Voice practice

[ashrock]

I have been practicing my voice and maybe I'm lucky, but pass as female on the phone from what I can tell.  My problem right now is I dont know if I sound "natural" or conversational yet.  I'm sure this has been talked to death, but any advice on ways to practice not in person?  I think my voice may pass in person to, but I feel quite far from passable physically

[Umiko]

you should use this voice program i found. i find it very useful 

[Pinkie]

What voice program?

[Ginny]

A nice program that is commonly used here is Praat. I didn't do any training or anything I just used the program to record my voice and listened to the playback.  It also allows you to see the average frequency at which you are speaking.  I practiced on it by recording myself reading a page in a book or magazine, or practicing like I was about to interview, or pretending I had a youtube channel giving updates, or would just ramble on. By doing this I get identified on the phone as Maam/Miss/Mrs 98% of the time even if I say my name is Josh (still getting ready for legal name change).  This took time and evolved over about 4-6 months. I think you'll know when you sound feminine. I just sort of went, "huh, that sounds about right" and continued to use that voice.
Sorry if I rambled on a bit there.

[Umiko]

yup. i started using that 2 days ago xD finally able to get my voice up an octave though i was bordering androgynous but on the male side though o.o