If you can sing male notes pre-T, do you lose them (initially) during T?

[petzjazz]

When I start T, I'd like to continue doing musical theatre as soon as my voice is passably male. As of now (pre-T), I can sing most of the notes required of tenor parts - when I go on T, will I still be able to sing the (male) notes that I could as a female (obviously I'll lose my upper range), or will my voice be so screwed up that singing at all will probably be out of the question? I want to ask my choir director to work with me on tenor parts so that I can project the male notes that I currently have better, but I also don't want to waste my time. Could someone going on T overcome the vocal shakiness/breaking if they were reasonably trained?

[icontact]

o-o; Oh dear that would be terrible if I lost that. I like my low singing. -lurks  thread-

[Lachlann]

You wont know until you're on T, how much your voice will drop. It really depends on you.

I do, however, doubt that it's going to ruin your singing voice forever. To make things easier I would keep up the vocal training as you go through transition. Your voice will eventually stabilize either way though. Cisgender males who go through puberty don't automatically lose their singing voices, their range just drops. Obviously, if they were not to practise their voice, they probably wont get better.

There are some singing ftms on youtube you can look at, though.

[JonasCarminis]

at some points, yes i have lost some low notes.  i just couldnt get my voice to work right.  only lasted about 2 days at a time though.  like a week ok then a couple of days where my voice was bein nuts then itd be fine again.

[Mister]

Your singing voice will be jacked.  It takes a while for your voice to stabilize and also for your brain to figure out where your new range is.

[Dennis]

Yeah, it is a bit difficult, but guys go through puberty all the time and keep singing. I lost my tenor range for a while and only had bass, but kept singing through it and now have the higher stuff and a falsetto. It just takes a while to settle down and there are a few months there where cracking is the norm. At one point, I only had an octave left of what had been a four octave range. I haven't tested it, but I suspect I'm close to where I was (although obviously lower) as far as size of range. It also takes a while for your body to learn how to sing the higher notes. It's different for men, as far as what goes on physically, placing the higher but not falsetto notes.

You can probably stay in the chorus for the early part - I wouldn't try solos until you've stabilized - but no need to stop singing or give up on it.

Oh, also, if you're singing tenor notes now before your voice has changed, you might turn into a bass. That's what happened with my voice and I was a low alto/tenor before.

Apparently someone is putting some of our stuff up on Youtube. I'll link it when I find it.

Dennis

[Andrew]

It definitely won't screw up your voice, although it might take some getting used to. I can sing as well as or better than I could before T. The only qualm I had was that I was assigned tenor parts at the beginning of the semester, but couldn't hit the high notes at the end of the semester. So if you have a concert more than a month down the line, you might want to make sure that the parts you're currently on will work with your lower voice then.

[Mr. Fox]

Four octaves, Dennis?  That's pretty good!

[Dennis]

Yeah, it was a pretty impressive range. I should get it tested now. I suspect it's less, but not sure how much less. My falsetto has improved a lot lately, but I still can't sing along to Kate Bush

Dennis

[Jay]

My voice is screwed when it comes to singing. I can hold one note. I guess it will take a while until my voice is settled but I cant handle singing to myself with out cringing any more!

Jay

[Mr. Fox]

Well, I hear in general that men have a wider range then women, so once your voice settles you should have a very good range, Dennis.  I hope this is true because my range is truly pathetic.