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So David, tell us about belting.
Your thoughts?
So, I didn't learn to belt in school.
When I went through my program,
I learned bel canto singing.
So, the soft palate was up and you know,
all those typical techniques.
And I’m so grateful for that.
That I have that to go back to
as a starting point.
But after I graduated, I didn’t really
like the way that I sounded.
It just wasn’t what I wanted.
And so I did, they didn’t call it “Speech Level Singing” back then,
as far as I’ve heard Speech Level Singing now.
But I wanted my voice to sound more conversational.
And so I would go and record myself every day
and go, okay what about this, how am I going
to figure out this.
And so I just had to figure out how to do that on my own.
And I really was a student of my voice.
So I knew of the mechanisms I was using
and what might lead to some trouble and what might not.
And I would try some things and do it for a little while
and then go okay that’s not going to work out.
That’s when I basically learned how to lower my soft palate,
and create space and the pressure that it takes.
Under pressures and vocal cord pressure
and then the space that it takes for the acoustics
to take over on that.
And I think what young singers don’t realize
is that acoustics is such a huge part of singing.
Such a huge part of singing.
And, for me, going through school,
it was four years of learning one quarter tone
at a time of where to place my voice.
And it is very intense that way.
And so for me, belting was something
I had to figure out.
And to be able to do that where it
was not going to kill me.
That was kind of my journey into that.
I had a teacher here in Nasheville
who’s retired now.
He just saved my life.
He saved my career.
I had been doing some things for a while as a part
of my belting.
I was working too hard.
Just powering through.
And everybody loved it, and they would applaud for me.
And the next morning I was talking like this.
And I ended up in some vocal trouble.
And I went to him and he said,
I can give you five more years in your career
and that’s it.
Or you can change and I will keep you singing
as long as I can.
And I was like I just want to change!
I want to change!
And so, I did.
And I went into speech therapy.
And I learned that from him.
And I know that this might seem like a tangent
but it’s not.
Because belting can be very taxing.
It can be the thing for pop singers,
it’s one of the few things,
that can just tear you up.
You feel like you can do it for a while
and then down the road you’re like, oh this it hurting.
So he described my voice as a bank account.
He said there isn’t anything you can’t do, there isn’t.
Which is not what I was told in school.
There were things you just should not do.
And they said “can’t”.
He said there isn’t anything, but realize that everything
costs something different.
And at the end of the night you can’t be bankrupt.
And so that really freed me up to make sure
that I was spending that money, that vocal cash,
where I really needed to.
So that was kind of my journey there.
And you felt that acoustics was something
that was a game changer,
learning to not push maximum volume
but use your resonance in a different way to
save vocal cash?
Absolutely.
So, I can speak from my experience.
Acoustics is one of the very important bones
of the skeleton of singing.
You can’t ignore that.
And everybody whether they know it or not
is playing on acoustics.
In order for classical tenors to do what they do,
they are playing with acoustics.
They are manipulating acoustics.
And you know so much more about this,
but I’ll tell you what I know and how it’s led me
to where I am.
Good or bad!
If you were to put a microphone over your
vocal cords it would sound like a lawn mower.
It’s not pretty at all.
Everything above is what you’re playing with.
Acoustics.
You know when you’re in the shower and you’re singing
and you find that one note that’s like,
ah, that’s so great.
It’s compressed perfectly, it’s ringing and all that kind of stuff.
That’s the job of a vocal student for each note,
how do I modify the acoustics from here to here
so that it reinforces those tones,
so that I can work less and let the acoustics
do all of the other stuff.
So that’s what I had to figure out for belting,
how to do that.
I have not done everything right.
There have been times when I’m just like,
man that killed me.
Hopefully no one puts that on YouTube
or whatever it is.
But you know it’s a journey.
Well I think you’re doing a lot of right.
So you want to show us a little belting?
Sure!
Belting, what time is it?
It’s in the noon hour alright.
So we’re in the key of…
♪ See over there there’s a mansion ♪
♪ Oh that’s prepared just for me ♪
♪ Where I will live with my Savior eternally ♪
♪ And there will be no more night ♪
I did it!
Early in the day.
So when you start to find the pathway through to that
you can feel the doors kind of swing open
and you go okay that’s the one.
And if you don’t do it right, you can feel it.
That’s the one, that’s the one.
My goodness, wow.
And you can see what’s going on there.
I am just an anaconda at that point.
I am just opened wide up and trying to
create all this space.
I hear the whole universe there.
You know, the pharynx, the nasal resonance,
the mouth space, it’s all perfectly tuned.
It’s incredible.
Well, thank you.
That’s how to belt.
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