s exert exactly the
requisite degree of strength, and no more.

Taken together, the open-throat and the forward-tone precepts embody an
admirable description of the sympathetic sensations awakened by perfect
singing. The singer's entire vocal mechanism is felt to be in a
condition of lithe and supple freedom. There is no straining, no
constraint, no forcing, no unnecessary tension. Each muscle of the vocal
mechanism, and indeed of the entire body, exerts just the necessary
degree of strength.

Similar muscular sensations always accompany the expert performance of
any action requiring a high degree of dexterity. Whatever be the form of
exertion, skilful physical activity awakens muscular sensations of
perfectly balanced and harmonized contractions. This feeling of muscular
poise and adjustment is pleasurable in a high degree.

A keen enjoyment is experienced in the skilful performance of many
complex muscular activities. Much of the pleasure of skating, dancing,
rowing, tennis, etc., is dependent on this feeling of muscular poise
and harmonious contraction. Healthy exercise is always normally
enjoyable; but skilful performance greatly enhances the pleasure. A
beginner learning to skate, for example, exerts himself fully as much as
the accomplished skater. Yet the beginner does not by any means derive
the same degree of pleasure from his exertions.

Precisely this feeling of balanced and harmonious muscular exertion is
experienced by the perfect singer. More than this, the hearer also,
through sympathetic sensations, shares the same pleasurable feeling.
This is the sensation described as the feeling of soaring, of poise, and
of floating, in many descriptions of the "singer's sensations."

_Singing on the Breath_

When the voice is perfectly used the tones seem to detach themselves
from the singer, and to float off on the breath. Nothing in the sound of
the tones, nor in the sympathetic sensations awakened, gives any
indication that the breath is checked or impeded in its flow. The
current of tone seems to be poured out on the breath just as freely as
a quiet expiration in ordinary breathing.

This is a purely empirical description of perfect singing. As we know
very well, the vocal action is quite different from this description.
But the important point is that the phrase "singing on the breath" does
very accurately describe the impression made on the hearer by perfect
singing.

Singing on the breath represents