Shantel, eh-lyssa, Theo- thanks for listening and for the feedback
I could not be happier with my results already!! Still so much recovery and learning to go. I am very excited
Quote from: kyh on June 19, 2013, 04:56:41 AM
That is an amazing change! To be honest I expected your pre op voice to be much girlier than it was, because I looked at your profile and saw a beautiful girl, so I imagined a voice that was very feminine. But it was kind of boyish actually! Now though, so amazing! That is some fantastic work they've done, and you sound 100% female! <3
Thanks kyh! Yes I agree the regular voice I would always fall back into was very boyish. I had suuuuch a hard time breaking out of it no matter how much I would practice my feminine voice, which was in the fundamental range of about 180hz (my voice now is ~212hz though).
Quote from: Jamie D on June 19, 2013, 04:59:21 AM
This is so amazing, I'm speechless at the change.
It occurred to me, for passing, this may be more important than SRS, just as some consider FFS as more important.
It definitely feels that way. I can't describe to you the difference it has made for me out in public. It's already hard to imagine that not even 6 weeks ago my voice was nearly an octave lower. I am amazed how much I did not care about people clocking me.. Lol
Quote from: Nicolette on June 19, 2013, 08:08:01 AM
You're voice post-op sounds great now. But your pre-op voice sounds like you had no voice therapy whatsoever. Did you attempt any voice therapy?
There comes a point at which one's "natural" voice/pitch becomes one's feminine voice and the muscle memory used to obtain the original pitch is all but forgotten. So it would be interesting how this would go for someone who went through speech therapy and now naturally speaks at 185 Hz. Would they have to relearn how to speak with a lower pitch? Otherwise they may speak ultrasonic post-op.
Thanks Nicolette
Yes I was doing self voice therapy with Kathe Perez' mp3 tutor. I practiced mostly every day for 30 mins or so in the car to/from work. I have some recordings of this time, and listening back I was still quite a far way off despite having resonance figured out and pitch scraping the bare minimum. It was a female voice though- I just did not have the courage to use it because I didn't have any confidence that it sounded legitimate.
In the end, I am SO glad I found Yeson and did the surgery. Upon examination there I found out that my vocal cords were damaged and continuing to train voice feminization without surgery would have landed me with even bigger problems. Surgery turned out to be absolutely the right choice for the health of my vocal chords- not just for the sound and confidence.
And to answer your question about muscle memory, I do not think that someone who normally used a higher pitch would have any issue adjusting. Your brain would already be accustomed to the higher pitch. It definitely took me some time to adjust from 140hz to ~212hz. For the first few days I kept trying to go back down, but the frequencies weren't there so my voice was cracking a lot and I sounded very hoarse. That was probably also partly due to the botox injection for vocal tremor, too.
Quote from: abbyt89 on June 19, 2013, 08:22:58 AM
Wow you sound amazing! I've been in contact with Yeson and I'm ready to schedule my surgery for December. You're results are really inspiring.
Did you end up going alone or with somebody else? Was it easy enough to get around without being able to speak and without knowing any Korean?
I could be wrong but I think the pre-op test has you speak at your "natural" pitch instead of using your feminine voice.
That is great! Congratulations!! You will not be disappointed with the experience- I can almost guarantee it. They have a wonderful staff and Jessie the english patient coordinator is such a real sweetheart and happily answers all questions you may have during recovery. I had a lot of those
I traveled with a good friend of mine and it wasn't hard at all not talking. I just typed in my smartphone notepad whenever I needed to communicate. We had to learn how to communicate like that, but it did not take long and thinking back it's almost like I had a voice the whole time.
And you are correct about the pre-op recording. That was my natural pitch, as relaxed as possible. They had me do a second recording in an attempt to use my feminine voice, but (like all other times I tried to use it in front of people) I panicked and pretty much the same voice came out. I think my fundamental frequency was only 20hz higher :/ I'm happy they used the regular voice though, that was the one I was stuck using in day to day life.
Quote from: Carrie Liz on June 19, 2013, 12:17:48 PM
Okay, now that was pretty darned inspiring. Especially since I feel like my natural speaking voice has a very similar base tone and resonance. That was pretty much what I was waiting for, because I was wondering from the very beginning of this topic whether your pre voice sounded like mine. I'm actually surprised how much it does. So needless to say, although I am still going to proceed with voice training, and I'll re-evaluate once I've been doing it for a bit longer, I am definitely considering this as an option now.
Keep in mind that I did do about 4 months of feminine voice practice on my own, despite not being able to break into it in public. I was fairly happy with how it sounded, even though it's nothing like what it is now. The biggest change I have noticed is my confidence to use what I've practiced. It seems like the pitch shift makes all the difference for allowing me to use what I have learned.
