Week 11! Belt p.2

Summary

This week we continued our discussion on belt and moved into registers, formants, and fachs. I would like to save the latter three concepts for my next blog and instead share some experiences with belt.

~story time~

    When I was discovering musical theatre as a genre, I was instantly obsessed. I was also at an impressionable vocal age as I was transitioning through middle school and on to high school. It was a time where I generally felt pretty proud of my voice: I won a 13-19 year-old singing competition at age 13, I was cast as the musical lead in eighth grade, and freshman year I was even given a significant role in the musical over some seniors. However, I never really liked to broadcast that I liked my voice, because I thought that made me conceited. I know listing all of those accolades here sounds the opposite of humble, but as a twenty-year-old college music student now, I feel pretty removed from those years and achievements. Nevertheless, there was a pressure created around me. People began to have very high expectations of me, and I believed I was never to be seen as less than a great singer--I wasn't allowed to show that I have to learn, too! I was also one of few "token belters" in the program. Having a big voice that was slightly more mature than those around me was a gift and a burden, and it proved detrimental to my vocal and mental health. The more pressure I put on myself (grades, extra curriculars, music, social life) the more difficult it became to stay healthy. "Belting" transitioned to pushing which translated to over-singing in choir to "help" "lead" my section. Starting voice lessons definitely helped, but it also made me realize how weak my head voice register was in comparison to my CCM sound. I, at 14, was ASHAMED to have breathiness in my tone! Cue more pushing.

    Go down the road a few years later after squawking at band camp, yelling and laughing at girl scout camp, or singing in those ever-exhausting Honors Choirs, my little folds were beyond wrecked. But my chest voice still sounded great-what's that about? How could I still speak and function and perform all the way into college? Of course it went on that long because I was afraid to get scoped. A close friend of mine got nodules our junior year of high school and it terrified me. I'm glad that I got diagnosed as late as I did, honestly, because now I have such a clearer anatomical understanding of why it all happened. First, I always associated "chest voice" with "thick fold." I likely had way too much subglottic pressure almost every time I made sound because my default became that coordination. My "head voice" was then breathy because I couldn't get full closure in a thin production. My folds also were so bowed from the lesion that they couldn't gently adduct. This took lots of voice therapy and vocal training to undo, but thankfully I corrected the body without surgery. 

    Belting is not just slamming the folds together. Belting is also not the same as twang. It is not sustainable over an entire song, but is saved for only a few pitches in a number. That even surprised me now and I'm still wrapping my head around it! The more we educate young singers not only about the physical coordination of belting but the perception and reception of our own voices, the better off they will be. We are shaping not only musicians, but young people, and there is more than achievement at stake.