The "Does my voice pass?" thread

[Jennygirl]

Well my voice passed on the phone this morning as I was ordering some stuff from the metal supply store, I got my first ma'am over the phone! It felt pretty great.

I definitely questioned myself a little on the voice surgery I'm having in two weeks- but really the main reason I'm doing it is because I want to have the right voice around people I knew from before, too, without thinking or concentrating which leads to a major lack of self confidence for me.. and I immediately revert back. Seems like such a huge ongoing problem for most girls and I don't want to deal with it if I don't have to.

Either way, I know that voice surgery is not just a quick fix- you still have to train the other parts like resonance, word choice, inflection, etc. So, I have no regrets either way even if I am able to already pass vocally. Pretty much the only thing the surgery will fix is pitch, which will be a great help when laughing, talking loudly, and other subtle things.

Plus I cannot wait to sing alto/soprano

[Jamie Marie]

Okay here is another try with a longer voice sample. I feel it still needs lots of work and I plan to go to a speech therapist but would still love some feedback.I dont think pitch will be a problem but some other things are and I usually tend to talk rather quiet and soft normally.

http://dirtyneeds.asuscomm.com/transition/audio/Voice0051-0430.mp3

Thanks for the feedback

[Noah]

Jamie, thats quite good! I think you sound female already.

[Jamie Marie]

Thanks Di that cheered me up. Maybe I'm worrying about it too much.

[Jennygirl]

Yeah Jamie you sound great! Well done

Also Di I love the new avatar!

[Noah]

Jamie, you sound especially female when you say your name! So focus on what you're doing there and keep cycling that word until you understand what your throat is doing when you say it like that and then you can talk like that all the time. Though I do think your voice is passable now, already. Personally, working with one word was a huge help. I would find the voice and then just say the word over and over until it sounded female to me. Doing this is what helped me find my voice. You need to practice every day for hours...haha its ok its fun and you are changing into your new self. But since you already have a good voice, just keep on doing these things in order to develop it fully. I found my voice 4 months ago but of course it keeps developing and changing into something better. My challenge recently, before my most recent upload, was to really push my voice into being "full" and not to sound at all contrived or controlled. Your voice still sounds sort of squelched in some ways, like you don't have free reign with it. That is the number one problem with our altered voices if you ask me. We need to be totally inside our voices with all the complex and full changes and body of a voice. This was really hard for me to do because in order to have the voice sound right I had to do lots of complex and mysterious throat clenching, rising, breathing, etc etc haha...its hard and when you get the voice you get scared of letting go or you might lose it. But with practice you just develop that part of your voice and throat and it is second nature. I would experiment with finding the voice and then opening it up...what I did was go to the sightly higher voice I had been using, get my resonance under control, and then slowly let it settle by relaxing my throat in some ways. This is all very vague but in essence I was just trying to shape my voice into something less restrictive...it worked and I think it helped me get a voice that is easy to use and passable and not pinched. Your voice is great, but in my experience we just keep perfecting it until its wholly our own natural voice...x

Jenny: Thank you! I just took that picture the other day and I thought it was pretty. I have changed so much in 8 months...crazy!

[mariondaly]

Wow  thanks for the input!

I've made some progress but I really can't tell, which one is better?

a: http://vocaroo.com/i/s13pKhZM36Nf (In case you can't tell, I get bored with the repetitiveness of voice practice and get VERY silly)
b: http://vocaroo.com/i/s046YQOknyIe

@Jamie you sound great

[Jamie Marie]

Thanks for the feedback  everyone.

BTW Di thanks for your thoughtful post it was very well put. I don't have any idea what I do different with my name but I'll ask my friends this weekend while I get out to explore my boundaries.

Marion it might just be me but the second one sounds like you have a sore throat if that makes any sense I guess like straining to talk. Or after a long practice session.Mine gets like that after singing which I have a newfound interest in after about 10 minutes of practice.

The first one is slightly higher pitched but the words seem to flow out smoothly and you sound relaxed especially since you are goofing around or being silly as you say. I don't know if you sing to your favorite songs but I work in a factory that's a bit loud and I can sing, be goofy, and talk to myself and nobody even hears it which is great practice especially when being goofy because it relives the tension.
Are you really tense or relaxed? I find that I have trouble with practicing my voice unless I'm relaxed otherwise it's kinda raspy and broken.

The second seems hurried also but it might just be me I haven't sleep much this week.

I think that came out right if not you can pinch me...

[Zeda]

I have another recording and I feel that I have not made much progress (I may have digressed .__. )

http://vocaroo.com/i/s0OFvY0mjx7y

I am trying to work out problems as quickly as I can, now. I challenged myself to three interviews next week The interviews aren't too important as they are for a programming contest in France and I was only participating for fun, but it would be cool to have my voice ready in time.

[mariondaly]

So I dropped the falsetto and just took my normal voice and upped it a tiny bit... I can't tell if this is better or worse

http://vocaroo.com/i/s0Ei3U7Oaop6

[Jamie D]

Actually, I like it!

[yanping]

I recorded a poem on my voice exercises

https://soundcloud.com/yanping-chimie-soong/vocal-chords

A version where I try to add a "girl trill"

https://soundcloud.com/yanping-chimie-soong/vocal-chords-2

[Rowan Rue]

Ok, so the only thing I feel like I've lost as a result of transitioning is my ability to sing.  I had been getting quite good in my male range and loosing that has been one of the hardest things for me to deal with as I really love singing.
Anyway, I intend to get it back so I've been practicing quite a lot.
These samples are my trying to connect my upper range to my falsetto range and not have it be an obvious transition.  I've also been woring really hard to make sure my falsetto doesn't sound like falsetto!
Abviously these are really rough and I'm mostly of key but....oh god I can't believe I'm posting these.

Regina Spektor - Fidelity (starts and finishes really rough, this one is really hard for me)
https://soundcloud.com/rowan-rhys/sets/fidelity

Feist - My Moon, My Man 1
https://soundcloud.com/rowan-rhys/my-moon-1

Feist - My Moon, My Man 2
https://soundcloud.com/rowan-rhys/my-moon-2

If anyone has some singing specific tips I'd love to hear them.
Thanx

*goes and hides*

[mariondaly]

@fierce

Took your advice...

http://vocaroo.com/i/s0GZWdcGGwUZ

I'm not sure how it sounds :|

[Erik Ezrin]

Marion, you really sound female to me! And not even forced or anything, awesome!

Is there also a way for FtM's to sound more manly? As I cannot get on T anytime soon, but my voice is bugging the living daylight out of me. I feel like I just CANNOT pass with the voice I have now, which just screams "GIRL" ):

[Zeda]

@marion: You sound so wonderful! My spouse says it sounds 'a lot more girlish than the other ones I've heard.' ^_^ Excellent!

I have yet to figure out how to get my voice to work. After working 8 hours non-stop, trying to follow a bunch of advice, I got nowhere (The advice was clear, I just couldn't quite manage to work it out properly). I may have made some progress yesterday, but I had too many exams so I didn't have much time to practice.

@yanping: You do sound a little forced, but it is sounding nice!

@Rowan: The first link says that the set couldn't be found. You still sound kind of guyish in the song, but I am not sure how to fix it (I cannot sing either way ) It might be that it is too breathy and quiet. For a quiet female singing voice, I *think* I would expect it to sound clear and unobstructed (the breath adds a hiss that obstructs the sound, if that makes sense). I think that would be good for a louder voice, too, actually. Another difficult hurdle might be to handle all of the rapid vocal changes which means you will need some fairly decent control over your range. It is one thing to switch back and forth from a low and high range, but to switch to a different notes in the same range (especially the upper range for us), will require some real control x.x

@Erik: Hi! I am really not that good with voices, but do you have a recording so that others might be able to listen to it an give advice? The FtM guys I know seem to focus more on male speech patterns before T. Doing some quick Googling, I found this.
Also, the milk thing is interesting. From my own experience, I have had occasions where I needed to further masulinise my voice and so I typically do the following:
-Hum and go as low as I can.
-Work out the throat muscles to try to go even lower.
-For me, I go until my voice breaks.
-At this point, my voice gets very gravelly, the pitch is lowered, and I sometimes get a southern drawl

I am not sure if this technique is anatomy specific, so it might not work unless your body has been masculinised, but if it does work, it might also help train your voice to be lower for the long term.

Also, try to yawn before doing those steps so that you get an idea of where the muscles are in your throat that you need to control.

[mariondaly]

Zada, I've found practicing too much just hurts things, make them worse. ><

I do 30min, sometimes an hour a day and I try to practice randomly throughout.


@everything thanks, nice to know I'm making progress

[Erik Ezrin]

Thanks for the tips Zeda
I found that too, probably because T fixes all problems concerning voice, and -or so I've heard- lowering your voice is a lot harder than making it higher.
I tried the milk think, but noticed no difference. Probably because I drink quite a lot through the coarse of the night (I get thirsty pretty quickly, so I have a bottle of water next to my bed)
And I'll give those things a shot! It'll take quite a while before I can even start T (I'm not even out yet, then have to go through the therapeutic mill, and then hopefully get permission to start T), and I can't really pass with my voice as it is now. So anything to help, even if it's just a bit, is appreciated

[Jennygirl]

Marion- YES you are sounding great

Rowan- I think your voice sounds like it's not getting enough support from the diaphragm, so it sounds kind of windy and not loud / sustained enough. Try breathing down like you're filling your stomach with air. Maybe standing would help a lot, too (if you were sitting during the recording).

Also a good exercise is humming. It's the hardest way to control your singing voice, it automatically relaxes everything, and you can hear yourself really well all at the same time. Might be a good exercise for developing a female singing voice, too.

These are just a few tips I remember my mother giving people during their voice lessons I am totally down to offer more tips, I just don't want it to seem like I'm trying to overload you or something!

[Zeda]

Here is my latest attempt that I made a few minutes ago .__.
http://vocaroo.com/i/s19W9eTaNUbQ
I tried three different ways of using my voice and I have been working at it for so long now, that I forgot what the mistakes sound like so I need fresh ears.

I feel like I am beating my head against a wall trying to get past the falsetto-y guy voice D: