Ian Belsey wrote:
> I sing all styles of singing (rare I guess?) and
> hardly ever does my palate drop. Still, that could be
> a matter of taste as much as anything!
Ah. I think this is a simple word thing. Lowered, raised, arched?
Hold your left hand up, fingers to the ceiling with the palm facing
towards the right. Now touch the palm of your hand with your right hand
fingertips, palm down. (This would work better if your fingers were all
the same length but...)
Your RH is your soft palate. Move it away from your LH, preferably by
curling the fingers down. and then replace it. You are opening and
closing a space between the hands, right? That space is the velar post.
The palate was definitely "down".
Now, with the hands touching, arch the palm of your RH (your palate
hand) and most people will equate this with the palate being "raised".
Now, pull your RH apart from the LH, but still arch the palm up as you
do it.
Do you call this raised or lowered?
Chris, unless you have some other opening in your throat, you _must_ be
"pulling the hands apart" i.e. opening the velar port. But I agree you
may well be arching the palate at the same time, which is what I think
Ian is also saying he does. In other words, probably both sides are
right!
The only problem comes, obviously, when we are teaching students to do
the same thing. I think concept of opening and closing the channel may
work better in some cases.
Cheers,
--
Linda
oh, P.S. I just road-tested these instructions with my partner to see if
they made sense. The best bit was watching him use his toes on the
keyboard to page down!
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