rrect need never give his breathing a thought. This is
considered by many as the greatest problem--for the singer--solved in the
nineteenth century.

To study and master these movements and apply them practically, the singer
needs to know absolutely nothing of the mechanism of his vocal organs. He
need not consider at all the physiological side of the question. Of course
the study of these movements must at first be more or less mechanical,
until they respond automatically to thought or will. Then they are
controlled mentally, the thought before the action, as should be the case
in all singing; and finally the whole mechanism, or all movements, respond
naturally and freely to emotional or self-expression.

These flexible, vitalized movements are not generally understood or used,
because they have not been in the line of thought or study of the rigid
muscular school or the limp relaxed school; and yet they are destined to
influence sooner or later all systems of singing. They have been used more
or less in all ages by great artists. It is strange that they are not
better understood by the profession.

* * * * *

In this connection it might be well to speak of the importance of physical
culture for the singer. A series of simple but effective exercises should
be used, exercises that will develop and vitalize every muscle of the body.
There are also nerve calisthenics, nervo-muscular movements, which
strengthen and control the nervous system. These nerve calisthenics
generate electrical vitality and give life and confidence. "The body by
certain exercises and regime may be educated to draw a constantly
increasing amount of vitality from growing nature."

A singer to be successful must be healthy and strong. He should take plenty
of out-door exercise. Exercise, fresh air, and sunlight are the three great
physicians of the world. But beside this, all singers need physical
training and development, which tense and harden the muscles, and increase
the lung capacity; that training which expands all the resonance cavities,
especially the chest, and which directly develops and strengthens the vocal
muscles themselves, particularly the extrinsic and intrinsic muscles of the
throat. As we have learned, a trained muscle responds more spontaneously to
thought or will than an uneducated one; flexible spontaneity the singer
always needs. Beyond a doubt, the singer who takes a simple but effective
course of p