hey chris liepe here with former dance gavin dance slaves and amarosa singer johnny craig
and in this video we're talking about belting according to you the king of belt
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deeper than you've ever been so when we talk about belting what we're really talking about
is two things placement and dynamics we're talking about where that sound feels like it's resonating
but we're also referring to the type of power that comes out and typically with belting we
associate that with loud stuff right you know how do we belt we get really loud and aggressive but
what you just demonstrated if you if you dissect what you're doing in the line we just listened to
there's belting that's happening that's using a slight range of dynamics you're taking that
that high note that that we we grounded on right and sometimes there's a little bit more in there
sometimes there's a little bit less so we're going to unpack that a little bit because it's
tempting to think about belting as well this is my belt voice it's always one volume but you do
a really good job of exercising dynamics within your belt range yep so the two notes that you
opened up each phrase with each breath each breath each breath the weed sick yeah yeah and you were
doing that obviously an octave higher yeah the different textures i want you to walk me through
the different ways that you approached that note in your belt range yeah it's about
visualizing being on top of that note so you gotta you gotta sit there and you you think okay
each breath wheat's sake okay that's one two three four so each but the wheat sink and you're gonna
just picture yourself on top of that each time because sometimes it was clean sometimes it was it
was a bit more uh raspy yeah um but they were all belts yeah it's about picturing yourself on top
of the notes and then also using it kind of think of it like a gas pedal you're pushing on it to go
real hard you're letting go a little bit to soften it so when you're doing it's bad though it tank
you got to let off a little bit to give it that smoothness but to belt you know you got to give it
rev it you gotta give it that that gas so you're you're not thinking about one level of support
one level of volume to get that it's it's it's an arc right it's this it's this idea that if i were
to exaggerate what you just did is each breath we take and you've got that one note that you're
really honing in on and focusing on that allows you to create the almost the illusion that you've
got this energy the whole time but it's in the dynamics it's in that arc that creates they're
all melting together that gas pedal analogy is really good because if i were to take one level
and trying to do that each breath we take that kind of just sounds like i'm shouting yeah but if
if we do it the way you were doing it it's breath the wind sank i especially notice it when you're
on the back end of that you you push into it and i don't mean push like you can see that you're
thinking down on the note yeah but you're letting it trail off so the key to belting
is to have a consciousness of the range of dynamics within the phrase that's what i'm hearing
you say middle and end always have a good picture in your mind of what it's going to be where you're
going to hit and where it's going to come down so the rest of that phrase no matter the distance
yeah you're still pretty up in terms of energy wise yeah it's not where you were up there at
the breath it's not that yeah where are you on the gas pedal with that part i'd say that's about the
middle and what it is for me what i like to call it is a connector okay it's it's an especially and
that comes in with like melodies and stuff like that it's what i like to call a connector piece it
helps you get from that high top you know you want to give someone an energy in the in the beginning
and then it helps you to connect into the next part you want to be nice and level at the gas
pedal with that because you want it to you want to be able to show the range like rev you know
let all the way up where it's like soft you know you want to get that nice and your foot stare it's
ready to hit you know but you're also conscious so we talked about the energy using the analogy
of the gas pedal and in the dynamic portion of this let's talk about placement go ahead
and sing that each breath we take a few times and sometimes place it a bit raspier sometimes
place it a bit more forward and sometimes back it off that that high belt note okay do that a couple
times and then i'm gonna do that with my own voice and we'll kind of go back and forth and make some
observations about it okay all right so it's red the insane let me keep doing that one yeah
breath through insane
a few more times okay it's breathtaking
it's breath through insane so those other notes down there that take
i hear a very forward um almost like it's vibrating in the very front of your mouth
it's kind of like you can mute yourself a little bit without hitting that
crazy topness or whatever so even on some of those lower notes take there's this
aspect of you bringing it backward and forward and when you sense the brightness
when you sense that forward presence that's the belt and we can workshop this a little bit
just on that one note and this is talking about placement versus forward and back
the more a natural filter right almost if you think about it so if you want to dial in your
belt in terms of placement think about let's let's take that one note take i'm open take
but it's not resonating as forward as it could be now what i'm going to do is i'm going to go take
take yeah i'm visualizing
yeah you hear it there too it's kind of losing the filter a little bit to just let it up i'm focusing
on my teeth the front of my teeth it's really what you do with your mind your muscles will
follow your mind and what he demonstrates when he's doing these uh these passages is
that dynamic movement even if he doesn't realize he's doing it sometimes it's breath
and sometimes it's breath breath breath back focus on your soft palate breath
versus focused on the front of your face focusing on your teeth getting your face out of the way
how you choose to place that note determines the quality of the belt so we're going to go
back and we're going to listen again to what you did okay with that in context and in your own mind
try to place what he's doing as he's doing it does it feel further back breath does it feel
forward breath breath breath breath breath which is it not just on that note but all
over there yeah another uh big thing about it too is um enunciation especially when you're
talking about you know the front your teeth and stuff the air that comes in and out of your mouth
that's a big part of it so it's it's it has to do with words words are huge picking the right
word to make sure that that is the belt word because you want to be able to have that you
know openness the right vowel yeah you exactly you want to have that enunciation to where it can just
boom power through right so you have to make sure you pick that properly right and that's strategic
in that phrase breath is a nice oak a nice and take breath take breath they're all very open
yeah so yeah yeah it's yeah very good all right so listening to this
isolated listening for those dynamic placement changes is it further back towards the soft palate
is it forward and then using your own mouth using your own sensory perception of your face
to create a similar feel you don't have to sing to do this all you have to do is sort of mouth and
experience along with what johnny's singing then try it for yourself but what we're doing is we're
focusing on the placement of it and i'll stop it and start it and talk and you're gonna the the
belted notes are really gonna come out but keep that arc in mind because like we said at the
beginning it's not all belted if there's there's an arc around each belt it's mad that we'd sing
even right there the breath i mean that was forward and supported and then take
supportive note yeah yeah yeah so you got the belt and you have the support note it's red blue tang
each breath we take that's what brings the belted quality out this is not each breath we take yeah
it's not what it is that's not interesting together no matter okay not there together
no matter and the er was the really forward one right nice pronunciation together no matter
it's breath do we sing no matter this you really on that vowel
say hi that was really fun really far back right no matter the distance
it's worth it now there you kept that higher and you kept the whole thing belted in other words
forward face out of the way focusing on that vowel like you were talking about right
no matter the distance now distance that was not a belted placement right no matter the distance
that was further back right you could tota if you would have done the distance that's not
what you did right you bring it down a little bit yeah yep it's bad do it sing together no matter
now this note was beautiful because we had matter no matter i mean really brought that forward and
then in the same over the same vowel you modified it to be unbelty so if i were to exaggerate it
right you leaned on it a little bit yeah you leaned back out of it yeah you no matter
like that yeah you're moving that placement around in a way that i mean it's neat that we
have you on such a you know nice mic so you can hear that different together no matter
so focus on this dynamic placement within the context of your belting forward more energy
moderate with the gas pedal bringing it back towards your soft palate bringing that placement
back towards your soft palate and creating arcs with your phrases inspired by johnny craig
again if you like the vibe of these videos and you want to go deeper with johnny
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