Female Voice Tips

[tinkerbell]

Falsetto is the higher range that males enter (typically when mimicing females poorly) that sounds "false". 
Melissa

Just listen to the first girl sing in the Dutch version of American Idol......that is 100%FALSETTO!!!

I've since started focusing more on speaking with a head voice

That is the trick!  speak with your head and not with your chest, right kitties? >


tinkerbell

[Melissa]

I know this is now an old topic, but...

I'd like to point out, and seek confirmation that, the techniques Melissa talked about (thanks Melissa!) take a different approach than the "Melanie Anne Phillips" method... this is right, right?

I'd been working on that method for a long time and pretty much hit a road block. I've since started focusing more on speaking with a head voice, tightening it a little bit, and raising pitch slightly and I'm getting much better results. Now, people keep calling me "ma'am" after hearing me speak!

As far as I know (I don't know the Melanie method), it is different.  Most of this is taken from my own personal experience and things I had learned.  So, if you are getting results from following these tips, then I'm very happy about that--both for you and the fact the tips are working.

Melissa

[Owen]

Wonderful tips Melissa. I have been praticing some of the things here myself for some time and it works. I do get ma'med on the phone a lot and sometimes out in public too.

Thanks Melissa, I'm putting these tips to work tonight.

Owen
Love being female

[SusanKay140]

Forgive me for being blonde here - well actually, maybe you should encourage me to make that change, I'm not sure - but two things on female voice have me confused, at least two things.  sing song voice, and head voice. 

One of the neater things I've discovered lately while listening to GWs talking is the way some will occasionally actually sing one or two words in a sentence.  I love it, but I don't think that is what sing song means. 

Head voice I know is opposite of chest voice.  I remember my high school glee club teacher using the male abuse example of "deeeeep riiivvver" in getting the voice down in the diaphram, but I do not grasp the reverse concept of getting it up.  The voice, that is.  I mean, it seems to me the reverse would be nasal - not a pretty sound.  It sure would have been easier to have been born the right way!

Susan Kay

[Melissa]

Forgive me for being blonde here - well actually, maybe you should encourage me to make that change, I'm not sure - but two things on female voice have me confused, at least two things.  sing song voice, and head voice. 

One of the neater things I've discovered lately while listening to GWs talking is the way some will occasionally actually sing one or two words in a sentence.  I love it, but I don't think that is what sing song means. 

Men usually have about 3 tones they vary between, but the modulate their volume to get inflection in their voice.  Sing-song just means in general that the tone of your syllables vary between that of the one before.  Here's a visual example:

Man
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------going---------grocery-store----------------some milk-------------------------
--I-am-------to-the----------------tonight-to-get-----------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Woman
---think----------------grocery------------------------------------------------------
------------go----------------------------------------------------------------------
--------I'll-----------------------------------and-buy-------milk---------------------
---------------to-the----------------tonight----------some--------------------------
-I-----------------------------store-------------------------------------------------

Notice how the woman's tones tend to vary more than for the man's tone. To say a man speak in a monotone voice, is unfair for the average man, because if they did, they would sound like Ben Stein (think the teacher in Ferris Bueller who keeps repeating his name).  I believe the difference in speaking reflects on how women tend to be more expressive in society.  For some people the "sing-song" part may come naturally.

Head voice I know is opposite of chest voice.  I remember my high school glee club teacher using the male abuse example of "deeeeep riiivvver" in getting the voice down in the diaphram, but I do not grasp the reverse concept of getting it up.  The voice, that is.  I mean, it seems to me the reverse would be nasal - not a pretty sound.  It sure would have been easier to have been born the right way!

To get the "sing-song" voice, speaking in a head voice is necessary.  Speaking in a head voice should be the very first thing you should work on.  It will make everything else much easier.  Most males are capable of both ways of speaking and there are actually many males that speak in a head voice, rather than a chest voice naturally.  Like I had said in tips portion of this post, many people will automatically switch between a head voice and a chest voice under certain conditions.  One of the more common ones is when you get excited and talk in a higher, faster voice.  It tends to automatically switch to the head to resonate, rather than the chest.  For me, I had actually noticed the 2 different sounds that came out of me (even before transition), although at the time, I didn't know it was chest and head resonance.  One thing to note is that raising the pitch may possibly switch you to a head voice automatically.

One more thing.  This is a tip I came up with last night.  Once you feel your voice sounds pretty good, get a hold of a video camera or a digital camera capable of recording video (with sound) and record yourself speaking in a female voice along with all your mannerisms (preferably dressed as female), then play it back right away.  You can then make adjustments to get your voice to fit the image you present.  For me, I was quite shocked at how feminine my facial expressions and mannerisms (that I didn't realize I was even doing) came across.  I did also note a couple adjustments I needed to make to my voice.  I think the voice is something that can always be improved and even I'm still working on mine.

Melissa

[SusanKay140]

Melissa,

I love your new photo!

Thanks for the response on voice, particularly the sentence breakdown graphic.  That helps.  By the way, the wording difference male to female ("I am going" vs "I think I'll go") is interesting.  Is that natural with you or have you had to work on using that wording style?

The digital video camera idea sounds like a good one - our tape one quit several years ago, and we haven't entered the digital age yet.  I can see where our particular needs are well met by a digital camera.  It was looking promising for a favorable visit from Ms. Claus, but our son managed to get his truck wrecked this weekend.  Not his fault, but getting a rental for him has done a temporary raid on the Christmas fund. 

Again thank you for taking the time to help.  You're wonderful.

Susan Kay

[Melissa]

I love your new photo!

Thank you.

Thanks for the response on voice, particularly the sentence breakdown graphic.  That helps.  By the way, the wording difference male to female ("I am going" vs "I think I'll go") is interesting.  Is that natural with you or have you had to work on using that wording style?

It's definitely natural.  Did I always talk like that?  No.  As I accepted that I was female more and more, mannerisms and speech patterns naturall became more prominent.  It was pretty much NOT hiding stuff anymore.

The digital video camera idea sounds like a good one - our tape one quit several years ago, and we haven't entered the digital age yet.  I can see where our particular needs are well met by a digital camera.  It was looking promising for a favorable visit from Ms. Claus, but our son managed to get his truck wrecked this weekend.  Not his fault, but getting a rental for him has done a temporary raid on the Christmas fund. 

Again thank you for taking the time to help.  You're wonderful.

You're definitely welcome.   I'm glad I'm able to help.  Voice work is one thing I'm pretty proud of, since I was able to figure so much stuff out and then I just put it all out there in a format that seemed much less confusing than the Andrea James or Melanie Ann Phillips methods.

Melissa

[melissa90299]

Voice is my strongest passing skill. My advice is to get to know the technical aspects of it and to find a partner to practice with. Most transsexuals concentrate on pitch, when it's not even the most important aspect.

I am up for practice if anyone ever needs any help.

Yeah, your voice is great, I love that East Coast accent too.

[umop ap!sdn]

I *think* I understand head voice vs. chest voice, and I *think* I've been speaking in head voice my whole life. Although, no matter what I try there's still some vibration in my chest. 

Anyway, my technique is that growing up, as my pitch range became lower, I refused to let my speaking voice change pitch. (It has, but not nearly to the extent that the average male's voice does.) So there I was at 23 still speaking in what I thought was just a little kid voice, and I thought ya know, maybe I should learn a deeper voice just to fit in. (Am I ever glad I didn't!) Then I met someone in the T* community who commented that my voice was already right on.

So maybe the trick is to try to duplicate the way one spoke before the voice change.

[Melissa]

I *think* I understand head voice vs. chest voice, and I *think* I've been speaking in head voice my whole life. Although, no matter what I try there's still some vibration in my chest. 

Anyway, my technique is that growing up, as my pitch range became lower, I refused to let my speaking voice change pitch. (It has, but not nearly to the extent that the average male's voice does.) So there I was at 23 still speaking in what I thought was just a little kid voice, and I thought ya know, maybe I should learn a deeper voice just to fit in. (Am I ever glad I didn't!) Then I met someone in the T* community who commented that my voice was already right on.

So maybe the trick is to try to duplicate the way one spoke before the voice change.

Personally, I think it's ok if there's a little vibration.  Like I said, some people always speak in a head voice.  It doesn't surprise me that you may have been doing that.  For me personally, I would switch back and forth unintentionally without realizing it.  I remember when I was taking some singing lessons (as male), I could sing in 2 different ways and the teacher quickly told me to sing in the "head voice" method.  At the time I didn't realize that was head voice/chest voice.  So I distinctly remember before transition (or admitting to myself I was really female), I was able to consciously switch between the 2.  Now I can talk in head voice and sometimes it vibrate slightly in my chest and sometimes it doesn't.  Either way seems to get me by.

Melissa