Afraid to belt
Whitesnake
Member Posts: 131
Hello, everyone! Belting. I read a lot about this subject, about how you can lose your voice if you don't learn how to belt safely. That's put a little bit of pressure, you know? I don't want to harm my voice. More to say, that I already screamed like a mad man before I found KTVA. I try to stretch my chest voice pretty much everyday. And it's true that my chest voice already expanded to F#4, even tho I do this for about a half a month. And before that I had hard times hitting E4 or even D#4. Not that I can use F#4 in songs, but I can hit it in the exercise practice on AH vowel. Anyway, to the point.
How can I be sure that I don't do this unsafely? When I do it I try to keep my throat relax and open as much as I can. But on my higher notes (like F#4) it's nearly impossible to be relaxed. And I found that Ken said, that when you belting, you ARE actually stressing yourself. So as far as I can understand it, you NEED to stress yourself while belting, but OVERstress yourself, right? Well...how can I say that I not overstressing it without waiting a year or more and have nodules or any sort of suffering?
P.S: I wanted to stretch my chest at least to a G4, but now I'm not sure should I do it right now or not.
How can I be sure that I don't do this unsafely? When I do it I try to keep my throat relax and open as much as I can. But on my higher notes (like F#4) it's nearly impossible to be relaxed. And I found that Ken said, that when you belting, you ARE actually stressing yourself. So as far as I can understand it, you NEED to stress yourself while belting, but OVERstress yourself, right? Well...how can I say that I not overstressing it without waiting a year or more and have nodules or any sort of suffering?
P.S: I wanted to stretch my chest at least to a G4, but now I'm not sure should I do it right now or not.
Comments
Your worry is not unwarranted. Generally, too much volume and air will make you go hoarse and damage your voice over time. We learn proper cord closure, support, vowel modifications, cutting back the air etc. to prevent that and improve our tone. After singing, you should not feel pain, or real discomfort. You should not be going hoarse after singing, or the next day. But don't forget things can also improve. I used to feel some discomfort generally after singing or the next day (although not really going hoarse for a long time) but even that is becoming less and less whilst improving. It's a process. However, you should never go hoarse.
High performance singing, including belting, and really working your upper registers requires a lot of stamina and support. It's not the absence of stress, but the management. However, you should not be squeezing the throat etc. We use as much open throat technique as we can, and manage that with abdominal support.
Ken also talks about the 'Call' voice in some of his youtube videos, and there is even one about belting. Be sure to check those out!
All the best,
Ben
I remember for the first year I splatted at Db5, then miraculously around the 18 month mark I accidentally hit a bloody G5 with a slider! It was gnarly, but it was there... I did it 5 more times to prove it wasn't a fluke. LOL
So now I can hit (but not solidly sustain) about an F#5... and I know this will only increase in time. My new goal is a usable A5
Not going hoarse or feeling pain is very good, but it does not ensure that you are doing every single thing correctly. There are a lot of components to singing as i mentioned a few, and they need to be in harmony to have the best voice you possibly can. On the other side, if you only sing in 'comfortable' ranges, like under your bridge or 'first passaggio', then you are less likely to go hoarse anyway, unless you are also forcing or singing from the throat there. I think most people go hoarse because of singing/talking too loudly or 'hard', and stressing certain areas too much.
Try to stretch and push yourself a little, but not uncomfortably. Stretching is done with care, but you do need to seek your limits a bit. Trying to stretch higher in a painful way will be counterproductive.
If you work the program, you will get there. Not only will you stretch and build stamina, but your technique will slowly get better and better, which ultimately helps you in increasing your range and producing better tone.
@Huduvudu
A tough goal, but you can do it! It took me a while to get there comfortably in chest, but i can now even exceed E5 before completely giving out to head voice. So there you have it, it's possible. Working head voice is a whole other animal though. I can hit A#5 and sometimes even B5, tough stuff.
As Phil said, patience is necessary.
All the best,
Ben
A slow process for sure, but it is a journey. New notes open up new possibilities, and allow you to sing other sings too.
All the best,
Ben