The "Does my voice pass?" thread

[Rowan Rue]

Thanks Jenny, that is helpful.  putting any force behind my voice seems to be way harder when I'm consciously raising my voice box.  I think that and suppressing chest resonance is causing me to tighten a whole bunch of other muscles and I'm loosing attack as a result.   I'll have to start figuring out what I can 'let go of" so to speak.
The other problem is that my recent surgery did a number on my abbs so I've lost my ability to maintain a steady pressure with my diaphragm.  Still another week until I'm allowed to do an y crunches.

I will def try humming more too.

Any other advise would be very welcome

[Cosi555]

Hey everyone! I have been working on my voice diligently every day all day for the past 7 months. A few months ago you all told me I had done it, and found a good voice. Its true, and since then I have been passing well with it, but it has changed some. I also struggle with maintaining the same voice all day or between differen tpeople, espcially those who knew me prior to transition. I need to work on it more. But anyway I wanted to show you my voice as I am still insecure about it, and have two diffeent voices I would like critique on...let me know...thanks for being here and helping me!

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

OMG!!! PrincessDi... thank you so much for posting your voice on soundcloud
i was dead stuck and frustrated with working out resonance and what you said was exactly what i needed to hear to get my head (and voice) around it. now my voice is improving in leaps and bounds
thank you thank you thank you thank you
xx

[Assoluta]

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*

You would benefit by developing mixed voice, which is a challenging technique at first. I used to be able to only sing very low or very high, but now I've accessed mixed voice, I can sing relatively high and still maintain power. This video below is a pretty good demonstration of how to get to that mixed voice to sing higher notes without sounding too soft.



I also find that mixed voice is by far the easiest to sustain notes in - in my chest voice I can hold a note for about 11-12 seconds, but in mixed, I can hold it for up to about 20 seconds because it's so much more effortless.

[Anna++]

It's been a month and a half since I've made a recording.  How do I sound?

http://vocaroo.com/i/s1al1QAfIYBq

[kyh]

It's been a month and a half since I've made a recording.  How do I sound?

http://vocaroo.com/i/s1al1QAfIYBq

99% perfect. Your voice passes splendidly. The only problem is here and there it goes into a kind of falsetto, but that's not enough to make it unpassable. You've done such a great job creating this voice for yourself. It'll serve you well! ^_^

[Anna++]

99% perfect. Your voice passes splendidly.

Yay!!  I guess that extra month and a half makes all the difference

The only problem is here and there it goes into a kind of falsetto, but that's not enough to make it unpassable.

It's good that it doesn't make my voice unpassable.  I'll just take that as motivation to keep practicing!

You've done such a great job creating this voice for yourself. It'll serve you well! ^_^

It took lots of hard work, determination, and practice.

[Darkie]

It's been a month and a half since I've made a recording.  How do I sound?

http://vocaroo.com/i/s1al1QAfIYBq

You sound great Anna! 

[mariondaly]

Haven't been practicing as much as I have been...been mixing different voice styles lately and came out with this, thoughts?

http://vocaroo.com/i/s0p4tA8cbUpL

[GorJess]

Erm, wow, I'm kind of happy this morning! This is as good as anything I've got, been practicing a bit more lately:

http://vocaroo.com/i/s10AS63ImSGQ

In reference to the "phlegm", I've had a sort throat today, sadly, but it's weird, it's felt kind of like a reverse voice breaking. So I kind of have that to thank. It's not perfect, but really a good start, I think. Not falsetto like so many other times I've practiced! Still, what do you think? What's good, to be improved, etc.?

Nice, hidden 21st birthday gift for tomorrow, a day in advance, from me to me, right?

[Jennygirl]

marion- it sounds nice and feminine but the resonance is coming through a little bit on the nasal side. Hmm I'm trying to think of a suggestion. Maybe try to imagine making a ridge up on the very very back of your tongue right before your throat. And then try to keep the rest of your tongue flat. I dunno if that would help, I'm just trying to describe the way that I position my tongue to get decent resonance without any nasal sound. It took me months to figure that out by the way.

A huge thing that helped me was putting my finger on my adams apple to make sure it stayed in the up position, and then concurrently tried to relax every other muscle. I end up with a slight ridge on the verrry back of my tongue and my adams apple all the way in the up position

jesstrogen- Well it sounds like you could actually come DOWN in pitch a little It is sounding a little falsetto-ey but that's probably because your fundamental frequency is up at a lofty 318hz! Wow girl, that is a high voice! Female range is 200-250. I would say everything else sounds very feminine. The way that you talk is very girly. If you could just get your pitch down a little I think it might make a huge difference!

I recommend this free program called "Praat". Someone else posted it on susan's and I've been using it ever since. It can analyze the pitch of your voice.

http://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/praat/

[abbyt89]

Hey I'm new here and I've been pretty frustrated with my voice and was hoping for some tips on what I could do better.

Here's a link to a recording: https://soundcloud.com/user114585979/voice-6-4-13

Thanks!

[Jennygirl]

Hey I'm new here and I've been pretty frustrated with my voice and was hoping for some tips on what I could do better.

Here's a link to a recording: https://soundcloud.com/user114585979/voice-6-4-13

Thanks!

You are really very close Abby! No need to be frustrated. Your fundamental frequency for this recording is 189hz and even your resonance sounds almost 100% female

Female range is 200-250hz, but I have also seen it noted as 190-250hz. Personally I think you are there by the numbers!

Now if you were looking for a more nitpicky response....

As far as the sound goes, I think the dynamic and overall inflection of your pitch tends to feel a little repetitive within its range. You might try holding the pitch more at high and low points instead of oscillating between high and low so rhythmically- this might make it sound a fraction more genuine.

Your pitch is very close to the bottom of the "acceptable range" so you might try raising your pitch ever so slightly.

The resonance is good but not GREAT, perhaps you could raise the Adam's apple a bit more to make the voice sound just a hair smaller.

But all in all, I personally think you are there! I like your voice But I went ahead and provided some nitpickies in case a more detailed response is what you were looking for (I know I usually hope for those )

[abbyt89]

You are really very close Abby! No need to be frustrated. Your fundamental frequency for this recording is 189hz and even your resonance sounds almost 100% female

Female range is 200-250hz, but I have also seen it noted as 190-250hz. Personally I think you are there by the numbers!

Now if you were looking for a more nitpicky response....

As far as the sound goes, I think the dynamic and overall inflection of your pitch tends to feel a little repetitive within its range. You might try holding the pitch more at high and low points instead of oscillating between high and low so rhythmically- this might make it sound a fraction more genuine.

Your pitch is very close to the bottom of the "acceptable range" so you might try raising your pitch ever so slightly.

The resonance is good but not GREAT, perhaps you could raise the Adam's apple a bit more to make the voice sound just a hair smaller.

But all in all, I personally think you are there! I like your voice But I went ahead and provided some nitpickies in case a more detailed response is what you were looking for (I know I usually hope for those )

Thank you so much for the response!

I have a hard time keeping my pitch up, especially so when I'm nervous. I'm terrified to try and use my voice in public because I just know I'll have trouble with my pitch.

I'm going to keep practicing my voice but I'm seriously considering surgery at Yeson since I'm pretty much just waiting on my voice before I go full time. How is your voice recovering?

Also, what software did you use to analyze my fundamental frequency and resonance?

[Jennygirl]

Thank you so much for the response!

I have a hard time keeping my pitch up, especially so when I'm nervous. I'm terrified to try and use my voice in public because I just know I'll have trouble with my pitch.

I'm going to keep practicing my voice but I'm seriously considering surgery at Yeson since I'm pretty much just waiting on my voice before I go full time. How is your voice recovering?

Also, what software did you use to analyze my fundamental frequency and resonance?

Ahhh I know exactly what you mean with the pitch in public thing. That's the main reason I got the surgery. Definitely don't stop practicing because it will only help your voice no matter what. Even with the surgery from Yeson you still need to train the other parts like inflection, resonance, word choice, and dynamic of speech.

My voice is recovering really well. It's hard to tell completely right now because I'm only allowed to say 15-20 words per day for 6 more days, but then I will be able to have full conversations and I cannot wait!! My fundamental frequency is already above 200hz, though, which is EXCELLENT if you ask me for being straight out of the gates.

Here is a sample of my voice from a week ago (two weeks post op). It is deceptively loud because my mouth was right next to the microphone, but over the past week I've been recovering volume- a little bit every day
http://vocaroo.com/i/s0b1ChY5eugg

To analyze your pitch, I used the same software I posted in my response to jesstrogen- it's a nice little free app called Praat Windows & Mac compatible.
http://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/praat/

[janellebell]

Hi all!

Here is a sample of me singing. I wonder if I pass singing and or speaking? Some parts of the song are spoken and I'm sure you'll recognize it
http://www2.zshares.net/52mej5g0zs1n

[Erik Ezrin]

Wow, unbelievable! Her voice IS female! Just... wow!
One end I feel envious, 'cause you girls can do it without hormones, and on one end I feel lucky, because hormones do the work for us (but it will take a couple of years before I can get on them :/ so that makes me kinda sad...)

I have ONE thing uploaded where I speak, my 1 year dreadlock update (in case you don't know, dreads change quite a lot, and it's a common practice to make so called 'timelines' to keep track of the change. I mostly did it with pics, but did 2 video updates as well)

(natural voice, before T or ANYTHING)

I tried practising a big to get it lower, but it doesn't really work... it either sounds like I'm faking it, or I get a throatache from straining my vocal chords too much. *sigh*
But my voice just makes me feel all horrible when I hear it... MAYBE I could pass on looks only, but if I open my mouth, ALL of that is gone...

[janellebell]

Wow, unbelievable! Her voice IS female! Just... wow!
One end I feel envious, 'cause you girls can do it without hormones, and on one end I feel lucky, because hormones do the work for us (but it will take a couple of years before I can get on them :/ so that makes me kinda sad...)

I have ONE thing uploaded where I speak, my 1 year dreadlock update (in case you don't know, dreads change quite a lot, and it's a common practice to make so called 'timelines' to keep track of the change. I mostly did it with pics, but did 2 video updates as well)

(natural voice, before T or ANYTHING)

I tried practising a big to get it lower, but it doesn't really work... it either sounds like I'm faking it, or I get a throatache from straining my vocal chords too much. *sigh*
But my voice just makes me feel all horrible when I hear it... MAYBE I could pass on looks only, but if I open my mouth, ALL of that is gone...

Who's voice sample are you referring to? ^_^

As for your voice a lot of it is how your intonate things rather than at what pitch it is

[Erik Ezrin]

It's my own.
(yes I know, I'm not MtF, but since I'm not on T yet, I TRY to make the best out of my voice possible)
I've been practising a bit, mainly on intonation/inflection, once I notice some difference I'll make a new video/recording. Right now I keep dropping back to my old speech patters, lol.

[kyh]

It's my own.
(yes I know, I'm not MtF, but since I'm not on T yet, I TRY to make the best out of my voice possible)
I've been practising a bit, mainly on intonation/inflection, once I notice some difference I'll make a new video/recording. Right now I keep dropping back to my old speech patters, lol.

I saw your video and you definitely look passable! Which is awesome for you! ^_^ Lucky guy! As for your voice, it wasn't that feminine, but it's not masculine either *yet*. I'm wondering, is it easier to make your voice passable pre hrt if you're ftm or if you're mtf?

[Erik Ezrin]

Really? I do!? *cheers a bit* That just made my day Kyh! I'm just so insecure about my voice...
I probably don't pass my age, but it's a good start!
Most people unfortunately gender me as female on first sight (really, I have NO idea why! It's so incredibly frustrating!), but if I'd correct them I think no one would be like "WTFFFF!" , right?

And I think the mtf's win on this one, since it's easier to train your voice 'up' than 'down' (how low you can go is mainly determined by the size of your voice box, and thickness + length of the vocal chords, if you go 'too low' for too long, it can damage your vocal chords 'cause they're not made to do that). But I feel sorry for mtf's having to train so hard on their voices, even post HRT. :<