other type predominates in an individual at a given time." The only
trouble about applying these terms singly to genuinely artistic
breathing is that, in the nomenclature of respiration, they signify
methods that are only partial, whereas correct inspiration is mixed
costal and diaphragmatic, with a touch of the clavicular added. Such,
then, is that "natural" method which also is artistic. It is based on
sound physiological laws; and because these laws are, in turn, founded
on fact, it is as efficient in practice as it is correct in theory.

CHAPTER IV

ON BREATHING: EXPIRATION

Air having been taken into the lungs, the act of exhaling it--the act
of expiration--is, for ordinary purposes, a very simple matter. The
elasticity of the parts of the body, the expansion of which made room
for the inflation of the lungs, as these became filled with the air that
was being drawn into them, permits the disadjustment to be readjusted
almost automatically. Elasticity implies that a body which has been
expanded returns spontaneously to its normal size and position. Thus
with expiration the lungs return to their position of rest and the
diaphragm and the walls of the abdomen follow them. This voluntary
readjustment suffices for ordinary expiration. But the expiration of
a singer should not be ordinary. It should be artistic. To begin with,
while, whenever possible, air should be taken into the lungs through the
nostrils, in singing it should always be expelled through the mouth. If
part of the air-column is allowed to go out through the nose, there is
danger of a nasal quality of tone-production.

In ordinary breathing the emission of air immediately follows the
intake; expiration begins the moment inspiration ceases, and the
respiration is completed. The elasticity of the lungs causes the
diaphragm to rise and the walls of the chest to return to their natural
position. Thus, in ordinary breathing, relaxation immediately follows
the expansion, and almost as soon as the air is inhaled, it is expelled
again.

But as breath is the foundation of song, it is something not to be
wasted, but to be husbanded to the utmost. For of what value to the
singer is a correct method of taking in breath if all or part of the
air passes out before the tone is produced? It is an income dissipated,
a fortune squandered.

The first step toward that breath-economy so essential in singing is
to retain the breath a little while, to pause betwe