Quote from: Laura Hope on March 27, 2010, 06:47:56 PM
Can anyone give me a real "lower shelf" understanding of "resonance" as it applies to this subject and how one practices altering it?
It's probably something I already know and just don't make the association with this discussion but I don't want to assume that.
Ok, basically every human voice has a resonance, in technical terms the resonance is the specific combination of frequencies that make up the sound of that voice. In more simplistic terms, resonance can be described as simply the quality of the voice, not just its pitch range and most fundamental pitch, but the unique combination of sound that creates that tone.
Think of it like this. Lots and lots and lots of women speak around the same frequency, as do lots and lots and lots of men. But they ALL have unique voices, despite talking at the same fundamental pitch. They have different sounding voices because it resonates differently even at the same pitch.
The same sort of subtle differences that make the billions of different sounding voices in your life, also determine the way your brain interprets their gender. More so than anything else.
The attitude of their speech, the choice of words, the sentencing structure, can all have a huge impact in determining your interpretation of their personality. Masculine or feminine. But your interpretation of which gender they actually ARE is almost entirely resonance.
Even at the same fundamental pitch, a male voice and a female voice resonates differently, just like two different people have two different sounding voices even at the same pitch.
As for changing resonance, I really have no idea. People say I sound female you can decide for yourself here.
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All I did was practice a few times (couple of times every month or so) and it seemed to change on its own in the meantime.
It changed subtly over several months, so much so that my mother didn't realize it HAD changed until I played the before and after and she was utterly shocked and initially didn't think it was me she was hearing.
I think if I did anything, all I did was start talking the way I felt rather than trying to sound male.
But I know my experience seems to be quite uncommon, so more useful advice can be found at the following link.
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I've put it in quote marks so it doesn't get embedded, it might be useful to go to the link and also check out what she used to sound like in the description info for the video.
So yeah, in my opinion, the way you speak determines the femininity or masculinity of your personality, but only resonance and to a much lesser degree pitch determine your being read AS male or female. Far more so resonance than pitch, there's plenty of girls with low pitched voices.
