Hello Caio and fellow Vocalisters:
The concept of raising or lower the soft palate has been around for many, many years. These two concepts are diametrically opposed to each other yet they claim the same benefits for the singer. This is not possible.
The act of attempting to raise the soft palate is usually not effective because the attempt itself tends to tense the muscle in the region of the soft palate. This tension is counterproductive to any attempt to improve the tone quality of the singing. It tends to produce either a very hard tone quality or a tone quality that sounds excessively swallowed.
the act of lowering the soft palate usually will open the velum which will allow air to pass through the nose during singing. Any time air passes through he nose during singing the tone will be nasal in quality. Nasal quality tone is not desired In most singing in the Western world.
What the singer needs is a resonating space that is easily adjustable such that it can match the resonance demands of the phonated pitch. Any system of teaching which encourages a set position of the resonating space will only match the resonance demands of the phonated pitch on a very few selected pitches. However, a flexible resonating space is capable of making whatever adjustment is needed for any pitch that is being sung.
A flexible resonating space is achieved only through a practice regimen that examines each vowel with each phonated pitch until the maximum resonance for each vowel is achieved. The physics of sound requires a resonating space that is very flexible and in the total control of the singer.
Regards -- Lloyd W. Hanson, DMA Professor of Voice, Vocal Pedagogy School of Performing Arts Northern Arizona University Flagstaff, AZ 86011
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