to take a voluntary breath before coming into action. This of
course defeats the whole thing. Again, the tendency of beginners or of
those who have formed wrong habits, is to sing before finding the level of
the tone through the movements, or to start the tone before the action.
This of course compels local effort and contraction, and makes success
impossible. The singer must have breath; and if he does not get it
automatically through the flexible movements herein described, or some such
movements, he is compelled to take it consciously and locally. The
conscious local breath in singing is always an artificial breath, and
compels local control. Under these conditions ease and perfect freedom are
impossible.

As we have said, the important thing to consider in this study is the
movement from repose to the level of the first tone. Move in a free,
flexible manner as before described, and give no thought to breath-taking.
When you have found the level of the tone, all of which is done
rhythmically and in a moment, let the voice sing,--sing spontaneously. Make
no effort to hold or control the breath. Maintain correct position the
level of the tone, in a free, flexible manner, and sing with perfect
freedom, with abandon. As the movement or action gave you the breath, so
will the position hold it. The more you let go all contraction of body and
throat muscles, the more freedom you give the voice, the more will the
breath be controlled,--controlled through automatic form and adjustment.
This is a wonderful revelation to many who have tried it and mastered it.
Those who have constantly thought in the old way, and attempted to breathe
and control in the old way, cannot of course understand it. The tendency of
such is to condemn it,--to condemn it, we are sorry to say, without
investigation.

Knowledge is gained through experience. The singer or pupil who tries this
system of breathing and succeeds, needs no argument to convince him that it
is true, natural and correct. The greatest drawback to the mastering of it
on the part of many singers and teachers, is the artificial habits acquired
by years of wrong thinking and wrong effort. With the beginner it is the
simplest, the easiest, and the most quickly acquired of all systems of
breathing; for automatic breathing is a fundamental, natural law of
artistic singing.

For further illustration of this principle of breathing we will use the
following exercise:

[Illustration: FOUR