fad; as is proved by the fact
that every violation of physical law affecting the vocal tract results
in injury to it and in the same proportion affects the efficiency of
the voice.

Before considering various methods of breathing it should be said that,
irrespective of these, air should, whenever it is possible to do so, be
taken into the lungs through the nostrils and not through the mouth.
True, there are times in singing when breath has to be taken so rapidly
that mouth-breathing is a necessity, as otherwise the inspiration would
not be rapid enough. But to inspire through the nostrils, whenever
feasible, is a law not alone for the singer, but a fundamental law of
health. In the passage from the mouth to the lungs there is no provision
for sifting the air, for freeing it from foreign matter, or for warming
it if it is too cold; whereas the nostrils appear to have been designed
for this very purpose. Their narrow and winding channels are covered
with bristly hairs which filter or sift and arrest the dust and other
impurities in the air; and in the channels of the nostrils and back of
them the air is warmed or sufficiently tempered before it reaches the
lungs. Moreover it can be felt that the lungs fill more readily when
air is taken in through the nostrils than when inspiration takes place
through the mouth. That breath should be taken in through the nostrils
is, like all rules in the correct physiology of voice-production,
deduced from incontrovertible physical facts. It is, moreover,
preventive of many affections of the lungs, bronchial tubes and throat.

Three methods of breathing usually are recognized in books on
singing--but there should be only one. For only one method is correct
and that really is a combination of the three. These three are called,
respectively, clavicular, abdominal or diaphragmatic, and costal;
clavicular, because it employs a forced movement of the clavicle or
collar-bone accompanied by a perceptible raising of the shoulder-blades;
abdominal or diaphragmatic, because breathing by this method involves an
effort of the diaphragm and of the abdominal muscles; and costal, which
consists of an elastic expansion and gentle contraction of the ribs, the
term "costal" signifying "pertaining to the ribs."

Let me say right here, subject to further explanation, that neither of
these methods by itself is complete for voice-production and that the
correct method of breathing consists of a combination