International Masterteachers and vocal consultants Gillyanne Kayes and Jeremy Fisher have been teaching singers and actors in London's West End for more than 50 years between them, and have been running Belting Explained! courses every year since 1998.
Now for the first time EVER on DVD you can learn the step-by-step techniques to safe and happy belting from Gillyanne and Jeremy's sellout Belting Explained! courses, whenever and wherever you choose. Scroll down for the full contents on both DVDs
You'll discover How we belt, Why we belt and When we belt There's a superb 13 minute guided vocal warmup from Gillyanne, aimed specifically at preparing your voice for belting Built into the warmup are the techniques for getting you to belt. Then each technique is broken down for you to experience.
You'll be working with
Your vocal folds
Your breath
Your voicebox (larynx)
Your voice-body connection
Then you'll discover the musical shape of belting
How to deal with particular vowels (and why some are more difficult than others)
Working the consonants - where they happen, how they happen, and how you can practise the consonants in each belt note
And why you need commitment to make your belting work better
There are video moments showing Gillyanne and Jeremy working live with a group of singers, actors, teachers and speech therapists
There are specific exercises taking you step by step through the sequences you'll need to work
We learn in different ways, so there are ideas, facts, shapes, sounds and concepts throughout the two DVDs to help you discover happy, safe belting using your favourite learning mode.
The belting warmup - We start with live footage of Gillyanne's targeted belting warmup, taken from the sellout Belting Explained! course. First, Gillyanne works with an individual singer - this is their first meeting so you can see how Gillyanne analyses and works with an unknown voice. Then she takes the entire group of singers and teachers through the process of warming up for belting. The group teaching sequence is 13 minutes, so once you've learned it, the warmup itself is a lot faster. No more endless scales and vocalises or 30-minute vocal warmups to struggle through before singing.
Then on DVD 1 we break down the warmup into the Individual techniques:
Individual technique 1: your vocal folds - how they work, what they need, and how to feel the strong vibrations you need for belting
And you'll discover how the breath and vocal folds work together. By monitoring your exercises in Individual technique 1, you'll discover how much breath you need for belting (and it might not be what you think)
Individual technique 2: height and space - find how to take a thicker, stronger sound higher in your vocal range. You need a particular type of height and space inside your throat, and the exercises in this section show you exactly how to find it.
Individual technique 3: Head posture - This head posture is specific to belting, and gives your voice the room it needs to carry the strong vocal fold vibration higher in your range. This is one of the biggest errors that beginner belters make, and it can be the difference between finding belting difficult or (surprisingly) easy
Individual technique 4: Twanging - make your sound brighter, louder and easier without strain - live video of the group with Gillyanne teaching the easiest ways to find your twang
And that's just DVD 1!
Individual technique 5: the voice-body connection - putting your back into it helps you connect your body with your voice to support the strong vibrations your vocal folds are creating. This exercise shows you exactly how to find the largest muscles in your back, and how to switch them on and off at will. And you don't need to be shaking with effort!
Individual technique 6: Your jaw - the jaw is a willing slave, it will get involved at any point whether it's needed or not. Discover in this technique how to monitor your jaw and how wide your jaw actually needs to be to belt efficiently (you might be surprised at this one).
Individual technique 7: A mouthful of tongue - everyone has a mouthful of tongue - it's a large, flexible bundle of muscle fibres that enable us to communicate - or not! You can position your tongue to help those power notes at the top feel easier and freer. This technique, featured in Gillyanne's bestselling book "Singing and the Actor", shows you how to discover where your tongue is sitting and how to monitor where you would like it to be. Remember that each person's tongue is unique, so this technique gives you enough leeway to find your own comfortable position
Making belting noises is great, but to belt effectively in a song, you have to use words. And they carry their own problems.
So we continue on DVD 2 with working vowels and consonants separately.
Individual technique 8: Sorting the vowels - find out why some vowels are easier than others to belt, and what to do about it. Use the technique here to find what your favourite belt vowels are, and how to match the ones the composers prefer to the ones you prefer
Individual technique 9: Sorting the consonants - some consonants are far easier to belt than others, so if you're having a problem with a belt word, it might be the consonants that are getting in your way. The technique we use here comes from speech therapy, and helps you identify what the consonant is, where it's made, and what you have to do the improve it. And this technique can be used on ANY consonant or consonant cluster.
Individual technique 10: The musical shape of belting - once you're comfortable with using words, we go on to one of the main musical shapes used in belting, preparing you for holding sung notes. We return to the live video footage for Jeremy and Gillyanne to take the group through the musical shape of speaking, calling and sustaining
Targeting problem words - You'll discover five easy steps for targeting problem words. And we demonstrate them using real industry examples (male and female). You have the opportunity to pause DVD 2 and practise one of your own target belt words.
And we're still not finished yet.
We give you the BIG SIX - six questions to ask yourself when you're working the belt notes in a song. These are the questions Gillyanne and Jeremy use to analyse problems in belt notes when they are troubleshooting for their West End clients, and we're sharing them with you for the first time (we've never done this before!)
Then there's the role of motivation and commitment in belting - why you need them to make your belting work well. We talk about why you might belt a note or build a phrase towards a belted climax. And what happens to your belting if you're not physically committed to it!
And we've included a four-minute video of a coaching session by Jeremy in our Masterteachers Tour of New Zealand and Australia. You'll see Jeremy working with a singer on the belted phrase in "I Don't Know How To Love Him" - and why adjusting the physical and emotional commitment in just four minutes makes such a difference to the performance (watch the audience reaction at the end!).
And we give you Three Next Steps to take to embed all the techniques and information you've learned on both DVDs.
And if that really isn't enough for you, we've included not one but TWO bonus films:
BONUS 1: What's My Launch Note? Classic belting is reserved for the biggest climaxes of the song, so you need to know what you "Launch Note" is - which note your belting might start on. We share the approximate pitch range for your belt notes, and where your belt Launch Note might be. And we include a list of over 40 songs with belt notes for you to practise. So you don't have to search around for ideas for belt material
Bonus 2: Creak Cool. This is one of our most invaluable techniques for warming down. Because belting is a high-energy, high-intensity sound, you'll need to reset your voice to a more normal speaking mode after you've been belting. Creaky voice is one of the most useful of the speech therapy techniques we use to release any tension or vocal fold bulking you might have used to belt. In this bonus film we give you three different ways to find healthy creak (and yes, there is an unhealthy version to avoid). We also give you two entirely different uses for creaky voice, and tell you when to use it to reset your voice.
