bad belting — Page 2

As a classicaly trained singer who sings along to Broadway recordings in the car and in the shower, I'd like to put my two cents in.

I tend to think of belting and using your chest voice as two different things...belting being more of a stylistical way of discering the use of the head voice (what you'd think of as legit singing) and your chest voice. Then there's the mix, which I think of (for my own use and technique) as your head voice with the placement you use for your chest voice. I use my chest voice all the time when I'm singing classical repertoire, but I wouldn't call it belting. Neither would I belt every song in Rent...depending on the range and the context, I would use every part of my voice. Now, every singer is different, and while technique may overlap, we all use different words to describe what's happening when we use different parts of our voice. That's my own take on the subject.

Knowing your own voice and its capabilities is the way that we can prevent bad belting from becoming a worldwide epidemic. As OddExoticCreature was saying, don't try to be someone else vocally...don't try to sing exactly like Idina Menzel, Sutton Foster, and every other star out there. Learn from them, appreciate them, but trying to sound exactly like them is a waste of time, and you're not being true to yourself and your capabilities as an artist. For example, I can't belt an F, so I learned how to use my mix to get the sound that I want when I sing "The Story Goes On" (again, in the privacy of my car and my shower...but it's still a good lesson in how to use the voice you have, not the voice that you want after listening to Liz Callaway sing it...and who knows, it may come in handy someday...).

That being said, as I step off my soapbox, I hope I don't come off as a snot, I just wanted to write my take on the subject, hoping it would make sense to someone out there.

Haha like someone posted earlier, when I saw this topic, I honestly thought it was about Idina too.

to answer wickedkiwi's question, maria callas is in fact revered in the opera world for singing, but personally i don't don't find her voice appealing in any way. I listened to many of her tracks and didn't understand why i couldn't appreciate her voice when everyone else could, so, I asked my teacher to explain why maria callas is such a big deal. He said that it's not just er voice but also the fact that she is a wonderful performer and has an extreme versatility that allows her to play every operetic role. I've actually never seen her perform, but what i've heard of her does not sound pretty. I've become known in my family to describe both maria callas and sarah brightman as having "yams in their throats."

Can someone explain headvoice and mix in a male. Does headvoice exist in a male, or is falsetto a completely different thing. Can a man mix? Do most men simply use chest voice most of the time, and then switch when its just high, or for stylistic reasons? Sorry to threadjack.

I don't know. I think sometimes emulating what someone else is doing can be quite helpful. It's how I learned to sing. From the time I was about 16 I tried to really listen to Audra's voice. I was too afraid to sing in front of anyone and thus, not brave enough for voice lessons.

I obviously don't sound like Audra but just deconstructing her technique I learned SO much.

I think as long as you pick someone who is known as having a healthy voice and that is similar in range and style to yours, you can learn a lot.

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ok, fair enough. It's your opinion.