What is belt technique? Is it a vocal register or a vocal style? Why does the topic create so much interest? The quickest way to understand why belting is an issue is to look at the results of a woman learning to sing with belt technique properly. It gives her strong, powerful, clear, gutsy even tone right through her low and mid ranges, and creates the sound that both record companies and music theatre directors want. It sells records and theatre tickets. Singers for whom belting is stock in trade include Celine Dion, Barbra Streisand, Tina Arena, Vanessa Amorosi, Shakira, Bette Midler, Whitney Houston, Bernadette Peters, and Judy Garland. Girls who don't use belting include Kyle, Madonna, Olivia Newton-John, The Corrs, Kasey Chambers, Spice Girls, All Saints, Marina Prior, Diana Krall, Billie Holliday.

Belting is controversial because amateurs who try to copy their idols in belting out a song without seeking proper training from a voice teacher will often damage their voice, and produce a harsh, raspy sound that doesn't have the fullness of the harmonic spectrum that comes with open throated belting. Many older, classically oriented voice teachers don't really like modern pop and rock music, so they don't have the interest in studying/teaching belt needed to understand how to do it safely. Their secret agenda usually is to turn all their students into opera students ("Yes, I teach pop and musicals, dear." (Veiled gleam in the eyes) "Why don't we establish the head voice first? It's safer that way...") in the hope that one or two become famous in the genre that is the teacher's greatest love.(ie opera).

So, how to belt? The sound is based on the idea of calling out in the open air to get someone's attention. Start by thinking of a situation where you urgently need to get the attention of a friend who is far away eg in a situation of danger, or if an annoyed mother is calling her children in for dinner for the third time, or if you turn up late for an appointment for coffee only to see your friend walking in the other direction on the other side of the road. The way you would call out in these situations directs energy to the voice such that the vocal folds thicken along their edge and the throat opens widely for resonance naturally, so that a strong, clear, direct sound comes out that is very audible to the target. If you sustain such a strident energised use of the voice on a single pitch, you will be belting a note. This sound can be continued onto regular 5 note scales (eg G A B C D C B A G)

The origins of the technique lie in the work songs used by negro slaves to lessen the boredom of their labours, and to keep some of their cultural heritage from Africa alive. This call and response singing in the outdoors was very powerful, and has parallels in other world musics, such as Bulgarian Womens Choirs. Call and response singing was taken up into the form of early blues singing and gospel styles singing. In the 60s groups such as the Pointer Sisters and black singers like Aretha Franklin drew on gospel and blues backgrounds to bring powerful female vocals into pop music. White singers such as Lulu, Dusty Springfield, Barbra Streisand helped the belt sound become commercial and by the 90s had become widespread as the standard vocal quality for up tempo pop ballads, rock songs and belter roles in musicals.

Belt is one of the four standard options women have in approaching each phrase of a song in contemporary music:

1) Chest register at normal volume.

2) Chest register with power ie belting.

3) Head voice (The operatic soprano sound which is sung with a lighter texture and less vibrato in contemporary singing than in opera.

4) Strengthened low head voice, called the Broadway Mix sound, voix mixte in classical singing, or "blend", or "fake belt/cheat voice".