How To Belt Your Face Off In Less Than 5 Minutes
Belting isn’t that hard, and there are a lot of teachers who would be out of work if they told you that up front. Don’t let them fool you. In my 15 years of coaching, I’ve had maybe two students who took longer than five minutes, and they took about seven. Sure, it’s challenging to master belting. But learning it? Pffft. Just keep reading…
I’m going to show you how to belt in under five minutes. You heard me. Less than five minutes. This is not a scam, not a life hack, and it will not melt belly fat with this one weird trick.
You might wonder how I’m going to show you how to do something so difficult that fast. Here’s the secret: it isn’t difficult. At all. In fact, belting is actually very natural and, when done properly, is even a totally healthy form of singing.
I’ll give you an example. Listen to these tribal singers; listen to how natural this is:
Or, think about babies crying — how easily they wail with remarkable power and volume. These sounds are all natural expressions that our voices are supposed to make. We were designed to do it. As singers, we need to understand how to undo all the things that AREN’T natural so that we can just… be. And that’s what belting is all about.
Take a moment and think about everything you’ve ever heard about belting. Think of all the things people in your career have said or taught you about it.
Forget ALL of it. It has no place here.
Now we’re going to play a bit of pretend. Imagine you’re walking down the street, and some jerkface comes out of nowhere and swipes your purse, or your briefcase, or small dog, whatever. If that happened, you probably WOULDN’T react like this:
Because both of those are weird. Don’t ever do that.
What you WOULD do, more likely, is call out like this:
I want you to try that. Couple things, though:
1.NO raspiness (like this:)
and 2. NO grinding of your voice. Think of this as your “Calling Voice.” Okay, go ahead. Say “Hey, that’s mine!” like you MEAN IT.
Fantastic!
Now, we’re going to try something else. Imagine that you are three years old and you’re MAD. Scrunch up that little girl toddler’s face and say your favorite word: NO! Like this:
Really go for it–there is no shame here, I can’t even hear you or see you. And even if I could, I’m the one telling you to do it, so no judgement from me. GO!
Awesome! Guess what? Now we’re going to sing like that. In the beginning, I call this your baby belt because it doesn’t really sound all that pretty. It will later, I promise, but today we have to know that we’re doing it RIGHT because that’s more important than doing it PRETTY. I want you to remember that always.
Doing it right is more important than doing it pretty.
So just trust me. Repeat after me:
Congrats. You just belted. And we still have time to spare! So that gives me time to explain what EXACTLY we just did so that you will always know how to find it.
Belting is singing in your calling voice which is just a louder version of your speaking voice. That’s it. You’ve probably been taught to sing with a very “open” space. I hate that term, but it’s a really common one, so we’ll just define it. What they’re trying to say with “open” space is that you need to sing with a raised soft palate, which is that squishy area of the roof of your mouth. You know, where the uvula is. Or, the scientific term: the hangy-down thingymabob.
And for legit singing (that’s the classical stuff), that is true! Because when your soft palate is raised, it blocks off the passageway into your nose so no sound can come out from there — which is fantastic to keep in mind if you intend to be an opera singer. Otherwise, it’s good to know where the soft palate is for body awareness because in belting, you aren’t going to raise that at all. If you do, you won’t be belting anymore which means you won’t be able to keep that sound all the way up high, you won’t be able to avoid all those pesky breaks in your voice, and you’ll probably feel really sore when you’re done.
With a raised soft palate — which feels the same as yawning — you are either singing in your chest register or your head register. I’m sure you’ve heard that terminology before. When the soft palate is in its neutral position (lowered) you are either belting or mixing. Or talking.
What’s cool is that as long as you are properly supporting your sound, you can belt all day long and not lose your voice or even feel the tiniest bit fatigued. The other super cool thing about belting is that when done properly, all those pesky breaks in your voice totally go away.
It’s like magic! Except that it’s actually science.
No joke, Katti Power is a complete and utter bad ass. She’ll turn you into one as well if you give her the chance.
I had the honor of working with Katti right before the Talent Quest National Competition. In only a few short lessons she had me miles above where I started out. Her methods help you stretch your range while keeping your vocal health. She continuously helped me get better each time we met.
[Katti] is the best singing coach I've ever had. I love working with her because she's so supportive, she has such a great ear, and she can get to the heart of any of my problems right away. She's positive, very knowledgeable, and most of all - one of the biggest reasons I would highly recommend Katti is that she's a great human being.
Thank you, Katti. I’ve learned so much from you; no words can express my gratitude!
I can sing higher again and I’m more confident in my belting abilities, as well as my breath support!
Katti is an unforgettable voice instructor. I came to Katti when I was 18 years old because I wanted to improve my musical theatre sound. I had absolutely no clue how to belt before beginning [Unlimited Vocal Health™] and when I graduated from Circle in the Square Theatre School in New York City four years later, I was the top belter in my class. The more lessons I took the more my confidence as a singer and an all around performer grew.
Katti…helped me realize that my voice will always be there, and I just need to trust that it knows what to do. The biggest change was our work with how forward my belt is going. I had learned how to do it before, but something wasn’t clicking for me to keep it forward. Katti listened to my fear about having true power in my voice and allowed me to have a safe place to start the work to let myself be heard. I ended up belting a note I had tried to… belt for 10 years!
I feel like I finally learned the secret of singing I’ve been looking for all my life! I always felt like my teachers didn’t quite “get” my voice and there was something either I really wasn’t getting or they really were not teaching. Now I know what it is! Thank you Katti!!
I’m singing songs I did not think I would ever be able to sing!
Katti is BRILLIANT!!! I never thought I would be able to belt, but I was definitely proven wrong! Thanks to my ONE LESSON with Katti I have just landed a role in “Shout! The Mod Musical” and will be healthily belting my face off!
Now that I have had that hour session I know how to overcome my straining and relax my throat when singing up high. The way Katti teaches, the illustrations she gives, and the exercises she uses help me to understand in a way I’d never thought about before…Knowing how quickly she fixed my problem, I feel extremely confident that she would be able to help anyone else…
I use to think my voice just couldn’t sing certain notes in certain ways, but that is completely false! I wish I had known these techniques back when I was struggling and performing every day. And knowing how to sing in my uncomfortable areas without hurting my voice is amazing. I feel like I could sing almost anything now!!
I believe you can always improve your craft, so for the past few years I’ve been working with internationally acclaimed vocal teacher Katti Power.
Katti Power is bar-none, hands-down, one of the very best voice teachers out there. I’ve been singing for 23 years, and have had several teachers over the years, from NYC to LA. Many of my teachers have been good, but I learned more in one lesson with Katti than I did several months with other teachers.
Thank you so much for believing in me and for helping me become who I am today… You changed my life Katti.
I’m most excited to know the difference between legit and belt voice and practice choosing how to sing and speak intentionally in a way that is healthiest for me.
I’m so excited – I got the role I told you I was called back for (the initial audition consisted of a monologue and my singing “That’s Rich,” which I had worked with you in my VIP session)! Thank you so much, Katti, for your training! I’m thrilled, and will continue to make the efforts to sing without fear and apply the proper technique so I can sing without getting fatigued.
I’m really not sure where I would be without you. You have given me such confidence in so many areas and have given me the skills to take my performing to the next level.