Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Recently I went to a karaoke party, with quite a few people I didn't know. I got male pronouns, and "son'ed" a few times by some older guys - until I sang. I have an unmistakably female way of singing. However, I only know this instinctively. I don't know what it is that makes me sound so female. Singing's pretty important to me, so I want to know if it's possible to make your singing voice more passable.
What, besides pitch obviously, are the differences between male and female singing?

Really, pitch is such a big deal that anything else is pretty irrelevant. Sorry, you're just kind of screwed there without T.

Quote from: SilverFang on February 07, 2010, 02:38:48 PM
Really, pitch is such a big deal that anything else is pretty irrelevant.

Not really. I've heard very low voiced females who still sound completely feminine when they sing (even ones who have very male sounding speaking voices) and males with very high voices who still sound male.

I think voice is just about one of the hardest things to change, and that's just speaking, singing is even harder.  It's so instinctive - babies will sing long before they talk - your born with that ability and that makes it very hard to unlearn and relearn because you don't remember having to learn it in the first place.

And the pitch thing is not the deal, as Aaron pointed out you can still tell the difference, and singing is jam packed with gender clues that you can pretty much hit high 90 level % with people listening and making an ID.  And none of that is even a conscious thought process, that ability to distinguish and differentiate is also innate.  It also often bears little relationship to the speaking voice or even the body, its weird.  Another Aaron, Aaron Neville is a pretty big guy, large arms and shoulders, tall, packing some heft, yet when he sings he has this amazing falsetto, but you can still tell its male, even being that high.  Likewise Laura Branigan (Self-Control, Gloria) sings in a very male range (which is way so many male comedian parodied her) but you always know its a girl, not a guy singing.

When I listened to your 3 audios, while I could hear a change that you described, they were distinctly female.

The reason is that females, for some reason tend to raise their pitch up and down a lot.

On the 3rd audio, for example, as you said DHEA, on the A. your pitch went up. If you think about it, this is holding the listener's attention. This seems to be a natural tendency with women. They speak in conversations, holding attention until they've finished.

Men tend to speak in short bursts. When I recited your statement, as I reached the A, I noticed my tone went down. The statement was finished. Onto the next statement.

Hope that helps and makes some sense.

Quote from: spacial on February 07, 2010, 03:07:30 PM
When I listened to your 3 audios, while I could hear a change that you described, they were distinctly female.

The reason is that females, for some reason tend to raise their pitch up and down a lot.

On the 3rd audio, for example, as you said DHEA, on the A. your pitch went up. If you think about it, this is holding the listener's attention. This seems to be a natural tendency with women. They speak in conversations, holding attention until they've finished.

Men tend to speak in short bursts. When I recited your statement, as I reached the A, I noticed my tone went down. The statement was finished. Onto the next statement.

Hope that helps and makes some sense.

Interesting. Thanks, that's quite helpful.

Dennis sings.   ;D

I sing.  Sort of.  Well, it sounds okay to me, but let's say I'm not going on American Idol any time soon.  Unless I sing Pants On The Ground and break dance!

Seriously though, I think, like any kid who can sing who goes through puberty, there is a period when the voice is changing where things are a bit difficult, but should come out on the other end able to sing again. 

FWIW I could never make my voice sound more male prior to T.

Jay

I could never sing but I could hit some of the high notes and stay in tune but now nothing it just BAD!

Jay

To be honest, I don't think there is anything about Aaron's voice now that couldn't pass as male apart from the intonation.

I've tried to describe that earlier. I know there are sites on the net advising on this.

But, to my mind, the best way is to be aware of what to look for. Listen to a male speaking some phrase and repeat it, recording yourself.