Hi all,
I finally officially joined mudcat today! After years of lurking. But now I'm at work and so still a guest.
My teacher has me do what she calls an "inner smile." There is no visible exterior sign of a smile but the inner smile lifts the soft palette on the sides more to give more space in the mouth. She also scolds me when I move my hand up as I go higher. She says I need to counter the higher notes with a downward hand motion. Just like Kingbrill is doing. Although my teacher would love it if I didn't move my hand at all. I find the biggest help though is to give more air on the lower note BEFORE I head for the higher note. That way the note can sort of coast out rather than be pushed out. The downward approach is also helpful.
Keeping a similar placement also helps but that's a concept I can't begin to describe.
When I sing classical music, high A's and G's can feel low to me because I can sing higher than that and vocalize usually to the D above the staff. But with folk music, I never want to sing in a key that would take me above the D on the staff. So even between genres the high and low thing takes on different meanings.
As to why we talk about the high notes and the low notes, could it be as simple as the higher notes have higher frequencies and the low notes lower ones? We have to be able to describe things and this makes sense. Although from a physical standpoint, the lower notes tend to have a low resonation in the chest maybe while the higher notes tend to resonate more in the head.
It's fun to see how others are tackling this age old problem.
emily b