It should be taken for granted that all healthy persons breathe properly.
It is not the breathing, but the power of control, which is of vital importance. It may be that after taking "breathing lessons" for a period of six months that you will still be far from able to control the breath on the tone. It is the way you practice, rather than the length of time which brings proficient results.
You will find by referring to the chapter on "Practical Exercises" that I demonstrate the matter thoroughly.
A good tone should have resonance, or what we call "vibration," but not "tremolo." Many young singers confuse these two. Undoubtedly it is just as bad to sing with a straight, cold, unmusical tone as it is to produce an exaggerated "vibrato" or "tremolo."
If you are unable to make the distinction between these two, do not fail to consult someone who can do so, that you may not enter the pitfalls, which it takes months to overcome.
You cannot realize how little breath is necessary on the tone; we sing with a great amount of pressure, but with very little breath. Have you ever taken a covered head tone without scarcely taking any breath, and found that you could sustain it for a practically unlimited period?
I found one of my pupils who had elsewhere taken a course in breathing, in taking a tone, would push her breath out so hard that you heard more breath than tone. In singing a tone or short sentence, her chest would collapse and she would become, as she termed it, "All out of breath." She would give me all kinds of wonderful breath demonstrations, but could not connect the breath and tone.
I requested her to speak in a natural way the sentence, "This is a very beautiful day." I asked her if she could hear a lot of escaping breath? She answered, "No." I then asked her to place one hand across the ribs and one across the chest and center her thoughts directly at these two points to see if she could ascertain what was taking place there, while once again in a natural speaking voice she repeated the sentence. She did so, and found she was not "out of breath," and that her chest did not collapse and she did not feel any discomfort. I then asked her to repeat the sentence on the medium tone "E" above middle "C," then on "F," then on "G," directing her each time to think she was merely speaking the sentence, and then for the first time in her life she was able to understand control of breath. During the next lesson we were able to begin "tone placing" without the least trouble in connecting the breath and tone. Try it yourself.
All kinds of athletics, breathing lessons or exercises in moderation are beneficial, but they are not voice culture. As your breath plays a most important part in tone placing, the breath and tone should start together, hand in hand, from the very beginning. In the following chapter I shall give some practical exercises that will give the breath and tone a chance to become acquainted with each other.