MtF Voice help! (Resonance?)

[SR99]

I have been out for around 2-3 years now, and thought i did well at making my voice feminine, but recently it seems i have been misgendered a lot because of my voice! It is definitely high pitched, but at the same time, sounds like it has a low tone behind it. Does anyone know what i have done wrong? What am i missing? Please help >___<

[Harley Quinn]

I cannot begin to guess. However, a voice clip may help narrow it down.

[Alice V]

I'm not specialist and only at start of working of my voice but due your description I can assume either of lacking breath or larynx control. I may be wrong.
Here you can find some tips. I also let @Eryn T guide me in matter of voice, though she's working not for so long but she was helpful for me.

By the way, welcome to Susan's Place You can introduce yourself in Introduction subforum to let everyone know you here

[KathyLauren]

Hi, SR99!

Welcome to Susan's Place.

There are a couple of things that could be happening.  The actual resonance of your voice depends on the shape of your throat and nasal passages.  There isn't a lot you can do about that. 

But there is also the intonation or inflection of your voice: how it rises and falls as you speak.  For that, voice lessons with a trainer who has experience with trans clients will be very beneficial.  For example, one thing I noticed when I listened to my voice on a recording was that my pitch tends to fall at the end of a sentence.  My voice coach gave me exercises to practice keeping the pitch up at the end of a sentence. 

For example, one exercise was to say every sentence like it was a question.  The rising pitch at the end of a sentence that is not a question is very feminine.  If you overdo it, you'll sound like a "valley girl", but you will get the idea.

A voice coach will identify issues like that and give you the exercises you need to alter your intonation to make it more feminine.

Please feel free to stop by the Introductions forum to tell the members about yourself.  Here is some information that we like to share with new members:

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[SR99]

Thank you all for the help, but how do i upload a Voice Clip? I have one, but i can't seem to figure out how to attach it

[SR99]

I would like to get a voice coach, but sadly i don't have much money right now. I know they can be expensive too.

[Alice V]

People here using that resources for sharing voices:
https://soundcloud.com/

[SR99]

Here is a recording of my voice. I hope it helps identify the problem >___<
https://soundcloud.com/user-24077113/voice-recording/s-9ztQ9

[KathyLauren]

Here is a recording of my voice. I hope it helps identify the problem >___<
https://soundcloud.com/user-24077113/voice-recording/s-9ztQ9

Like my old voice, your voice is level in pitch throughout a sentence, and then dives at the end.  Try making it go up and down more as you speak, and make an extra effort to keep it up at the end of each sentence.  Don't relax until after the last syllable is out.

[Virginia]

You sound EXACTLY like the woman who used to be my boss!

[SR99]

You sound EXACTLY like the woman who used to be my boss!

I promise i'm not your old boss... maybe 

[SR99]

Like my old voice, your voice is level in pitch throughout a sentence, and then dives at the end.  Try making it go up and down more as you speak, and make an extra effort to keep it up at the end of each sentence.  Don't relax until after the last syllable is out.

Thank you for the advice! I guess i never picked up on that when i really should have. I will DEFINITELY work on that, as i am tired of being misgendered purely based on my voice.

[Virginia]

I have heard this type of voice described as nasally, cartoon character-ish or "Martian" like. It is sometimes a first step to achieving  a natural voice and is talked about in the ***FREE*** Deep Stealth voice workbook (search for Gender Life's "Finding Your Female Voice"). Sometimes the best way to correct something is to try to make it worse. Understanding the cause provides a valuable insight into how to correct it.

[DawnOday]

Try using techniques used by ventriloquists. I've tried it out and found that when I speak with my mouth in a smile like position you have to have forward resonance to do it. You may want to visit youtube and find some women you enjoy and watch their interviews. I use Meryl Streep and Sally Field as they are in my age range. I don't just listen to their voices, I observe their mannerisms as well. Kathy had some great advice. You may also want to visit this wiki  https://www.susans.org/wiki/Voice

[SR99]

I have heard this type of voice described as nasally, cartoon character-ish or "Martian" like. It is sometimes a first step to achieving  a natural voice and is talked about in the ***FREE*** Deep Stealth voice workbook (search for Gender Life's "Finding Your Female Voice"). Sometimes the best way to correct something is to try to make it worse. Understanding the cause provides a valuable insight into how to correct it.

Okay! I will write down the name of this workbook and visit it tonight. Seems like i have a long way to go, but it will be worth it in the end 

[SR99]

Try using techniques used by ventriloquists. I've tried it out and found that when I speak with my mouth in a smile like position you have to have forward resonance to do it. You may want to visit youtube and find some women you enjoy and watch their interviews. I use Meryl Streep and Sally Field as they are in my age range. I don't just listen to their voices, I observe their mannerisms as well. Kathy had some great advice. You may also want to visit this wiki  https://www.susans.org/wiki/Voice

I had the idea to do that a while back, but my problem is finding someone i would like to emulate. I would honestly rather have a higher voice than it is now. I will try the Ventriloquist idea for sure, it seems like it could help improve my voice a lot.

[Charlotte F]

Here is a recording of my voice. I hope it helps identify the problem >___<
https://soundcloud.com/user-24077113/voice-recording/s-9ztQ9

I am studying resonance as part of my voice coaching lessons at the moment.  I'm obviously no expert as it's still early days for me too but I'm not sure resonance is your issue - resonance really just adds colour and depth.  You can get an idea of how resonance feels by relaxing your lips and trying to produce the 'b' and 'v' sound together.  You should feel s light tingling sensation around your lips

I would say your issue is more to do with the pattern in which you speak and your pitch dropping in to a male range at the end of some of your words.  Because that sound is very unusual coming from a female voice, it stands out and informs the listeners opinion on gender.  I noticed the end of 'migender' then the whole of the word 'helps'.  I would suggest sirening words like misgender so you take your pitch up towards the middle of the word and then when you drop for the end, you stay in either the bottom of the female range or perhaps go in to gender neutral.  Maybe take the pitch up at the end of sentences too

When dropping your pitch at the end of words, it's good to clip the sound rather than what men do when they continue and exaggerate that ending

Another thing that might help would be to extend a few of the vowels in your words - for example in 'voice' or 'sounds' and just draw those words out to exaggerate the 'oi' or 'oun' parts of the words

I'm sure if you could get a couple of face-to-face one-to-one lessons from a specialist voice coach, you would get there really quickly

[lavish staircase]

As an individual who is constantly around speech language pathologists, I know there are many who would love to help you! There is a part of me that is tempted to do a quick spectral analysis on the signal, and I'm sure many of the comments here carry weight, but it's just soooo much easier to ask an SLP. There should be resources on the ASHA website. If you've already looked there, I apologize.

[josie76]

Somehow your voice clip sounds kind of like it was sped up. It has that tinny sound. Almost like it is missing resonance.
I think you add enough inflection to your words to be like many women. Be mindful when playing with inflections that overdoing it can make you sound like a college age woo girl. If you are in your early 20's that is appropriate, but overdoing it in your 40's will not sound right either. At the same time don't be afraid to let your emotions come through in your speech. Men don't do that, or maybe they don't feel that much that often. I just know that we tend to learn to hide our emotions and that includes not expressing them in our speech patterns. We have to unlearn that.

I have the opposite problem. I can keep my average frequency up alright, but my voice has a deeper resonance with it. I sound congested but also deeper than most women. In person I don't get misgendered but on the phone I always do. I think for a lot of us its just hard to get over the size of the larynx and vocal cord length. We can make great strides but still seems like its difficult to get beyond a point. I do have sinus congestion issues so until I can have something done about that I may never loose that congested sound either.