Dear Barry and Taylor and Vocalisters:
The opening or closing of the velopharyngeal port is not necessarily conditional on the concept of "raising the palate" as is taught in many singing techniques. In short, it is possible to raise the palate with the velopharyngeal port open or closed.
Barry wrote: "The inverse action of the larynx and soft palate is a common classical teaching image (which I use myself with classical voices). It is not, however, inviolate. It is quite possible to make both the soft palate and larynx move independently of one another."
This is more a description of the method of raising the soft palate than it is a description of the inverse action between the soft palate and the larynx. The kind of soft palate raising which induces a simultaneous lower of the larynx is beneficial in that it increases pharyngeal height as well as pharyngeal depth. It can be done with the mouth closed and a breath taken through the nose which, of course, means the velopharyngeal port is open (see above).
If a technique of singing is sought in which the larynx is to be raised, as Barry's description of his (and Estill's ) belt technique states, it is logical that the palate will not be in a raised state as described above. But regardless of the raising or not raising of the soft palate, the velopharyngeal ports can be either open or closed. And clearly, hard belters do it both ways.
-- Lloyd W. Hanson, DMA Professor of Voice, Pedagogy School of Performing Arts Northern Arizona University Flagstaff, AZ 86011
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