Further, we perceive in studying carefully the actions of the throat that it can be opened only through the action of the breathing, and this, too, when acted upon by imagination or by the reception of a vivid impression.

In order to establish the condition which we have found to be fundamental, we must direct our attention to the part over which active control must first be secured. The other conditions of voice are more or less resultant co-ordinations of the correct management of the breath. The human will must command the breath as the motive power at the initiation of the tone. Though the voice is not a mechanical instrument, it must be attuned or trained before expression can be adequate. This attunement is not a separate matter, but a part of the direct response of the vocal mechanism and the whole body to thought and feeling.

The right management of the breath, therefore, furnishes us with a clew as to the place to begin the work of voice development. Every condition of voice starts with sympathetic retention of the breath. The lungs provide the material for tone and the material and its control are first necessary.

Here also do we find the right action of the motive centres causing all other parts to respond properly. It seems the key to all the mysterious co-ordinations concerned in tone production.

III. HOW BREATHING FURNISHES THE MOTIVE POWER.

One of the greatest difficulties in vocal training, and even in understanding how to improve the voice, is the action of the breath in producing tone.

One of the first mistakes the student makes is in respect to the proper nature and action of the motive power of his voice.

He nearly always endeavors to produce tone by a

direct expulsive action of his expiratory muscles. I once heard a physician - who was in fact, the leader of physical training in his day — laugh at those who talked about the diaphragm, and declare, "I breathe with my abdominal muscles." It was astonishing to me that he did not know that these are expiratory muscles. How he could get breath by them seems a profound mystery. To bring in the action of these abdominal muscles secures the motor action with too little breath, and this constricts the throat, makes the tone mechanical, and destroys the right co-ordinate relations between the tone passage and the diaphragm, or between the latter and the vocal bands.

The motive power of the voice results from a number of complex but sympathetic and perfectly natural causes. The lungs are composed of about half a million cells. When full of air these cells, composed as they are of elastic tissue without any muscular fibers, will tend to throw the breath out, and the greater the amount of air in the lungs the greater will be this tendency. This constitutes the primary element in the motive power of the voice. It is secured indirectly; that is, by taking air into the lungs; not by forcing breath out by the expiratory, but by sustaining the tension of the inspiratory, muscles.

In addition to the sympathetic elasticity of the lung cells, there is at least one other activity which forcibly expels the breath. When the lungs are full of air the vital organs are pressed downward and outward, and these will spontaneously return to their normal place. Thus, the resilience of the vital organs, and of the abdominal and thoracic walls, all tend to expel the breath.

How is this breath regulated in the act of making tone? By the muscles that cause the breath to be taken. Hence, the great importance of studying the inspiratory muscles. The chief of these is the diaphragm, so

important an organ that someone has said, "If the diaphragm is right all the other respiratory muscles will be right." Here lies the chief difficulty in the control of breath; in taking it the diaphragm becomes active. How can this muscle regulate outgoing breath?

Muscles have three kinds of contraction: concentric or the ordinary contraction, in which the muscle shortens itself and directly produces the movement or action; static contraction, in which the muscle stays its tension at a certain point; eccentric contraction, in which the muscle gradually lengthens or gives up its tension. The first is easiest to control; to secure command over the second and third requires more patience and

care.

Now it can be seen at once that the motive power of the voice is regulated and controlled by the eccentric action of the diaphragm. To gain control of this, therefore, not only must we strengthen the inspiratory muscles and the power to take a great deal of air into the lungs, but there must be careful development of retental force. In other words, we must be able to give up breath gradually and stay the tension of the diaphragm. That is we must get control of the eccentric contraction of the diaphragm and of the associated inspiratory muscles.

Here then we have a statement of the real character of the motive power of the voice, and we can see a reason for the difficulty in controlling it. This, however, is not so great as may be imagined; after a thorough understanding of what is needed the student will be enabled to master it with comparative ease. The universal tendency to talk about breathing "with the abdominal muscles," entirely overlooks the fundamental character of the control of breath. The abdominal muscles are expiratory, and when brought into activity in opposition to the inspiratory muscles they increase

what Dr. Merkel calls the "vocal struggle." But in proportion to the activity of the expiratory muscles the tendency to send out breath will be increased. Now, the less the air in the lungs the less will be the outward pressure of the breath and the more necessary will it be to use the expiratory muscles to force it out to make tone. The less the breath in the lungs, the less will this motive power come from its normal source, that is, from the elasticity of the lung cells and the resiliency of the abdominal walls and vital organs. When the lungs are almost empty there is, of course, no need of activity in the inspiratory muscles to retain the breath. On the contrary, in proportion to the amount of air in the lungs will the action of the inspiratory muscles be necessary to retain the breath while that of the expiratory muscles will be unnecessary to secure the expiratory action to produce tone. It may be stated as a law that in proportion to the transcendence of the activity of the diaphragm and the inspiratory over the expiratory muscles will there be a more normal, easy, and resonant tone. At any rate, attention must be directed not to the expiratory but to the inspiratory action in the study and development of the motive power of the voice.

On taking the first step toward developing normal actions of breathing it is important to distinguish the easiest method of taking the greatest amount of air and of avoiding all labored and unnecessary effort. Breathing in sleep is largely involuntary, and even in waking hours we rarely breathe by direct act of will. Whenever conscious attention and voluntary effort are directed to the increased and more adequate control of breathing there arises an almost universal tendency to interfere with the natural process. Too much effort is usually introduced, and in nearly every case the labor is expiratory or expulsive, and does not mean the taking in of more breath and its easy and sympathetic retention.

Mr. Shakespeare, with whom I once had the honor of studying, advised: "Never give breathing lessons; give rather boxing lessons." With all respect to this eminent authority, difficult and dangerous as the task of improving breathing is, the teacher who neglects it will make slow progress and often fail to correct the most glaring and fundamental faults.

VII. EDUCATION OF BREATHING

Breathing as the motive power of the voice would be an easy matter if men used their breath normally. But of all functions close to man's life, this is apt to be the most perverted and abnormal.

Therefore, before beginning the development of the right retention and management of the breath in tone production, it is necessary first to study the action of breathing as a whole, and note whether it is easy and normal, or labored and abnormal. What is the simplest method of taking a great amount of air? Is there a correct and an incorrect method of breathing in life and in the use of the voice?

Nature has many methods of breathing. If a man be shot or wounded on one side, nature substitutes other parts for the one that is weakened and breathing is centred more on the other side. If the diaphragm be constricted, the breath is concentrated more in the upper part of the chest and develops a certain flexibility even in the bones, but all this implies accident or interference with nature. Nature may accommodate vital functions to abnormal conditions yet by the normal method, and upon the intended centre of breathing must all power be developed.

In the use of the voice man may breathe in many ways from perverted habit; he may do this by lifting his shoulders, at the side by movement of his ribs, or by