As you develop in your skill you may want to merge voices for your ventriloquism puppets into one another, thus enabling a man on the roof to climb down, a man in the closet to go away on a level, and a man in the cellar to ascend to warmer and more comfortable quarters.

The roof voice is pitched high and exploded against the hard palate. To make it have the effect of gradually descending, you so project it against the top and back of the mouth that it merges by successive steps into the ordinary unreverberated drone at the back of the throat, when it will seem to be on the same level as the performer.

By commencing with "Ah" reverberated against the palate, and from that location rolling it gradually backward and downward until you sound the drone. To acquire the ability to make the drone, take a deep breath and, while holding it, make a retching sound at the back of the throat as if (to put it delicately) trying to be sick. As you do this utter a prolonged "Ah," exhaling slowly.

At first the "ah" will very likely be little more than a grunt, but by trying again and prolonging the sound as you make a greater effort, the exclamation will begin to sound like an uncertain drone, finally settling down to a clear, sustained hum like that of a distant bee drone, from which it derives its name.

Making the successive steps to the drone you will find that you have a diapason of from five notes to an octave, ranging usually from high "d" of the treble clef down to low "d," though rarely more than five notes are satisfactory, say from "d" to "g." Of course the range may be a note or two either one side or the other of that given, according to the natural character of the voice possessed by the ventriloquist.

As a rule be more loquacious in your natural voice than in the ventriloquial voice. This will cause you less fatigue and the audience appreciates most that which it gets the least.

When you have got the man down from the roof you may send him away on a level by compressing the vocal cords and throwing the voice backward, as it were, speaking neither against the palate nor down the throat. "Good-night" are the best words for you ventriloquism puppets for this effect, "Good-morning," "Good-evening" or "Good-bye" being impracticable.

As your own voice becomes louder and the ventriloquial voice fainter, the pauses between the salutations are longer, as would naturally happen were you really calling to a departing caller or workman when, after the last faint, far-away cry you would yell and the answer would be inaudible. Besides giving, by contrast, greater effectiveness to the ventriloquial voice in this manner, it is necessary in order to fully carry out the deception, as it must be made to appear that the man could not hear your own calls unless you uttered them in an increasingly louder voice as he went away. The effect is simply reversed if you wish to infer that the man is approaching from afar.

If instead of apparently going away on a level, you desire to have Jack descend to the cellar, you simply compress the larynx still more and force the sound downward instead of backward.

If you cannot, while facing the audience when entertaining in public, easily change the position of the vocal organs to get the effect of the man down-stairs, you can cover the effort by suitable business at a door or window, if you are giving your exhibition near one in a private house, or by turning and walking to the back part of the stage, on some pretense or other, if you are performing in a hall or theatre.

This ability to make ventriloquism puppets seem to move around is one of the most impressive in your ventriloquism act. Practice well.