Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Ok, so this is something that is driving me insane!!

I love to sing, and sing very well... I have an awesome voice and singing is one of my most favorite things in life. Unfortunatly, I sing like a dude... I have a very male singing voice and like to sing and write heavy metal songs. I love my singing voice, and have no problem with it...

Unfortunatly, I am aware that as I begin to transition to a girl and with surgery and all that in the future, my voice will change and I wont have this singing voice anymore if Im even still able to sing... This is a very distressing issue for me, as I love to sing but hate being a dude... WHAT DO I DO?!

Find a female singer that you can match.  And then begin with them.

I have the same issue in reverse.  My voice is on the lower end, and I can semipass vocally when speaking.  However, I always sound like a girl when I sing.  I can't wait until I get on T.  Good luck with your voice!

Don't worry about it...my friend heidi (who is a natal female btw) also loves heavy metal and she sings like a guy...she even jokes about it.

I can sing with my female voice... but only for a very short period of time and I can only do it at a particular time when my voice feels "strong" so usually shortly after I've woken up.

I say sing but I have no talent.

I don't know if I can strengthen it beyond this point but what happens is my vocal cords get gungy alot then I find it difficult to hold my voice and it becomes "unstable" and just dosen't sound right. (it sounds kinda squawky and shrill) looking at it in spectrogram I loose 2 harmonics in my voice. if it continues to weaken It will drop in pitch aswell.

Things that weaken
1: Eating dairy products
2: Talking too much
3: Singing too hard
4: Using my male voice.

Things that strengthen
1: A nights sleep
2: Lemon tea and honey
3: (when severely weakened) singing my vocal range starting as my lowest male range.
4: Not talking for an hour or so.

It's this complicated garbage in controlling my voice which is why I wish I had a normal female voice. ¬.¬

Quote from: Ashleyjadeism on January 28, 2011, 09:18:12 PMThis is a very distressing issue for me, as I love to sing but hate being a dude... WHAT DO I DO?!

It's quite simple:  you become a rock chick!

Seriously, though, there are lots of great rock and metal artists who are female.  They just aren't ass common as males in the business.  Find one that you like, and see if it doesn't distress you to sing like her.  One of the most prominent ones might be the lead singer of Halestorm.  She has a pretty good female rock style.

Hell, even girls with higher pitched voices can still sing in the more male-dominated styles.  For example, some of Skillet's songs can be really intense for a Christian rock band.  Even so, drummer and vocalist Jen Ledger sounds really good.  The fact that her voice doesn't sound male in any way does not stop her from doing what she wants to do:  rocking out.

I think your problem has more to do with your perception of the industry than transition.  You feel like you won't be able to sing heavy metal if your voice changes.  This is simply untrue.  If you can still sing after hormones/surgery, then you can still do whatever you are doing now.  You might want to change your style if your voice changes or if you intend to sing in a more female style.  But you can still be "heavy" even with a "light" voice.  It just takes more skill, is all.

I think everyone is giviing you the right advice.

I myself can't sing too well but I am a very good impressionist. I can do Bill Clinton, "Macho Man" Randy Savage, Hulk Hogan, Beetlejuice, ect, flawlessly. However this are all deep sounding characters and not a good thing for a MTF. So I am working towards the day I can sign up for voice lessons in which I can not only gain my femine voice, but also gain some new imitations and it's something you might want to look into. Good luck and I wish you the best.

~Gadg

Quote from: VeryGnawty on January 29, 2011, 08:46:02 AM
It's quite simple:  you become a rock chick!

Seriously, though, there are lots of great rock and metal artists who are female.  They just aren't ass common as males in the business.  Find one that you like, and see if it doesn't distress you to sing like her.  One of the most prominent ones might be the lead singer of Halestorm.  She has a pretty good female rock style.

Hell, even girls with higher pitched voices can still sing in the more male-dominated styles.  For example, some of Skillet's songs can be really intense for a Christian rock band.  Even so, drummer and vocalist Jen Ledger sounds really good.  The fact that her voice doesn't sound male in any way does not stop her from doing what she wants to do:  rocking out.

I think your problem has more to do with your perception of the industry than transition.  You feel like you won't be able to sing heavy metal if your voice changes.  This is simply untrue.  If you can still sing after hormones/surgery, then you can still do whatever you are doing now.  You might want to change your style if your voice changes or if you intend to sing in a more female style.  But you can still be "heavy" even with a "light" voice.  It just takes more skill, is all.

Since everyone has already given all the actual advice, I'm going to add a bunch more female rock and metal singers (and I'll try to have heavier ones than these.  Skillet?  That's not even real metal.  Not that everything I'm going to list is, so I should shut up.  Hell, not even all of them claim to be metal; lots of punk and rock in here).

Angela Gossow (Arch Enemy), Morgan Lander (Kittie), Otep, Rockbitch, Wendy O. Williams (solo and Plasmatics), Jessica Fodera (Jack Off Jill), Brody Dalle (The Distillers),  Bianca Butthole (Betty Blowtorch), Lyz (Antischism), Rachel May (Broadzilla), Skin (Skunk Anansie), Lucia Cifarelli (KMFDM).  That's just from a casual glance through my music, and I left out a lot of potentially relevant singers; I'm sure if you searched you could find a lot more.

Quote from: Mr. Fox on January 29, 2011, 12:42:19 PM
Skillet?  That's not even real metal.

I rarely ever listen to heavy metal anymore, so I couldn't think of any female singers in the genre (although certainly there must be at least a few).  That's why I used more generic rock or hard rock groups as examples.

Rocker chick thing is out... And i cant put on a high pitched voce AT ALL lol

I've been told I sound like the dude from disturbed, but I dont think i do... But it's definatly a deep rock growly voice... I need to record a song for a local band anyway, so when I record it I'll uploqd ot for you all to hear... All I know is, I can't get my pitch high enough to copy any female singers... I can get close to evanescence but it's still very deep...

I'm actually gonna try out for american idol next year if I can :)

Quote from: Ashleyjadeism on January 29, 2011, 02:15:12 PM
I've been told I sound like the dude from disturbed, but I dont think i do... But it's definatly a deep rock growly voice...

Actually, I don't think his voice is all that deep.  He sounds like he is singing from the lower end of his register in most of his songs.  He is not using a normal singing style.  I'll bet there are a lot of other artists who are deeper but they don't sound it because of how they are projecting their voices.

Then again, I used to have a really deep voice, so my perception is probably skewed when it come to judging the depth of voices.  When I imagine my old voice in my head, everything sounds high by comparison except for Michael Clark Duncan and that one dude from the Dos Equis commercials.

QuoteI can get close to evanescence but it's still very deep

I've been trying to copy her style since it seems to fit me, but I can't ever get the pitch quite high enough to get a genuine female sound.

I think what disturbed does is sing from the back of his throat... I've spent months copying the style. You have to kinda roll your words off the back of your throat and partly off the roof of your mouth. And he sings deeper in Asylum. I've also mixed my style with five finger death punch.

I may be able to fake it if I practice... I have a gift of mimicking singing styles. I can sing literally any style of music, and any song in any style if I practice it.

Quote from: Ashleyjadeism on January 29, 2011, 04:39:59 PM
I think what disturbed does is sing from the back of his throat..

I'm not sure exactly what he does, but he sounds freaking awesome, LOL.

O_O

Well this sucks... I have been under the asumption that I sing good, based on what my family has told me... Just recorded myself singing... I suck... :(

Not sure why my mom keeps telling me I have an awesome voice... I sound terrible

If you don't mind posting a recording, maybe we can offer advice?  Plus, it's always fun hearing people's voices.

I'll record sometthing tommorrow... Probably the Five Finger Death Punch version of Bad Company... Been stuck in my head for days lol

also, i forgot that most people hate the sound of their own singing voic when recorded... Cuz when I sing, it sounds good to me. But recorded I think i sound horrible so I dunno. Either way I love to sing!!

But I'll let you all see what you think... I apologize in advance if I'm terrible...

Quote from: Laura91 on January 29, 2011, 10:44:07 PM
My mom constantly tells me how pretty I am when I know that I look like a hideous, manly mutt.

I think we need to set a guideline that self-directed negative comments must come with evidence to be submitted for review by the peanut gallery.  Everyone is their own harshest critic.

Lol peanut gallery... Just thought of a peanut art exibit... Lol

I take it you've never heard of Arch Enemy? Angela Gossow (lead singer) does just that.

(https://www.susans.org/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F1.bp.blogspot.com%2F_s1bztf7HV4A%2FTSIgUsCOXcI%2FAAAAAAAAA9A%2FtXMmmYzKbY8%2Fs1600%2Farchenemy-1.jpg&hash=239e3d4d9d50fe477bfd380a996af1ed2c309e93)

(https://www.susans.org/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimage.blog.bitcomet.com%2Fpostpic%2F20080118%2F2919702_rwubvc080118165921.jpg&hash=aa678f6701abbd09396789e541f37d1601f300b7)

There's a buncha others I could mention as well: Christina (Lacuna Coil) and Maria (In This Moment)

(https://www.susans.org/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bloody-disgusting.com%2Fphotosizer%2Fupload%2Fin-this-moment6.jpeg&hash=6cf1cc4f13ec00c403e7c6b64444b986abec9833)

Please check them all out.  ;)

've been meaning to check out lacuna coil

Quote from: Ashleyjadeism on January 30, 2011, 08:11:58 AM
've been meaning to check out lacuna coil

Definitely. There are a bunch of others out there as well. It's just not a "guy's only" domain.  ;)

Cristina Scabbia in Lacuna Coil.