In a message dated 12/01/2000 3:01:03 PM Central Standard Time,
R.L.Frye@w... writes:
R.L.Frye@w... writes:
<< - I do teach, and practice myself, a comfortably raised
soft palate. I find that gently stretching the
pharyngeal space (stretching the pillars of fauces wide
in addition to stretching the soft palate tall) creates
much more ring in the voice. With practice, this multi-
directional stretch can be controlled, and it can be
achieved without creating undesirable muscular
tensions. The most frequent problem encountered in
teaching this concept is that many students try to
create a sensation of spaciousness by depressing the
root of the tongue, which is obviously counterproductive. >>
We're in total agreement on this, Robin - Paul Kiesgen at IU refers to the
tendency to over-arch the palate and create tension as looking like "a dog
eating peanut butter." If you can all sit at your PCs/MACs for just a second
and try to envision that, I think you'll find it's the perfect illustration
of the excessively arched palate.... I've also seen singers who bare a
frightening amount of teeth and gum in the attempt to raise the palate.
Sometimes I'll tell my students to channel Tori Spelling (or at least the SNL
imitation of her in the early 90s) to get the feeling of the free jaw and the
energy through the zygomatic arch. (Again, please take a moment to do the
imitation.) :) It's not that I want them to LOOK like that necessarily, but
at least to train the muscles to respond when called upon.
I wrote a song parody called My Favorite Sings which I printed in my last
studio newsletter. A few of my friends have said it's a wonderful and
humorous summation of vocal technique - if anyone wants me to send it to them
(or post it to the List), you can twist my arm....
Chris
Christine Thomas
Wauwatosa, WI
<A HREF="http://hometown.aol.com/mezzoid/myhomepage/profile.html">
http://hometown.aol.com/mezzoid/myhomepage/profile.html</A>
"I love to sing-a, about the moon-a and the June-a and the spring-a"
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