Female Resonance Exercises?

[sap]

Please can anyone tell me simple things I can practice to make my current pitch sound feminine?

I'm doing vocal training (my teacher has no experience with trans girls) and I'm a tenor.
I can sing "Big Girls Cry" with Sia's original key (I still have some struggle but I'm practicing and using only modal register), but no matter what I do, when listening to my recording I hear a male voice.

So can anyone tell me what are some good exercises I can do to sound feminine while singing?
Will I be able to be a contralto singer or just a female tenor?

[Dena]

Your voice therapist should be covering this with you. You need to tighten the muscles above your larynx to hit the female range. If you are doing that and can hit the proper range, then you need to work on inflection. The thing that make a voice sound male is a flat voice with little pitch change.

The other issue is you may not be hearing a male voice but instead be hearing your voice. We are very poor judges of our own voice so our voice may be feminine but to us, a recording still sounds male. You are better off if you have somebodies ear you trust judge your voice. Feel free to post a sample up here so others can judge it for you.

[suzifrommd]

1. I spoke in the highest, squeakiest voice I could manage. I concentrated on remembering the exact position my throat was in. In practice this meant my voicebox was raised a fraction of an inch and my throat was "squeezed".

2. I would then position my throat exactly that way, but speak normally. Everything that came out of my mouth sounded female when I did that.

I've been doing this way for nearly three years. I now have a sweet feminine voice that passes pretty much whereever I go.

[sap]

Umm thanks for your replies.

Dena:
It's funny because.. well, in my vocal training in order to reach higher notes comfortably I practiced relaxing my throat muscles so they won't interfere (And let me make natural sound).
I have no voice therapist but a vocal teacher for singing. I might really go to a voice therapist and I wished I could find exercises to make it on my own...
About the flat voice with little pitch change - it's different while singing because there are pitch changes.

And it's interesting if I only hear my voice and it's not masculine, although I'm pretty sure it is.. I'll record something and post it here soon.

suzifrommd:
Thanks I'll try that.

[Dena]

If you have a singing instructor, what you need to do us use the mouth/head voice instead of the chest voice. My voice was so low before surgery that a falsetto wouldn't push me into the proper range but most people don't have this issue.

[sap]

Ok here it is.
BAD QUALITY WARNING ^^"

I'm still practicing so don't expect a professional level, and as I said it is the original key that Sia use. Luckily this is one of her lower songs.

http://vocaroo.com/i/s1t6jb9RO8Wg

So is it just in my head or is it masculine?
Wouldn't tightening the muscles in my throat make it harder to sing?

I also thought of doing voice surgery in the far future but no one recommends it if I want to be able to sing professionally... any thoughts?

[Laura_7]

Ok here it is.
BAD QUALITY WARNING ^^"

I'm still practicing so don't expect a professional level, and as I said it is the original key that Sia use. Luckily this is one of her lower songs.

http://vocaroo.com/i/s1t6jb9RO8Wg

So is it just in my head or is it masculine?
Wouldn't tightening the muscles in my throat make it harder to sing?

I also thought of doing voice surgery in the far future but no one recommends it if I want to be able to sing professionally... any thoughts?

You could have a look here and the links there:
https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/topic,198347.msg1764178.html#msg1764178

Here is an analysis of the end part of your voice:

The lower parts could be a bit higher...

[Dena]

Ok here it is.
BAD QUALITY WARNING ^^"

I'm still practicing so don't expect a professional level, and as I said it is the original key that Sia use. Luckily this is one of her lower songs.

http://vocaroo.com/i/s1t6jb9RO8Wg

So is it just in my head or is it masculine?
Wouldn't tightening the muscles in my throat make it harder to sing?

I also thought of doing voice surgery in the far future but no one recommends it if I want to be able to sing professionally... any thoughts?

In music it is very hard to judge a speaking voice. Your pitch is in the masculine range and isn't hitting the higher notes that would yell female.

Some MTFs have the range in their voice to sing in the female ranges but not all do. Before surgery I couldn't even hit a female speaking voice. Shifting out of the chest voice gives you the higher ranges. It shouldn't alter your ability to sing and often singers will do exactly that to hit some of the higher notes. The trick in singing is there is a break between the voices so you need to learn how to transition between the two voices so nobody knows it other than you or somebody aware of the process.

In a speaking voice, staying out of the chest voice gives you the pitch you need for the famine range. I have heard a number of MTFs who have done this and their speaking voice is clearly feminine. Singing will depend on how much range your voice has and that will take more testing and training.

As for surgery, VFS will raise your pitch but the jury is still out as to what it does to the upper end. My voice was very abnormal but I gained an enormous amount of upper range as the result of the surgery. Others have reported losing some range off the top of their voice. if you have the ability to sing in the male range, it should be possible to sing after surgery. There are a some other forms of voice surgery that can or will reduce your ability to sing so if you consider voice surgery, VFS is currently the best to reduce the risk of losing your singing voice.

[sap]

Ok, so...it's right that the notes I made are not female-only but they overlap with the female range.
I can also sing Amy Winehouse songs (The highest parts are still a bit hard but I can do it without falsetto).
Luckily my range has a lot of overlap with the contraltos.


I can cover these 3 notes using falsetto...
And I also learned that there are female tenors, they are rare but they exist... all I want is to be able to sound feminine with my range.. I'm too scared a surgery will make me lose range and make my voice break when I need it...

I'd be happy if I could sound like her:

Laura_7:
Thanks for the analyze, but even if I get rid of these lower notes I won't sound female, right?
Because it's not all about the pitch.. I have masculine resonance and timbre...


If someone asked what gives me the most dysphoria I'd say it's my voice

[Dena]

You haven't answered the questions of which voice are you singing in, The mouth/head voice is the voice we use to produce a feminine voice as it helps prove the proper pitch and resonance. Get your speaking voice down before you play with the singing voice because a singing voice is controlled and we can't tell you what you are doing wrong.

As for surgery, you need to ask the doctor what will happen all of our voices are different and the results will be different. In my case, I didn't expect the enormous increases in range the surgery gave me. I was Bass on the lower end but my falsetto was a G3. Now I can span between E3 and B4 in a single voice. Not a great singing voice I know but far better than what I started with. There is always a risk with surgery and you have to understand it before you make the move. Learn about everyones results before making the move for surgery.

[anjaq]

Yes, I must say the vocaroo file does sound more like a male singer. Sorry. I think what you really need to do is to concentrate on feeling the resonance in your head and mouth and cheeks and not in your chest. This probably also means you can not use as much power in that voice as you can do now. Try to sing at a low volume first, try those resonance exercises that work for the speaking voice and see if you can transfer that to singing (there is that simple trick to go up into falsetto, then make a wicked witch voice in that pitch and then lower the voice back to your normal range while keeping everything else as it was before and then if needed let go of some tension to make the voice sound not so forced.).

A trans experienced voice therapist may be a good idea - some do Skype consultations...

[anjaq]

I'd be happy if I could sound like her:

totally, that voice is great. What range is that - definitely alto, right? Her speaking voice is higher than her singing voice - thats interesting.

[kwala]

totally, that voice is great. What range is that - definitely alto, right? Her speaking voice is higher than her singing voice - thats interesting.

The song is in G minor (Bb major chorus), lowest note is G3 highest note is C5 (towards the end).  She's at least an alto and due to the richness of her lower notes may even be classified as a contralto. 

Sap, you sound good, but yes, totally masculine.   I would recommend working on your head voice and getting it super strong.  That's not to say that you will need to sing only in head voice in the future, but the more you activate those muscles, the more some of that light head voice sound quality will start to creep into your chest voice too.  Right now your chest voice is very big and boomy with a lot of low and mid overtones.  The reason a man and a woman can sing the exact same note and people can tell if a man or a woman is singing is due to resonance and overtones present.  Woman naturally have more high overtones which make the sound brighter and lighter.  Working on your head voice, even if it sounds silly at first, will help to brighten up your sound in the long run.  So I'd say that's a good first step.

[Martine A.]

We are very poor judges of our own voice so our voice may be feminine but to us, a recording still sounds male.

Learned this myself; the sound I hear before it leaves my mouth corrupts the judgement. My attempt to couple cellular with home phone also had shown that medium itself can be deceiving in a bad way. I sounded fine on recording of the mobile phone, but in the coupling my voice was irresistibly male.

Immediate self-feedback like hearing yourself in headphones as you speak can allow you to quickly progress. The coupling was my unsuccessful attempt to achieve that. I ended up using palms to reflect own voice to ears. It helps the judgment.

I shall also start using the skype test call thing. It is not ideal, but allows quick iterations.

I find my tone by mmmmmmm-ing with closed mouth with the highest frequency that feels natural, and that 'fills' the nasal cavity. Hissy talk helps. Frequency variations help. I had success deflecting clocking by pretending to be on a phone call (headphones in ears) but am still a mere apprentice.

[Laura_7]

Laura_7:
Thanks for the analyze, but even if I get rid of these lower notes I won't sound female, right?
Because it's not all about the pitch.. I have masculine resonance and timbre...

All of this shows in the graph.
Every sound is a part of it.
You can train to get rid of the lower resonances.
You can lay a hand on your chest and feel if there are resonances there.
You can further shift your voice from your chest to your head.
There are muscles keeping your larynx in a lower or higher position.
Those muscles have to be trained so the larynx stays in the higher position.

https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/topic,190936.msg1701516.html#msg1701516




You are already a bit higher than the left of the image.
Meaning its not a deep voice.
The right of the image is a female voice.

Every change of your voice is shown in the graph.

[sap]

Thanks everyone for your help!
So if I understood correctly, I need to use head resonance in order to sound feminine?

Dena I'm singing in mixed voice, tends towards chest.. so I guess that's the reason I sound masculine?
I'm still not sure how to make myself use head resonance more.
My teacher gave me an exercise to do "Mi Mi Mi" with annoying voice from the nose, but again, she trains me to reach higher and not sound feminine.
Although while doing this exercise I felt more vibration in my head & nose and less vibrations in my chest.
Should my chest not vibrate at all?
This is me: http://vocaroo.com/i/s0ymW2ioHlyz

I still hear masculine voice. Everytime.

[Laura_7]

I'd say it sounds female towards the end.

If you lay a hand on your chest you might feel resonances there.
There are muscles holding the larynx in a higher position, those have to be trained.
It might take a few weeks and consistent training daily, mabe even only a few minutes in the beginning.
Never overstrain your voice.

I gave a link to many more hints in the post above.

And you might have a look here:
http://www.nyspeechandvoicelab.net/transgender/voice-feminization/


hugs

[anjaq]

I learned it with sone feedback that I learned from Melanie Phillips. She adises to put yout hand to your larynx - feel where it sits. Then one finger on the area above and one finger of the hand below it. If you use chest resonance, both fingers should feel vibrations, if you use female resonance, only the lower one (!) should vibrate. The lower oe vibrates because you touch the area where the vocal folds are actually vibrating, the upper area is the piece of the larynx that connects to the mouth. This is the resonance chamber and in this one you should not fele the resonance, instead you should feel it in the mouth and nose area.
"chest voice" does not really resonate that much in the chest as it does in the area next to the Larynx, Head voice really does resonate mainly in the cavities in the head.

[Dena]

I think your starting voice is low enough that a mixed voice may not put you were you want to be. Tense the muscles above your larynx as much as you can without straining and use that as a SPEAKING voice. A musical voice has far to much control to really tell what you are doing at this point. By about half way through the recording you were in the feminine range but at the start you were still in the male range.

With the larynx muscles tight, you can still use the vocal cords for the fine control you need in famine speech. For me it's now automatic. When I am going to speak, those muscles tense up and if I want to use the chest voice, I have to force my self to relax the muscles.

The following chart may help you understand where you need to be.
http://www.nyspeechandvoicelab.net/transgender/voice-feminization/