f his total breathing efficiency?

It is likely that teachers have insisted on diaphragmatic breathing,
especially in the case of females, because, unfortunately, prevalent
modes of dress so restrict the lower chest, etc., that individuals
instinctively seek relief in upper chest or clavicular breathing, in
which case it may be observed that the actual breath power of the
singer is very small. It cannot be denied that few people ever
adequately fill the chest--least of all, few women--and if admonitions
as to diaphragmatic breathing accomplish this purpose, the practice
must be commended. But another remedy should obviously precede this
one: the respiratory prisoner should first be released.

No doubt, in the most vigorous singing and speaking the lower part of
the chest, with the diaphragm, is of the greatest importance, but
often both the speaker and the singer, as in a short, rapid passage,
require to take breath, and the only way in which they can really meet
the case is by a short, more or less superficial action of the
respiratory apparatus, in which the upper chest must play the chief
part. There is no opportunity to fill the whole chest, so that any
admonition in regard to abdominal breathing is then quite out of
place.

The fact is, the voice-user should have control of his whole breathing
mechanism, and use one part more or less than another, or all parts
equally and to the fullest extent, as the circumstances require; and
if the student has not already learned such control, the author
recommends his practising breathing with special attention first to
filling the upper chest completely, and then the lower. It must be
remembered that for a long time breathing, for the voice-user, must be
a voluntary process, which, as has been pointed out, is not the usual
and natural one for the individual when not phonating, which latter
is essentially reflex or involuntary. The voice-user, in other words,
must, with a definite purpose in view, take charge of himself. In
time, breathing for him too will become reflex--_i.e._, correct
breathing for the purposes of his art will become a habit. It must be
pointed out that the breathing for any particular composition,
literary or musical, should be carefully studied out, for this is
nothing else than determining how this part of the voice-user's
mechanism can be employed with the best artistic result. This,
fortunately, is now recognized by a large number of teachers, for the