Leslie,
A couple observations come to mind after reading through this thread.
1)Many of your observations are opinions based on a partially accurate understanding of vocal function, but not a complete one. What you hear in quality and style is your own personal opinion, but trying to justify what your opinion is with functional facts is questionable if you don't have all the facts yet. I'd encourage you to keep on exploring and researching and try not to connect the dots too quickly. We all tend to jump to conclusions prematurely.
2) Voice therapy: it's unfortunate that you ended up with polyps and needed to go through therapy. However, completely reversing your approach to singing just swings the pendulum to the other side of the extreme, which can also lead to re-injury in your case. The major reason most "head-predominant", classically trained singers don't evidence injuries as quickly is because they rarely are able to produce enough volume to create fatigue, and because they aren't singing continually the demands on their voice are not consistent enough that vocal rest doesn't remedy or resolve many of the issues caused as a result of improper singing. Meaning, they aren't marketable enough to get a demanding job in their own genre.(I realize I'm generalizing slightly, in order to make a point about function)
3)If you have a solid bottom and middle-range, but are afraid to "pull-up" your middle into head voice....you are likely already in trouble in the lower areas. When the voice begins in a balanced onset, the ability to reach ascending pitches is merely a willingness to allow the resonation to shift without changing the sound that is being produced. There is no need to greatly modify vowels into the head voice, unless the vowel is changing in the lower areas. I've noticed that vowel modification is often used as a corrective tool, and is not needed as much once the larynx stabilizes. (Again, a slight generalization, not an absolute rule)
There is an excellent teacher in Nashville named Brett Manning. He has rehabilitated singers from Vanderbilt as well as has a very successfull voice studio. I'd be happy to send you his phone number if you are interested.
Much success in your continued pursuit of vocal excellence! Mary Beth Felker The Voice Project
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