Videos and Exercises
Vlogcast! Belting mini voice lesson
New feature! In this screenshare Vlogcast I take you through belting as if we were in a lesson, and I discuss examples of famous belters featuring Idina Menzel, Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, and newcomer Sarah Potenza.
Belted Siren Exercise
Jeannie takes you through a belted siren octave exercise, from G3(2) all the way up to A5(4)! This is a helpful, freer way of practicing getting to higher belted notes without using a glottal stop or pop (a harmful burst of air as you begin a note).
It's essential that you use your core support to do the belting, not your throat. Think of your throat as passive, as your mouth opens to make space for the sound. Release your jaw, and allow the sound to shine forward and bright.
Exercise: Pulsing for Breath Management
This exercise helps you to activate your abdominal-supported breathing. In it you create a pulse by singing five short notes on one pitch, and repeating that four times, with a breathless pause in between each set.
Be sure you are standing, grounded in your legs, with soft knees. Check your shoulders to be sure they're not tight. Fill your midsection with air, like an inner tube around you. The pulsing happens because of the type of tone you make, and causes your diaphragm muscle to pulse. You will see the upper part of your abdomen coming inward with each pulse. Be sure you don't make the pulse—instead, let it happen from the intention of the sound.
Start out in your chest voice, lower in your range for sopranos and altos, and in the mid-to-high part of your range for tenors and baritones.
Belting Demonstration, Using Chest and Mix Voice
In this demonstration, Jeannie takes you through exercises and strategies for getting the belting sound you want without harming your voice. It's important to warm up well, for example, and to develop your mix voice—which is a "setting" in between your head voice (or falsetto) and chest voice (or lower voice).
What Happens When We Belt?
A lot! There are so many muscles and ligaments and nerves deep within the structures of your neck and specifically in y our larynx, where your vocal folds are located. When you belt, we are singing loudly, with passion and energy, and usually higher in your range.
This video describes what's happening physically to get that loud dramatic sound, including describing how your vocal folds change density from thick to thin depending on what register you're singing in.
Here are some excellent examples of healthy belting:
The Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin epitomizes belting with an ease, style and power that is unmatched. In this clip from 2015 at the Kennedy Center honoring songwriter Carole King, Aretha performs King's song Natural Woman. Aretha was 73 years old in this amazing performance.
In this song "My Man" from the 1970's movie Funny Girl, the legendary Barbra Streisand demonstrates her large dynamic and expressive range, including belting, which is one of her signature skills. Check out her singing beginning at minute 1:25.
In "Uptown Funk" by Mark Ronson, Bruno Mars is fun, exciting and powerful, blending dance, pop/soul styles, speaking, soft singing, funk grooves, and of course belting.
Belting: Why Is It So Popular?
Belting:—singing that is powerful, emotional, loud, passionate, and athletic —is heard so often these days that singers often believe they have to belt in order to be a "real" singer. Or, some singers don't want to be loud, and prefer softer, more intimate vocals. Truth is, good music isn't always loud and dramatic: it has peaks and valleys. Contour. Dynamics. Many people believe too—falsely—that belting will always damage your voice. It can damage your voice if you're not careful...but then again any singing, or speaking too for that matter, can damage your voice if you're not aware of how you're using it.
Belting is a big topic! (That's why I wrote an entire book on the subject.) Throughout this Subscription Series we'll be adding more content to keep you well informed about how you can belt safely.
Some of the important components for safe belting are:
- Understanding how your vocal anatomy works, so you're not shooting in the dark and you are singing in an informed, mindful way
- Learning how to navigate through your different registers
- Knowing when it's better not to belt
- Incorporating Mix Voice techniques into your singing, so you're not using just your strong chest voice
When it's done well, belting is a technique that becomes part of an overall instrument with colors and timbres and ranges to choose from. Especially in contemporary popular styles which invite a range of vocal qualities, belting can be a very useful quality within a song, a verse or chorus, even just a phrase. It is exciting to belt, it feels powerful. It is exciting.Belting is also difficult to teach, and often singers figure it out on their own and as a result may strain or even injure their voices. Furthermore, many voice teachers won't work with students on belting, either feeling it's too harmful or simply unclear about how to teach it; while others teach it stressing style and performance, without giving their students healthy technique.Throughout this Series, as well as in my acclaimed book Belting: A Guide to Healthy, Powerful Singing*, I will show you how to approach belting in a safe and effective way. Check out the blog posts here beginning with Let's Dispel the Myths, which describes popular misconceptions about belting. Learn the facts!*Note: My book on healthy Belting is also available in digital format through the book's publisher, Berklee Press/Hal Leonard.
Passaggio: Chromatic exercise demonstration:
Navigate Between Registers When Belting
The PDF for this exercise begins a low G3 (and G2 for baritones), and takes you up to an F#4 (and F#3).
Volume Swell Exercise Demonstration
This exercise takes you right through the challenging passaggio part of your range to help your voice learn to change registers without flipping abruptly.
Important tips:
- Be sure you are well warmed up before you do this exercise.
- Always use a well-supported breath from your core, with balanced posture
- Never, ever strain
- Your throat should be open, your jaw relaxed.
- Allow the exercise to happen, don't force it.
- When you get to the point where you feel your registers shifting, slow down and keep your air flow steady.
- You can also try this on an ee vowel, or on any vowel that feels the most free.
