Hopefully, you now have some notes in your journal exploring the following (and more):

• What did you feel in the body?

• How did the sound change?

• What happens if you try making a variety of primal sounds in monkey pose?

For primal voice, what is really important is that you don’t set yourself up to fail by trying to follow previously-learned rules or instructions such as "stand up straight” or “expand your ribs”, because by definition this takes you out of the primal voice state, which is one of reflexive, not pre-meditated vocalisation. If you issue instructions to your body before you sing, you will be in a state of anticipating the act of singing, which is not what we really want. Primal voice basically means that sound appears as a response to a body-level instinct, not an intellectual instruction.

So how do we get the body ready for primal singing, without telling it to be ready? Good question!

One way is to move as you vocalise. Now, "movement" doesn't mean pre-determined dance routines. It can be pretty much anything from gently bouncing in Monkey Pose, to walking up and down the room, but in an alert state (note: no slumping - imagine a cat stalking a bird), swaying from side to side, or repeatedly throwing a ball against a wall and catching it. In all of these cases your head will need to be well aligned with your spine. Remember, primal voice happens when the body has an impulse to vocalise, and that impulse must come from within a body that is properly aligned and energised.

The main thing to remember right now is that belt is essentially a primal sound, borne of a desire to communicate something with both high energy and high emotion.

We can make this as complicated as we like and talk about formants, harmonics, laryngeal height and mouth-to-head ratios all day but ultimately, what a singer needs to understand is the feeling of belt when it’s done safely. We’ve all made high energy, high emotion sounds in our lives, and in learning to belt efficiently, we will learn to tap into that mechanism - it’s already an instinctive, primal part of our vocal capability.