Can a man singer be a belter?- Page 4

[jaso_n]

Posted: 7/27/05 at 2:43pm

I seriously think most people acknowledge that men can belt. I mean, what do male Rock and Opera singers do? I think it's an ongoing debate because, unfortunately, there hasn't been a mainstream pop star to popularized that way of singing. Female singers can run the gamut as far as vocalizing is concerned.

Also, everybody needs to chill on the voice pedagogy talk. It's hurting my brain. Belting is a "way" to sing like yodeling, scatting, crooning, etc. It's a style; not a vocal construct Being able to hit a certain note and sustain it and all that doesn't amount to a hill of beans. I'm a tenor, so chances are I won't be belting in the same key that a soprano would.

[Thenardier]

Posted: 7/27/05 at 2:44pm

Hunter Foster.

[Broadwaygirl22]

Posted: 7/27/05 at 2:53pm

A few of my guy friends who are tenors can belt. I don't know if this song is a good example of belting but try listening to "The Girl Gets Around" from Footloose. On the Footloose soundtrack Jeremy Kushnier, who plays Ren belts a lot. I also think Adam Pascal belts.

Updated On: 7/27/05 at 02:53 PM

[SamIAm]

Posted: 7/27/05 at 3:02pm

Umm...yes...belting is a technique...and can be used by men and women though it's used slightly differently in the male range than in the female range

[Peter]

Posted: 7/27/05 at 3:35pm

In the age of American Idol, belters have suddenly become shunned, but I think theres a big difference among belters that goes virtually unnoticed.

So many belters today are SCREAMERS. Belting to me is using your chest to sustain a long and powerful loudness. It's more of a guttural sound, but it should be loud and threaten to blow the roof off the theatre when done really well. Great belters to me are Ethel Merman, Patti Lupone, Jennifer Holiday and Linda Eder. Anyone can scream loudly, but theres a finesse to good belting..it comes from the chest rather than the head and the belter always has control over it.

[jaso_n]

Posted: 7/27/05 at 3:45pm

I still think you're pigeonholing belting as a way something should sound. It's not. About. That. It's a way to sing. There are some singers that have technical technique that affects their tone, breath control, and pitch, but it's still just technical stuff. Belting is just a way to sing.

BTW, I don't think Ethel Merman was a belter, even though she has always been characterized as such. I think she just had a lot of resonance and a loud, braying tone to her voice. I don't think any of her songs really classify as "belting" though.

[WickedGeek28]

Posted: 7/27/05 at 4:17pm

Men can belt. Matt Morrison can belt quite well, I love in Passagiata his "know."

[TNick926]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 3:38pm

Sure men can belt!

 

[Loopin’theloop]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 4:05pm

Great thread and some really intelligent and interesting replies.

As someone said earlier, belting is always a difficult subjection because the definitions vary. As several people posted already, belt is often attributed to being the sound that women make when singing in their chest voice loudly. Often the word belt gets attributed to a sound type as apposed to an actual technique and therefore there isn’t one technique across the board.

For example, in the UK most singing teachers in musical theatre colleges teach the Estil method. Within this, belting is described as yelling in pitch. You breathe high or not at all. There is no vibrato at all because you have a straight tone if you yell/shout (anything that had a ‘belly sound’ but with vibrato is classed as mix) The idea is to remove all tension from the body, so that like a baby you are able to yell without any damage. Within this method you would never really belt an entire song, you would generally use it for a phase or sometime even a few money notes, whilst using a mixed voice for the rest as the straight tone yell sound becomes hard to listen to. But even though this technique is the one taught in nearly all major drama colleges in the UK, within the industry the term belt is again, mainly attributed to a style/sound - chesty and loud,

But this technique is not widely taught in the States, over here there are various technical training methods. The no vibrato/yelling on pitch is belting idea is not widely accepted or used and belting over here is what they would call mixing in the UK.

It’s very much dependent on where and under who you train. But bad technique will destroy the voice whatever the approach.

[MichelleCraig]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 5:05pm

Sort of sad that almost everyone who posted to this thread is no longer on this board...