On The Training Of Boys' Voices
By W. H. RICHARDSON, Formerly Conductor of the Swanley Orphanage
Choir.[A]
[A] Mr. Richardson has responded to my request for hints with such
fulness and weight that I devote a separate chapter to his essay. In
writing, he has specially had in view the difficulties of choir trainers
in rural districts.
All that a writer on the training of voices can do is to lay down
>
general lines, and give comprehensive suggestions. The teacher, to make
any use of them must be indeed a teacher, not a mere mechanically
automatic individual of only sufficient calibre to take the directions
of a writer, and give them again. He should be both enthusiastic in his
work, and willing to spend his strength in patience if he would have a
choir of boys to sing reliably well. It is of the greatest importance
that work should be set out on right lines, and that a thoughtfully
prepared scheme should be arranged before commencing. I would here give
my experience of two choirs I had at different times in agricultural
districts, and in one of them I was well satisfied with the progress we
made, while in the other my work was completely thrown away. The reason
for the failure in the second instance (which I foresaw from the outset)
will be gathered from the following account of our plan of campaign. The
choir was a village one which met for rehearsal once a week. The
organist attended and presided at a harmonium, and, nolens volens, I
had at the beginning of each practice to take the choir through the
whole of the next Sunday's services. The boys' voices were, at the
beginning of my connection, uncivilised, and at the end of
it--fortunately the question of ways and means not allowing the interval
to extend beyond a few months--were as barbarous as at the commencement.
There was absolutely no chance of making a name through these
youngsters; and as to voice culture! How could it be possible to attempt
it after labouring through such a programme as Canticles, Hymns, Psalms,
Kyrie, and Amens?
I determined never to take office again unless I could have my own way
in fixing the time-table of work. My success in the other case was owing
greatly to the fact that I had one night a week entirely devoted to
musical training and voice culture. This did not preclude us from
relieving the drudgery of work by the singing of songs and hymns, but
it allowed me the use of an unfettered judgment in the choice of what
should be attempted. A teacher is heavily handicapped if after getting
his boys for the first time to sing in the upper thin register, he is to
follow his delicate work by singing half-a-dozen verses to a tune which
will in the very first verse undo all that he has done, simply because
its melodic progression encourages forcing. Experienced teachers will
appreciate what I say on this point. Take such a tune as:--
KEY E[b]. {m:f s:l t:d1 s:f &c.]
--a tune which inevitably causes a wrong use of the registers by
inexperienced boys. The tunes selected should further the work of the
exercises, not undo it, and with diligence the teacher can find suitable
tunes and chants for this purpose. My advice to all teachers is that
before commencing work they should insist upon conditions that do not
preclude success, and that they should not spend their labour in
wearying drudgery with the full consciousness that to attain it is
impossible.
One suggestion I would make is that the choirmaster, if he be not, as is
often the case in villages, also schoolmaster, would do well to enlist
the services of the school teachers in the village. It is not often
practicable to have more than one--or two at the most--meetings of a
choir during the week, and the length of the lesson must be, in
consequence, at least an hour. For voice training in the earlier stages
six lessons a week of fifteen minutes each are preferable to one of an
hour and a half, and therefore I would urge the necessity of getting
hold of the sympathies of the school teacher, and putting him on right
lines to work out the choirmaster's ideas, if the offices be not united.
Voice work should be begun in the infant school. At Swanley it was my
practice to give, I believe, daily lessons in the Infant Department, and
the remarks made by visitors will bear out what I am about to say as to
the possibility of getting young children to sing, and sing like little
angels. I was always as pleased to exhibit my infants' vocal powers as
to show those of my more advanced boys, and success was, comparatively
speaking, more easily gained with them than with older boys, for
inasmuch as the difficulty of registers and breaks does not exist as
such with these tiny ones, and unless our plans be artificial or formed
of caprice, this is what should be expected.
In the infant school the teacher can take hold of the good that is
innate, and mould it; in the higher school he has to spend hours and
hours eradicating the bad habits which shouting and untamed license have
allowed to grow. By all means begin with the infants, and let their
songs and nursery rhymes be written so as to "give them a chance."
But I am asked to say something that may be helpful to the choirmaster
having to train the vocal organs of boys who are beyond infantile
methods. I will therefore suppose myself for the first time before an
ordinary country group of lads with all the vocal faults that now appear
indigenous to the locality. I should first get them to find the Upper
Thin Register, and my plan is to confine the work to this region
E, or F, making my own "Exercises," which are suggested by present
circumstances:--
KEY D[b]. d1 m1 m1 d1 m1 r1 d1 d1 r1 m1
Koo koo koo koo koo koo koo koo koo koo
KEY D. d1 r1 d1 l t d1 d1 t r1 d1
Koo koo koo koo koo koo koo koo koo
KEY E[b]. d1 r1 t d1 r1 d1 l s d1
Koo koo koo koo koo koo koo koo koo koo
KEY B[b]. s f m r d s m s s s]
As at this stage the boys know nothing of the diatonic scale, I let them
imitate. The exercises may be played on a pianoforte, if the teacher
cannot sing them, though in the latter case it is preferable that he
should adopt the plan of selecting his best pupils for the models.
I once had to commence with some uncultured boys, and knowing the
difficulty of getting them to make a start, took with me a few of my own
trained lads, who sang the exercises first, after which I added one or
two of the beginners to them, and sympathetically they soon sang in the
proper register with the others. By continuing the process of addition
gradually I soon got the whole class to sing as I wished.
At this first lesson the proper production of "oo" (vowel) should be
obtained. I deal with the vowels as they arise, never observing a lack
of clearness and purity without endeavouring to correct it. The
foregoing exercises can next be used for teaching the intervals of the
diatonic scale, for instance:--
calling the notes by their names, doh soh. Here, again, the proper vowel
production must be sought for, and obtained. The difficulties will be
varied in this respect with the locality. Often I have met with
doh-oo. This, as well as ray-ee, and other faults that need not be
specified, can be corrected at once. The beautiful intonation we had at
Swanley I attribute in a large measure to the care bestowed on the
production of vowel sounds. There must be no division of opinion among
the singers as to how any particular vowel sound should be emitted. If
there be not unity in this respect the intonation suffers.
The earlier exercises should be sung in unison, a correct division into
1st, 2nd, and 3rd trebles being impossible until the boys have acquired
sufficient confidence to show what they are naturally. I have for a
long time used with advantage the single chant form for exercises,
making them myself.
In order to avoid waste of time in learning exercises they should be
short, so that they can be caught up at once.
To get boys to sing in the register below (the Lower Thin) is the next
notation] and formed in the same way as those in the higher region. The
difficulty is greater in getting rough boys to use this part of the
vocal score correctly. The best way I have found to get them to
C1, to koo. The notes are at first weak, and there is a tendency to
"squork," if I may so term it. These exercises must be sung softly at
first, and at this stage the schoolmaster can render valuable help if he
will get his boys to read from their lesson books in this register
instead of in the one below it.
I have to acknowledge a debt of gratitude to one of our best and most
painstaking teachers for giving me this hint. The reading will at first
be weak, and in a monotone, and there being no flexibility, the boys
will have difficulty in forming the usual cadence at the end of
sentences, but practice will soon strengthen the weakness, and make this
register as strong as the one below it. Between the one above and the
one below, this "middle" one is apt to be overlooked altogether, and I
have heard some fairly pleasing singing where it has not been recognised
at all.
The third register (Upper Thick) should now receive attention, and in
order to find it the pupils should cultivate it upwards with such
exercises as--
KEY A[b]. d1 r1 d1 d1 r1 m1 &c.
Koo koo koo koo koo koo]
Within the limits of a short paper, it is impossible to give more fully
all the needful directions for training the voices to cover up breaks,
and to change from one register to another.
Suitable tunes should now be selected, so that the aim of the exercises
may be extended. Remember that it is easiest to leap from one register
to a higher, a stepwise ascent being an insidious snare. Koo and
afterwards laa such tunes as:--
{ s:m d1:s m1:-.r1d1:s l:l s:d1 s:f m:-
KEY E[b].
{m:r f:m r:-m:-l:s t:d1 s:-f:-
{m:r f:m r:-l:-d1:s m:r d:--:-]
Many ready-made exercises are to be found in any chant book, which can
be used to strengthen the voice and build it. For voice exercise I like
a high reciting note at the beginning, D1, C1, E[b]1, as by this we
ensure getting the right register for the high notes, which will be a
matter of doubt for some time if the question of suitability of melody
be left out of calculation.
I strongly recommend the use of the time names. For some years I was
prejudiced against them, but after trying them, believe them to be of
the greatest value.
The teacher should give manual signs for his short exercises. Time is
wasted unnecessarily if the teacher has to turn and write on the board.
The objection to working through a book, only using prescribed
exercises, is chiefly this--no book writer can provide for all the
permutations and combinations that may arise during the actual work of
teaching; it is impossible for him to anticipate them. This does not in
the least detract from the value of the book, which must be the best
general guide for by far the larger part of our teachers.
I have referred to the teaching of vowel sounds, and would say a word
about consonants. My practice has been to guard against giving undue
prominence to any individual letter, and to encourage always a simple
unaffected utterance in singing. Rolling "r's" is very well, but to
precede the vowel with a sound not unlike the noise caused by springing
a police rattle is neither artistic nor pleasing. My custom was to first
let the pupils sing a vowel, say aa, and require it to be held on as
long as my hand was still. A sharp movement of the hand directed when
the consonant should appear, as aa--t, &c., the appearance and
disappearance being as close together as possible. It is a difficulty
with beginners to sing such words as "night," "bright," &c., holding on
the middle part, or vowel. I demonstrated that the singer has nothing
left to sing after having too soon disposed of the vowel. I also gave
exercises in prefixing a consonant to a vowel. Other points of detail
will arise, such as in the word "sing." The habit here is to make the
"ng" sound throughout the greater part of the durance of the singing of
the word. By analysing, and showing by copying the bad model, the
teacher will convince the pupil that "ng" held on is unpleasant. In
singing laa, laa, laa, &c., at first pupils lower and raise the jaw.
This should be at once stopped. But it is impossible to anticipate every
difficulty that will arise under this head. I have said enough to
indicate generally my method. I do not propose to enter into the
question of breathing. One thing I would say--do not try pupils by
requiring them to sing long notes at first, but do get them at the
beginning to "phrase" to your pattern. This will from the first get the
will to control the breath taking.
By all means introduce certificates. By the examination of individuals,
the teacher will get truer knowledge of his learners' powers, and will
be enabled to give advice of greater value because of its assured need.
Let the examination be in public--before the other pupils--and so help
to beget confidence in the pupil, without which success will be limited.
The teacher should never do anything to destroy the confidence of his
pupils, though I am bound to admit that I have not always been free from
irritability and impatience in my dealings with pupils. The work is
trying, the nerves of a teacher of singing are throughout highly
strung, and very little cause is necessary to upset his equilibrium. He
should therefore be ever on his guard to check any tendency to show
impatience.
Never get a pupil to sing alone for the sake of showing his defects to
others. No one can sing who does not possess a sense of his power to
do so. There should be encouraged an abandon sort of manner. A
gentleman once said to me, "I see how you make your boys sing; you tell
them they can do it, and that makes them do it." The rigid watching of
the beat of the conductor should not be too closely insisted on. No
machine-like singing should satisfy, even though it be correct. The
correctness of a great painter's production is not everything, and
neither is it with the singer. There should an atmosphere of the liberty
of freedom.
At Swanley my work was lessened by the interest that all my colleagues
took in it. A moral force was constantly brought to bear on the boys,
which made them work with a will and a determination to excel. Their
success was the same in other departments of work, though not so
prominently placed. The music teacher who has in himself the power to
draw out the latent feeling of his pupils is the one who will best
succeed. I would draw my remarks to a close with this advice:--Make your
choir as large as possible. Take all who will come into it, and do not
go through the form of "trying" voices that have never tried themselves,
and of which you can form no opinion. For adults this is a necessity,
but for children it is better to get one or two per cent. of naturally
defective learners, rather than to turn away all but those showing
undoubtedly exceptional ability.