When to initiate voice?

[drippin]

Well I've been training my voice for months now and I have to say, I think it sounds quite nice. However, I have a hard time using it around friends and family. It just feels weird. It is the voice I would love to use all the time, and when I think in my head, it is the voice I hear. But I just can't bring myself to use it in front of people, and when I try, I do it half-heartedly. Which leaves people feeling kind of awkward because I know friends and family are thinking (that does NOT sound like a woman) ... it sucks cause I have my voice where I want it. I just feel awkward using it.




Any advice?

[Rock_chick]

It's just practice hun, it's normal to feel awkward at first, especially round other people, which usually means you revert just because you boy voice is sfe. You kind of reach a point where everything has just become so normal you don't have to think about it...in fact I've found if i think about my voice too much it becomes obvious  and unnatural.

Don't fret, all things come in time

[Summerfall]

It's hard to get started. To me it was like having to sing in front of other people x 1,000. Luckily my partner was very non-judgmental when I started using my real voice. Then I started using it with my therapist, later at a support group, and finally with friends and strangers alike (which is nice because before I just wouldn't talk in public).

So I guess what I did was move from non-threatening environments progressively until I was comfortable everywhere. It did get easier and easier with each step, too.

Which leaves people feeling kind of awkward because I know friends and family are thinking (that does NOT sound like a woman)

The more you use it, the better and more comfortable/natural you will sound. It always helped me to think that one of the popular youtube voice trainers went around sounding like Mickey Mouse for some time before she got her voice to where it is now.

That self conscious fear will go away eventually, especially if you start with people who you know are supportive.

[lilacwoman]

hi drippin,  my voice is acceptable but my biggest problem is spending most of one day a week with my mothetr who is quite deaf and trying to make her hear really ruins my voice for 2 or 3 days.
we juts have to try harder.  t'aint fair.

[pebbles]

I just started using it 3 months onto hormones, When those who already knew commented about it I pretended it was hormones and that my male voice didn't exsist anymore (I'd gone away for a few weeks) because I know that my non-accepting mother especally would otherwise try to force to use my male voice but others too.

It's true it's not entirely honest, but it's the safest way I think and it's not hurting anyone and protects me.

Just make sure your voice has the stamina to last all day so nobody has a clue. I now use it 24/7 for the past 6 months using my male voice only as a training tool when I'm on my own.

It's innate enough that when I talk in my sleep I speak in my female voice. But even still I lament that I can still feel my male voice underneath aswell as a degree of irritation I get from not using large portions of my voicebox.

Although it is true after this time my male voice is severely bent out of shape. My inflection is feminine now and the pitch bend on some words sounds stupid with a guys voice also I innately try to drag my voice up making it hard to say more than 2 sentances. But it is a fully broken male voice tho.

[Colleen Ireland]

I've been pitching my normal voice somewhat higher for weeks now (maybe a couple of months), both at work and at home, all the time when I'm in boy mode.  I just basically am cutting out the chest resonance, and pitching it a little higher.  Not so much as I do when I'm dressed.  And so far I've only had TWO people comment on it.  One at work - a woman who asked if I were fighting a cold.  The other - my wife - who, in a recent difficult conversation on the topic of my situation and transition plans, said she had noticed me "speaking high", and how it was driving her NUTS.  (oops)  But basically, I'm practicing all the time.  When I begin HRT, I expect I'll look around for vocal training at that point...