when you see people on a ship drop anchor what they're doing is making sure their ship doesn't float away with the current so when we talk about anchor for singing that's what we mean making sure we are not having any shakiness when we sing and keeping our laring stable because a lot of air is moving through that tube so in this video I want to specifically talk about anchor for belting however anchoring is applied to singing in general It's just sometimes with belting that high intensity type of performance require more strength from the Torso before we get into more detail about what anchoring means and why it matters let's talk about breathing for belting we can't talk about anchor without talking about breath support So belting is heightened vocal performance with high intensity sound to show an emotional climax in a song it's a voice voice quality it is not a way to produce pitches because you produce pitches here at the vocal folds notice how we didn't mention loudness in the definition of belting so if you are trying to approach belting with loudness you are going to have a hard time with the breathing technique for belting for belting according to Joe Estel minimal air flow is required due to longer closed phases of phonation so with that in mind we cannot be pushing too much air underneath the vocal folds in order to create a belt if you put too much compression underneath the vocal folds what ends up happening is something called excess glottal resistance that will turn into press phonation and that's not a healthy way to Belt it is not sustainable and it doesn't sound good either a pressed phonation sounds like as if you are carrying something really heavy and then you have that grally gritty sound to the vocal folds so when we are belting we want to aim for flow phonation of the vocal folds not breathy not overly pressed and that can be achieved with the right amount of air flow with the right amount of air pressure therefore we need to learn how to control our exhalation many times when people are trying out a belt they are pushing too much air out causing them to strain so how do we fix this we work on our anchor the anchor is our body that is why every time I start with a new student and most vocal coaches do this we have to go over posture your alignment matters cuz without alignment your breathing Technique No matter how many breathing exercises you do no matter how many times you sing through a straw if your alignment is not proper you will have a hard time controlling your exhale as well as your inhale so now that you understand a little bit more about how to breathe for belting anchoring makes more sense because that is how you make sure you don't blow a bunch of air through the vocal folds now when we talk about anchor we really mean a strong torso so your upper body is going to help you stabilize the voice stabilizing the larynx the larynx is able to move up and down when you are belting really high your laryn will want to be elevated higher and higher that is not a bad thing that is what's supposed to happen for a belt quality it creates that yell tamber that we need to classify that as a belt without that tamber it is no longer a belt so how does anchor and breath support go hand in hand if you find yourself just pushing too much air or you run into strain when you try to Belt it's because your body is just pushing a bunch of air out without resisting that air if your torso or your alignment is not strong what ends up happening when you try to sing when you try to Exhale you collapse the body dropping your posture making your lungs push all that air out however if you have good alignments and you have strong back muscles as well as pectoral muscles you are able to take tension away from the throat as well as providing that counterbalance when the larynx need to go really high and even if you're singing a high note without the belt quality and your larynx is more in a neutral position we still need that anchor to support the breath when we inhale we expand the rib cage 360° that includes the back and when we exhale we essentially want to lean outwards making sure that the rib cage doesn't close in too quickly if it does too much air will escape too quickly that is how you manage or control your breathing so that is why anytime I work with a student and they start to get shaky with their belting I always ask them oh what do we need to fix why is it shaky it's usually their anchor their anchor is their posture so now let's go over posture I know it seems very basic but everyone seems to forget about this and this is something you need to work on every sing single day whether you're a beginner or whether you are a pro because our body changes every day as we age our body is different as well so let's start from the top of our heads and go down okay your head should be sitting nicely on top of your neck that means you are not lunging forward with the chin and it's not overly tucked backwards like this sitting nicely on top of your neck over your heart your shoulders should be squared to the side and pull it back just a little bit so that you open up your chest area your pectoral muscles matter in singing okay next bring your attention to your hips I want you to tuck your hips under however can you tuck it under as well as lift it up most of the time when I say tuck the hips under we overly tuck it and then we're in this weird jutting out motion of the hips no we need nice straight alignment imagine as if your tailbone is trying to reach the ground and then we're going to lengthen our spine we already talked about the tailbone trying to reach the ground can you get the crown of your head to pull up towards the ceiling specifically the crown of the head there you go that is good posture just keep in mind that everybody's body is different if you have any back injury you're going to have a difficult time with this part okay you just need to find a way to align yourself and keep your chest in a strong High position that doesn't mean high like this I mean in a proud or Noble position and another way to keep your chest in a high position when you breathe when you belt is to get your sternum to stay up a good way to do this is get your fingers on both hands to go into the sternum like this and all you do is press in and then scoop up for some people this might be a little bit more challenging to some people this might come naturally you just got to find a way to get your chest to be open and a little bit raised up without overarching the back great so that is your alignments and in order for you to have a strong torso to have strong muscles in the upper back to support your breath you need to work on strengthening those muscles how do you strengthen those muscles I like to do yoga I like to do Pilates specifically when the Pilates or yoga instructor asks me to do a plank position and you don't just stay there in plank position you push up rounding your upper B really activating those muscles and the reason why those muscles matter is because the sternal clom mastoid and the scaly muscles are responsible to help you breathe to be more specific they are responsible to help open up the rib cage to allow the diaphragm to drop so that there's an aerodynamic pull of air to go into your lungs so if you have back tension like I do I carry a lot of stress into my shoulders what we need to do is stretch those muscles out as well as strengthening those muscles so when I'm going to belt or when I'm trying to practice my belt I really need to think about breathing into my upper back really feeling that stretch and as I go to Belt I don't want to push all that air out and I know that if I end up collapsing my body or I'm too slouched that's how I know I'm going to overly push so as I inhale into my upper back and I go to sing I try to keep my upper back expanded as if I am growing wings and growing my wings more and more and more while I sing great so that is anchor anchor for belting anchor is basically your posture your body helping you to support your breath support So this comes in handy when you really want to work on sustaining a belt holding a note out for a very long time when I'm working on The Wizard and eye the ending is pretty challenging because not only are you belting high you're in a mixed belt you also have to sustain after singing for a very long time okay so it goes the wizard and okay that's a really long time on top of that I really wanted to add that vibr at the end there and that's essentially just oscillating between two notes not really pushing more air so if I find myself pushing more air to finish off that belt with a vibr then I'm doing something incorrect with my posture with my anchor okay so notice how I really have to align myself pull myself up Square my shoulders and think about my upper back and I'll tell you what I'm doing before each note to help you out okay what I'm thinking inside my head so for that part I'm belting already I'm breathing in just quick not a deep breath just a quick breath the wizard great and I Breathe Again a quick breath not a deep breath because if I do a deep breath it's too much compression underneath the vocal folds so the next part I only have one second to breathe in but in that second I really have to open up my body inhale and then sing with that short amount of air supply yes you can belt and sustain a belt with a shorter amount of air supply again it's because minimal air flow is needed due to longer closed phases of phonation we just did The Wizard open my upper back my rib cage opens my lower belly drops my pelvic floor opens okay but I do not hold my breath that's the key do not hold your breath and then we got to sing okay up there straight up to that D5 the wizard and the so sometimes doing this motion really helps remind me to stay open laterally with my rib cage as well as pretending I'm growing wings in the back all right I hope you enjoyed this video and that it was helpful to you and that you have a little bit more understanding on what anchor is you can apply this to your singing today it's your posture but sometimes we forget about it when we're in the middle of practice and we're really focused right just be careful not to to slump over or to slouch or to squeeze no squeezing at all when you are belting keep your posture up anchor your laryn so that you're not shaky and you should be good to go thank you so much for watching that's all for now and I'll see you next time