singing voice drop! Oh, wow!

[FriendsCallMeChris]

So, I've never had much of a singing voice or range.  But now--  my speaking voice has dropped a little and gotten occasionally thin and raspy, which I kind of expected interim.  But I started singing along to Pandora today and my singing voice came out waaaaay low.  And doesn't seem to have the thin raspy problem that my speaking voice often have.  I don't know anything about singing vs speaking.  Can someone help me out with an explanation? 

(Maybe I'll start singing my order through the drive-thru or when I talk on the phone to cut down on being misgendered all the time )

[saharo]

Cant wait to hear all y'all posts. I love singing too... But pre-T but already very low... I'll post tomorrow

[AeroZeppelin92]

It probably has to do with the way you project when you speak vs when you sing.
If you speak from the front of your mouth, your voice will come out sounding higher, as oppose to if you were to speak from your chest, it comes out lower. 

I have this problem sometimes, speaking from the front of my mouth. It's quieter and you feel you voice resonate more in the top of your throat/ nasal area. Not necessarily meaning a "nasally" voice however just you'll feel the vibrations in the front of your mouth/face.

When I consciously check myself and start speaking from the top of my chest, I breath deeper and allow my voice to project further and you feel it vibrate more through the bottom of your neck. This makes my voice sound lower.

I hope this makes sense as it's hard for me to explain in words haha.

[Ayden]

I'm no expert, but when I sing I sound better than when I talk. I think it has something with how we expand our vocal cords. It's like muscle memory. Picking up a box vs picking up a dumbbell.

Another example I can give is in speaking a different language. I speak Japanese on a daily basis, and Japanese is much more flowy language. There is only one hard consonant and everything else very smooth. In Japanese my voice is much deeper than English because I relate it to singing.

[FriendsCallMeChris]

It probably has to do with the way you project when you speak vs when you sing.
If you speak from the front of your mouth, your voice will come out sounding higher, as oppose to if you were to speak from your chest, it comes out lower. 

that makes perfect sense.  I can actually feel like my voice is vibrating in my throat and chest when I sing. Now to concentrate on trying to make that happen when I talk, and I'll be set. 

Okay, gave it a try.
Kind of feels like I"m faking a lower voice when I talk.  But it does sound lower and a lot fuller, too.

[FriendsCallMeChris]

I speak Japanese on a daily basis, and Japanese is much more flowy language. There is only one hard consonant and everything else very smooth. In Japanese my voice is much deeper than English because I relate it to singing.

Now to increase my working vocabulary with flowy words . Interesting!

[Ayden]

Now to increase my working vocabulary with flowy words . Interesting!

Haha! Actually, the first second language I learned was Spanish. I grew up in my young years in San Pedro California, so I was a gringo, (white bread). I'm functional in Spanish even now.

However, I studied both French and Japanese. French is very guttural. They have hard sounds and phrases, but it was good for my vocal development. Nothing like a French 'n' to work those kinks out.

Japanese is flowy but it really depends on the region. I speak both Tokyoben and Osakaben. Tokyo dialect is more flowing. Osaka dialect is rough.

For anyone thinking about voice development I would recommend thinking about singing. Even if they can't sing, it stretches the vocal cords differently. Then find a voice that you identify with and practice. I practiced using Takei. I'm white but I love his voice.

Americans speaking with a downward inflection I would disagree with. I teach English for a living and even when talking to European speakers (Germans, Swedes, Finns, and Russians) they have mentioned that we turn our inflection up on questions.

But that's just my experience. Every man has his own voice.

[FriendsCallMeChris]

Every man has his own voice.

very prophetic. Putting this up as my screen saver.
(my American Southern/Texas accent probably makes that inflection go up, too.) One thing I promised myself when I decided to transition is not to fake it any more, neither masculine, nor feminine--just the real me.  So finding my voice, my true voice for me, without trying to make an impression on anyone else, is my goal.  Sometimes, I have to stop and remember this about everything transition-related, not just the voice.