Six Voice Qualities

The Figures for Voice™ combine in many ways to create different voice qualities.

Estill Voice Model works with six voice qualities:

• Speech
• Falsetto
• Sob
• Twang (Oral and Nasal)
• Belting
• Opera

Aesthetics

By working with Figures for Voice™ exercises and voice qualities you can adapt your voice to any artistic task you working on. Essentially there are no aesthetics built into the Estill Voice Model. All voice qualities and voice quality variations are acceptable as long as they do not injure the voice.

Belting

Jo Estill might be best known for her research into belting, the voice quality that is often used as part of pop and rock, musical theatre and gospel music.

The word belting originates from the English expression to ‘belt out’: to say or sing something with great force and enthusiam. The term belting, in singing, was often used about the American singer and actor Ethel Merman who created the role of Annie in the first production of Annie Get You Gun. Today belting is needed to perform many musicals and so professional musical theatre performers are required to learn to belt.

In Denmark the word belting was first used in a theatre context when Det Ny Teater (The New Theater) produced the musical Cats, vocal coached by Klaus Møller. The most popular song in the show, ‘Memory’, famously requiries belting in the last section.

All Voice Qualities

However, it is important to remember that the Estill Voice Model is not only about belting but about all the possibilities of the human voice. Today several of international opera singers study with Estill teachers and in the pop and rock world the Estill Voice Training is also widely used.

In Spain Estill Voice Training became nationally known when the contestants in the Spanish version of Pop Idol could be followed each week being taught Estill Voice Training. In many drama schools in the UK Estill Voice Training is also used in the training of the actors’ speaking voices.

The thoroughness of Estill Voice Training and its many clinical applications means it is also used by many speech and language therapists around the world.