How trumpet-like is female Broadway belting?

Belting is a powerful vocal technique frequently employed in Broadway performance, yet variations of belting remain underrepresented in scientific literature. One initial objective is to study the spectral variation of belting among young professional singers and compare it to a trumpet spectrum.

This study investigated source-vocal tract interaction in five female belters performing three phrases ("Here I Go," "Here I Am," "I Am Here") using three vowels on two pitches within the C5-D♯5 range. Audio and video recordings were analyzed using Praat and Voce Vista to examine harmonics, estimate resonance frequencies, and generate some approximations to vocal tract shapes and inertagrams to assess source-filter interaction.

Singers demonstrated consistent vowel modification and vocal tract adjustments to reinforce the sound source and produce a trumpet-like belt quality. Spectral analysis revealed a mix/belt strategy positioning multiple harmonics between resonances, amplifying up to four harmonics, closely resembling a trumpet spectrum. Inertagrams and estimated area functions supported these findings.

Female Broadway belting is acoustically brass-like, characterized by reduced fundamental frequency dominance and balanced reinforcement of the 2nd-4th harmonics. These insights inform evidence-based approaches to sustainable belting in pedagogy and performance.