Beyond, thanks for reposting this. Like ALL of transition, your voice is no different. It's about expressing yourself (a TRUE FEMALE) through your voice. The self-conscious man just has to let go, and that's probably why people struggle so much with their voice.
When your outer voice changes, your inner voice changes too. This is incredibly disorienting. Because the male voice inside MUST go, and when he's gone, you've crossed a psychological barrier that you probably won't come back from. Read about NLP, voice hypnosis, and other stuff like that to understand what to expect when your "inner voice" changes. As you begin thinking in a female voice, your entire experience of the world will change, and this can be really uncomfortable, disorienting, and disconcerting if you're not ready.
I'd like to summarize here what it takes BEYOND just listening to one CD and practicing:
1. Auditory feedback. You need to listen to youself in a tape recorder so that you can get the sound you want. You've got to let others hear your voice and critique it. Take this criticism literally, and get it from somebody who is reasonable, not stupid, and wants to help you.
2. Speech Therapist. Probably a good person to get PROFESSIONAL feedback from. In fact, I think this is extremely underrated in terms of passability goes. It costs money, but the psychological benefit of a voice is enormous.
3. Imitate female voices. That's how women learn to talk the way they do. Sing, laugh, BE the female voice. Get tons of voice clips (download a program called HiQ Recorder for free, rip audio in MP3 format from Internet streams like Youtube.) Imitate the clips that approximate the voice you want.
4. Experiment. Voice lessons are good to get you experimenting and learning how that complicated meat instrument (your voice box) works. But YOU have to experiment with YOUR OWN instrument until you've mastered it.
To transition successfully, you're going to have to learn to do things that the AVERAGE person will never know how to do.
P.S. Writing this post just made me think of a profile signature.
P.S.S. Think about how long it takes to get good at the guitar. You pick it up, it makes no sense. You female voice is no different.
You figure out a few chords (start to sound remotely female) and can play along to some easy tunes. You play, and play, and practice, and practice, and eventually you sound competent (have a reasonably female voice) but it still takes a lot of effort.
In the end, you go see a guitar teacher (vocal specialist, hopefully a good one) and they set you straight, based on their years and years of experience teaching people. Practicing with their new tips and advice, you sound like Jimmy Page (you reflect your true inner female with your voice). In other words, if you're driven to have a better female voice, then seek out knowledge of the voice until you have your breakthrough. If you give up because "you just can't do it", then you'll never reach your goal.
Example: I've been playing guitar since I was 17. I went through the above process. I always wished I was better at guitar and could play super-fast lead parts. I wish I knew more popular songs. Up to this point (age 25), I never had the motivation to practice. Guitar has become a hobby, and I'm okay with that. I express myself as best I can, I sound good, and I have fun. MY FEMALE VOICE IS NOT LIKE THIS TO ME. I will spend YEARS working on my voice to perfect it. I will see a specialist. I will purchase every female voice DVD there is. Guitar is nothing compared to my desire to have a BEAUTIFUL female voice. In fact, I probably picked up guitar as a substitute for my inability to develop a female voice. The female voice is the real deal for me, and it's an instrument I am absolutely driven to perfect.
P.S.S.S. There's nothing more fulfilling than expressing yourself, whether it be through a musical instrument or your own voice.
