of the three, with
the costal, or rib-expansion method, predominating. For of the three
methods mentioned the expansion of the ribs creates the largest
chest-cavity, within which the lungs will have room to become inflated,
so that more air can be drawn into them by this method than by either of
the others. But a still larger cavity can be created and a still greater
intake of air into the lungs be provided for, if, simultaneously as the
ribs are expanded, the diaphragm, the large muscle separating the cavity
of the chest from that of the abdomen, is allowed to descend and the
clavicle is slightly raised, the final act in this correct method of
breathing being a slight drawing in of the lower wall of the abdomen.
Ignoring the slight raising of the clavicle, this method may be called
the mixed costal and diaphragmatic, for it consists mainly in expanding
the ribs and in allowing the dome-shaped top of the diaphragm to descend
toward the abdomen. It calls into play all the muscles that control
respiration and their cooperative nerves, provides the largest possible
space for the expansion of the lungs, and is complete in its results,
whereas each of the three methods of which it is a combination is only
partial and therefore incomplete in result.

In the method of breathing called clavicular, the hoisting of the
shoulder-blades is an upward perpendicular effort which is both ugly
to look at and disagreeable in its results. For in art no effort, as
such, should be perceptible. Moreover, as in all errors of method in
voice-teaching, there is a precise physiological reason why clavicular
breathing is incorrect. Correct breathing results, with each intake of
breath, in as great an enlargement of the chest-cavity as is necessary
to make room for the expansion of the lungs when inflated. But as
clavicular breathing acts only on the upper ribs, it causes only the
upper part of the chest to expand, and so actually circumscribes the
space within which and the extent to which the lungs can be inflated.
It is an effort to expand the chest that is only partially successful,
therefore only partially effective.

In fact, clavicular, or high breathing, requires a great effort to
supply only a small amount of air; and this not only necessitates a
frequent repetition of an unsightly effort, but, in consequence, weakens
the singer's control over his voice-mechanism, makes inspiration through
the nostrils awkward and, when the air has to be