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Please title each week with the DATE.

Include:

Everything covered in the session (I have included bullet points to make sure you include certain points)

What techniques you have learnt about

How to apply it to your voice

Warm-up's completed

Strengths and Weaknesses in your own voice

Aims for yourself and your voice

Any feedback you have been given

Any exercises you have learnt that you can practice in your own time

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Any further notes from sessions you may find useful

Ideas you may have to put towards your future work in Singing (song ideas/style inspiration)

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Upload video's/images/voice recordings of your practical work.

Log Vocal Warm Ups and Exercises (write up or video recording)

TITLE THE MEDIA WITH THE DATE, AND WHAT THE EXERCISE/SONG IS. This will help link to your vocal diary entry.

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Research: (includes your own writing/web links/images)

Techniques/practitioners/vocal styles that you think will benefit you and your singing training.

The anatomy of the voice

Singers you admire, and their styles

Breathing Techniques

Vocal Health: How can you look after your voice?

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In today’s lesson we learned about different singing techniques and different aspects of singing, the anatomy of the voice; such as the larynx, the thyroid gland, the articulators and many more. Some examples of the techniques we learnt about are chest voice, head voice, mix voice and sirens.

5 goals that I would like to achieve with my voice are:

I would like to have a stronger vibrato.

I would like to work on my mix voice.

I would like to expand my vocal range.

I would like to improve my breath control.

I would like to be able to belt better.

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Today, we learnt about the diaphragm and how it helps us with singing and breath control, and we learnt why breath control is important for singing. We also went through a couple of different breathing exercises to help improve breath control. The diaphragm is a muscle that helps to move the lungs. Its function is to help us breathe correctly while singing as breath control is very important in singing. It is important as breathing correctly helps us produce sound, helps us sustain notes and helps with the pitch and the melody. An example of a breathing exercise that is achievable at home is: laying on the floor with book balancing on your stomach and breathing in for 5 seconds, holding for 5 seconds and then breathing out for double/triple that time. While inhaling, attempt to move the book as far upwards as you can by pushing out with your diaphragm, and when exhaling, do the opposite. This is effective as it teaches you the opposite style of breathing than the norm which is more helpful for singing (especially when belting or attempting to sustain a long note).

The anatomy of the voice:

The larynx – The muscles in the larynx slightly move when you swallow, and it helps with breathing and producing vocal sounds. When producing a higher pitched sound, the larynx slightly moves upwards, and slightly moves downwards when producing a lower pitched sound.

The articulators – The articulators are the lips, the soft palate, the tongue and the teeth which are essential for singing. They all essentially produce recognisable words.

Vocal cords – the vocal cords are muscular bands in your throat that produce sound. They also assist in breathing and swallowing.

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‘Pitch’-The pitch of a voice is how high or low the note is, and the position of a sound in the entire range of sounds.

‘Melody’- A melody is a sequence of musical notes that forms its own unit and is simple to remember. An informal name for a melody is a ‘tune’, and some popular examples of melodies are ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ and ‘Pop Goes the Weasel’.

Some examples of exercises to improve pitch and melody are:

The yawn technique.

Lip trills.

Tongue twisters.

Vocal sirens.

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Vocal resonance is the placement of the sound/voice - it can be placed in the oral cavity, the naval cavity, the larynx or the pharynx. Vocal tone is the unique sound quality of different voices – examples of vocal tones are: warm, dark, strident, nasal and throaty. If two people sing the same song, it can sound extremely different due to the different vocal tones of their voice. Some warm-ups that can help improve vocal tone are: Humming. Lip trills. Open vowels. Jaw loosening exercises. A lip trill is a warm-up that singers do where you vibrate the lips together without tensing the vocal cords. It is very important as it can highly improve your vocal quality and overall enhance your singing. Harmony is a vocal part that is different from the melody, but it is sung with the melody – they are more commonly sung a 3rd or a 5th above the melody note. For example, if one group of people were singing a D, another group would be singing an F and another group would be singing an A.  

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Articulation is the act of creating words with the use of your articulators; the lips, the teeth, the tongue and the soft palate, and enunciation (also known as diction) is the clarity of your declaration of speech.

One of the most effective exercises to help with articulation and enunciation are tongue twisters.

For example:

A proper copper coffee pot.

Unique New York, New York, unique.

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

She sells seashells by the seashore.

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Singing with expression is when singers use facial expressions and tone of voice depending on the emotion and the words to convey the mood of the song.

Phrasing is when singers stress certain words depending on the message of the song, and break up the words and enunciate and pronounce some of the words differently and correctly. An exercise to help with phrasing is ‘throwing the beanbag’. This is when you pretend to throw an imaginary beanbag when you put emphasis on a certain word when singing a song. You swing your arm with momentum and then add momentum in your voice when you sing the word.

The ‘one note harmony’ (or the oblique harmony) is one person/group sings the melody of a song and another person/group sings a harmony on a single note on a 1st or a 5th note depending on where the melody lies.

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During industry insights week, we only had one workshop to do with vocals; this was a woman called Leontine from Associated studios introducing us too different vocal warmups and did acting through song with some of the year 1s and 2s.

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So far, I believe that I have improved my voice as I know how to warm my voice up and which warmups are best to use. I also have gained knowledge on the anatomy of the voice which helps me think about different placements of singing and helps me with knowledge on the lifting of the larynx. I also have developed my skills in acting through song; meaning if I know the emotion and tone of a song, I believe that I can deliver it well through the tone of my own voice and facial expressions. Overall, I feel like my confidence with performing has improved as well, and I am happy with my progress.

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This week, we focused on applying techniques to our singing and then began working on our acting through song task. We worked on our diction techniques with the “Greens, Greens” speaking task, and practiced more of “Memory” from Cats. We then started working on our short scenes for before our acting through song tasks.

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I believe that I am a flipper because I tend to use the yodelling technique a lot of the time. To develop my voice further because I am a flipper, I will do exercises that consist of the noises “buh” and “gug” to improve my chest voice.

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In addition to your weekly round-up, please include:

How to practice getting better at Harmony work

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In addition to your weekly round-up, please include:

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This term, I have learnt that my vocal style is flipping, yet I do have a very good belt, that has a lot of potential if I develop it and use it correctly. I am still yet to fully harness the potential of my mix voice, but when I put my mind to it I can use it. I also believe that I am starting to learn how yo use vibrato, which was one of my personal aims for this term so I am very happy with that.

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This week we learned about vibrato, which is the pulsing of vocal folds to create a tremor above and below the pitch of a note that someone is singing.

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In addition to your weekly round-up, please include:

Describe to 3 quick vocal techniques to help you practice Pop singing

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In addition to your weekly round-up, please include:

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Daily Vocal programme:

1- Wake up, and do some breathing exercises - I will do this to reset my diaphragmatic breathing in the morning so I can begin the day with an already improved technique for singing, and to wake me up in the morning.

2- Humming & lip trills in the shower - I will do this to warm up my articulators ready for the day, also to give me a bigger chance of having a better technique.

3- 1+ glasses of water before I leave the house - I would like to aim to drink at least 1 glass of water before I leave for college because I have learnt that water is a huge part of helping the development of a voice, and vocal health so I want to strive to drink more water.

4- Steamer/vocal straw - I would like to invest in things for my vocal health such as the two I listed so I am able to further care for my voice and understand how to improve it and my technique when I sing.

5- Vitamins/sleep etc - I would also like to work on my personal health with things like my sleep schedule, and I would also like to get some vitamins.

6 - Lemon and honey - Finally, I would like to have lemon and honey as often as I can and whenever I feel as though my voice is strained, but a routinely schedule could be once or twice a fortnight.

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Singing anxiety is a feeling of built up nerves before you go to perform - whether in front of friends, in an audition or in a show.

Some things that can cause singing anxiety are:

Disappointment (to yourself and others)

Overthinking

Judgement

Breath control (lack of)

Not achieving "perfection" (it doesn't exist)

Embarrassing yourself

Voice cracks

Forgetting the words

Thinking that your voice is not good enough.

Having everyone's eyes on you.

Pressure.

Ways to overcome it:

Talk mantras

Think about end goal of where you want to be

Give yourself a reminder of how much you love performing and your passion for being on stage.

Have some alone time

Surround yourself with positive support

Imagine that you're in someone else's shoes, someone more confident.

When you get nervous on stage, your body goes into 'fight or flight' mode, which causes all of your muscles to tense up; this can cause things like a dry mouth, sweating or blanking out.

The voice reacts very strongly to perceived fear.

You could do these things to improve and build up more confidence:

Go to a different room, and frequently change environments and audiences to sing in/to.

Practice singing with buoyancy to feel more relaxed - this essentially uses the body to trick the mind.

Become aware of the fact that nervousness is the same sensation as excitement.

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In this session, we had a technique round up of everything we have done in our lessons as this was our last technique lesson.

We had to answer some questions:

1- What other student on the course inspires you with their voice and technique and why?

Grace inspires me the most because her acting through song is amazing - I get goosebumps every time she sings. She also inspires me because we were told that at the start of her first year she was very quiet, and didn't have much confidence at all, but her skill now shows how far she has come with her voice and her technique.

2- What have you learnt about your voice since September?

I have learnt the basics of the vocal anatomy and the terminology for the different parts of our bodies that help us sing. About my voice personally, I have learnt that lemon & honey works extremely well to soothe my voice when I'm ill or my voice is a bit strained. Also, I am now aware of the fact that my strongest voice is my belt voice, so I need to work to develop my mix voice etc.

3- What techniques have you learnt about?

We have learnt about many different techniques, such as; head, chest and mix voice; vibrato; belting; diaphragmatic breathing; acting through song etc. We have been taught all of this to apply to our future auditions and our FMP auditions which are coming up soon.

4- What technique do you find the most difficult and why?

I think that the most difficult technique for me would be the mix voice, as I have no previous professional experience in singing, and I have been struggling to achieve my mix voice, but it is getting there with a lot of practice and warm ups etc.

5- What technique have you improved most on?

I think I have improved the most on my breath control/diaphragmatic breathing throughout these lessons as I have noticed that I now automatically breathe with my diaphragm, which helps me a lot with my overall singing performances and my breath control.

My song choice for our FMP auditions is: 'There are worse things I could do' from 'Grease'

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First full run through of 'Alexander Hamilton' - 19/09/24

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First full run through of 'Alexander Hamilton' - 19/09/24

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Second full run through of 'Alexander Hamilton' 26/09/24

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Second full run through of 'Alexander Hamilton' 26/09/24

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First full run through of 'What I Was Born to Do' 26/09/24

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First full run through of 'What I Was Born to Do' 26/09/24

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3rd rehearsal of 'Memory' from 'Cats' 9/10/24

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3rd rehearsal of 'Memory' from 'Cats' 9/10/24

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How To Breathe When You Sing: Exhalation

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How to Control the Larynx when Singing: Benefits and how to Exercises

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♬ 3 minute Vocal Warm up - Going Up and Down Major Scales ♬

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3 Common Reasons for Pitchy Singing and How to fix it

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Ear Training Exercise for Pitch Recognition: Higher, Lower or the Same

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Pitch Accuracy and Flexibility - Vocal Exercise

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Vocal Resonance: Definition and How to Exercises

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1 Quick Lesson To Improve Your Vocal Tone Immediately!

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The three words I chose to research are: melisma, soft palate and vocal folds.

Melisma means when someone sings multiple notes throughout a singular syllable. Some examples of artists that use this technique are: Stevie Wonder, Beyoncé, Mariah Carey and Céline Dion.

The soft palate acts as a ‘gate-keep’ to the nasal cavity. It automatically closes the nasal passage during singing and speaking. The tongue hits it to make the sounds ‘K’ ‘N’ and ‘G’.

The vocal folds are a synonym for the vocal cords, and are two pieces of tissue found in the larynx (the voice box). They vibrate and air travels to the lungs to produce the sound that you are creating.

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Andy Follin (Estill EMT) - Professional Vocal Coach

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ABSTRACT

Belt is a high energy voice quality that uses a natural association of certain acoustics to portray heightened emotion. It is NOT forceful and produced well it presents no risks. There are, however, significant differences between Belt and other voice qualities, in particular those used in Classical singing. Proper understanding and application of breathing patterns, body engagement and acoustics is essential to producing a healthy and efficient Belt.

Of all the voice qualities, Belt is the one that seems the least understood, and surrounded by the most mystique.

Ironically, Belt quality is possibly the most natural way of using the voice, as it's what children are doing every day in the school playground - without losing or damaging their voices.

Although the word 'belt' can mean 'to hit something hard', Belt quality is not a forceful way of using the voice.

Proper Belting technique can best be described as a refined, skilful yell or call. In everyday life, we yell or call in situations of heightened emotion - excitement, anger etc. Belt makes full use of this association with high emotional stakes, which is precisely why it's such an exciting sound.

But while there are similarities between yelling / calling and Belt quality, it's definitely not shouting, which is done with an abusive amount of breath pressure. Neither is it ' Chest Voice' pushed higher.

Often, people use the term 'belt' to indicate any loud sound. This, again, tends to lead to singers pushing an unhealthy amount of breath against the vocal folds, resulting in fatigue, hoarseness and potentially more serious vocal problems.

Next time a Musical Director, coach or band member asks you to 'belt it out', try to work out if they mean 'belt' or 'Belt' - with all due respect, they may not know the precise difference.

Can anyone Belt?

Absolutely. Understanding the precise vocal set-up opens up a whole new world of repertoire. No matter what your previous training, you can learn to Belt, by isolating the correct components of the voice and learning to control them.

A song would rarely be Belted from beginning to end, but in every song there comes a moment when nothing else will do - the audience will accept nothing less. Put simply, if you want to sing in Musical Theatre, Rock and Pop (in other words, anything other than a Classical / Operatic quality), you have to know how to Belt.

Belting explained

To understand Belt fully, we need describe it in terms of two related but separate elements - the anatomy (how the singer produces it) and the acoustics (what the audience hears).

The anatomy of Belt

Belt is loud. Uncompromisingly loud!

the loudness of Belt does not come from an increase in air pressure

This comes from using the vocal folds in a certain vocal register, and shaping the vocal tract in a very specific way.

Belt quality uses short, Thick vocal folds (M1 in register terms), a short vocal tract (the larynx is held in a relatively high position) a narrowed AryEpiglottic Sphincter (AES or epilarynx), a wide, lateral internal mouth shape with high, forward tongue and a high degree of Torso Anchoring.

This 'set up' means that the vocal folds stay closed for longer during their vibration, which in turn requires a decrease in air pressure i.e. you use much less breath to Belt than to sing in other Voice Qualities.

It's important to emphasise this: the loudness of Belt does not come from an increase in air flow, but from a longer closed phase. Using Classical breath strategies in Belting can result in problems - hence why so many Classical teachers describe Belt as dangerous and wrongly discourage its use.

The acoustics of Belt

Belt is bright, brassy and exciting! As discussed above, these are inherent qualities in a natural call or yell. The challenge for the Belter is to maintain those qualities above a normal speaking range. For most singers, singing higher often results in an abrupt change of quality, where the voice suddenly gets softer and more 'hooty'.

Kenneth Bozeman in ' Practical Vocal Acoustics' describes these two distinct sounds as ' Yell timbre' and ' Whoop timbre'. You can experience them both by first calling across to an imaginary friend on an energised (but not pushed!) 'Hey!', then calling 'Yoo hoo!' on a higher pitch. This should put you into Yell and Whoop respectively.
Maintaining Yell timbre is key to the acoustics of Belting.
For this to happen, the pitch and resonance have to be very precisely balanced - if that balance slips, the voice 'cracks' or 'breaks' into Whoop timbre - the uncontrolled 'Yodel'.

Yell and Whoop can be described acoustically in very specific terms, as explained in the panel above. Yell timbre (and therefore Belt) is defined acoustically as a strong first formant (F1) tracking of the second Harmonic (H2) whereas Whoop is a strong first formant (F1) tracking of the first Harmonic (H1)

It's beyond the scope of this article to go into much detail about Formants and Harmonics but Andy is more than happy to discuss these principles with you in your lessons, using tools like the Voiceprint spectogram (see below) to show you what you hear.

The Belt recipe

Putting all the above together gives us a very specific anatomical and acoustic definition of Belting:

Although this information is useful in terms of defining Belt from a scientific perspective, Belt is best learned by experiencing the sounds and sensations.

Estill Voice Training™ is taught via individual Figures for Voice™ that are designed to give you full, independent control over the structures of your voice such as the Vocal Folds, Larynx position, AES and Anchoring mentioned above. Andy would ensure you have mastered each of the Figures in isolation before encouraging you to Belt.

Is Belt dangerous?

Produced properly, Belt poses no risks. It's a high energy method of singing, though, so if the perfect conditions are not maintained, it could be harmful for the voice. But the same could be said for Opera quality, so Belt is no more dangerous than Classical singing.

Whatever style you want to sing in, it's vitally important that you know exactly how to use the voice to its best effect, without causing undue tension and strain. That's why Estill Master Trainer (EMT)s of Estill Voice Training™ spend years understanding how to teach each unique style -giving you complete control and freedom in your singing.

Are there different types of Belt?

As discussed earlier, 'belt' is a term often used to describe any loud sound. The physical and acoustic definition of Belt quality given above (M1 register, F1/H2 tracking) is what we can refer to as an Estill Belt, or ' Pure Belt'.

However, if we accept that any loud sound could be described as a form of belt, we could consider other options, two of which are given below.

NB to help you understand the following, it would be useful for you to read or review vocal registers explained first.

Mix Belt

Mix belt would maintain the same F1/H2 tracking, but the vocal folds would be in a vibration mode known as 'Mix' or 'Voix Mixte'.

In this case, the voice would still be in an M1 register, but with less of the vocal fold depth involved in the vibration, an 'M1 minus' register or Mx1.

Twang Belt

Twang belt would again maintain the same F1/H2 tracking, but the vocal folds would probably be in a Thinner condition (M2) This is very similar to the Mix belt, the difference being that there would be a greater reliance on the intensity and resonance boost that comes from narrowing the AES.

This provides more back pressure and increases vocal fold resistance, meaning that the M2 vibration is reinforced - an 'M2 plus' register or Mx2.

Learn to Belt

Andy is a full-time, professional vocal coach, not a school teacher, singer or pianist giving a few singing lessons in their spare time. Unlike a lot of voice teachers, Andy does not insist on long-term tuition, where students have to attend regular lessons, repeating the same exercises until their voice improves. You can attend as often as you like, but there's no compulsion to attend every week or every fortnight. In fact, many students only book sessions every 4 to 6 weeks.

Estill Voice Training™ is known for producing quick results. Quite often, Andy finds that long-standing problems can be fixed in the first few lessons. At your first session, Andy will give you an assessment of your abilities and draw up a plan that ensures you get to where you want to be, as quickly as possible.

If you're ready to take your voice to the next level, book a lesson with Andy today (see bottom of page).

Andy runs his studio from St Helens, so is ideally located for students in the Liverpool, Merseyside, Manchester, Lancashire and Cheshire areas. Please check out the separate pages for students from Liverpool, Merseyside, Warrington, Widnes / Runcorn, Wigan, Cheshire, Lancashire and North Wales.

For those unable to travel to the studio, or who are based overeseas, Andy is also happy to teach online via Zoom. During the 2020 lockdown, Andy was able to continue teaching in this way to provide full service to his clientele. For more information on the equipment needed for an effective Zoom lesson, please check out the Online Lessons page.

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Belting Explained | What is Belt? | How to Belt (Singing) a Musical Theatre or Pop Song

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What is Belt / Belting in Singing? Can any singer Belt? How to belt with the proper Belting technique. How to 'belt out' high notes safely.

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How to find your singing belt - belting techniques for singers

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Full rehearsal of Memory from Cats - 20/11/24

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Full rehearsal of Memory from Cats - 20/11/24

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First look at Seasons of love from Rent.

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First look at Seasons of love from Rent.

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Singing technique “Somewhere over the rainbow”

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Singing technique “Somewhere over the rainbow”

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Feedback from “somewhere over the rainbow”

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Feedback from “somewhere over the rainbow”

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Acting through song & monologue 1 : 29/1/25

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Acting through song & monologue 1 : 29/1/25

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Izzy D: Acting through Song (29/01: 2nd)

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This is my soprano song that I will be working on to improve my head voice technique - My White Night 

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This is my soprano song that I will be working on to improve my head voice technique - My White Night 

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There is no sound on this video yet.

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This is a voice note of the feedback I was given for my belt assessment of “Don’t Rain on My Parade”

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I am very proud of myself for this assessment. This song was well out of my comfort zone, but despite that I practiced as much as I could, trying to improve my breath control and my overall execution of the song, and I believe that the work I put in is evident. The song is extremely difficult to sing, and I am proud that I have achieved t, and that I have set a high standard for my belt. I think for my improvements, I need to further develop by breath control/diaphragmatic breathing, and to stop gesturing as much, because it takes the focus away from the actual story that the song is telling. Also, I still need to further improve my confidence and stage presence when I sing. To fully improve, I am going to find a better backing track to sing with and then practice more, so I can become more comfortable with the song in the future for things like auditions.