Summary
Purpose
Current research on the female belt voice has generally been limited to the range
of C5, which is not representative of the current requirements on Broadway. Additionally,
much belt research uses voice teachers or college students. The goal of this study
was to acoustically examine both higher and lower belt ranges in 10 women who have
performed belt roles on Broadway during the last decade.
Method
We analyzed the long-term average spectrum of the middle stable portion of three belted
pitches, one from a lower, more traditional belt song and two from a higher, more
contemporary belt song. The dB levels of the first three peaks in the long-term average
spectrum corresponding to the first three harmonics were extracted and compared across
tasks. Age, professional roles played on Broadway, and self-perceived belt strategy
were obtained via interview to find potential unifying factors in resonance strategies.
Results
Overall, the dB level of the peaks closest to the second and third harmonics were
higher than the peak close to the fundamental frequency. The difference between peaks
was statistically greater in the lower belt compared to both higher belt tasks, indicating
these singers relied more on a single harmonic in the lower belt range than the higher
belt range. In the higher belt range, there was less variability between peaks. No
patterns emerged between resonance strategies and demographic information.
Conclusions
Elite female belters use varying resonance strategies to create commercially viable
belt sounds in different belt ranges.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: November 05, 2018
Accepted:
October 11,
2018
Identification
Copyright
© 2018 The Voice Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
