are the full open sounds, the ones that permit the voice to take possession of them and convert them into living things. Try your voice on the following extract, dwelling particularly on the predominating vowel sound in each word:

It is the soul that makes the man,
and not his outward seeming.

Now speak the same example, endeavoring to color the consonants.

Experiment with this extract, using explosive tones on the vowel sounds, shooting out the voice by quick strokes of the diaphragm:

Now, fire! comrades, fire! up and
at them! Fight men; fight for your
wives, your children, and your

homes.

Then see what you can do with the same matter, trying to explode the voice on the consonant sounds.

In conclusion let me urge on you the necessity of putting soul in the voice if you desire it to be attractive and effective. Remember, it is only by putting mentality into the voice that you make it ring true and influence the minds of others, and it is only by using your mentality that you can put soul into the voice. Think when-not before-you speak.

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CHAPTER IX

MODULATION: THE MELODY OF SPEECH

The Beauties of a Melodious Voice

LL persons will acknowledge that a voice that pleases is a great asset to those who possess it, and yet so few will make any effort to gain that which is within the reach of every man, woman and child. Many do not go in search of it through ignorance as to where it should be sought, and yet a large proportion forego this valuable acquisition simply because they will not take the trouble to acquire it. The object of this chapter is to enlighten the ignorant and to arouse the indolent, and it is safe to assume that a large percentage of my readers (so far as vocal knowledge is concerned) are embraced within these two classes, so I trust they will give me their attention for a few moments while I deliver my preachment on why the voice should be modulated.

Modulation means the changing of the pitch and the inflection of the voice so as to give it variety of tone and enable it to explain by its particular expression the meaning of the words spoken. There are more tones in the voice of a human being than

are possessed by the most musical of song birds, and it is capable of far greater expression than is any instrument made by the hand of man, but so few of these tones are used by the ordinary man and woman that many of them disappear from the voice.

Use Your Faculties or You Lose Them

It is ordained by the Power that created us, that if we do not use a faculty it shall be taken from us. If we do not practice walking, we will soon lose control over our legs; if we do not exercise our mental powers, they soon dwindle away; if the voice is not modulated so as to bring into play all the tones it is capable of producing, many of those tones will soon cease to exist.

To a properly constituted and exercised voice there are three registers or divisions, each one containing a certain number of tones. The number of these tones depends on the physical formation of the vocal parts, and the extent of their cultivation. If a person is born with an undersized larynx, hard vocal cords, a growth in the nasal or head passages, or any malformation of any of the vocal organs, that person will be severely handicapped, but all these drawbacks may be lessened, and the majority of them removed, by the aid of the skilled elocutionist or the surgeon.

The majority of persons have so abused their

voices that they have become "jangled, out of tune and harsh." Those voices were not always so, those persons were not born with such voices, but they have been brought by misuse to that wretched state that, like the cracked, rusty and worn-out bells, they are "jangled, out of tune and harsh."

Put the Blame Where It Belongs-on Yourself

God and Nature are blamed for so many things for which man alone is responsible that it is not surprising that one or the other is censured for bestowing bad voices upon those who possess them, but if the majority of these persons will closely crossexamine themselves intelligently, they will soon perceive that the fault is their own. This is the first essential to a correction of the evil. The cause and the blame for its origin must be located and assigned before a remedy can be applied that will correct the trouble. The sufferer from the effects of a bad voice must eliminate the causes that produce these effects; and when this is done, Nature will apply her infallible remedies and a cure will be effected. One must always work in harmony with the laws of Nature if one dare hope to be perfect in anything, as it is only by attempting to violate these inexorable laws of Nature that man injures himself; consequently, if vocal defects are to be remedied, the voice must be used in accordance with Nature's laws and not as the

caprice, ignorance, or carelessness of man prompts him to abuse her great gift in attempting to use it in his own wilful or ignorant fashion.

More Melody in Speech Than in Song

The melody of song is not as melodious as is that of speech. The singing voice is incapable of producing anything like as many tones as can the speaking voice. The singer must go from step to step, as it were, whereas the speaker glides along, bending here and there, up and down, at his own sweet pleasure. The one great difference in the two voices is that the singing voice changes between the tones, it goes from note to note, while the speaking voice changes on the tone, it can be bent upward and downward without changing the tone, there being no break in it whatsoever during the entire flow of sound that is necessary to form the words to convey the thought. The difference in the two voices might be illustrated by comparing two persons crossing a river-one does so by stepping from stone to stone, while the other glides across in a boat, rising and falling with the

waves.

Because of the flexibility of the voice, its ability to bend at the will of the speaker, it possesses a large number of fractional tones, one tone may be divided into many parts, and in this manner many changes of pitch and inflection may be made that produce