linda,
your suggestion of thinking of the nasal port being opened or closed is probably more practical than thinking of the soft palate as being lifted or not. gillyanne kayes (a follower of jo estill) in her book 'singing and the actor', writes of the nasal port being open, closed or half closed (i prefer to think of it as half open). she also discusses the different muscle groups that make up the soft palate. (so far, all i can feel is open or closed.)
the action of opening or closing the nasal port is fairly simple and the affect on the sound is fairly straightforward. the fascination that some classical singers (not just them, scott walker comes to mind, but mostly them) have with 'raising their soft palates (as if it would make a nice hat), i think, is misguided. i think they place too much import on it (some believe it to be a cure for a 'short' top or certain types of cancer) and it always sounds as if they are trying to get a piece of uncooked popcorn off the roofs of their mouths (or that hen who is always after foghorn leghorn).
richard miller is correct in saying that imagery is no substitute for scientific understanding and implimentation. and i suspect that this unnecessary idolatry of the soft palate is the result of accepting imagery over the actual.
mike
btw, it sounds as if you must be one helluva 'twister' player.
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