Singing and posture–see Categories, About, Launch 4-2014

Individuals are different, and in particular, vocal tension patterns can be very different.

I had read so often here to raise the soft palate. Yet, in Alan Greene’s book, the New Voice, he says– to billow out the pillars of fauces and RELAX the soft palate.

I’ve experimented with both and believe Alan Greene is right. Here’s why.

The pathways to the cavities that resonante high frequencies (nasal cavities and sinuses)–is through the nasal-pharynx pathway or through the bony part of the upper mouth (hard palate). The soft palate, together with the position of the throat-neck and larynx, control the “mix” of the sounds going out to the mouth, the hard palate, and nasal-pharynx.

Deliberately lifting my soft palate has consistently produced too bright of a sound.      When I tried to billow out the pillars of fauces (sides of soft palate) and relax the soft palate, this enabled the soft palate to freely move, providing a great deal subtly because the mix is now fast in emotional adjustments.   The widening of the pillars of fauces enables adequate air-sound to reach the nasal cavities.

I just don’t think this idea of raising the soft palate is right.  Even if someone has lots of downward tension in soft palate, the idea should be to get rid of  this tension to enable for a free soft palate, as its significant voice mix capabilities determine much of the vocal quality.

From:

http://themodernvocalist.punbb-hosting.com/viewtopic.php?&pid=35196#p35196

“i.e. to improve tone, do you need to split the resonance between the mouth and nasal cavities? (I know there are other resonators, but just for the ease of the question). If so, how do you achieve this? Is it though manipulation of the soft palette?”

The Relaxed soft palate is affected by posture, head positioning, outer throat tension, inner throat tension, jaw positioning, volitional effort, and more.   The sound travel path is also affected by head positioning, relative to the throat and its angling.

Without getting these many factors right, it is challenging to hit the right vocal spot that enables for head resonance (which is primarily the mask area– the sinus cavities and some of the nasal cavity).  And without the Relaxed soft palate, it is very difficult to keep this vocal spot ringing.

To get the soft palate right, begin with fixing what affect it– the throat underneath and the head angling above.   This is done by posture changes, and is a difficult process, as I will later describe in http://www.vocalposture.com.

Regarding nasality, killerku’s videos explained well that nasality works for many kinds of songs.   In general though, until one has developed a commercial style, aim as a goal for a full sound.   This means, using both mask and bass resonance together.

The difference between nasality and mask singing is that one actually sends a bit too much air through the nose and uses less of the sinus cavities for resonance.    This is less than optimal, because:   1. it is not the goal of the full sound   2. if send too much air through the nose, too much warmed, moist, slightly acidic air go through the nose and this isn’t healthy   3. the sinus resonance developed is too sharp of a sound   4. mask singing is a crisper higher that accompanies a mouth sound far better.

So, to begin with, aim for full sound with sinuses resonance, by first straightening out your posture, in a relaxed way.