Hi there, my name's Sophia, I've been presenting full-time as female for about a month.
I managed to get the voice more or less right in about two days of constant practise but at times my voice has sounded croaky, like a chain-smoker. I've assumed it's because of the strain I'm putting on my vocal cords and have not been reassured by what little information I've found by googling. I've noticed that some other trans girls on youtube have that issue and I'm very worried about damaging my vocal cords at this point and having this become permanent. Does anyone have any advice or experience they can give me? Thankyouuu <3
Sophia
Talk from your mouth, not your throat. Doing that will also eliminate that stereotypical "feminine gay" inflection" because the words will sound smoother.
Hi Sophia,
There are different methods for training your voice. Some vocal therapists use a bottom-up approach, which means to try and raise the voice from it's natural range, some use a top-down approach which involves creating a falsetto voice and trying to lower it so that it sounds natural. Quite often the method used depends on the client and what comes most natural. The key as alainaluvsu said is to change the place where the words are formed, not from the chest but in the mouth and the nasal cavities. You should be able to feel the resonance and the vibrations inside the head, and not in the throat. Start off with creating simple vowel sounds, start with the easiest which is ahhhhh. Then move on to eeeeeee and oooooo, and finally awwwww. I myself have found the top down approach is working best for me as I can always hear the graveliness in my voice otherwise. The main thing is to practice, but not too much. As soon as your voice becomes hoarse STOP. Otherwise you could be causing permanent damage to you vocal chords. Typically 10-15 minutes per day is enough. Recording is useful so you can hear whats working well and what's not, also try and listen to the tone and intonation of a woman's voice when she talks, it's a very musical sound.
Hope this helps.
Siobhan.
Quote from: Alainaluvsu on May 20, 2012, 10:36:26 AM
Talk from your mouth, not your throat. Doing that will also eliminate that stereotypical "feminine gay" inflection" because the words will sound smoother.
http://youtu.be/BqrCcRmhSNI (http://youtu.be/BqrCcRmhSNI) do you think with her that its the voice that makes her obviously trans ? is this what you were saying with the " feminine gay" male voice
Quote from: mementomori on May 20, 2012, 07:56:29 PM
http://youtu.be/BqrCcRmhSNI (http://youtu.be/BqrCcRmhSNI) do you think with her that its the voice that makes her obviously trans ? is this what you were saying with the " feminine gay" male voice
No. Not even close. I'd post a great example but I'd offend at least 1 member on this site, and I don't want to do that.