Female Musical Theatre Belting in the 21st Century
Tuesday 1st April 2025, 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM (London Time)
The female musical theatre belt sound originated on the Broadway stage in 1930, mostly associated with Ethel Merman and her vocal performance of the song “I Got Rhythm,” in the Gershwin musical, Girl Crazy. In the almost 100 years since the origin of the female musical theatre belt voice, the sound has become almost synonymous with Broadway itself, and has continued to develop and evolve, based on the storytelling needs of the musical theatre artform.
With this in mind, it is imperative that singers and teachers have up to date strategies and techniques to create this exciting vocal production.
This 2-hour short course will begin with a brief discussion of the history and theatrical purpose of the female belt sound. Then, various categories of the female belt sound will be explored and demonstrated, as well as different types of female belt vocal repertoire and roles. During the last portion of the course, vocal exercises to enhance belt voice ability and range will be explained and demonstrated. During this part of the course, participants will be encouraged to sing and personally experience these exercises to enhance their own vocal production and teaching strategies.
🏷️ Price £30 (UK VAT inclusive)
🎥 Recording automatically sent to all who book (even if you cannot attend live)
▶️ Rewatch as many times as you like
📜 Certificate of attendance available
Dr. Christianne Roll
Dr. Christianne Roll received her BFA in musical theatre from New York University, where she was a Tisch Scholar. Her doctorate is from Teachers College, Columbia University, where she focused her research on musical theatre vocal pedagogy.
Attend this course for as little as £22 as part of the Voice Professional Training CPD Award Scheme.
Learn MoreSorry, this is an archived short course...
We have plenty of upcoming short courses coming soon. See details of some of them below or look at the full list of short courses.
Tuesday 13th October 2026
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
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Tuesday 13th October 2026
2:00 PM - 4:30 PM
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3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
(London Time)
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Dr Bridget Sweet-Manternach
Join Dr Bridget Sweet for this 2 hour session as she unpacks this fascinating topic. The purpose of this course is to bring attention to adolescents who experience an estrogen-dominant voice change and to encourage new and holistic ways of thinking about [assigned at birth] female voices. While considering physical changes during adolescence, we will unpack basic vocal anatomy and physiology and then discuss what happens to the vocal mechanism during voice change for females vs. [assigned at birth] males.