Belt Is Legit

Abstract

THOSE OF YOU FAMILIAR WITH THE BROADWAY TERMS BELT and legit know they are at opposite ends of the vocal style spectrum. Legit (shorthand for legitimate) is aligned most closely with classical singing and had its origin in early music theater. It was considered brow and the only singing acceptable in civilized and proper society. Belt, on the other hand, was looked on as brow, commercial, and somewhat the bastard child of authentic singing. It inhabited minstrel and riverboat shows, burlesque, vaudeville, dance halls, and other popular venues. Although this high class versus low class perception still exists, especially in academia, belt slowly is gaining credibility as a viable and legitimate vocal art form worthy of medical and scientific study, pedagogic support, and critical artistic review. Within the past few years, several important events have occurred on belt's journey toward becoming a legitimate member of the family of singing styles. Perhaps one of the most significant events was when my colleague and friend Jeannette LoVetri rescued all forms of popular vocal music, including belt, from their long-held non status. By creating the term Commercial (CCM), she gave nonclassical singing a legit name; no longer would it have to be called, that music other than classical. Another milepost occurred in June 2006, when The Voice Foundation's 35th Annual Symposium: Care of the Professional Voice held its first-ever Contemporary Commercial Music Panel Discussion. Moderated by Ms. LoVetri, the panel, consisting of Dominique Eade, Robert Edwin, Douglas Hicks, Johan Sundberg, and Robert T. Sataloff, brought significant medical, scientific, pedagogic, and artistic attention to this now hot topic. As with the Voice Foundation panel, it is always notable when belt is addressed positively by someone outside the CCM community. Such was the case with Dr. Scott McCoy's first article as Associate Editor for Voice Pedagogy in the May/June 2007 Journal of Singing entitled, A Classical Pedagogue Explores Belting. Dr. McCoy perhaps spoke for many NATS members with regard to negative presumptions about the belt voice. His findings and analyses will further inform the ever-growing body of research being done on CCM styles of singing. More recently, Dr. Donald G. Miller and VoceVista held a groundbreaking Conference in June of 2007 at SUNY-Fredonia (NY) where, during a CCM master class, real-time EGG (electroglortography) closed quotient (CQ) readings and acoustic spectrum analyses were projected on a screen behind the singers. Art, pedagogy, and science all came together simultaneously at one very exciting event. Although belting has been going on for thousands of years, it's only within relatively recent years research has revealed what is actually happening with regard to muscle activity during phonation and resonation when these sounds are produced. The old Italian model of registers (chest, middle, and head in women; chest, head, and falsetto in men) proves problematic when trying to discuss the physiologic reality of the muscles controlling vocal fold activity. The two register model now advocated by many voice scientists and pedagogues allows for clearer discussion of phonation by alleviating confusion and removing gender and cultural bias. Research has revealed two primary muscles are responsible for vocal fold activity: the thyroarytenoid muscles (TA) and the cricothyroid muscles (CT). The TA is responsible for shortening and thickening the vocal folds, thus producing sound is commonly associated with chest voice in both men and women. The CT muscle is responsible for stretching and thinning the vocal folds, thus producing the sound is commonly associated with head voice in women and falsetto in men. Also playing a part in phonation are the adducting and abducting muscles called the interarytenoids and cricoarytenoids. …

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