Focus of Tone
“The focus of tone is like the converging rays of the burning lens. So intense is this “point” that is felt wherever it reaches. The glottis is the “lens.” Compressed breath is the “sun.” Either relaxation of rigidity will destroy the focussing power of the glottis. Loose breath will furnish no rays of vibration. This sense of focus becomes the leading objective guide to the voice. The desire to feel the “touch” of the “point” of tone, becomes the objective guide to the breath. The consciousness of the focussing point of the voice in the middle of the skull becomes so permanent that it is always there, silent or singing.” —Vocal Wisdom: The Maxims of Giovanni Battista Lamperti, page 69-70.
Obtaining “silent or singing” focus of tone takes about three months to acquire if the student knows what they are doing from the outset and practices diligently. And when I write that it takes three months, I mean that it takes this long for the acquisition of focus of tone in the middle the head to be heard both in the singing voice as well as the speaking voice.
Is this a lot to ask?
Yes. It is.
Most Americans speak in their throat or nose. Manuel Garcia noticed this, as did his student Anna Schoen-René (who also studied the Pauline Viardot-García and Francesco Lamperti), the latter recording their conversation in America’s Musical Inheritance: memories and reminiscences (1942) page 110.
“Why do they sing and speak with that nasal quality in America?” I, who also detest the ugly nasal speaking voice and had fought against it so long, answered, “Master, it comes from ignorance—from not knowing that mask and nose are two separate resonances.” “Yes,” he said, “I think you are right. God may forgive them, but I cannot.”
Assuming the student accepts that there is a difference between mask and nose—and I would add throat and mouth—then the matter becomes one of acquiring correct voice placement. This comes about through a working knowledge of breath, starting with slowly and deeply inhaling through the nose. How deeply should one breathe? Margaret Harshaw—Anna Schoen-René’s student—put it to me thus in my first lesson:
If you don’t feel it in your dingle dangle it isn’t low enough!
I’ve never forgotten or taken what she said for granted for the simple reason that, as a result of this low breath and controlling power of the lower abdominal muscles, I “hear” and “feel” my voice in the middle of my head and mask (the latter being an extension of the former) speaking or singing, singing or silent, regardless of vocal genre. And I do this while having minor hearing loss, tinnitus, and hearing aids. I sometimes tell my students: “If I can do this with all my issues, so can you!”
I know the student is well on their way when they walk into the studio and speak from the center of their head from the get-go. (Mathilde Marchesi called this the “closing” of the vocal cords.) This is usually the student on a professional track or the avocational singer who considers himself or herself an artist. And yes, it takes about three or four months for this to happen. What does it take on the student’s part once they know what to do and how to do it?
Awareness.
Constant awareness and application of correct vocal technique.
It’s a training rather than a light switch you turn on once and forget about.