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How to Belt - Part 1 Hi there everyone this is Kerri Ho from www.thesongbirdtree.com
where we get grounded, take flight, and sing. Now today I'd like to address the question,
how to belt. There is massive confusion out there in terms of how to define what belt
is and how to correctly access belt in your voice. Cause it's such a big topic, I'm
actually gonna do this across two videos. So today what I'm gonna cover is, what
is belting. And in order for me to be able to explain what belting is. I will have to
show you all the differences between all the different parts of voice and of vocal registers.
So that's essentially what I will cover today. And then in my next video, How to Belt
- Part 2. I will then actually give some exercises to show you how to access it properly. But
it's very very important that you really watch this and understand the concepts behind
it. Otherwise you will actually go about accessing it incorrectly.
Okay so without any further ado, let's begin, so what is belting? There's a myriad of
examples of how people define belting. But what I'm gonna say is this is definitely
true of belting and this is something probably all vocal coaches will agree on. Belting is
a sound when you sing that is loud, it is very powerful. There's gonna be a degree
of some sort of edge in it. Depending on what style you are singing. So if you are singing
rock for example, there will be more edge to it. If you are singing some other genre
like a Pop or musical theatre there is still edge in it but depending on the song there
might be slightly less edge in it. And a healthy belt has a good balance of both chest and
head voice. So that's what belting is.
So let me just show you what it sounds like, because sometimes that is still very confusing
(just hearing the description) What does a belt actually sound like? So I'm gonna show
you on Beyonce, If I Were A Boy. That chorus speed, I'll show you what it sounds like
to belt that out (me singing). So that is a healthy belt. If you can see that was loud,
that was powerful, there's a little bit of edge in it and there was a healthy mix
of chest and head voice in that. So now that you understand what a belt is and what it
actually sounds like. Let me now demonstrate the differences in vocal registers. Cause
this will help you understand how to correctly belt.
So the first thing is obviously, Chest tone. So your chest voice is the part which is very
close to your speaking voice. When I'm speaking like this it's very comfortable, I'm not
thinking much about it. And when we sing in our chest voice, it's pretty much very similar.
It's the part of our voice which is really easy to access and we pretty much do it without
thinking. So for example (me singing) it's a thick good tone because it's lower in
your range and then we of course move out to our head voice range. The high notes of
your range it's characteristically thinner in sound compared to chest voice, in a classical
or operatic sense it will sound like this (me singing). That's a pure (I guess) head
voice where you really feel the resonance here (pointing to forehead). In a more contemporary
setting (me singing) That's me singing in my head voice.
Now that you understand chest and head voice. Now let's talk about mixed voice. Once again
a myriad of different definitions out there, that can be very very confusing but this is
really important because having a strong mixed voice is basically what's gonna help you
do a healthy belt sound. So a mixed voice (to me) has to have a blend of chest and head
in it (that's why it called mixed) I've heard other people say that mixed tone is
basically your head voice but placed in the mask. I actually don't agree with that.
For example, just as I sang before in head voice (me singing) that's my head voice.
Now if I were to put that right here in my mask (me singing) Yes, it becomes a little
bit more powerful and it's a little bit more forward and out there. Which makes it
sound a lot more (I guess) belty, but to me that doesn't have the edge it needs in it,
in order for it to really be a belt. In order for it to be a belt, it needs to have a bit
of the chest voice edge in it. But it has to be (in order for it to be healthy) it has
to have that mix of head in it as well. So it's neither of the 2 extremes (me singing).
That's too harsh, it strained. That's me pulling my chest voice up. But what's
healthy is a complete blend of chest and head. So it makes it forward, it makes it resonant
but it makes it easy on the voice and it gives that edge still because of that little bit
of chest voice you have in it (me singing). Now that is a healthy belt. So you can see
that was loud, that was powerful, there's a little bit of edge to it, it is forward
sounding, but you know what? That did not strain on my throat, not at all.
So that's what I want you to understand from this video is that (1) belt is definitely
a loud powerful sound but it has to have the degree of edge in it, depending on what you
are singing. The edge will be more or less and it order for it to be healthy, it is definitely
a mix of chest and head voice together. So I just wanted to clear up that confusion with
this video but in the next video, I'll actually do cover a couple of exercises that will help
you to do a healthy belt.