How To Improve Belting
- Vocal Registers
- Muscles
- Belting Practice
Many singers like Adele, Whitney Houston, Bruno Mars, John Legend all have very strong vocals that they bring to the table.
Every singer has the potential to belt. The important thing is that you know where in your voice it is comfortable to belt.
We have different registers that can influence how we belt notes. Developing your personal understanding with these registers will help you belt without confusion.
Your cheek, nose, jaw, and tongue help you with providing more space to sing the notes.
The more volume you want to have on your higher notes, the more space you want to create with your muscles.
Finally, practice is what strengthens your muscles to belt higher notes, and fine tuning your ability to sing will be much easier.
Vocal Registers
Belting is when you push air from your lungs and you obtain and can keep the volume and the pitch balanced.
This balance is created by mixing your vocal registers. Your chest voice is around your speaking voice. You can feel the vibrations in your chest.
Your mixed voice is around the midsection of your range and often sounds a lot more softer/ breathier.
Your head voice is soft and smooth, but may also have much more volume. Place your hand on your chest and sing from your lowest note to your highest.
When you feel the vibrations leaving your chest, you are switching to your mixed voice, and then your head voice.
This is important to note as some parts of your voice, you may find it hard to get volume.
When you know which register to use, your approach to belting becomes a lot more calculated than unexpected.
Muscles
Different muscles alter your sound depending on how you use them. Using more of your cheeks gives you a brighter tone and opens up your belt.
The higher you move in your range the more air and push you have to use. This requires more space in your mouth to sound full.
Practice singing with a smile and pay close attention to how your tonality changes.
Your jaw muscles make you sound more full. The tongue is connected to the jaw, so using both of these muscles together gives you a whole sound.
When you don’t use your jaw or tongue when belting, your sound can be very tight. This tightness overtime makes your voice tired and fatigued.
When you use a muscle correctly it should change the way your air leaves, your goal is to keep the balance of the volume and breath as you’re shifting to different notes.
Belting Practice
Belting is a skill. It takes time to develop, so the first tip is to be patient with your voice.
Think about any of the big singers you know. They’ve likely been singing/ rehearsing for a while.
To gain more notes in your belting range, you need to practice singing those notes that you normally have trouble with. Over time you will find it much easier to fully commit to belting.
Try doing soft palate exercises. Within the voicercise kit you can do the Yawn exercise, and the How Are You Exercise.
Try to increase your volume as this will help you to belt easier. The goal is to move across your range and maintain your volume.
Practice is important, the time it takes you to master this skill is dependent on how much time you spend practicing.
