So, let me start off by saying that one can't help but be subjective about one's own singing experience. Your perception is from the inside, so to speak. That's why a second set of ears, hopefully knowledgeable, is so vital in the learning process. Then there's the words we use to describe our subjective experience, usually also unique to us and arising out of a combination of intuition and imagination.
When a singer has a "new" experience in their singing process, I often ask them if they can describe it. I, as teacher, know what change I have just heard in their sound and I am curious as to what they are going to say. Some singers come up with a movement word, some come up with a visual or tactile word, some with an auditory word or an entire imaginary scene. Finding out their perception helps two-fold: I get a glimpse into how they process new information, and they create a "marker", by their word or their image, that can help them reproduce the new experience later.
I was remind of how fun this process is yesterday when one of my youngest singers came in for a lesson. During a particular warm-up, her voice suddenly released. I asked her what the experience was like. She thought for a moment, then said it was like a Jack-in-the-Box the old-fashioned kind that you wind up and it pops. Well, OK, Jack-in-the Box it is. We went on to her song and Jack-in-the-Boxed to high notes, into beginnings of phrases, where-ever we could experiment with it, with excellent results.
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