A singer’s breath belongs to the phrase before the first note does.

The performance starts before anything is audible. A singer’s intake sets the length, the loudness, and the whole shape of what follows, so by the time the first note arrives most of the decisions have already been made. Anything you can do well has a version of this: the setup is not a preliminary to the work, it is the earliest part of it, done where nobody is watching.

Notice what you do in the ten seconds before you begin something, whether that is a conversation, a run, or a piece of work. Give those seconds a form rather than falling into them by accident.