The "Does my voice pass?" thread

[Noah]

Okay so...thank You Paige and Isabelle for the great guidance with resonance...I feel like I am making progress but not sure...definitely a HUGE difference to my last file I uploaded....let me know

https://soundcloud.com/user443462524/voice-4

[Shawn Sunshine]

Noah your website is very well put together btw, just wanted to say I liked it. Oh and wow and your voice sounds chipper and very female.

[Kupcake]

Hey Anita!

I'm glad I'm not the only Indian here (mom is Indian, father is Parsi).  If you can count me as one, that is . . .  Have you ever heard the term ABCD?  That's me!

I think you're doing pretty good.  You actually sound like a lot of my Aunties.  I wouldn't really be able to tell the difference.

A lot of Indian women speak with a slightly different voice, and I think you're pretty close to matching.  They also tend to have a different overall tone.  I can't really describe it.  I guess the easiest way to explain it is that a lot of American women tend to use a more "girly" voice throughout their whole lives.  Most Indian women, on the other hand, have a much more full-bodied, womanly voice.  It's not less feminine, just a little more mature-sounding.  People have this strange idea that voices are all completely natural and purely the product of biology.  Culture contributes so much to it, though.

The only comment I would make is that I can detect a little bit of your strain on a few syllables here and there, but that's mainly because you told us to listen for it.  Honestly, things like pitch and resonance are very important.  But in my opinion, the most important thing?  Making the voice sound natural and unforced, and you only get that through patience and diligence.  I think whatever you're doing has you on the right track.  Just keep practicing.

[Ms. OBrien CVT]

WOW!  Noah, you like a woman I know, Lucille Sorella.   You should not have any problems.

[Noah]

Thank you both! And Shawn, I appreciate that you checked out my site...its very important to me! I appreciate the feedback. It feels great to hear that my voice has made true progress!

[Stephe]

Thank you both! And Shawn, I appreciate that you checked out my site...its very important to me! I appreciate the feedback. It feels great to hear that my voice has made true progress!

Yep, it sounds great!

[Stranger]

Noah, I don't know about the technique others use to remove chest resonance but one thing I find helpful is tilting my head back, so I'm looking at the ceiling, then swallow, you'll notice your voice box get very tight in this position. This is how you need to hold your voice box, it limits the vibrations to the upper throat area as opposed to the chest. Next you just need to raise your pitch. Not by much, just a little combined with a tightened voice box seems to do the trick. In the last few months I've been doing a lot if speaking in front of groups of people, without a microphone. This has been a really awesome "sink or swim" type training situation. I'm not saying "my" way is the right way but, it seems to work without any trouble at all.

I have a question about the voice box (I guess you'd call it a mechanical question!)

When I raise my voice box, my pitch goes up. Because my male speaking voice was already fairly high (around 150hz), it only takes a little "up" to get to 220hz, and past that I sound a little forced and silly.
When I tighten my voice box, the strain and concentration seem to make it harder to control my pitch, and I'm not sure if I'm actually improving my resonance as a result. Here's a sample of me reading the first line of the nearest book (One Hundred Years of Solitude) three times. The first time, I tried constantly to keep it tight; the second time, I relaxed the tightness; the third time, I deliberately slackened those muscles while I spoke at pitch.

https://soundcloud.com/user90683091/solitude

Personally, I think the first one sounds too high-pitched, but I still want to improve on the resonance of the other attempts...

So I guess my question is: how do we manage the precarious relationship between pitch, resonance, and the position of the voice box? Is it possible I'm just moving it in the "wrong" way? basically I just try to hold it at the height of a swallowing arc (allowing enough space to breathe!).

If anyone can help out, I will be giddy and delighted

https://soundcloud.com/user90683091/solitude

[PaigeM]

Okay so...thank You Paige and Isabelle for the great guidance with resonance...I feel like I am making progress but not sure...definitely a HUGE difference to my last file I uploaded....let me know

https://soundcloud.com/user443462524/voice-4

Noah, I listened to your newest recording and then your older ones again, and I think your progress is amazing! Keep it up!

Paige

[Stephe]

Personally, I think the first one sounds too high-pitched, but I still want to improve on the resonance of the other attempts...

https://soundcloud.com/user90683091/solitude

The first does sound strained, the second is closer to my ears. Not far off with practice.

[Stranger]

Thanks Stephe. I guess I'm still hoping to stumble across a technique that brings about that "ah-ha" moment, the one that makes the difference between "possibly a girl with an odd voice" and "yep, that's a girl"

I've read so much about raising the voicebox for resonance, but when I consciously move mine all I really seem to do is raise the pitch.  When I speak so that I really feel the vibrations in my forehead, my pitch then becomes far too high; when I go back down to the right pitch, I feel it mostly in my throat... tricky!

I do probably need to stop comparing my voice to that of my cis GF. I record us alongside, note that our pitch is close (actually hers slightly lower) but her voice sounds so much more compact, and come away convinced I'm nowhere near.

[Sybil]

It takes a lot of practice and may be difficult to understand, but try speaking from the back of your throat above your vocal cords. It really takes a lot of talking to do that effortlessly. Once you do, you can mix that with tightening your vocal cords, speaking towards the front of your face, and making your throat smaller (moving your voice box up a bit higher).

There's so much to it. You just have to learn each one at a time until you're awesome at it and then learn to mix them all together. Just use your voice as much as you can and play around with it a lot!

Just don't hurt yourself, or the damage will build up and lower the quality of your voice.

[Stephe]

Thanks Stephe. I guess I'm still hoping to stumble across a technique that brings about that "ah-ha" moment, the one that makes the difference between "possibly a girl with an odd voice" and "yep, that's a girl"

Breathing is critical, you have to breath from your diaphram. Most guys chest breath. It changes how much air volume you have to work with. Women use more air to talk with, they speak longer between breaths and it just "flows". Guys speak very stacatto. Short and choppy. To the point. Women are usually more wordy to say the same thing. It's so much more than just pitch. I still close my eyes and listen to the TV news to women and men and try to pick of what is different.

[Stranger]

Thanks Sybil, I'll play around with the location of my voice in my head, see how I go!

Those are good tips, Stephe, thank you. I do generally breathe from the diaphragm, but I find myself running short of breath anyway, as I'm trying so hard to juggle everything that I forget to inhale again! I'll be sure to focus on taking deeper, regular breaths. As for the pattern of male speech, that is very true: my brother and father both speak in the monotone manner you describe, and it's very striking when you stop and listen to it. Fortunately, I never quite fell into as badly, probably from growing up with exclusively female friends (and reading too much campy Victorian literature as a child...)

Now, off to talk to myself!

edit: I thought it might be more helpful if I attached a clip of myself just talking, as opposed to reading from something. I noticed that my style of delivery is quite different when I'm reading from a script:

https://soundcloud.com/user90683091/ramble

[Beverly]

edit: I thought it might be more helpful if I attached a clip of myself just talking, as opposed to reading from something. I noticed that my style of delivery is quite different when I'm reading from a script:

https://soundcloud.com/user90683091/ramble

I cannot find that clip.

Also, feel free to wave your hands around when talking and loosen up your face muscles too. Women also express themselves very physically with visible emotion and gestures and it is surprising just how much of that creeps into your voice.

[Isabelle]

Stranger, I think you've got your pitch waaaaay to high. It's making you sound quite falsetto. The goal isn't to speak in a high pitch, the goal is to limit your resonance and raise your pitch just enough. Most women's voices aren't all that higher than men's in pitch. It's the difference between chest and head voice that gets a voice gendered one way or the other.

[Stranger]

Not sure why the clip didn't work, bev2, sorry about that. Agreed about the motions! I should certainly move my face more (my hands are all over the place - I've some experience university lecturing and tutoring, where it's nearly impossible to avoid picking up the habit!)

Isabelle, you're right about the pitch... I get uncomfortably aware myself of my voice rising too high as I go to talk. I just have so much trouble raising my voice box (for better resonance) without pushing the pitch way up. Is this a little better?

https://soundcloud.com/user90683091/pitch

[Sybil]

Breathing is critical, you have to breath from your diaphram. Most guys chest breath. It changes how much air volume you have to work with. Women use more air to talk with, they speak longer between breaths and it just "flows". Guys speak very stacatto. Short and choppy. To the point. Women are usually more wordy to say the same thing. It's so much more than just pitch. I still close my eyes and listen to the TV news to women and men and try to pick of what is different.

What Stephe says here really is very important and way too often overlooked. It took me a long time to realize how important it was myself because I'm naturally a stomach breather and was never a chest breather. Trying to teach my friends, however, made me realize how much they were struggling.

My realization of it and taking control of it was also the key to very genuine yelling and laughter. Listen to Stephe!

Oh, and it is a very difficult thing to manipulate subconsciously (for yelling and laughter), so please try not to become discouraged if it takes a while to get it. Our voices are all about dedication, but it's magical when you finally get there and feels worth every frustrating, embarrassing moment.

[Sybil]

Stranger,

The clip you have titled "Ramble" sounds the best to me. I think what you need to work the most on is your resonance. Try keeping your voice towards the back of your throat (up high) and making your voice travel across the top of your mouth towards your nose. Please note that I said towards your nose, not into it! Talking into your nose creates a bad habit of sounding nasally. I initially fell into this trap because it was the first time my voice became passable, but eventually learned how to work around it.

It would also be helpful to try and pull the front of your throat in a little (this is part of raising your voice box; there's a back end part too, but the front is a bit more significant I find). Generating almost the entirety of your voice from your vocal cord area (as high as you can get it in the general area, not the pitch) helps a lot with resonance, the rest of it is where you point the sounds in your face.

I find it helps if you speak with the tip if your tongue closer to your front teeth, but that could just be my personal mouth shape. I feel like I'm overwhelming with information at this point -- in any case, I hope it was helpful!

[Ms. OBrien CVT]

I think the "Ramble" clip sounds most female.

Sybil has several good tips.

[Sybil]

Here's a sample of what I sound like for anyone who's curious: https://soundcloud.com/sound-sybil/introductoryvoice