How exactly do you “belt” a song?

*****maddi*****: How exactly do you “belt” a song?
I am a singer/dancer/actress that has hopes of being on broadway someday. The only problem is that my voice isnt quite suited for a broadway setting. I have sung with nothing but my head voice my whole life and I have heard many broadway performances and most of the singers are “belters”. What I want to figure out is how you do this because This would make me a better vochalist and all around stage performer and possibly help me land a role on broadway when I get older (im only 13 years old).

Answers and Views:

Answer by connemara
You either can or you can’t. If you can’t, then skip it and do something else. If your voice isn’t a belter then it isn’t. Move on.

Answer by debbie w
from the belly.

Answer by backwardsinheels
Belting can be hard at first, especially for a young singer. There is no instant fix…it takes practice, which I am sure you are willing to do.

1 – Work on your diaphragm muscle. This is the muscle just below your lungs that controls your breathing. You need to strengthen this muscle to get the power and control in your voice. Take a piece of toilet tissue and separate the layers. Take one layer and hold it up against a wall. Blow a continuous stream of air that is strong enough to hold the tissue to the wall (when you remove your hand). Work on holding that paper up for as long as you can. It’s hard! Try 5 seconds, 10 seconds, up to 30 seconds.

2 – Get loud. Use an “eeee” sound and an “ahhhh” sound. Your voice will crack and your throat will get sore at first. Stand with your feet at shoulder’s width. Hold a note at a loud volume for as long as you can. Over and over, until you stop cracking. You have to push past the cracking to get it to stop. Push the air from your diaphragm (belly). Try to release the strain in your throat and concentrate the strain in your abdominals. Try lying down on the floor as you sing, which kicks the diaphragm into gear.

3 – Focus on the tone. Now that you can be loud, pay attention to the quality. Are you yelling? Screaming? Stop. Relax the throat. Are you focusing the power in your throat (bad) or in your gut (good)? Try aiming the sound as if it is bypassing your throat, going over the back of your head and coming out of your forehead….weird, but it works. Imitate opera and broadway singers’s sounds.

4 – Anunciate and articulate…the audience must hear you and the words clearly. Say your consonants at the end of your words!

Good luck!

Answer by Paul
The person above is right, belting comes from the diaphragm (pronounced Die-ah-fram) but does not necessaraly mean you do not use your head voice. The breath must be very well supported and controlled. The best thing to do is to speak with a voice coach. It is impossible to give instruction on voice coaching on paper. The only excersize I would reccomend would be (assuming you are breathing correctly by fully using your lung capacity by “inflating your belly and the bit in your back between the hips and lower ribcage like opera singers do <which is why they wear fake corsettes when the role calls for it like in Carmen) … anyway you can try to have a friend place their fist on your diaphragm and gently press as you sing normaly. Have them start lightly and gently increase the pressure, not hard just firm you should find that you will have to support your breath more and using this tecnique you will increase your projection. Another thing you might want to do is pick a specific focus point at the back of the room to sing at. Somehow this helps projection a lot when there are problems. I suppose I should have given the excersize for breath control first, but here it is. Lie on the floor and breathe normally. Let your chest and ribcage expand. Try to get it to expand and remain expanded. Your chest should not heave at all during this excersize. Fold your hands and lay them palms down centered with your pinky over your bellybutton. Start to drawn air in by pulling down your diaphragm in your mind and pushing your stomach and guts down because your lungs are filling. As you exhale try opening your vocal chords and let air by freely but control the flow with your diaphragm and not by closing your chords… let out a huuhhh noise as you do this. The breathiness of the "h" sound does not let your chords shut. These excersizes will help you learn to project better and support your breath. Just remember you are young yet and need to protect your voice. One of the best ways to do this is to say in your head voice. Your instrument has a lot of maturing yet and will only get better the more you practice and take care of yourself. Typically I think Altos (lower register singers, Contraltos being the lowest female singers) are more the belting type and not so much the Sopranos (higer register singers I think Coloratura Soprano is the highest but I am not certain). Whatever your range is now there is a very good chance it will change as your voice matures. As for main stage Broadway productions it is probably better you have a good voice as opposed to a loud one… you can “mike” a good voice (and in shows like “Wicked” they certainly do, lucky for us singers you can’t make any old loud voice sound beautiful. Singer/dancer/actress eh? Wow triple threat! Keep up the hard work =) Dreams give us something to reach for but like Thomas Edison said “…one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration.” Believe you can and you will, work hard at what you love and you will always love what you do.

Answer by carolinabelle1947
Take a deep breath from your diaphragm and lock it in, then sing loudly. You can also sustain longer notes by breath control. Open your throat as if you are yawning and don’t keep your teeth clenched, open your mouth and exaggerate the words. That way people can understand you. Get an old Ethel Merman movie and you’ll see what I mean.

Answer by wwbicyclist
They say when you sing – you need to sing from your belly. You push your stomach in when you sing and it automatically opens up your diaphragm and makes you singer louder. That’s what they mean when you “belt” out a song.

Answer by Viola C
Belting is bringing the chest voice into the head. It is very hard to explain but when you hear it or do it, you will immediatly recognize the belting technique.

I would not recommend trying to belt if you are not a natural belter without the supervision of an experienced vocal teacher. When done propery belting does not harm your voice, but it is very easy to slip into unhealthy habits while belting and screw up your voice.

You also have a few years before you really need to focus on belting, even if you want to go onto Broadway. I would suggest getting a firm base in legitimate/classical singing for a few years before focussing on belting. A good classical base goes a long way towards healty and strong vocalism. But classical training does not mean you have to only sing arias and art songs. Most of the older (pre 1960’s) musical theatre music is written for legitimate singers.