“Belting” is a term that seems to postdate Garcia. By the end of his life, he may have heard the term used, but I have no knowledge of him ever using the terms “Belt” or Belting” in anything he wrote down.
In technical terms, to belt is to sing with a brilliant sound which is almost always the result of “Chest Voice”. Ladies belt by singing in chest voice above the normal chest register. Garcia argues against this practice in terms of taste as well as vocal health. Guys belt most of the time without intending to do so. The chest register for boys is all there is for registers, but the function of falsetto can be imposed anywhere in the male voice. (see What’s The Buzz) A boy who can’t belt is a boy who is confused or, in the case of Donald O’Conner singing with Ethel Merman:
we have a boy who sounds like he is in love. This duet is a great side by side comparison of boys “Falsetto” in his “Chest Register” next to a girls “Chest Voice” in every register visited.
Because of the advent and improvements to amplification, Broadway singers are no longer required to learn how to produce enough sound with their vocal apparatus to be autonomous artists. These days, mikes are small enough to be hidden and advanced enough to be high fidelity even wirelessly. The need for what would have been defined in the theatrical music business as a “good voice” 100 years ago, even 50 years ago is now dead.
Here are a couple of examples of “Belting” in the traditional manner:
Did you catch Jolson’s reference to a guy by the name of Melchior? I’ll let you know what I think he meant by it in a blog… I hope to get it done in 2013. I will link to it when I publish it. Until then on with the next example of old style belting:
Here we have a compilation of some examples of the modern equivalent:
You Tube keeps serving up helpful stuff.
So what’s the difference between modern and traditional “Belting” and belters?
Most of the moderns need the mike no matter what the venue. Back in the old days mikes were hard to find, and who needed them anyway? Back then the actual decibels produced used to be a BIG factor in the STYLE of singing called “Belting”. If you were a successful belter before 1950 you made a lot of noise. It would seem that today’s “Belting” is a pale reminder of the “Great Belting” of the past. If your “Belting” needs a mike to be heard, someone from the pre 1950 vocal world would probably say that you don’t really have a voice. I would lamentably agree.
We modern vocal types have to be thankful that the mike existed back in the days of traditional values. Because of that technology those great Belters could be documented on the recording media of the day.
