My range has expanded upward sort of naturally as I have started working with my voice. I haven't been trying to expand my range, since it was already fairly large to start with. My question is this though, about high notes:

When I'm singing the melody line of a song, and my friend Sherry, who is a soprano's soprano, goes off on a descant above me, my throat starts to ACHE. When I sing the same melody alone, or in unison with Sherry, I have no discomfort at all. The songs we do this on are pretty much in my midrange, and no strain at all to sing. Everyone loves the harmony of her descant with my voice; people say our voices blend well. But whenever she goes high, I get really "tight" in my throat, feel as if I'm losing volume, feel like I'm off-pitch, feel like I'm out of air, feel like I'm getting strangled.

Anyone know what this is about? Our provisional solution is to do the verses in unison and only the choruses in harmony, which gives my throat a chance to loosen up in between the tight spells.

V