I remember a favorite student of mine at her first lesson announcing that she only sang musical theater. I looked over the top of my glasses and said, oh, really? She is now attending the prestigious music/theater program at Oklahoma State University and appeared recently in an article in the Classical Singer magazine. The moral of the story is that without the pursuit of solid vocal technique and balanced laryngeal musculature it is very difficult to obtain any sort of professional longevity. It is also a beneficial byproduct to be able to crossover and make money as a professional in various genres in this intensely competitive business. I don’t believe however, that it is helpful to have vocal pedagogues condemn the credibility of singing in a belt style. The truth remains that if you sing in this style well, you are a very marketable commodity and can have an extraordinarily long and rich vocal career.

I find it helpful when teaching belt style singing to warm up and focus a student’s instrument with a more formalized Italianate vocal technique and from that basis move on to different genres and vocalisms that are appropriate to that particular type of singing style the student has interest in. Good, healthy singing is good, healthy singing. If you add scooping, straight tone and vocal intensity for a particular acceptable stylistic sound, it still needs to be produced well.
In my own career, I have sung everything from musical revue to grand opera. For example, I was chosen as one of twenty singers to compete in The National Finals for the Metropolitan Opera Auditions and within that month I was preparing to move to Florida to be in The Walt Disney Epcot Center ‘s  vocal jazz ensemble; the Voices of Liberty. This professional diversity has provided me with a more consistent employment than the average singer. Some of my pedagogical colleagues would rather denounce the importance of teaching healthy belt technique than admit that their own students are more than likely singing this literature with or without them. I also think that many teachers of singing are unable to produce a sturdy and pleasant belt sound and therefore do not want to deal with the teaching of this technique.

I had the opportunity to study belt technique one on one with Dr. David Alt of the Frost School of Music at Miami University. He was able to get me to belt high F’s (F5) without vocal fatigue in a one hour session. His ability to speak to me pedagogically and muscularly has helped immensely in my own teaching. Three areas of focus when belting that I find to be the most beneficial are:

• the use of a modified and flattened colloquial vowel structure;
• an extended laryngeal length; and
• a higher zygomatic lift in one’s approach to optimal embouchure and positioning.

These three areas of focus help the singer sound as though they are using a full muscular belt when in actuality there is some register blending going on and therefore the singer is less prone to vocal fatigue and undue wear and tear.

Vocal health and coordination is elementally vital in the discovery of one’s optimum singing expression. Some students would prefer to take a short-cut in technical vocal development and merely sing what they heard on the radio. These singers are liable to have an abruptly shortened career or develop some very undesirable side-effects along their professional road. Singing is a long-term process, much like a good golf swing or playing a difficult instrument like the violin. Singers can be tempted to sing by imitation only, especially in that the typical singer has an innate ability to mimic, and to mimic well.