Problem with my voice in loud environments.

[alyssalove2790]

I seem to have problems using my female voice in loud environments, not being heard over the noise... I often have to drop down my pitch (but not resonance, for some reason I can't use chest resonance... I just can't. Head/throat resonance).

Like... I'll try sounding female still but the pitch goes down from female medium to androgynous low or male high pitch... My resonance and speech pattern remains unchanged.

Any hints to some types of training I could do to help? I'm thinking of surgery since pitch is the problem and not resonance nor speech pattern!

Edit.: Oh... and by loud environments I mean those where you'd have to wear earplugs for prolonged exposure! ...Or a bar with loud music!

[Colleen_definitely]

Singing helped me with this.  Loud, off key, and cringey.     But it did help me learn to project better.

[Fallen_Meteorite]

I used to be a tenor until a couple months ago. I have heard it mentioned time and again that the vocal range for pitch and resonance does not increase in frequency during feminization, but for me it did.

I plan on posting some unlisted youtube videos of myself singing accapella (because audible music will flag for copyright).

Previously my vocal range ran from baritone to alto, but I could only really "project" my voice in tenor range.

Although I could sing alto previously without usage of falsetto, my old voice always sounded more like Micheal Jackson (using vocal register) or prince (falsetto) and less like Blondie or Nancy Sinatra. Now I can push my resonance beyond that of Blondie's alto, believe or not!

Avoid falsetto if possible. You'll come off like Monty Python style drag comedy at best, or cartoonish like muppets. Falsetto quartets used to be a fad in the 60s. I'm glad it died off. Before my time but it sounded awful.

I still present as male full time but speaking for extended periods in my old tenor resting voice is painful. It's at he bottom of my vocal range now and sounds like I have a sore throat when I try to talk low.

Bass/baritone i can do no more. Tenor sounds forced, almost like a cis-gendered woman trying to act macho. My alto range is mature but doesn't project like my old tenor voice. If I attempt to shout, pitch drops oddly enough.

Though my speaking voice is fairly androgynous sounding, I have found singing a verse or so of any alto female pop song temporarily pushes my range up. Humming sofly if you are in mixed company or don't know the words is just as effective.

Because I am feminizing using street legal otc health supplements (dhea) instead of a proper metered dosage from prescription hormones, my resting vocal range will rise and fall based on the ebb and flow of the unregulated levels in my body.

I cannot project in alto like I used to with my tenor voice. Doing so or forcing it too high or too loud too soon can cause damage. I suffered a bad case of laryngitis a few weeks ago that took several days to recover from. Remember, your vocal cords are underdeveloped during transition like a school girl, but you have the lung capacity of an adult male. If you feel pain, cease singing and rest your voice immediately.

Try Sade for starters. She's gentle and effiminate that many cis- or non-transitioning tenors can emulate her. Blondie and Joan Jett are more good artists to emulate when you get practice. Cindi Lauper Girls just wanna have fun or Madonna if you are more advanced. Frequent stretching will help effeminate your voice, but please don't overdo it to the point of injury.

Simple rap lyrics like Fresh Prince of Bel Air are good for gender bender training your voice. If you can learn to control pitch and resonance separately, you can emulate just about anyone within range.

My church doesn't know I'm trans yet but pastor has been begging my fiance and I to join the praise team for months. His hope is that if I join the choir, it will encourage other "men" to join. I will be the only "man" up there, and if I join, I'll be singing in alto because I literally can't do tenor anymore. I can't pass up a golden opportunity like this one.

This could potentially get weird in a few months when my breast growth becomes to obvious to hide from the congregation anymore...

[Linde]

Fallen_Meteorite
I have no real idea what all those voices mean!  What on earth is falsetto?  Would you be so nice and attach some frequencies to this, because I can voices associate only to frequencies (that  is that scientific mind of me that needs facts an figures to be able to process).

Thank you for your help!

[alyssalove2790]

Fallen_Meteorite
I have no real idea what all those voices mean!  What on earth is falsetto?  Would you be so nice and attach some frequencies to this, because I can voices associate only to frequencies (that  is that scientific mind of me that needs facts an figures to be able to process).

Thank you for your help!

Falsetto range (above alto range) is when your frequency is so high you sound like a squeaky cartoon characters! I can't get to it yet personally it takes training but I'd rather train a normal voice. The falsetto range is used a lot more in singing than talking!

[Linde]

Falsetto range (above alto range) is when your frequency is so high you sound like a squeaky cartoon characters! I can't get to it yet personally it takes training but I'd rather train a normal voice. The falsetto range is used a lot more in singing than talking!

Thanks, I think I can do it, but it hurts my throat a little, and why shall I do it?  I don't sing, well actually, when I sing I am around a mezzo soprano kind of.  But I can sing only, if I sing along , because I am pretty tone deaf!

[Maid Marion]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_rising_terminal
The high rising terminal (HRT), also known as upspeak, uptalk, rising inflection, upward inflection, or high rising intonation (HRI), is a feature of some variants of English where declarative sentence clauses end with a rising-pitch intonation, until the end of the sentence where a falling-pitch is applied.
.......
Because HRT has been popularized as "Valley Girl Speak", it has acquired an almost exclusively feminine gender connotation. Studies confirm that more women use HRT than men.[18] Linguist Thomas J. Linneman contends, "The more successful a man is, the less likely he is to use HRT; the more successful a woman is, the more likely she is to use uptalk".

I find I do this a lot.

[Fallen_Meteorite]

Truth be told, I had a fairly flexible tenor singing voice prior to feminization.

I could sing from baritone to alto, however prior to hrt my alto was very micheal jackson-like. Now it's more like Blondie (call me) or Nancy Sinatra (these boots were made for walking).

Falsetto singing was popular in the 60s beginning with motown and soul groups.

Police used it a lot. Listen to Roxanne by the police or Staying alive by the Beegees. This is cis-male singers using falsetto register to raise their pitch beyond their nominal range.

Prince is a highly efiminent male, used falsetto in his songs to portray a feminine tone, like Raspberry Berea or kiss.

Compare this to Freddy Mercury lead singer of queen, in Bohemian Raphsody. He had an unusually flexible vocal range but stays in the vocal register for much of the song, except for the "Galilleo" parts. Cis-men with flexible voices often retain their lower tenor resonance when singing high. The pitch is beyond that of most men, but the resonance is still low due to the enlarged adam's apple.

Cher is a cis-female tenor for all practical purposes. Micheal Jackson (again I am comparing to him for comparison) is a male/androgynous sounding alto.

So while Cher's singing vocal range is lower than Micheal Jackson, her voice is more feminine because she has a higher resonance.

Before I started to ransition I could emulate Sade "smooth operator" "your love is king" pretty well to. Still can though my resonance is getting higher.

What has happened specifically in my case, my adam's apple bump has completely melted away as my resonance increased. Tenors obviously have it easier than basses, and if you were an accomplished singer beforehand, you will still be able to perform post transition.

I cannot sing baritone / bass, at all, anymore and my tenor voice sounds forced. There is a learning curve when adjusting to rapid changes in the vocal chords. I've lost the ability to "project" my voice, but when I sing alto, my higher resonance makes me sound a lot closer to Blondie or Nancy Sinatra and a lot less like Micheal Jackson.

Sing along to the radio in your car if you can, both male and female singers. For female altos, I try to match the pitch and resonance. For men, I sometimes match the pitch and hold my feminine resonance if the song has an extended range. If they sing to low, I go up an octave.

I want to upload some videos of myself singing, but allergy season is here in full swing and the congestion is devastating to my high end, so it may have to wait until pollen season is over. My face swells up like a chipmunk every year due to deep south pollen, and taking feminizing hormones doesn't do anything to change that.

To all those who aren't singers, keep practicing vocal therapy. I was blessed with a tenor voice and about 3 octaves worth of vocal range (barotone to alto) to play with. Now I'm upper edge of tenor to lower edge of soprano! My voice never fully "cracked" during puberty either; it just deepened. Not all boys completely lose their high end during puberty. I still need to work on is raising my speaking voice and get it to stay in alto range when I'm relaxed.

I still present to family, coworkers, and friends I haven't come out to yet as cis-male,  despite my old tenor speaking voice is now at the bottom of my vocal range. Singing or humming a few bars of any song or melody, even under my breath, will boost my speaking voice higher for a few minutes, before it shifts back down. Continuously talking on the edge of one's vocal range, low or high, can lead to discomfort. This causes problems especially when raising my volume at work so people can hear me over machinery. It hurts when I have to shout over environmental noise

I want my voice to just stay where I put it without applying conscious effort to move it back up. Also the daily ebb and flow of hormone fluctuations means my vocal chords respond to fluctuating estrogen levels. My voice goes up without conscious effort when I feel more feminine, drops when I feel masculine. I am not currently taking any form of Testosterone blocker, just female hormones.

[Rachel]

Hi Alyssa,

It sounds like you do not have as much exposure talking in a loud place as in normal sound level placed. It may be of help to practice in your car on the way to work. Female voices tend to go higher pitch when more vocal pressure is allied and they want to be heard in loud places.

Fallen Meteorite,
post puberty and being exposed to T for a time causes the larynx to enlarge. Female hormones for MTF transition does not change the structure of the larynx. Also, taking over the counter products in large quantities can have a negative health effect. You may want to discuss what you are taking with a doctor.