The Pressed Voice.

My first singing teacher, Beryl Mann, was a superb technician.  Trained by Roy Henderson in London, she understood the voice and gave me a good technique. I then went to university and was put in the hands of a singing teacher who did not understand vocal technique. In less than 3 months, he demolished  my voice, leaving me sore and hoarse.  I  could barely sing 3 notes comfortably.  The university thought that I should stop singing, but they left the choice up to me.  I persuaded them to let me return to Beryl Mann, who correctly diagnosed my problem.  Using appogiare technique and semi-occluded-vocal-tract exercises, she was able to restore my voice and confidence.  At the end of my degree, which included a solo vocal recital, the university told me, "You did better than we expected." 

The technique that Beryl Mann gave me has not been altered by any of the teachers I have studied with.  They have added to it, but it is the same technique that Beryl  Mann taught me.  Recently, post Covid 19, I have seen semi-occluded-vocal-tract-technique being talked about by bodies like the Association of Teachers of Singing, as a means of helping people suffering from long covid.   These exercises are not widely enough used, but they must be carefully applied because in the hands of somebody who does not understand vocal technique and advocates the wrong support system, the problem will get worse.   In this article I will outline a simple approach to resolving the problem.

What is Pressed Voice?

In the sixth edition of Greene and Mathieson's 'The Voice and Its Disorders' page 85, pressed voice is defined.

'This vocal quality occurs when the vocal folds are relatively firmly adducted during phonation and there is raised subglottic air pressure. Phonation is effortful and can become uncomfortable if increased loudness is attempted or the voice is used over a long period.  It is usually accompanied by a hard voice onset.  Although a low level of pressed voice can be within normal limits, this vocal behaviour is well  advanced along the normal-disordered continuum to becoming a voice disorder.'

Pressed voice is displayed be the majority of pop and musical singers and by many speakers on the radio and TV; it contributes to the audible 'creak' quality and glottal attack favoured by presenters.  If allowed to develop it may result in short-term hoarseness.  ( In 2025, listening to a Lioness trying to talk on the radio, the day after they won the World Cup, was an uncomfortable experience.)  Over the longer term it will result in a audible 'bleat' quality  Incidently, effortfully clearing your throat stiffens the tone because you are closing the false vocal folds very forcefully.   Try to swallow the hard phlegm or soften it with steam and swallow it.  I hear the pressed  voice in many children's voices, because in the classroom and playground they drive their voices without thinking.  If they are considering auditioning for the cathedral choir, it is often the first problem which I have to address. (The opposite problem would be a breathy voice.) At this stage it will probably take a few days to correct:  the young voice is very forgiving with respect to misuse: it is still growing and maturing - even into the third decade of life. Hydration and rest will restore the voice, but in any training program the voice must first be in a healthy and relaxed state.  It takes a great deal of time and dedicated effort to develop a more serious problem like vocal nodules, the  singer will ignore multiple warning signs.  (Even vocal nodules are often quite easy to treat.)

Exercise 1.  How to Press Your Voice.

Stand in a proud posture, take a deep breath and say, "Uh-ha. One, two, three, four, five."  

This is your normal speech voice.  The effort required is normal and should feel comfortable.

The voice will sound familiar.  The larynx is in a neutral. speech posture.

Now we will deliberately press the voice.  This is not harmful if done just once.

Take a deep breath.  Clasp your hands together and squeeze them hard.  Repeat the sentence,

"Uh-ha.  One, two, three, four, five." 

Relax and unclasp your hands.  You will have used pressed voice.  The larynx is in an upright, neutral posture, the subglottic air-pressure is higher than normal, the focal folds are thicker: the effort required to speak is greater.  The voice will tire quicker.  If you speak whilst lifting or pushing anything heavy your voice will be pressed. This quality used infrequently, is not going to harm your voice. If you express shock or surprise or indignation your voice becomes a little pressed.  If you express pleasure the  voice not be pressed.  In order to create vocal colour we will press or relax the voice.  An angry voice is pressed; a breathy voice is overly relaxed.  The well balanced voice will have the correct support and effort and a balanced glottal attack which does not need great effort. The important thing is to know where the voice is, in terms of balance and to be in control of it.

The Golden Rule.  Always sing comfortably.

I teach singers this rule:  Aim to sing comfortably.   Comfortable tone will develop, uncomfortable tone cannot.  Uncomfortable tone can be used occasionally for dramatic effect, but you must know how to get back to your comfortable tone.  The singer should judge their tone primarily based not on what it sounds like, but by what it feels like.  The ears do not tell you the truth.  You do not hear the sound your voice really makes because your ears are in the wrong place.  If you could take them off and put them on the other side of the room, then you would hear the true sound of your voice.  Unless you have very high quality sound recording equipment you will not know what you sound like.  If you are taught something that does not feel comfortable, STOP.  No responsible singing teacher or choir master should expect you to harm your voice.  You have achieved nothing by producing a sore throat.  Working your voice to the point of exhaustion is harmful.

John Noble's Approach.

As a post-graduate student, I studied with John Noble for a number of years.  Beryl Mann was very thorough and technical in her approach.  Her technique is the core of my technique, I continued to use her exercises while studying with John Noble because his approach was much simpler.   He did not use many warm-up exercises.  However, he was very clever and got a lot of valuable technique into lessons, through the back door.  He was a really good musician and teacher, a brilliant sight-reader and quickly identified vocal problems providing the correct remedial action.  It is his approach that I will use in this lesson.  John would stress three things:  Posture, breathing and diction. (Really strong diction.)  Using these tools you can quickly put the pressed voice right.  For one thing they remove tension in the pharyngeal constrictors:  the muscles you must use when swallowing food or drink.

Posture.

In order to sing or speak comfortably in public a good posture is essential.  Poor posture induces muscular tension and singing is more effortful.  The tone suffers and the vocal range is reduced.

The singer should stand or sit with a long and strong spine.  This is known as 'The Proud Posture'. 

Your posture is so important to the production of your voice and makes such a difference to your tone, stamina and range, that it is surprising that most singers are never taught the fundimentals of good posture. The Italian School of Bel Canto realised that good singing needed good posture and good breathe control and that these two elements work together to produce a good voice. Many singers struggle to achieve adequate breath control because their posture is poor and consequently the breath lacks control. Put simply, the relationship between the breath and posture is this: the breath supports and strengthens the posture and the posture places and controls the breath. The proud posture is good alignment of the head, neck and back, stabilised by the pelvis, legs and feet. It enables you to achieve an effective technique with an economy of effort. Your vocal range will be bigger and your stamina greater.  The voice will be more flexible so you can comfortably sing colloratura.  Your intonation will be more secure and it won't be long before you progress to more advanced work with confidence.  A good posture releases the superior pharyngeal constrictor because the body knows that you are not about to swallow.

Exercise 2.  First Posture Exercise.

Stand erect with your feet about a hip's width apart. Breathe in deeply and quietly and feel the rib cage rise and expand. Notice that the breath strengthens and supports the posture. In turn the stabilised posture prevents the breath from escaping. This is the basis of appoggio breathing technique. The shoulders are relaxed and held a little higher, not because you have pulled them up, but because they sit bouyantly on the air-filled chest. The muscles of the abdominal wall should be allowed to expand as the air comes lower into the body. Lift both arms up above your head, keeping the arms straight. The palms of the hands can be allowed to open so that they facing the ceiling. Press each palm in turn up to the ceiling and do this eight times. You will feel the back elongate and the chest, shoulders, neck and head rise towards the ceiling. You are in effect becoming a little taller. Enjoy the stretch. Having stretched and lengthened your back, you will feel more space between the lowest ribs and the crest of the pelvic girdle. Breathe into that space, deeply and quietly. Let the breathe support the posture and realise that the posture supports the breath. As long as you do not allow the rib cage to collapse, the breath you have cannot go anywhere. Now breathe out. Do not allow the spine to shorten and do not allow the shoulders to drop. Rather let the abdominal muscles, below the rib cage, shorten and drive the air out. Let the hands and arms come down, but do not drop the shoulders or the chest. Perform this exercise three times.

Exercise 3.  Second Posture Exercise.

Stand erect with your feet about a hip's width apart. Breathe in deeply and quietly and feel the rib cage rise and expand. The shoulders are relaxed and held a little higher, not because you have pulled them up, but because they sit bouyantly on the air-filled chest. The muscles of the abdominal wall should be allowed to expand as the air comes lower into the body. Interlace your fingers (as though in prayer) and place the palms of your hands on your head. Rotate the wrists so that the palms of your hands face the ceiling and the knuckles of your hands are on your head. Gently walk each hand up toward the ceiling until the arms and elbows are locked straight. Let the head and the neck lengthen, strengthen and follow the palms of the hands upwards. Having stretched and lengthened your back, you will feel more space between the lowest ribs and the crest of the pelvic girdle. Breathe into that space, deeply and quietly. Let the breathe support the posture and realise that the posture supports the breath. As long as you do not allow the rib cage to collapse, the breath you have cannot go anywhere. Now breathe out. Do not allow the spine to shorten and do not allow the shoulders to drop. Rather let the abdominal muscles, below the rib cage, shorten and drive the air out. Let the hands and arms come down, but do not drop the shoulders or the chest. Perform this exercise three times.

Breathing.

Generally, good singers are athletic people.  When we are running about, we are not storing tension that will adversely affect the voice.   There is an iconic recording of the Allegri Miserere, made by Kings College Choir in 1963.  The treble soloist was Roy Goodman.  I met his mother once and she told me that he had just finished a rugby match, when David Willcocks warmed Roy's voice up and chose him as the soloist.  The physical exercise probably gave Roy an advantage in the audition process.  His voice displays superb sob and twang technique which the English Chorister needs.  Roy's top C's sound so pure and so effortless.

The balance between muscular effort and breath control is exceedingly complex.  Somebody once said that the flow of air through the human larynx is so complex it is like the flow of air through the modern turbo-fan jet engine.  That person may have been Ingo TItze, who started his career with Boeing Aircraft but became a world authority on the human voice.  This complexity means that in order to sing higher and lighter notes we use less air, not more, and we must not push the breath into the voice.  If we do then we are pressing the voice.  We must learn to breathe diaphragmatically and intercostally and not use a costal breathing pattern, characterised by the shoulders pumping up and down and a noisy breath in.  The rule is this:  Breath that is placed low in the body we can control, but breath that sits high in the rib-cage we must release, generally as a breathy tone.

In order to achieve the balanced vocal  onset which the chorister needs, you must get the vocal folds to abduct and then adduct properly.  The elastic recoil created by the Bernoulli effect inside the glottis, ensures that the vocal folds ripple on a stream of breath comfortably.

Exercise 4.   Three Breathing Exercises.

i.  Stand in the proud posture, with your feet placed approximately a hip’s width apart so that your weight is evenly distributed.  Check that your shoulders and neck are relaxed.  Keep your head level and balanced.  .  Make a fist and place the knuckle of the thumb on the solar plexus.  Take a deep breath and feel the abdominal wall bear outwards.  Make three short ‘vee’ tones, followed by a fourth long ‘vee’ tone which is sustained for nine seconds.  Monitor the support which is provided by the lotta vocale and can be felt with the knuckle on the solar plexus.  The proud posture should be maintained throughout the exercise.  

ii.  Stand in the proud posture, with your feet placed approximately a hip’s width apart so that your weight is evenly distributed.  Check that your shoulders and neck are relaxed.  Keep your head level and balanced.  .  Make a fist and place the knuckle of the thumb on the solar plexus.  Take a deep breath and feel the abdominal wall bear outwards.  Make three short, buzzy ‘zzz’ tones, followed by a fourth long buzzy ‘zzz’ tone which is sustained for twelve seconds.  Monitor the support and maintain the proud posture.

iii.  Stand in the proud posture, with your feet placed approximately a hip’s width apart so that your weight is evenly distributed.  Check that your shoulders and neck are relaxed.  Keep your head level and balanced.  .  Make a fist and place the knuckle of the thumb on the solar plexus.  Take a deep breath and feel the abdominal wall bear outwards.  Make three short ‘dg’ tones (as in ‘fudge’), followed by a fourth long ‘dg’ tone which is sustained for fifteen seconds.  Monitor the support and maintain the proud posture.

Most beginners will find the third ‘dg’ breath management exercise too long to begin with.  If that is the case then adjust the exercise to shorter fourth tones of six, nine and twelve seconds.

The point of doing these exercises is to warm up the breath.  The voice will work more comfortably on a warmed up breath-stream. The act of breathing releases the lower pharyngeal constrictor muscles because the larynx drops opening the glottis and the body knows that you are not about to swallow.

Vocal glides and sirens on a humm are also useful warm-up exercises.  These stretch and relax the vocal folds.  Google:  Ingo Titze Straw Exercise for a great instructional video from a world class vocologist.  

Diction. 

Diction is the manner of uttering or enunciating words and sounds; your elocution.  Good diction places and projects the tone naturally.  It brings the tongue forward and releases the middle pharyngeal constrictor muscle, which is the source of tone that the layman would call nasal.  The paradox is this: in order to produce a sonorous and colourful voice, which is strong, flexible and pleasant, the voice must be placed in the singers face or mask.  This produces a slight quality of nasality which only the singer hears. Most singers are taught to avoid any nasality, so they do not place the voice in forward into the mask.  As a consequence the voice is throaty because the middle constrictor muscle produces a twangy quality of tone.  It is endemic in the pop and theatre industry, who place verismo or realism higher than purity of tone.   Choristers do not want to produce that tone.  They must create an open throat and control the tongue.  The tongue is a big muscle and should not be allowed to sit on the larynx underneath, it has to be released and brought forward out of the back of the throat.  Good diction will achieve that.  John Noble would say two things to me in lessons:

1,  Articulate for England.

2.  Use your words like machine gun bullets.

He knew from practical experience that the singer has to work really hard on improving their diction.  It will feel as though you are overdoing it; but you are not.  You are just getting up to the start-line.  Your voice will grow. The funny thing is that your ears will not tell you how well you are doing.  The first thing a singer should do is learn their words.  Practise reading aloud the song you are going to sing.  If you cannot read it, then you cannnot sing it. It won't happen on the day.  Practise. Practise. Practise.  It is a fact that most people's diction is poor.  Of relevence is Pacchierotti's statement,  " Pronounce clearly and your singing will be pefect."  ("Pronunciate chiaramente, ed il vostro sara perfetto.")  Measurements taken from the spoken and sung voice by William Vennard in the 1960's confirm that the energy and duration of the consonants must be raised when singing in order to match the increased energy on which the voice is carried.  Most singing teachers do not know this.  (Most singing teachers have never bothered to read deeply into the subject.)

This concludes the singing lesson.  Put John Noble's advice into practise and you should notice an improvement in your voice in a short time.  If you wish to receive vocal tuition please contact me.  There are other vocal exercises which I teach you, which will ensure vocal improvement and longetivity.

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10.2025 Copyright Jonathan Jessop.