Week 10! Tongue Root and Belt pt. 1

 Summary

The tongue root can be acted upon to alter sound as it pushes against the epiglottis and creates a "throaty" quality. Its position can be partial or full back, and is most recognizable in pop singers Cher, Shakira, Christina Aguilera, and Kermit The Frog:) Belting is a high intensity technique combining thick fold and twang, most commonly associated with musical theatre and pop styles. 

Tongue Root-

This concept is still a little weird to me when it comes to hearing different positions of tongue root. In short, the resonating space is made very small when the epiglottis is forced way back by the root of the tongue and the result is a very throaty, covered sound. Partial back is not as dark as full back, and neither is a full-time position for singing. Even when we hear this sound in Shakira's "Hips Don't Lie," it is not her default position and she also has more "traditional" or "regular" sounding portions. 

*What is hard for me in this tongue root learning is to not attach judgement to sounds. Just because someone may use tongue root lowering to mimic Kermit the frog or make comical sounds does not make it a "funny" technique in all contexts. This has been true for all sounds that may be new to our ears throughout the semester!!*

Belting-

In this initial lecture, we defined what belt really is and how to teach it at its base level:

-classic "belt" is a chest-dominant mix in the low-middle range for most singers

-"mix belt" is a head-dominant mix above the classic belt range to around the second passaggio 

Some key tips:

-practice/teach belting in short spurts with breaks and cool downs (like any high-effort exercise)

-gently tip the head back to realign A-O slightly and free the muscles in the front of the neck

-engage anchoring muscles in the back, traps, pecks, and obliques to create a firm body base and avoid negative muscular vocal tract engagement 

-HIGH BREATH. SMALL BREATHS. TOO MUCH AIR= BIG BAD

------don't want unnecessary air to build up too much subglottic pressure and TRAUMA (re: Vocal Damage video, few blog posts back:)  ) 

-belt vowels are [e] and [æ] and the other ones need to be MODIFIED to lean towards these two sounds

***Belting is not scary if it is done with educated supervision and healthy practices. It is fun, empowering, versatile, and something that can only be improved with time, training, and TRYING.***