Belting VS Mixing
Belting VS Mixing
Belting VS Mixing#1
Posted: 9/9/11 at 11:39pmI think I know the difference between belting and mixing but can someone really explain it for me. How can I tell the difference between belting and mixing when listening to people?
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/20/10
Belting VS Mixing #2
Posted: 9/9/11 at 11:53pm
Instead of giving you sleazy reply back I'll actually answer the question for you.
Mixing vs belting is pretty hard to distinguish if the singer does it right. Now..there's some parts/songs that its ONLY meant to be belted where you can't get away with a mix ("Defying Gravity" is one...I guess you could mix on the "meee down!" but the high F would sound odd and so would the last note) but basically mixing has a belt sound to it...maybe a bit "quieter" but it gives the same illusion.
Belting VS Mixing #3
Posted: 9/10/11 at 1:07am
But seriously, Marla Mindelle is a great example of a "power" mixer. A lot of crazy stuff that Kate Shindle does is in a mix. Krysta Rodriguez mixes a lot at the end of "Pulled" on the cast recording of The Addams Family. In that same vein Cortney Wolfson uses a mix well too. Those are some examples of mix-y singers. Mix sounds a lot maskier/brighter as it is placed in the mask. It is also healthier usually.
This should clear everything up for you!
Updated On: 9/10/11 at 01:07 AM
Belting VS Mixing #4
Posted: 9/10/11 at 6:05amThe fact that it's Sutton Foster asking this question has made my day.
Belting VS Mixing #5
Posted: 9/10/11 at 2:27pmcan you list songs that are only belted and songs that are only mixed....
Belting VS Mixing #6
Posted: 9/10/11 at 2:55pmSpeaking of Sutton Foster, is she mixing or belting? I can never tell if it's an extremely strong, open mix or a true belt.
Belting VS Mixing #7
Posted: 9/10/11 at 4:12pm
Sutton Foster does have a true belt.
If you want to get technical, Belting is a vocal deformity and not everyone can belt (most cant), yet everyone who projects or sings in chest voice thinks that they are belting. They aren't.
Belting VS Mixing #9
Posted: 9/10/11 at 8:24pmVery few singers nowadays utilize pure belting. Sutton Foster certainly mixes. Ethel Merman is the classic example of a pure belter.
Belting VS Mixing #10
Posted: 9/10/11 at 8:38pm
This may seem like a stupid question to those of you with years of vocal training. But to the rest of us, yes, we can hear the difference between Ethel Merman and Julie Andrews (in her heyday), but we don't really understand the mechanics.
So when it comes to "mixing," we don't understand what is being mixed, even if we recognize the resulting sound.
Belting VS Mixing #11
Posted: 9/10/11 at 11:20pmIt's mixing head voice and chest voice, basically. It allows you a greater flexibility of sound and the ability to extend the sound of a belt higher into your register than a straight belt would allow you to.
Broadway Star Joined: 11/24/04
Belting VS Mixing #13
Posted: 9/11/11 at 5:21am
From my experience, "belting" and "mixing" are more associated with women because women generally sing in head tones as opposed to men who generally sing in chest at the outset. It also has a lot to do with vocal placement or where the singer allows the voice to resonate in the spaces in their bodies and faces. It's easy to hear the difference between belting and "mixing" with women. Listen to Audra McDonald for example: she does a lot of mixing and belting sometimes in the same song as she goes through her passagios/breaks in her voice. Ditto on Marin Mazzie. Lea Salonga rarely uses a pure belt. When she began "Miss Saigon" you can hear a real belt to her voice and it's preserved on the Original London Cast Recording of "Miss Saigon," but it also landed her into vocal disarray and she needed to leave the show to get surgery and recover because her vocal technique at 17/18 was not good though her voice has a naturally beautiful sound to it. Thereafter, she went into formal vocal study and now she sings a lot of her songs with a mixed sound and rarely in pure belt unless they're short notes, e.g., the E in "I'd Give My Life For You."
Men can both belt and mix though the contrast in sounds is not as stark as it is with women IMHO. Some pop/musical theatre male singers belt high C's, e.g., Adam Pascal, but that sound is not quite the same as when an operatic tenor sings the same note, e.g. the late Luciano Pavarotti or Alfie Boe.
There's also a fine line between shrieking/shouting and singing in a healthy belt. Idina Menzel, for instance, exemplifies the former and was pretty much vocally damaged by the end of her Broadway run in "Wicked": there are a lot of youtube clips that evidence this. Even her performance at the Tonys in 2004 displayed that her voice was going into tatters.
Belting VS Mixing #14
Posted: 9/11/11 at 7:56am
A good example of the difference between belting and mixing can be heard at the end of The Music That Makes Me Dance on the Funny Girl OBCR.
Barbra mixes the final phrases except for the last note, which is richly belted.
Belting VS Mixing #15
Posted: 9/11/11 at 2:37pm
jsg03jd says, "There's also a fine line between shrieking/shouting and singing in a healthy belt."
Is this to say that shrieking is a legitimate part of general singing? At the conclusion of "Everything's Coming Up Roses", Patti LuPone shrieked the last note and I thought it spoiled the otherwise well sung song, in the performance I attended. In addition, the sound men boosted her final note. It was all too much for me.
What is your response, jsg03jd?
Broadway Star Joined: 11/24/04
Belting VS Mixing #16
Posted: 9/11/11 at 4:00pm
That's subjective. There's a lot of unhealthy, in my view at least, shrieking in rock singing and many people find that legitimate and even pleasant. Ditto in pop singing. For Patti LuPone perhaps her doing what she did at the performance of "Gypsy" you saw was a character moment or she got carried away or both. I saw her Mama Rose at both the City Center and the St. James productions and she didn't do that when I watched the show.
Personally, I don't like shrieking/caterwauling because I don't get pleasure from hearing performers sound like they're dying, wailing cats. It's just not my thing. I'm not a "hit the note at all costs" type of listener.
Belting VS Mixing #17
Posted: 9/11/11 at 4:29pmI agree with your last paragraph completely. Thanks for your explanation.
Belting VS Mixing #18
Posted: 9/11/11 at 4:51pm
Thanks so much guys. I've been around singers all my life, so I ought to understand this better, but not being a singer myself I can only imagine the mechanics.
But I've certainly known enough women who talked about having to learn how to sing "differently" to avoid ruining their voices. From what you say, it sounds like they were learning to mix rather than just belt.
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