The automatic breath is got through
the movements suggested when we say, _Lift, expand, and let go_.
When the singer lifts and expands in a free, flexible manner the body fills
with breath. One would have to consciously resist this to prevent the
filling of the lungs. The breath taken in this way means expansion,
inflation, ease, freedom. There is no desire to expel the breath got in
this way; it is controlled easily and naturally from position--the level of
the tone. When the breath is thus got through right position and action, we
secure automatic form and adjustment; and correct adjustment means
approximation of the breath bands, inflation of the cavities--in fact, all
true conditions of tone. Nature has placed within the organ of sound the
principle of a double valve,--one of the strongest forces known in
mechanics,--for the control of the breath during the act of singing. This
is what we mean by automatic breath-control--using the forces which Nature
has given us for that purpose, using them in the proper manner.
If the reader is familiar with my last two works, "Vocal Reinforcement" and
"Position and Action in Singing," he will have learned through them that we
have not direct, correct control of the form and adjustment of the parts
which secure the true conditions of tone and automatic breath-control.
These conditions, as we have learned, are secured through the flexible
movements which are the ground-work of our system. Therefore we say,
_Trust the movements_.
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