Voice role models

[cindianna_jones]

I just finished watching Dead Like Me on the SciFi channel.. Okay, I didn't really watch it.  I had it on while I played chase a dream on the boards here.  But, the heroine in this week's presentation did a bit of Karioke on stage.  Since I wasn't focused entirely on the tele, I was immediately pulled away from the keyboard with shock as I listened to her sing.

It was most definitely a baritone voice and quite masculine.  Yet... there was a feminine quality to it.

I was talking to one of our members here last night on the phone and we discussed the TS voice dilemma briefly.  I still strongly believe that we don't necessarily need to bring up the range of our voices.   I mean if you can do that, go for it.  But even then, there is a feminine quality to speech that many of us never master.

So, this all got me to thinking of female voice role models.  The girl on Dead Like Me is a great one.  I'd advise everyone trying to resolve their voice issues to watch her, tape her voice, and listen.  See if you can't mimmick her.

Other women I've met in my life have had very low voices.  I recall a very small woman where I worked and who did phone work, had a very bass voice. She was a very pretty petite woman. But her voice was tonally very low. Yet, no one ever doubted her gender.

And there are hundreds of Hollywood types to mimmick.  Check out your favorite.  I always liked Susanne Plesshete's voice. 

Chin up

Cindi

[umop ap!sdn]

I don't get the SciFi channel.

What about Kate Mulgrew (Janeway on ST: Voyager)? Actually, while watching that show and hearing her talk, I got the same "limiting" feeling that my own voice gives me.

[tinkerbell]

Bea Arthur (the golden girls)
Catherine Crier (court TV news)
Martha Stewart (you know who she is...)
Lauren Hutton (actress)


In my opinion, the pitch is not everything; there are many other factors which make a voice feminine (i.e. intonation, inflection, resonance, timber), I still have a rather deep voice as you know, but I hardly get clocked now because of it, unless it is early in the morning or my throat is dry.....


tinkerbell

[Melissa]

Other women I've met in my life have had very low voices.  I recall a very small woman where I worked and who did phone work, had a very bass voice. She was a very pretty petite woman. But her voice was tonally very low. Yet, no one ever doubted her gender.

Same here.  Other than a tiny bit of trouble on the phone before, in person it doesn't seem to matter how low I use my voice.  My gender does not seem to be questioned.

Melissa

[LynnER]

Music and sound are my forte, the true diffrence between the male and female voice is the resonant quality....  My bands first singer was female and she had the exact same pitch voice as our male lead yet there was a distinct diffrence between how they sounded.  Its a combonation of resonance and the lilt for lack of better term... women enunciate diffrent than men do... shift the resonance and learn the proper lilt and you could have the depth of voice that barry White has and still sound totaly female.....

[BrandiOK]

  When I came out to my closest friends before I started my transition one of the things that they asked about was voice and how HRT would affect it.  I explained that for MtF's estrogen has no effect on the voice.  My best female friend at work said "You aren't going to have problems with your voice" and smiled.  I didn't quite understand because I thought I had a very male voice so I asked her what she meant.  She said "You have a bit of a feminine voice already...you didn't know that?" and I replied that hadn't noticed that.  I dismissed it as her just trying to make me feel better but months later when I first saw my endo one of the things she commented on was that I had a good voice already. 

  I studied music in college and earned my degree.  I got pulled out of the audience at OpryLand one time and made to sing with one of the staff singers....I got a stand ovation (blush) and invited to audition as a staff singer there.  I never did because of my horrible shyness which pretty much ruined any hopes of singing professionally to begin with.

  Anyways...this post brought to mind that I can't sing anymore.  I've tried and tried but I can't....I constantly slip into my "comfortable" singing voice which is distinctly masculine.  It's really sad, I wish I could sing with a more feminine voice...sigh.

[Shana A]

Anyways...this post brought to mind that I can't sing anymore.  I've tried and tried but I can't....I constantly slip into my "comfortable" singing voice which is distinctly masculine.  It's really sad, I wish I could sing with a more feminine voice...sigh.

Keep Singing BrandiOK!!! I hate to hear of someone not using their gift. I have a friend who is post op, and her voice is wonderful. As musicians, we learn to sing/play by listening on a deep level and mimicking until we replicate accurately what we hear. I know you can do it.

All that said, I prefer singing with my natural baritone voice. The rest of the world can just deal with it 

zythyra

[Laurry]

I agree that a feminine voice is much more than just pitch...and I think "lilt" was the perfect word to describe it.  Different inflections and a melody in the way things are said.  You wouldn't hear it when I talk (yet), but we all know it when we hear it.

Brandi, let me add my hopes that you continue singing.  Very few of us have the voice (and pitch) to be asked to audition as a singer anywhere, much less some place like Opryland.  You were not given a gift like that to let it sit around unused.  Sing, girl, even if it is just at home or in the car.

Cindi, not only does the girl on Dead Like Me have a low voice, but her name is George.  Kindred soul maybe?

[LostInTime]

I had been accused of speaking like a woman before I even started going to see a therapist and some read me as gay because of it.  It was not the pitch as that was safely in male range.  At first I struggled with my voice but I learned to relax and just go with the flow.  Ever since I have just let my instincts taken over I have had very few issues.  YMMV.

[umop ap!sdn]

In my teen years I strongly resisted my voice's urge to deepen. The deepening of my pitch range didn't happen until about age 15-16, but all through that time I maintained a higher speaking voice; I was scared to death of growing up to become a man and the voice was a definite part of it. So I always thought it was my little kid voice and even though at times I thought I'd stand out less if I developed a masculine speaking voice, I never did get around to actually trying that. (Am I ever glad I didn't! )

Imagine my surprise then when I went to meet my first acquaintance in the T* community and she told me I had an excellent voice already.