Broadway performer Emily Kristen Morris dispels some common misconceptions about belting.

She’s played Elsa in Frozen and possibly the biggest and beltiest role of them all, Elphaba in Wicked.

So who better to explain what belt is and isn’t than Broadway performer Emily Kristen Morris?

In an interview on the Singing Teachers Talk podcast, Emily, who is also a vocal coach, shared her top belting myths.

But before we look at those, it’s useful to define a few important singing terms first.

Here are Emily’s definitions of mix, belting and mix belting.

Mix voice

Chest voice and head voice are registers of the voice. Some people categorise mix as a register, too. But I think it’s more helpful to think of mix as a coordination.

Ultimately, mix is getting the muscles responsible for our voice, the TA (thyroarytenoid) and the CT (cricothyroid), to work together.

TA is what we think of as a chest-dominant sound, and CT is more of a head-dominant sound.

Getting these two muscles to work together means that you are probably mixing. Mixing enables you to sing from low to high with no gaps, flips or breaks.

Belting

Belting is a powerful chest dominant style of singing in non-classical music.

Mix belt

Mix belt is a belting style, but on a mixed coordination. It’s not just chest; it’s singing within your mix but putting a belt styling onto that. It’s powerful and chest-dominant but not a chest-exclusive mix.

Now, over the years, you’ve probably heard or read many things about belt, but not all of them may be true. Here are five belt myths, as explained by Emily.

1 Belt is a register

I believe belting is a style, not a register.

When we start thinking of belting as a register – you know, I’ve got my chest voice, my head voice and my belt – that is when we get problems.

2 Belting is synonymous with chest voice

In musical theatre, up until the 1990s and 2000s, we talked about belting as if it were chest voice. We were thinking about Ethel Merman and these women who belted up to a C, and that was it – they didn’t go above their first passage.

For a long time, musical theatre writers were writing that way as well and wouldn’t ask any female-identifying voice to belt above a C because that’s the first passage. But then you start getting shows like Rent and Wicked, and suddenly, we’re telling women and men to belt above their first passage.

Therefore, we can’t call belting chest voice anymore. Belting is not synonymous with chest voice; it’s chest dominant, but it is not chest exclusive, and that’s where mix belting comes in.

3 If you are in chest voice, you are belting

You can be in chest voice and not be belting. Belting is a powerful style that I’m putting on to my chest voice. Yes, belting requires a strong foundation of the chest, but just because you’re in your chest voice doesn’t mean it’s a belt.

4 The higher the note, the more dangerous

That was a misconception for a long time, and maybe it still is. But the truth is the higher the belted note, the more mix needs to be incorporated. That doesn’t make it more dangerous, of course. It would if our definition was pulling chest voice, but that’s not our definition.

5 Belting causes vocal damage

When I was growing up, I was told by some musical directors that belting causes vocal damage. Of course, the truth of the matter is healthy belting is possible. People do it eight shows a week, people do it on stages across the world. It just can’t be true that belting in itself will injure you.

Learn more

Are you keen to hear more? Tune into the Singing Teachers Talk podcast, where Emily also discusses:

• What it’s really like to play Elphaba.
• The best exercises to help people develop their mix voice.
  
  

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Want to learn more about how the voice works and how to safely teach vocal techniques such as belt? Why not study with BAST Training? Get in touch today.