Caruso and Tetrazzini on the Art of Singing | Page 3

lungs and diaphragm and the whole breathing
apparatus must be understood, because the foundation of singing is
breathing and breath control.
A singer must be able to rely on his breath, just as he relies upon the
solidity of the ground beneath his feet.
A shaky, uncontrolled breath is like a rickety foundation on which
nothing can be built, and until that foundation has been developed and
strengthened the would-be singer need expect no satisfactory results.
From the girls to whom I am talking especially I must now ask a
sacrifice--the singer cannot wear tight corsets and should not wear
corsets of any kind which come up higher than the lowest rib.
In other words, the corset must be nothing but a belt, but with as much
hip length as the wearer finds convenient and necessary.
In order to insure proper breathing capacity it is understood that the
clothing must be absolutely loose around the chest and also across the
lower part of the back, for one should breathe with the back of the
lungs as well as with the front.
In my years of study and work I have developed my own breathing
capacity until I am somewhat the despair of the fashionable modiste,
but I have a diaphragm and a breath on which I can rely at all times.
In learning to breathe it is well to think of the lungs as empty sacks,
into which the air is dropping like a weight, so that you think first of
filling the bottom of your lungs, then the middle part, and so on until no
more air can be inhaled.
Inhale short breaths through the nose. This, of course, is only an
exercise for breath development.
Now begin to inhale from the bottom of the lungs first.
Exhale slowly and feel as if you were pushing the air against your chest.

If you can get this sensation later when singing it will help you very
greatly to get control of the breath and to avoid sending too much
breath through the vocal chords.
The breath must be sent out in an even, steady flow.
You will notice when you begin to sing, if you watch yourself very
carefully, that, first, you will try to inhale too much air; secondly, you
will either force it all out at once, making a breathy note, or in trying to
control the flow of air by the diaphragm you will suddenly cease to
send it forth at all and will be making the sound by pressure from the
throat.
There must never be any pressure from the throat. The sound must be
made from the continued flow of air.
You must learn to control this flow of air, so that no muscular action of
the throat can shut it off.
Open the throat wide and start your note by the pressure breath. The
physical sensation should be first an effort on the part of the diaphragm
to press the air up against the chest box, then the sensation of a
perfectly open throat, and, lastly, the sensation that the air is passing
freely into the cavities of the head.
The quantity of sound is controlled by the breath.
In diminishing the tone the opening of the throat remains the same.
Only the quantity of breath given forth is diminished. That is done by
the diaphragm muscles.
"Filare la voce," to spin the voice from a tiny little thread into a breadth
of sound and then diminish again, is one of the most beautiful effects in
singing.
It is accomplished by the control of the breath, and its perfect
accomplishment means the complete mastery of the greatest difficulty
in learning to sing.

I think one of the best exercises for learning to control the voice by first
getting control of the breath is to stand erect in a well-ventilated room
or out of doors and slowly snuff in air through the nostrils, inhaling in
little puffs, as if you were smelling something.
Take just a little bit of air at a time and feel as if you were filling the
very bottom of your lungs and also the back of your lungs.
When you have the sensation of being full up to the neck retain the air
for a few seconds and then very slowly send it out in little puffs again.
This is a splendid exercise, but I want to warn you not to practice any
breathing exercise to such an extent that you make your heart beat fast
or feel like strangling.
Overexercising the lungs is as bad as not exercising them enough and
the results are often harmful.
Like everything else in singing, you want to learn this gradually. Never
neglect it, because it is the very foundation of your art. But don't