♪ And I can feel it. ♪
♪ And I can fly ♪
- You want to sing high.
You want to sing loud.
And you want to do both at the same time.
And you want to belt out your high notes
with as little strain as possible.
Well, my friend, good news.
You can learn to belt high notes easily and safely.
And in this video, I'm going to show you how.
- [Announcer] Essential (audience cheering)
(drum roll plays)
- Good day, and welcome back to voice essentials,
where everybody sings.
The term "belt" is a word that can mean different things
to different singers and singing teachers,
without seeking to throw the dictionary definition at you,
I classifY belt as a healthy, sustainable volume,
typically performed in the upper register.
Now, if you're not familiar with voice registers,
I'll leave a link in the description section below
for you to check out later, and up-skill your knowledge.
When I'm talking about belt,
I'm thinking about notes like this.
♪ I will drink your cup of poison ♪
♪ Nail me to your cross and break me ♪
Belt notes run the terrible risk of causing strain
because not only are they performed
at the top of the singers range,
they are generally performed in full voice,
what some singers refer to as "chest voice sound".
And, so, ultimately, the key to building high notes easily
is all about balance.
The great temptation when working on belt
is to target the volume, first,
and, then, find the balance, later.
But that's the cart before the horse.
Learning to belt is ultimately a lesson
in vocal balance, first.
Establish better coordination
that balances your breath pressure
alongside well-managed musculature,
and you'll go a long way towards being able
to belt high notes easily with less strain.
Let's do an exercise together, now,
that helps establish better balance
and positions your voice to belt.
So, the activity we're going to do is exercise six,
taken from Voice Essentials One.
It's a belt activity, but we're going to do
a preparatory exercise, or activity, also,
that's not included in the exercise collection,
but it will help you to position and balance the voice.
Exercise six ultimately sounds like this.
(piano keys ring)
♪ Never, never, never, never, no. ♪
Now, we'll come back to in a second.
To help us establish the balance
is we're just going to say the word, "never."
Now, as I say the word, "never."
Notice, it's not "never." It's not spread.
It's got good tonal focus to it.
Here's a key point.
The key ingredient of good belt is twang.
And so you'll hear the twang,
the clear focused resonance of twang in the word "never."
Never. Can you hear that?
Never.
Now, I'm going to say "never" twice.
Never, never.
And what I'm doing, there, is establishing that position
and continuing the phrase, let's say three times.
Never, never, never.
And you can hear that, never, never, never,
that clear focused resonance of the twang
positioning that word "never".
Now, as I do that, I feel absolute balance,
in not only my musculature, but, also, in the airflow.
I don't have any sense of, "nev- never, never,"
or, it's not, "never, never, never."
Never, never, never.
Let's do the four nevers, followed by no.
Never, never, never, never, no.
Now, I dare say that's coming across
with good sense of volume, but it's not cost me anything.
And this is one of the key attributes of belt.
The aim is to deliver belt with a great sense of balance,
and ease, and effortlessness,
ness, with, (Dr, Dan laughs)
but without having a sense of a lack of energy,
there's definite energy because belt is an intense sound.
So, now, we would take that position.
Never, never,
because when I'm sitting there,
I'm really feeling that very forward in the mask.
And I'm sitting it right into,
where I sort of feel it is about there.
You may experience it slightly different,
but notice that I'm not forcing it into that position.
I'm just placing it in there.
Never, never, never, never, no.
I'm going to take that positioning,
and I'm going to put it into a five note scale.
Again, this is exercise six within Voice Essentials One.
I'll start it up on E3
(piano keys ring)
Which means the top note will be B3.
♪ Never, never, never, never, no ♪
(piano keys ring)
♪ Never, never, never, never no ♪
(piano keys ring)
♪ Never, never, never, never, no ♪
♪ I'm maintaining that positioning ♪
(piano keys ring)
♪ Never, never, never, never, no ♪
(piano keys ring)
♪ Never, never, never, never, no ♪
(piano keys ring)
♪ Never, never, never, never, no ♪
(piano keys ring)
♪ Never, never ♪
Now, notice, I'm maintaining a short, and a dominant,
what some of you would refer to as, chest voice.
♪ Ne- ♪
That's an F4 that we're, now, on.
♪ Never, never, never, never, no ♪
(piano keys ring)
♪ Never, never, never, never, no ♪
(piano keys ring)
♪ Never, never, never, never, no ♪
(piano keys ring)
♪ Never, never, never, never, no ♪
(piano keys ring)
♪ Never, never, never, never, no ♪
(piano keys ring)
♪ Never, never, never, never, no ♪
(piano keys ring)
♪ Never, never, never, never, no ♪
(piano key rings)
That's a B4. Let's see if we can do the C5.
(piano keys ring)
♪ Never, never, never, never, no ♪
Notice the key to that
is the way I'm turning the acoustic, using twang.
I'm not pushing.
Your body is going to feel a tremendous temptation
to want to force this.
You've got to really manage that tension,
and not allow your body to overdrive the sound.
Have a listen to it, again.
(piano keys ring)
♪ Never, never, never, never, no ♪
(piano keys ring)
♪ Never, never, never, never, no ♪
(piano keys ring)
♪ Never, never, never, never, no ♪
(piano key rings)
So, that's up to a D5.
Now, I'm going to stop there.
It's important to always remember:
balance, first, volume, second.
I also want to highlight that,
in the examples I just gave you,
I was workshopping the exercises for my voice,
so, the notes I was singing,
and the range to which I was singing them,
were specific to me.
If you'd like a helpful guide track to work with,
you might want to grab
my Voice Essentials Exercise Collection One, Two and Three,
in which you'll find this activity,
as well as other exercises
designed to help you workshop belt.
When using my exercise tracks,
I always encourage you to workshop your range safely.
This is especially true when developing belt.
Always workshop your range by singing
to where it feels comfortable plus one or two.
And by one or two, I mean
the exercises, generally, move up incrementally,
in semitone steps. (upbeat music)
So, always try to go beyond your comfort zone
by one or two semitones.
This will encourage your voice to grow
without placing your vocal health in any danger
of severe wear and tear.
I'll leave you to start working on your belt notes.
I'll see you again soon. Hopefully very soon.
I'm Dr. Dan. Sing Well.