<p>My d has always been a huge natural belter but the past year she's been concentrating almost exclusively on classical art songs and operatic arias. She's been asked to sing at a benefit and she's switched back to pure high belt repertoire (Minelli/Eder) and boy is she struggling - more personally than audibly. She finding she's cracking (only I notice it- it's so minute) on the high belt which she never had trouble with before. She's still vocalizing and practicing her arias plus practicing this. Does anyone else have experience with this problem. I'm wondering if we should drop aria practice till after the benefit and solely warm-up her belt voice.</p>
<p>im not an expert...but i know opera helped me control in the long run...plus...look at kristin chenoweth</p>
<p>Oh I firmly agreed that classical training is the way to go! It's just hard for the young voice to transition back and forth. Her classical teacher is totally against belting, but the reality is, she will continue to do both as long as she wants to and can.</p>
<p>i agree with chrisnoo (and you ablestmom) that classical training is essential. could it also be that your d's voice has lowered a bit over the past year? at the high school/college age it's amazing that anyone can sing consistently with the way the body is changing!
another thing as well, is that if a certain technique in voice isn't practicd for a lenght of time, it can be temporarily lost. if your d keeps up the practice the way she used to, she should have that belt back in no time!</p>
<p>How high does your daughter have to belt? And on what vowel(s)? My daughter was a classically trained soprano but wanted to learn to belt. So I took her to a different voice teacher. She is now able to belt to a C or C sharp, but it depends on the vowel! If it's an "A" vowel, she pronounces it like "aah", and it keeps her from cracking, and believe it or not, it doesn't sound like "aah!" Also, she has specific "belt" warmups that she does: "Hey, it's a beautiful day", going higher and higher each time; it's hard to type out on a computer!</p>
<p>MTpolk
I think that's what happened - her vocal chords have forgotten the belting. She is getting it back - thank God. I was in a quiet panic (show is Saturday) - she decided last night instead of pure high belt to switch to her mix voice with mainly belt and it worked perfectly and sounded fabulous. She was delighted - of course it's way easier to mix than to belt anyway. Plus if I have trouble discerning it sitting at the piano 2 feet away, an audience will never detect the difference.</p>
<p>I agree with the voice changing radically at this age - these kids are constantly adapting to the changes! Her's is getting even darker than before (if that is possible) but so far she still has an enormous range - but that can change at any time.</p>
<p>Rossji,
She's belting to an Eb which used to be absolutely nothing to her because her old teacher always worked her to an F. I didn't think about having her play around with the vowels - good suggestion! One song ends on "cabaret" - she's been singing "ray" but I'll have her play with "re". The other one is a looooong hold on "Am" - not much she can do with that one. I think I will just have her do mainly belt warm-ups for the rest of the week. In one of the songs she's flying all around between low chest, high belt, and various mixes - she just has to get (and remember) the sound she wants in each phrase. I've told her to just mix throughout and just belt that last note but ultimately the decision is hers. And we all know that at the actual performance, they are still adjusting depending upon how their voice is at that moment. It's amazing how much hard work singing is - these kids make it look so effortless!</p>
<p>Wow! An Eb is so high! Bless her. Glad it's coming back!</p>
<p>Thanks! I feel soooo much better!</p>