, automatic and constantly used reflexes, the swallowing coordination, the muscles of which are in many individuals normally in a state of partial tension. The inhibition of this swallowing coordination is consequently difficult for most persons, and the stiff tongue or jaw remains a major problem." [38] Shaw blames the interference of the speech muscles for most of the "technical inhibitions" in singing. [543] Stanley's explanation of interferences during phonation is also interesting. In the Journal of the Franklin Institute he claims that nearly every vocal fault is associated with some sort of throat constriction. "Unfortunately, the average individual maintains either too high or too low a degree of muscle tone/* In either case, the reflex vocal impulse improperly engages extraneous muscles, causing "great inefficiency of action and producing considerable fatigue." In the effort to correct this condition, voluntary controls are resorted to by the singer, with resultant disturbances in the coordination of the vocal mechanism. The remedy lies in the direction of corrective exercises that are designed to strengthen wok muscles and to loosen tight muscles. [578, p. 431 ff.]
In handling the problem of muscular interferences, Witherspoon suggests that technical exercises may be used as correctives if they are planned so that they oppose the activity of the muscles that cause the fault, thus persuading correct action and eliciting a corrected vocal sound that the singer can gradually leam to accept. Correct breathing is an important antidote for chronic muscular interferences ih that it induces freedom of the vocal organs. Special types of vocal sounds may also be used as correctives to promote resonance, relieve local tensions and alter the position of oflending muscles. [677, p. 8i and p. 94] Other technical correctives suggested are summarized as follows:
1. As a warming up process, spend five or ten minutes in slow deep |
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