As someone who has sung Violetta, Susannah (the Floyd) to great acclaim,
covered Audra McDonald in Master Class, and sung Carlotta in Phantom AND sung
in the chorus of Les Miserables on Broadway and as Grizabella in Cats - I would
like to congratulate Barry on his succinct definition of healthy belting. As a
matter of fact - the only time I ran into vocal trouble in my 19 years as a
professional singer was when I had been singing opera for 2 years, and several
people whom I trusted tried to get me to sing "darker and heavier". I have
since "relearned" my technique and am singing better than ever - and teaching
voice at NYU. I find the biggest problem among young students is the
misconception that "belt" means bringing the chest voice up. When this happens,
they have to force to get any sound at all above, say, an A above middle C, and
then a big whole develops between that A and their "head voice". I teach
bringing the head voice down into the chest range. With microphones, belters do
not need to "make the low notes heard". So - use the mike wisely, sing in your
head voice and save the "belt" for the climax. Singers like Liz Calloway, Lea
Salonga, Betty Buckley, Elaine Paige - even Ethel Merman - they all have good
mixes along their entire ranges.
As for the larynx, I agree that it sits higher with belting than with classical
singing - but I still feel that it needs to be "flexible". A tight larynx will
cause problems, no matter what you are singing - and no matter where it (the
larynx) is - high or low.
As for the negative comments about teaching belting - come on! Belting is here
to stay - and we have to learn to live with it. I personally made a nice piece
of change belting (I gave it up because I was sick of the lack of interesting
music to sing in that genre) SO let's teach kids the RIGHT way to do it that
will lead to a long healthy career.
Lorraine
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$35 a year!
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