Voice - how to train?

[Lucid]

Try watching the videos by DeepStealth on Youtube.  She has some useful tips.  Understanding the concepts of how the voice works has helped me a lot in my practice. 

[Mohini]

http://vocaroo.com/i/s1eIB74eCI06



I hope I sound okay.

[Ms. OBrien CVT]

Rahel, to me, you sound like a woman.  Good job.

[suzifrommd]

I hope I sound okay.

Your voice will never give you away. You sound totally feminine to me.

[FlyingPenguin]

I found singing along to songs helped me develop my voice a lot!

[JLT1]

 I found a song I really liked where the singer was a woman and then sang along.  Then, moved to another song that was higher, then another, then another.

Today, my therapist asked me to demonstrate.  I sang along with Patsy Cline – "Crazy".  Tough song and there is a lot of range and voice.  My tone was good, phrasing wasn't, but she was shocked.  It took 16 months to get there.  With that range, speaking has become relatively easy....  Phrasing still isn't there but I like the idea of listening a patterning after what we hear. 

[Emily Aster]

These are all free too, but the server is very very slow:
http://www.deepstealth.com/film-tv-video/instructional-videos/finding-your-female-voice/

[Brielle]

Have the same obstacle to overcome so thank you for the useful tools and hints.  I am guilty of being a mumbler as well as a lazy talker and not enunciating more clearly.  Sometimes it's the little things we overlook.  Thank you for the advise, much appreciated.

[Fanni]

Oh my gosh, THANKS SO MUCH! I called my friend using this voice and she asked who I was

I found the pronounciation and adam's apple placement tips extremely useful..


Just like Jenny said, it gives me that warm, feminine fuzzy feeling 

[VickyMI]

Google Kathy Perez she has 4 CDs on voice training.   I have all 4 and listen to them over and over

[oneprettywoman]

comment.

try this- put your fingers in your  ears.
notice  that  you can't hear  noises  from   outside  your  self,  but  you can  still hear  yourself  as you  talk?
you  don't hear  yourself  thru  your  eardrums-  vibrations   from  your vocal cords   vibrate  the  bones of your inner ear.

when you speak   the  sounds  you hear  are  not  the  same  as  the  sounds  others  hear  from  you.

a solution to this problem  would be  "when you train your voice"  speak  softly into a microphone   amplifying your voice  so that  the  sound  that enters  your  ears    is  much greater  then the  sound  that  vibrates  to the bones of  the  inner ear.

now  you  will hear  your  voice  as it  really  is.   

[MariaMx]

Finding my voice was something that just sort of happened over time. I thought it was gonna be nearly impossible to do, even with the help of Deep Stealth's Finding your female voice. What did it for me was just spending a huge amount of time with other women. I worked long hours in a store where only women worked, which was great, and e very customer to come in through the door was another opportunity to "nail it".

Still, to this day (had my 10 year anniversary for hrt and ft yesterday ^_^), speaking in my female voice is something I "do". It's a performance of sorts, but I'm so used to it I don't have to think about it. I haven't tried to speak with the male voice in 10 years now so I really don't know what it is like anymore.

How to do the female voice (pitch/timbre/resonance) is hard to explain but when I speak it feels a little like I'm dominating a furry little animal (my voice box) under my thumb. It squirms and bucks, but I apply more pressure and keep it under control. I push it in the direction I want it to go.

Another way I like to look at it is like operating an electric grinder. As it digs into the wood and tries to get away from you you tighten the grip and apply pressure in the opposite direction. As you get better at it you know exactly how much pressure to apply and you can do it effortlessly by following the path of least resistance. Today I can even shout in my female voice, although I rarely do as I'm quiet a timid person.

There is one situation in which my voice can fail. That is when I haven't spoken for a while and my throat is relaxed. If I haven't spoekn for a while and the phone rings I sort of have to wait a second or two before answering so I can go through this little check-list in my head and make sure I'm in the right "spot" to speak. The first vowel or syllable exit my mouth sets the tone for the rest of the words. If the first word is good, then the rest will also be. It's kind of like aiming before pulling the trigger.

A good way to practice would be to set up a real-time delay/echo plugin and set it as a 1-2 sec slapback. You say a word and 1-2 seconds (depending on the delay time setting) you hear yourself in your headphones. No recording, rewinding, stopping or pressing play.

Spending a lot of time with other women though is the way to get the inflection and stuff right.