To secure the proper action of the vocal cords and laryngeal muscles the entire throat must be held in a state of supple relaxation before attacking a tone or phrase. In order to start a tone correctly a full inspiration is to be taken, then the vocal cords are to be brought to the degree of tension necessary for the desired pitch at the precise instant the expiration starts. The tone must be attacked squarely on the correct pitch and no breath allowed to escape before it starts. The breath pressure is to be held evenly and correctly managed throughout the entire expiration. To secure this proper action of the vocal cords the so-called ‘stroke of the glottis’ was advocated by García. The glottic stroke is an explosive sound, formed when the vocal cords are forced apart suddenly by a rather powerful breath pressure. Its most frequent natural occurrence is in the action of coughing, of which it is the most striking auditory characteristic. Although command of the glottic stroke can be acquired without difficulty, it is utterly out of place in finished singing. What García had in mind in advocating the glottic stroke is declared by many of his graduate students to have been something entirely different from a violent explosion of the tone. All he sought was the starting of the tone without any previous escape of the breath. The stroke of the glottis, strictly so called, has been almost entirely abandoned by vocal teachers. Later authorities modified this instruction somewhat by teaching the ‘slide of the glottis,’ which brings about the same action without the explosive sound of the glottic stroke. Of recent years, owing to the better understanding of the principles of breath control, it has been found that neither the stroke nor the slide of the glottis is necessary. The same result can be reached by bringing the vocal cords to the desired degree of tension at the instant the expiration starts. Much attention has been paid to the subject of registers, more probably than to any other feature of the vocal action. For a long time it was considered that each register of the voice must be trained separately and controlled in a special way. Various statements have been made by laryngoscopic observers as to the number of the registers and the actions of the vocal cords in each one.