Gina wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> I have no experience with belting, except that I have heard it recently
> when I saw Jane Eyre, Jekyll and Hyde and Kiss Me Kate on Broadway. I
> found the tone disturbing, uncomfortable but also exciting in a strange
> way. How can this singing style possibly be safe? All I know about it
> is that you take the chest voice all the way up. I have heard that it
> causes nodules and can destroy a voice in a matter of a couple of
> years. Please inform me on this subject...
> I used to teach a variety of students as a TA and some of them belted
> but I just discouraged that practice in favor of a legit tone. If
> belting can be done safely, I am very interested to know how.
>
> Thank you!
>
This is an email from Sungil Cho which describes belting well.
Belt is absolutely not chext voice pushed up all the way. Belters who
study with me are never in their chest voice except for the lowest 1/4
of their range.
>For those who are interested, I feel obliged to share
this highly informative comparison between belting and chest voice
provided by Dr. Steve Chicurel in response to my personal inquiry.
What I find new here is
1. both vocalis and cricothyroid seem to be active in a new balance
2. false vocal fold is involved in belting
3. filtering mechanism is radically different
I think it's a truely facinating topic!
Best, Sungil Cho
------------------------------------------------
From: Steve Chicurel <schicurel@m...>
From: Steve Chicurel <schicurel@m...>
Subject: RE belting
....
Belting "retains" the thick vocalis muscle of "chest" or speech
quality. Changes are made more in the filter...
Put another way:
SPEECH QUALITY: BELTING:
-------------------------- ------------------------
Power characteristics: Power char.:
Glottal onset Glottal onset
Source characteristics: Source char.:
"released"ventricular folds (neutral) retracted false v. folds
Horizontal v.f. plane Horizontal v.f. plane
Thick v.f. mass Thick v.f. mass
"vertical" larynx cricoid tilt
Filter characteristics: Filter char.:
Closed velopharyngeal port closed port
"relaxed" head, neck, torso active head, neck, torso musc.
"relaxed" throat "expanded' pharyngeal width
"neutral" pharyngeal length "short tube" (high larynx)
"low" tongue high tongue
"open" aryepiglottic sphincter tightened aes
As you can see, most of the difference lies in the filter. Paramount
to all of this are two things: retracted false vocal folds (They
"see" high-power singing as "work," and want to close, as they do in
any other quality like opera or twang.), and "anchoring," or
displacing the effort form hte larynx, and putting in in much larger
muscles like the sternocleidomastoid, latts, etc...
SOUND -wise, the addition of aes tightening gives belt it's
brillliance, the high larynx assists in accessing high frequencies
(remember, belting likes high notes), and the characteristic that's
unique to belting (It's not a part of any other quality) is cricoid
tilt. The thyroid can also be tilted to add a little "sweetness" to
the sound, but this is an aesthetic choice only.
--
Dr. Barry Bounous
Brigham Young University
School of Music
bounousb@i...
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