to play. What is perhaps the most important
distinction of this method of breath-control and voice-management is the
fact that it relieves the throat of all pressure, the correct tension and
vibration of the vocal cords being brought about by the reflex action of
muscles and nerves. This lack of strain on the throat does away with all
danger of a throaty quality of voice-production, which not only is highly
inartistic but also leads to various throat troubles.

Breath-control implies that no breath is wasted, that every particle of
breath, as it comes out, is converted into voice. Dissipation of breath
results in uncertainty of voice-production, a branch of the subject
which will be taken up in the chapter on "attack." An excellent test
for economy of breath is to hold a lighted candle before the mouth while
singing. If the flame flickers, breath is being wasted, is coming out
as empty air instead of as voice. There is the same difference between
voice produced on breath that is under the singer's control and that
produced on breath which is not properly steadied, as there is between
a line drawn straight and sure by a firm hand and a wavering line drawn
by a hand that is nervous and trembling. In fact, in singing the waver
of the voice that results from poor control of breath is a tremble,
a _tremolo_, and is one of the worst faults in a singer.

It also should be pointed out that the singer is not to continue an
expiration beyond the point when it ceases to be easy for him to do so.
As soon as the air-column becomes thin the singer's control over it
becomes insecure, and, from that point on, the air that remains should
be regarded simply as a reserve supply and aid to the next inspiration.

To sum up: Breathing consists of two separate actions, inspiration and
expiration, the intake of air and its emission. Of the three kinds of
inspiration mentioned in most books on singing and termed clavicular,
abdominal or diaphragmatic, and costal, neither completely fills the
bill. The correct method of inspiration is a combination of all three.
It is costal--that is indicated by an expansion of the whole framework
of the ribs--assisted by an almost automatic sinking of the diaphragm
and a very slight, almost passive, rising of the clavicle, the final
detail being a slight sinking in of the lower front wall of the abdomen.
In this method, although it is a combination of the three--the
clavicular, the diaphragmatic and the costa