Singing in Shared Spaces
Are you a singer who loves an audience, whether it’s your fluffy cat, the people in the car next to you as you’re singing you way down the highway, or the people who live in the apartment below you - doesn’t everyone just love a good Broadway tune?!
Or are you a singer who dreads singing in front of other people, at least when you’re warming up or practicing, knowing your voice might crack or sound a little wobbly while you learn a new song? More power to the the fearless singers who love any type of audience they can get their hands on!
But most us fall into the second category. Most of us don’t want anyone to hear us flub a note, crack, or when we are singing in something like a “puppet voice," or “bratty kid voice” (my students know all about this, ha ha!) to tap into and develop a placement.
I was living in NYC and auditioning several times a week when I made the investment in “the beltbox.” I was doing a lot of singing and the walls of my very old and rickety Washington Heights apartment were thin. Aside from that, there often wasn’t a space to warm up at auditions, and I would go in the bathroom hoping to run the hardest parts of my song…but of course bathrooms tend to have acoustics conducive to creating reverb, therefore making you even louder!
Enter “the beltbox.” As you can see in the video (because I think the difference in sound is more easy to SEE than HEAR on the video), using the beltbox can and does dramatically cut how loud you are singing to world around you. It can’t make your voice disappear (and we wouldn’t want that, how would we know we’re singing in tune, or well at all?!), but the dampening of sound is good enough that if you’re worried about roommates or neighbors hearing you, you mind can be put at ease for the most part. You can sing those high notes or loud notes in the bathroom, and while people will hear a muffled voice, it’s not going to be a situation where you better nail it because everyone and their mama is going to hear it!
I love the Beltbox because it’s easy to use, washable, and most importantly, does dramatically reduce the decibel level of the sounds coming out of your mouth.
What I don’t love is that you have to hold it, which can get tiring (there is a strap option, but it didn’t work for me, maybe you’ll have better luck with it). The other very important thing to note is that because your sound is dampened, you will feel the sensation of needing to sing stronger, and it’s very easy to get to a place where you’re pushing and straining because you’re USED TO hearing yourself louder when you’re singing at a certain air pressure and support level. Suddenly those power notes sound weak, and your ears, voice, and brain all need to get the message that they need to switch off the general response they have of “you’re not delivering enough, sing louder.” Once you get the hang of that, the beltbox is definitely the self-conscious singer’s friend. Use it for those tricky and silly warm ups, those power passages of the song you’re working on, use it in hotel rooms when you’re singing on the road.
Nowadays, I sometimes use the beltbox for something else entirely. Many of you know that I suffer from a rare disease called idopathic subglottic stenosis. One of the side effects of this disease is the need to cough often, and loudly. I am very self-conscious of some of the loud coughs I have to do to clear my airway for easier breathing. I will cough into the beltbox sometimes and feel pleased with myself to imagine that noone passing by my window heard it!
Check out how it works and sounds in my video, and let me know your thoughts. Do you use the Beltbox or anything like it? How does it work for you?