Raising your voice a little at a time

[Shannon1979]

Hi one of my biggest worries about transitioning has always been my voice. It is very deep and have often thought that i would never be able to raise it to sound more feminine.

I recently watched a youtube video about voice training. Sry i cant link it as it was protected. But the woman suggested just trying to speak a little higher, not much just a little. then when you get used to this try a little more, eventually getting to wear you want to be.

i have recently started doing this. i am studying towards a degree course and there is alot of reading involved. So what i have done is started to read my books out loud while studying in that slightly higher voice. This has the advantage of not taking up hours of time practicing separately.

I have found so far that authough this process will take some time i is making a difference. when im out i am still dressed male for a large part of the time (hoping to change that soon). but i have found that while talking in my typical male voice i do slip into the higher range on occasion. so hopefully by the time i go full time i will at least have a voice that can pass for female. Even if it is not perfect.

[RachelH]

I've found that method works well.  You do have to remember to keep pushing your base notes higher, other wise you can just relax and your voice doesn't improve. 

The best training I have had though, is been full time.  Your voice improves dramatically, especially because you don't go anywhere near the old male notes, and you stop needing to concentrate so much on you voice as it is the natural way for you to talk.  I found not only reading aloud but talking to myself incessantly helped, but people may think you losing it a little!

[Shantel]

There is a really gifted surgeon in Portland, Oregon who during preforming a tracheal shave can also slightly shave the vocal chords and has great success in turning a James Earl Jones Basso voice into a nice soprano. Unfortunately I cannot remember his name but I knew someone who saw him and the change in pitch was remarkable.

[Shodan]

I might have to look him up when I'm further in transition, since Portland is practically my back door. But right now I just learned that my insurance will stop covering for my meds if they found out it's related to being trans. My doctor is keeping mum about it so I can still get the stuff I need for depression/anxiety that's being caused by this, but I won't even be able to start HRT until I find another job.

[lycheeblossom]

I did this over a period of about 6 months before I began seeing a vocal therapist, and it has had a hugely positive impact. I still have plenty of work to do, but we were able to skip pitch and move immediately to resonance.