Hi. Well, It is a bit early indeed. I sometimes feel a lot less strained, especially in the upper range, it is far far easier to just speak. However the lower areas where I feel a regular speaking voice should sit are rough. I still have to watch tha tI use the voice correctly, I hope this will eventually become second nature, but for now I need to watch to use the right resonance and phonation pattern. If I don't, my voice drops and sounds breathy and hoarse and is getting sore. So I need to re-learn how to use my voice properly, but if I get this right, there is little strain using a high pitched voice.
What bugs me a bit is that in the chest voice, below the middle C for me now, the phonation is much less stable as in the head voice and all the Yeson exercises aim at the range above the middle C. So I added some lower pitch exercises from my therapist, since my target average speaking pitch would be G or A below the middle C, meaning I also would use E or F occasionally. Laughing is really cool now. coughing did not change that much, just a bit I guess.
This is me 10.5 week update by the way:
http://vocaroo.com/i/s03LQj4zeS4WFor this recording I use female resonance technique, which is not hard to do for me now, and I dont control pitch except of course when reading that stupid text, I always feel inclinded to overly intonate the words
- average pitch comes out at 180 Hz (about F below the middle C). Dr Kim estimated I should get to 210 though, I am not sure if that will happen, if so, it takes some more time. But 180 are all right, too.
Dropping the resonance control, I seem to end up more in the area of 160-170 Hz, which is slightly above my pre op trained speaking pitch. But this then is what pre OP would have ended up as being 120 or 130 Hz, so my pitch gain overall in lowest pitch, male resonance and female resonance voice is always 30-40 Hz, about half of what can be expected from the surgery. So I have hope that given the description says pitch can inrease for months, I still will see some increase...
Back to your question - the strain I feel now is a very different one from before. I dont feel much need to force something, rahter I feel that using too much force makes it harder to speak, but also there is a hoarseness and soreness that comes up when doing something not quite right. That is a new kind of strain I guess, but as you said, it is probably too early to say anything, since I am not even in the phase where the Botox wears off.
Be careful about choosing a surgeon though. The method itself is 20 years old and was applied to Transsexuals in the 1990ies. Its not something shiny new that just by doing it will give better results than previous techniques. In fact som of the surgeons using this technique certainly have contributed to the bad reputation, voice surgery has, by not doing it well. The key to success of this surgery seems to be:
* details in the surgical technique (not the general technique itself) - like how many stitches, where to place them, how to treat the muscous membranes, etc...
* experience, enthusiasm and precision of the surgeon
* A very well done aftercare that often goes beyond what surgeons suggest (Yeson seem to give the most strict rules, I would follow them in any case)
* Speech therapy before and after the surgery.
Greetings
