<p>I was just wondering how important belting is to an audition. I can belt, but if I go very high it sounds like I'm screaming... I do have a very nice, high legit soprano voice. my voice teacher is classically trained so she doesn't work with me on belting and I'm quite sure that "screaming" has to be bad for my voice. I don't know the exact range of my belt, only because I don't have a piano handy at the moment. I've seen in another thread on belting here something about "mixing" and I looked it up and I'm pretty sure I can't do it, and also I got the impression that I shouldn't try on my own, but I don't want to change voice teachers - she's the first teacher I tried, but we work very well together. </p>
<p>So my question is... is being able to belt high that big of a deal? I can't imagine it is, but I just want to make sure.</p>
<p>I’m not in a musical theater program at the moment, but from working with my current teacher and reading other posts, my impression is that belt technique is important to master if you’re going for a MT degree. That said, having a huge belting range isn’t always necessary if you have a good solid legit. If there’s someone in your area who teaches MT singers, I would have some additional lessons with him/her and if you really like that teacher and they also do classical, then you might consider switching. But you ARE allowed to go to more than one private teacher! You don’t have to have belt lessons every week - maybe once or twice a month to keep the cost down.</p>
<p>Oops, I should probably mention, this is just in the realm of college auditions. I understand that belting is pretty important for mt, but I was just wondering if it’s necessary to be able to do it before auditions.</p>
<p>I can only speak from my D’s experience. You sound a lot like her. She was classically trained and going into college auditions had no belt. She was accepted into most of the programs for which she auditioned. After two years of college she now is developing a nice belt voice to go along with her legit soprano. Find your strength and sell it!</p>
<p>My daughter was also trained legit, but knew she might be auditioning for schools that liked mix or belt, and wanted to do one song in each. We searched and searched and could find no well trained belt/mix/MT teachers in our state or the next one over. Many said they were, but it turned out to be only a workshop or such, and my duaghter could tell they didn’t know what they were doing. </p>
<p>So, we contacted MTCA; the director, Coach C, posts on this forum, and from Dec.-Feb. (before auditions) my daughter skyped once a week with an amazing coach who trained in both classical and MT/belt/mix. She also continued with her classical teacher. Since both were trained in legit, they complemented each other beautifully. My daughter was instructed in very healthful ways. In even such a short time, my daughter was able to access a lovely mix/belt voice that she used successfully at auditions this year. MTCA has a number of teachers/coaches who can do this, no matter where you live.</p>
<p>We are very glad we did this, as the number of auditionees who can naturally belt seemed to be very high at auditions!</p>
<p>If interested, anyone can either send me a PM and I will pass on contact info, or you can PM or email Coach C through this forum.</p>
<p>My daughter auditioned at 4 schools with 2 legit songs, got into 3 and rejected at one. All her other auditions she had a belt and a legit and did about the same there, as far as ratio of rejections to acceptances. I’ve heard more than one person say it’s better to have a good head voice developed before you belt, and I also know that you can hurt yourself if you aren’t doing it right. I asked my D last year to stop with the belting until I could find someone to help her, as her classical sop teacher wasn’t much help in that dep’t. At one audition finally, the person who heard her sing said she “wasn’t screaming at him” and her belt “was light and crystal clear.” Whew. Too bad she was rejected anyway there! :)</p>
<p>High belting isn’t necessarily a big deal for college audition success. Remember that there are many different definitions of “belt”, and many young/inexperienced belters think it means a heavy and chesty sound. A chest belt is only one color in the realm of belting and it can’t be carried up too high or you experience the “yelling” feeling that you describe. What is essential to be competitive for almost all audition programs is that you have volume and a speech-like quality in your middle voice (usually E4-C/D) - this is the mix you describe - and not a weak or breathy sound that become full and hearable only when you reach your head voice (usually D/E5 and up for women). Strength in your middle voice happens as a result of working in lessons on blending head and chest and not just carrying your head voice down - you have to also work on healthily bring your chest voice up (decreasing the amount of chest and simultaneously increasing the amount of head as you get higher). Ask your voice teacher to work on this with you if you aren’t already doing so. :)</p>
<p>Thank you for your help - I’ve emailed some of the teachers who do MT voice lessons through the Shenandoah University Arts Academy (I live about 15 minutes away from SU) I’ll probably do lessons in MT styles during the summer, and if I’m happy, drop my classical teacher down to every other week and do MT every week (as SUAA doesn’t allow for every other week lessons, unfortunately) I figure it can’t hurt to try it out!</p>
<p>snoggie, I responded to your PM and them tried to send an additional PM with some info I forgot to include, and it told me your PM box was full. Email me and I’ll send the additional info! :)</p>
<p>Christie2’s story and ours is nearly the same - we live in a relatively isolated area and my D had been taking voice with someone who had classical and MT experience . . . however, it was old-school MT experience and this teacher was adamantly opposed to belting. MTCA saved the day! We knew that she had to have a mix/belt and Skype-ing was the only way for my D to have those lessons. My D has been working with a wonderful voice teacher on MTCA’s staff for some time now and it has made all the difference. She does not take voice locally any longer as we felt none of the teachers available were current and capable to teach all aspects of the voice. </p>
<p>I’m sure CoachC will help to point you in the right direction if you choose to ask for her help.</p>
<p>My D will be in the 2011/12 audition cycle, so we don’t know the outcome, but I believe that without a mix/belt under her belt (haha!) she would have a really tough time being accepted into a program. It appears that in the past that having a mix/belt was not a handicap, but the trend in musicals seems to be heading in that direction so, right or wrong, it makes sense that programs that what want to be current will search for applicants that have at least the hint of that ability to start with.</p>
<p>Belting beyond where you comfortably able to is never a good idea - especially for a young voice. I love the sound when properly sung - it scares me to hear folks hurting themselves. Regarding your college audition - belting is not necessary - it is important to show some versatility - but do not sweat about belting - and definitely do not shout - at auditions or ever (well, maybe a sports event).</p>