laura,
you are right in thinking that sub-glottal pressure has to do with breath management. as the vocal folds resist the air in the lungs more (in either getting louder or, higher or, both), the air has no place to go so, it 'baloons' below the glottis. if too much of this air gets pushed towards the glottis, the result is pressed phonation. on the other end of the spectrum would be no pressure, resulting in no sound (specifically, no bernouli effect). there is also the third possibility of too much pressure and too much resistance resulting in a grunt or an unfortunate embarrassment.
mike
|