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Tips
for Healthy Belting
 | Posture:
Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Feel rooted and ready to
take action. The knees are relaxed, not locked. Tilt the pelvis so
that the tailbone points down. Lengthen the spine, including the
neck. The shoulders are back and down, and you feel roomy but not
hyper-extended in the chest. |
| Breathing:
Release your abdominal muscles. As you breathe in, the diaphragm
descends and you elevate your rib cage, keeping the chest and
shoulders steady. Release five rapid puffs of air like a laugh with
no voice. Repeat several times. As you release the breath, hold the
ribs open so that the inspiratory muscles resist the expiratory
muscles, creating the sensation of breath and support. |
| Phonation:
Using a calling voice expressing great joy say "ay" [as in
day]. Try again. Don't yell or shout, but call as if trying to be
heard over a distance. Now transfer the calling sound to a musical
exercise. Women starting on middle "C", men on the
"A" below, sing: C-E [ay-ay] G-E-C [ah-ah-ah]. Go up by ½
steps until you reach your limit. (About a high A-flat for women,
high C for men. Men with lower voices cannot belt, but can develop a
quasi-belt voice quality.) |
| Vowel Modification:
As the pitch rises, the forward vowels modify toward "ay"
[hay] and the back vowels modify toward "ah" [father] |
| Listen to:
Betty Buckley
Celine Dion
Linda Eder
Sam Harris
Marin Mazzie
Bernadette Peters |
-Bill Reed |
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