I ask this question because I like my voice, I have a wide range of voice impressions I can do and i think it would be a shame for me to give all that up, just because i want to present as a woman. In fact the more i think about it, the more it could benefit me cause no one would be expecting me doing optimus prime voice while looking super femme LOL. I am posting a link to some of the voices I do just to give you an idea. Now there is still a concern for me to learn to speak and resonate my voice in a more female way, because i do really want to be able to maintain that voice and speak feminine when I want to. Its a odd place to be though cause i am so used to hearing myself in my head and speaking a certain way. How many of you chose to speak the way they have all their life or don't really speak girly girl.
Cartoon and People Voice Impressions #1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cf_xzsYL9fo&feature=share&list=UUrt44kPAEG0Cgxtw80c6-bA#) That is a link to some of my voices, theres more there like furby (which is my highest voice and sort of falsetto) all the way to Optimus Prime (which is as low as i can go)
Quote from: Shawn Sunshine on December 09, 2012, 02:46:39 PM
How many of you chose to speak the way they have all their life or don't really speak girly girl.
Cartoon and People Voice Impressions #1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cf_xzsYL9fo&feature=share&list=UUrt44kPAEG0Cgxtw80c6-bA#) That is a link to some of my voices, theres more there like furby (which is my highest voice and sort of falsetto) all the way to Optimus Prime (which is as low as i can go)
When I started living full time, I had worked very very hard at developing a good passing voice. All the years of pent up femininity came gushing out. In short I went girly girl bonkers, including my speaking. But I began to realize that as time went on, I really wasn't a girly girl. In fact very few women in real life are girly girls.
My original voice was very good and it was very convincing even on the phone. But I dialed it back with time, to now a sort of half way between. I have all the right inflections and gender cues but speaking at XHz doesn't matter to me anymore.
I wouldn't recognize my old voice if I heard it on tape. But I hear my new voice so much that I know it's me. I sometimes find myself venturing into girly girl world, but not that much to be honest.
IDK what a girly girl voice is, tbh. I just speak in a passable voice and that's all I care about.
I don't know Shawn, the most important thing to me with voice is not getting sirred on the phone or in person. When I started figuring out voice, I was focused on those two things and then just somewhere along the line like right after I transitioned, it just wasn't an issue. I didn't set out saying "ohhh, I want to speak in a 'real girly' voice" or anything. I knew the range I needed to be in so I trained my voice to get there. Like Alaina said, the focus is on blending. Voice is important to me.
I don't really like my voice, I wish it were more naturally girly. I have tried to work on it alot but I can't seem to keep it up consistently and I am not sure if it sounds that feminine even when I try. Though my natural voice is not deep at all. A speech therapist told me my natural voice is in an adolescent/young male range, but I have a bad glottal fry to my voice which does not sound attractive. I may get voice surgery someday, the surgery seems to be getting more refined with better results as technology advances.
If I'm being really flirty on phone then I will up the "girly" speak. Some are more responsive to it ;D. Other times it's the business as usual voice.
Nice Shawn just listend to your video, you are really talented.
If your natural voice is even lower than a typical males, you'd try to kick it up an octave, if possible, as well as do all the rest to try to have a reasonably passing female voice.
As far as speaking real girlie? Possibly as in Valley Girl girlie? Very hard to pull off if you're not 5'4" but 6ft tall... w/o heels and not 20 something but 50 something. Just doesn't fit the image, either way.
Being able to do voices/characters and developing a reasonable female voice are not mutually exclusive. A member of my group is a professional that does voice over work as well as essentially recorded audio dramas (picture old time radio shows). Her female voice is very good. She also specializes in cowboys and does a mean John Wayne, holdovers from a previous life.
I'm an AFAB middle tenor, and the best I can manage when I'm trying to raise it is a very low alto. My voice broke in middle school like a boy's, which is when I consciously trained myself to mimic female inflections and phrasing to avoid being mercilessly mocked for it. These days, I can get "sir" on the phone if I try (or rather, if I *stop* trying to sound female), but the combination of inflection and lack of typical male chest resonance generally signals "female" to people even though my voice is comfortably in a male range.
(My wife hates to make phone calls, so I sometimes pretended to be her on the phone back when she was presenting male - and always got away with it.)
I like my girl voice and it passes pretty well most of the time when I need it too, but for work and around town it's my boy voice wich is not that deep really.
A funny thing happened awhile back when I was in total girl mode talking with a friend and my phone rang and I answered it as my girly self....there was total silence before the man on the phone said, uh...I think I have the wrong number. Turned out it was one of my customers who only knows me in boy mode, oops :)
Michelle , do you find it easy to switch back and forth between voices? Can anyone else do that well?
Quote from: Shawn Sunshine on December 09, 2012, 10:28:18 PM
Michelle , do you find it easy to switch back and forth between voices? Can anyone else do that well?
I can't. I've been using my female voice for so long I have to concentrate to use a male voice and it feels scratchy after I do. The only time I ever use it is to freak people out. A while ago I tried to call my old employer trying to find out some info on an IRA but even they were like "Uhh no woman has ever worked here except the women working here now" ... i finally had to tell them my old name and they were like... "oh" rofl! And I wasn't even trying to use a female voice, I was just using a relaxed voice.
You get used to talking out of your mouth instead of out of your chest, and talking with waves in your voice and not so monotone... when you get those things down, the pitch of your voice doesn't matter at all. From what I've seen at least.
Quote from: Shawn Sunshine on December 09, 2012, 10:28:18 PM
Michelle , do you find it easy to switch back and forth between voices? Can anyone else do that well?
Shawn, it's not easy at all, that's why when I answered the phone he heard my girl voice, it takes me awhile to get back into boy character after having the luxury of being my real self.
Thankfully I work by myself and clients are by appointment only.
I also have raised more than a few eyebrows over the many years as when I get all passionate talking about my art designs my girl voice uncontrollably appears...it's something I have a hard time controlling.
I use my male voice although I'm trying to soften it. It helps me that I really don't care what people think and I go on in my life like a hurricane on steroids.
Shawn,
Ya know what's funny? I could do different impressions(probably some worse than I imagine) and it's fun to entertain people with them but when it came to speaking somehow my voice just took care of itself. I realize that's not typical but maybe it'll be the same thing for you and then you'll just do your impressions with a different voice still. Though sometimes I'm a little afraid when I do an impression that it might give something away somehow but that's just me being paranoid. I just think you probably have a better chance of making your voice work because you can understand other people's way of speaking and going with it.
Quote from: Alainaluvsu on December 09, 2012, 10:36:50 PM
I can't. I've been using my female voice for so long I have to concentrate to use a male voice and it feels scratchy after I do.
This^
I can't sound like how I used to sound but I don't want to so it works for me.
I used to sing both parts of songs in the car, just for kicks earlier on. 'Poppa sang bass....momma sang tenor'....
But I'm not in a 'kicky thing" at this time of my life. I am a woman, and use a woman's voice exclusively, so now, I can no longer imagine my old voice, just as I don't imagine my old face. My voice just, is. My face just, is.
My voice transitioned and socialized along with my body and mind. Several years ago, I made a promise to myself to never invoke the old voice. It was no longer fun when I did; it was depressing somehow, knowing that voice was still lurking in there, and a similar genuine male voice was NOT at the command of almost all gg's.
I walk this life as myself, a woman. And now....those male voice muscles have atrophied, as they should.....as the rest of my male self did. Don't get me wrong, I am still me....my personality hasn't changed so much.....softened perhaps, but my voice is also, me.
Unfortunately, I have a very valley girl diction. I haven't arrived at a voice I am happy with yet, but if I wanted to talk like a girly girl I probably would have an easier time than most. It makes people think that I am an idiot though. I say "like" all the time, and I say "totally" too often, and I even catch myself saying "like totally" way more often than any human should.
Combine that with having lived in the south most of my life and use several southern terms, with my really neutral mid-Atlantic accent and sometimes I wonder how people can take me seriously when I am talking unguarded.
Wow so many of you this seems like such a breeze. No issues it seems, your voice just stays higher and doesn't slip back into your old voice ever. Trying to alter my voice has been the most challenging part of transition for me. And trust me I have worked on it. It bothers me more than anything else, even my small boobs.
You do what you want, and it's fine if you're comfortable with it, but you should know that looking like a woman and sounding like a man is the one thing that'll always get you looks and whispers. Well, there are others, like dressing up ridiculous, but when it comes to trans things, even looking super masculine but dressing feminine will not shock people as much.
Some people like to shock and that's fine, but if you want to pass and blend in, sounding passable as a woman is quite prioritary.
Quote from: girl you look fierce on December 10, 2012, 10:11:46 AM
I think you should speak how you naturally do.... :)
Most people I've talked to feel this way because they've tried so hard, but can't seem to transition their voice. For me, the bottom line is, if it's wrong to transition your voice, then maybe, that goes along with transitioning the body? If one leaves their voice male, then why not the body? Also, of course those of us who have a good female voice didn't magically fall into it.....it took work.....lots of work, and some back-slides. It's not magic....it's constant work. It's the hardest thing about transitioning.
Sean Bean. Sexy woman, even with a 'masculine' voice (from the show, 'Accused').
So-called masculine and feminine voices are not necessarily needed to express yourself and be attractive.
I think you should try to work at having a more feminine voice, but that doesn't mean you can't still do your impressions, which will be more shocking if they hear your girl voice first. They won't think any more of it than when I do my Janice impression (I still present as male). :laugh:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jG3IWHpQVJg (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jG3IWHpQVJg)
Quote from: girl you look fierce on December 11, 2012, 01:00:03 AM
and it is normal to change that but trying o talk like someone else is bing someone you are not.
Pitch and resonance are important, for starters, then your genuine voice falls into its own range. Don't try to talk like someone else. Fine tune what you have. The rest is something you don't have to think about after a while....diction, female variation in pitch, pronouncing 's' like a woman.....that's different too to varying degrees. Most men use a hard 's', with the tongue further back in the mouth, while women generally keep the tongue more forward in the mouth, just behind the teeth when saying 's', which produces a softer sound. Too far forward, and you have a lithp.
Trust me....after almost a decade, I AM myself....not an imitation of anyone. I can say the same about a number of other women I know, ts women, and if you told them they were being someone else, they would be offended, or they would think it was so far fetched as to be laughable.
In the final analysis, it's your voice, your life. If you don't mind being clocked everywhere you go, or being identified as 'sir' on the phone, etc., then, YOU are being someone else.
Unless you don't mind being genderfluid then your being yourself regardless.
So far, I've just relaxed my speaking efforts....I hadn't realized that, just like trying to "walk like a man", I'd also tried to sound like a man...
So as I let my natural Self out, my voice has softened quite a bit. It is still a work in progress, but I'm not trying to change my male voice so much as trying to allow my real voice to come out.
I try to speak more like a woman, but I think it mostly comes off sounding like mickey mouse got kicked in his little mouse balls.
Quote from: silly by the seashore on December 11, 2012, 12:38:20 PM
I try to speak more like a woman, but I think it mostly comes off sounding like mickey mouse got kicked in his little mouse balls.
If you can reach that pitch, then I don't think your normal voice can be too masculine. :laugh:
I have no idea what girly girly voice is. Can you clarify?
For me, I no longer sound like a man. However, this was my choice. I decided this route because a feminine voice makes it much easier for someone to "pass." The most "passable" trans woman in the world...who has no voice training, opens her mouth, she will be clocked. It's like one of those comedy scenes where you see a very beautiful woman and when she speaks, you know she's transgender. Men in Black 3 is the most recent movie I have seen that had this example.
So, if it doesn't bother you that you'll get clocked then you don't need to change your voice. You will get clocked without voice training...even if you had the world's best Facial Feminization Surgery.
For me, transitioning fully was much more important than keeping cartoon voice impersonations. But everyone is different :)
I choose not to speak masculinely. If I were to de-transition, for whatever reason, I'm fairly confident that I would still use my female voice... because listening to my male voice really bothers me. I hate hearing it a lot... it made me cringe when I used it as a 'guy'.
I just refuse to do it any more, regardless of the situation. I don't want to be afraid of speaking because of how much I hate my voice.
I can still do voice impersonations, though. Not, like... Darth Vader, Optimus Prime, or Jean-Luc Picard... but I can still do some strange ones.
If you feel comfortable with using your male voice and presenting female, then by all means do so. It will probably take away from your quality of life, because people won't treat you as kindly (on average), but speaking with a voice that you are comfortable using is important for one's sanity.
Well, as I am not girly girl and I don't look like one (Immah brunette) I think I will speak in a kind of profound feminine voice, something like Scarlett Johansson or Angelina Jolie and I Guess that after transition I just won't look like someone who will have high pitched voice, I'm more of a Monica Bellucci style. =)
I found this example of a "girly girl" voice on you tube
http://youtu.be/3xL2_8lMA7A (http://youtu.be/3xL2_8lMA7A)
I'm only three months into HRT, and haven't put serious effort into changing my voice in public yet. That being said, even before coming out I regularly got mistaken for my mum on the phone by even her close friends. I really hate my voice, but my friends here assure me that it just sounds like a deep female voice, and I've spoken to people I didn't know in my regular voice and not had them clock me. So with any luck I might not need too much work. :)
Can I speak like this or is this too girly?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnhpPWmS41s (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnhpPWmS41s)
:laugh:
Quote from: Eleanor on December 12, 2012, 11:34:45 AM
I'm only three months into HRT, and haven't put serious effort into changing my voice in public yet. That being said, even before coming out I regularly got mistaken for my mum on the phone by even her close friends. I really hate my voice, but my friends here assure me that it just sounds like a deep female voice, and I've spoken to people I didn't know in my regular voice and not had them clock me. So with any luck I might not need too much work. :)
This is what I've been told. Won't stop me from working on it for my own confidence though.
Quote from: Sadie on December 12, 2012, 02:00:44 PM
Can I speak like this or is this too girly?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnhpPWmS41s (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnhpPWmS41s)
:laugh:
I'm that voice over :D
Quote from: Sadie on December 12, 2012, 02:00:44 PM
Can I speak like this or is this too girly?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnhpPWmS41s (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnhpPWmS41s)
:laugh:
mmmf. From what I saw of the audio sessions of MLP, the real voices are quite different. They are extremely edited. And Pinkie's actor can't maintain it on singing, so they need to use another person.
Quote from: Sadie on December 12, 2012, 02:00:44 PM
Can I speak like this or is this too girly?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnhpPWmS41s (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnhpPWmS41s)
:laugh:
I sound
exactly like that..........on helium. [Giggle] [Hiccup]
What you want to do is understand proper placement first. You do that by swallowing and consciously maintain your adam's apple at its highest position and try to say short words. Once placement is easily maintained you proceed to a full resonance conversion. Once full conversion is set you have to teach your brain to pump volume whilst sustaining female resonance. You do that by holding an "AH" sound and increase volume, slowly, exponentially while maintaining conscious attention to the mask( look it up if you don't know what it is"singing-mask")I'm against trying to "feminize" speech patterns and inflections and such it'll come naturally in due time. You don't even consider pitch either your natural female pitch will unravel itself once proper placement is achieved. Eventually maintaining placement will not require conscious effort and your brain will forget how your original male voice sounds( because you will forget where your adam's apple needs to sit). So that's why when you do it properly your female voice will not require "conscious" attention to maintain it will even be the other way around.
I must have somewhat of a reasonably passable voice since I live full time and have never been clocked (or no one has let me know). When I met with a woman at the unemployment office she told me she had no idea I was transgender once I told her. Still I am not pleased with my voice, I have this raspy quality that doesn't sound good, IMO. I seriously think I have something wrong with my vocal chords. I also can't maintain a solid note when singing, my voice breaks or I lose the note. Its hard to describe. I also have trouble with resonance, I even had that when I lived male. People often told me they couldn't hear what I was saying.
Quote from: Shawn Sunshine on December 11, 2012, 05:21:05 PM
I found this example of a "girly girl" voice on you tube
http://youtu.be/3xL2_8lMA7A (http://youtu.be/3xL2_8lMA7A)
i wouldn't call that girly girl.
I would call that high pitch anime fast talking voice over. That's a cartoon.
Sadie if you want to hear how others hear you here's how:
Pick up 2 magazines or preferably magazine size hard cover books, put them directly in front of your ears and talk.
Contrary to popular belief, electronic filters such as recording machines are to be avoided unless you have high end material.
I still don't know what constitutes a "girly girl." ???
Quote from: Seyranna on December 12, 2012, 09:58:58 PM
Sadie if you want to hear how others hear you here's how:
Pick up 2 magazines or preferably magazine size hard cover books, put them directly in front of your ears and talk.
Contrary to popular belief, electronic filters such as recording machines are to be avoided unless you have high end material.
modern electronic recorders work very well. My electronic recorder was 10 dollars at Target and it worked wonders for my voice development. They play back your real voice...without any type of false securities.
Quote from: DianaP on December 12, 2012, 10:00:28 PM
I still don't know what constitutes a "girly girl." ???
I don't either. What I heard was a clip from "My little ponies."
Quote from: Seyranna on December 12, 2012, 09:58:58 PM
Sadie if you want to hear how others hear you here's how:
Pick up 2 magazines or preferably magazine size hard cover books, put them directly in front of your ears and talk.
Contrary to popular belief, electronic filters such as recording machines are to be avoided unless you have high end material.
Oh the horror! :o
heh j/k
Honestly I'd give it a "meh". Passable enough but nothing to write home about.
this is a sample of my voice. I used a 10 dollar recorder and some help with Kathe Perez. Took about 7 months with constant practice. I think my voice sounds feminine...without sounding like a clip from My Little Ponies :)
Annah Loosing Her Mind!! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rspf-70lUTU&feature=g-crec-u#)
Just do a you tube search for "girly girl voice" there's a few videos that show up. Think Barbie, she has girly girl voice, its very pop star and sounds like California valley girl, which can be considered more of a style than anything else.
Quote from: Annah on December 12, 2012, 10:13:57 PM
this is a sample of my voice. I used a 10 dollar recorder and some help with Kathe Perez. Took about 7 months with constant practice. I think my voice sounds feminine...without sounding like a clip from My Little Ponies :)
Dang girl. Good job! :)
Quote from: Annah on December 12, 2012, 10:05:53 PM
modern electronic recorders work very well. My electronic recorder was 10 dollars at Target and it worked wonders for my voice development. They play back your real voice...without any type of false securities.
It depends on the device I guess. Noise suppression is your worst enemy though.
Have you tried the exercise?
i never tried the magazine thing. No. To me, that would create a false resonance sound from your voice due to the curvature and the close proximity of the magazine to the ear.
To me, that would be similar to the singing in the shower phenomena.
If you really want to see results then practice in front of a friend who will be honest. Everytime i played back my voice recorder, my cousin (who is very honest) always said, "yup..the voice in your recorder really sounds like you."
Quote from: Shawn Sunshine on December 12, 2012, 10:17:53 PM
Just do a you tube search for "girly girl voice" there's a few videos that show up. Think Barbie, she has girly girl voice, its very pop star and sounds like California valley girl, which can be considered more of a style than anything else.
but Barbie is just another cartoon. Those aren't "real" voices.
It seems like you are adjusting or placing your analysis on voices based on cartoon or comic book characters.
I would be scared if I actually heard a girl talk like Barbie. :o
Your voice sounds undoubtedly female but does it matches your age? If you are in your late 30ies/early forties this voice sounds a little too young, or maybe it's the speech pattern or maybe it's just you being tired and silly IDK =P but I was under the impression that it should "mature" a bit. Still better to have a great voice even if slightly mismatched than sound like a truck though. I think I sound younger than my age too. The important thing is how flexible this voice is and how much volume you can crank. For instance, many trans women have decent conversational voice but can't call out to their friends across the street or order something over the counter in a noisy environment for ->-bleeped-<-.
I have met women who are real girly girl, not very many of them but it isn't always the voice that makes them that way, its more personality.
You could have a very high voice and still be a tomboy, everyones different. I was not basing my view of girly girl based on voices on cartoons really at all, Its just that the gal who does the voice of barbie just happened to be on my mind. ;)
Kelly Sheridan (Barbie) http://youtu.be/qHnSgeqaAQQ (http://youtu.be/qHnSgeqaAQQ)
Her normal voice seems rather girly to me as well.
Quote from: Annah on December 12, 2012, 10:25:32 PM
i never tried the magazine thing. No. To me, that would create a false resonance sound from your voice due to the curvature and the close proximity of the magazine to the ear.
To me, that would be similar to the singing in the shower phenomena.
If you really want to see results then practice in front of a friend who will be honest. Everytime i played back my voice recorder, my cousin (who is very honest) always said, "yup..the voice in your recorder really sounds like you."
Trying to undermine what I say is pointless this is an exercise proven by professional speech pathologists. <.<
Quote from: Seyranna on December 12, 2012, 10:35:56 PM
Your voice sounds undoubtedly female but does it matches your age? If you are in your late 30ies/early forties this voice sounds a little too young, or maybe it's the speech pattern or maybe it's just you being tired and silly IDK =P but I was under the impression that it should "mature" a bit. Still better to have a great voice even if slightly mismatched than sound like a truck though. I think I sound younger than my age too. The important thing is how flexible this voice is and how much volume you can crank. For instance, many trans women have decent conversational voice but can't call out to their friends across the street or order something over the counter in a noisy environment for ->-bleeped-<-.
I am 40 but I do not sound 40 nor do I look 40.
Why would I want to look or talk like an older person? I am not the type of person who concedes to a stereotypical 40 year old person.
I feel like I am in my 20s and people say I look like I am in my 20s. It doesn't mean I have to act like a middle age person. Even when I presented as a man I never acted "old." Being, acting, and sounding young is not synonymous to being, acting, or sounding immature.
I get tons of compliments from my church and in hospitals because they say my voice is soothing and reassuring. So, that works for me.
I can cough, sneeze, yell, cry, scream, laugh, whisper, and sing feminine.
Quote from: Annah on December 12, 2012, 10:44:03 PM
I can cough, sneeze, yell, cry, scream, laugh, whisper, and sing feminine.
How did you do it?!
Quote from: DianaP on December 12, 2012, 10:45:23 PM
How did you do it?!
I was Fulltime...I had to learn it or be clocked. I practiced all the time and everytime I was awake....because I was fulltime I had no other choice.
Yelling and whispering was the easiest for me.
Coughing and sneezing was the next level of difficulty but that didn't take long.
Singing was the hardest and the longest but I think I nailed it. I sang solo in our choir a few times and I am a soprano. I used to be a bass lol
QuoteI sang solo in our choir a few times and I am a soprano. I used to be a bass lol
:o How is that even possible? I can only sound high if i do falsetto, my voice right now is a barritone/tenor (i have a wide range) ...Please tell me how thats even humanly possible without surgery to have your voice change that much, is this a natural soprano?
Concerning singing- When you condition your upper register( I call this tempering) what sounded forceful and breathy when you started begins to sound more and more natural over the months. You lose "falsetto" range but you gain clearer modal range. Unless you want to train to be a counter-tenor( and be stuck singing opera)you should avoid falsetto. You will learn in time how to "borrow" to falsetto naturally whilst talking/singing, etc.
Even the best sopranists in the world have biological anomalies though( and don't even sound like women to the trained ear anyways) so I highly doubt Annah sounds like a real soprano( sample or it didn't happen)...I can sing pretty convincingly some pop stuff in full modal voice( or some opera stuff kinda like a falsettist would) too but I'm not deluding myself into thinking I'm Maria Callas. Even thoroughly trained we're still bound to the limitations of a male voicebox. These limitations however will only be noticeable through singing. You can have have a 100% bio sounding conversational voice.
Quote from: Shawn Sunshine on December 12, 2012, 10:56:46 PM
:o How is that even possible? I can only sound high if i do falsetto, my voice right now is a barritone/tenor (i have a wide range) ...Please tell me how thats even humanly possible without surgery to have your voice change that much, is this a natural soprano?
it takes months and months of singing and practicing. Trust me..it is possible. I am against vocal chord surgery so believe me...it wasn't that.
They wouldn't have me sing solos if i sounded falsetto. Our Minister of Music is too professional for that!
I can "almost" sing like Martika and her song "Toy Soilders" I just cant reach the high notes.
well, not everyone is designed to sing soprano :)
I love AltO AND Tenor too!
Quote from: Annah on December 12, 2012, 11:27:40 PM
well, not everyone is designed to sing soprano :)
That's exactly what I'm saying no MAAB with a mature voicebox is "designed" to sing soprano. >.<
Quote from: Annah on December 12, 2012, 11:27:40 PM
well, not everyone is designed to sing soprano :)
I love AltO AND Tenor too!
Well You should "bottle up" whatever methods you used to speak and sing so high and sell it, id glady buy that dvd/cd :angel:Can you still sing all the way from bass to soprano? You must have bleen blessed with a huge range, that exceeds my range, I am going to have to assume not everyone's voice will be able to get that high. Otherwise there would not be some people getting vocal surgery, if they could just train it and keep it there without issue.
I sang baritone in my old choir, but now I sing alto, a very natural range for me. I could stretch to some soprano, but to me, it's clearly unnatural. I no longer use, nor can find my old male voice (I'm sure it lurks in there somewhere, to some small degree).
Here's an interesting video from a few years ago by an interesting lady. You should look at it. She describes how she trained her voice, and I don't think it's far from how many of us did, though she is much more entertaining. It's worth the couple minutes watching. She has moved on with her partner, and also, has stopped invoking her old male voice. If you like, she has a bunch of videos. Notice this important thing: when she is in male voice, her gestures and personality are male. When she is in female voice, she becomes a different person. It's just something that happens. So....for those who say "why should I have have to transition my voice?", you will see that it also helps place you in a more natural feminine expression. Anyway, just watch.
016 transgender voice-3 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7qSJ19f_QU#)
Quote from: Shawn Sunshine on December 12, 2012, 11:53:24 PM
Can you still sing all the way from bass to soprano?
I don't know...never tried it. I don't think I can sing from Bass to Soprano now. It's kind of hard to speak in my older voice anyways
Quote from: Seyranna on December 12, 2012, 11:39:43 PM
That's exactly what I'm saying no MAAB with a mature voicebox is "designed" to sing soprano. >.<
Well I can lol....i think not being on hormone therapy until i was 35 constitutes me having a mature voicebox
When I said "not everyone is able to sing soprano" i meant for cis women too
I've always wondered how Michael Jackson reached those insanely high notes. I noted a D6 in one of his songs.
If I try to reach a soprano's A5, I can do it, but it sounds more like a stressed pig's squeal than singing. Annah, if you can reach it then hats off to you.
i can only sing up to an E effectively soprano
Quote from: Annah on December 13, 2012, 10:24:43 AM
i can only sing up to an E effectively soprano
I can do a D in head voice. I love Gabriel Fauré's Pie Jesu. It would be my dream to sing it, but that goes up to F5. If there was some sort of safe voice surgery that could increase my range to get there, I think I would contemplate it. :(
Well a music teacher told me that a Soprano for a male is really in essence a nicely trained falsetto that sounds like soprano. But they did say its possible to have that kind of range. But a male would call it counter tenor they said , a female calls it soprano, according to them.
My singing range does worry me. Can you get outed for having a rubbish singing range? I'll need to sight sing next year for a music exam. What I've done is made an appointment with a voice therapist at The Royal National Throat, Nose & Ear Hospital, who also works with pop singers, to get an objective opinion.
Quote from: Shawn Sunshine on December 13, 2012, 10:49:12 AM
Well a music teacher told me that a Soprano for a male is really in essence a nicely trained falsetto that sounds like soprano. But they did say its possible to have that kind of range. But a male would call it counter tenor they said , a female calls it soprano, according to them.
im pretty sure your music teacher never seen someone switch their voice from male to female either :)
your teacher probably thinks the only way to sound female as a cismale is to sound like mrs doubtfire or any other male actor on tv trying to sound female
Quote from: Tesla on December 13, 2012, 11:52:36 AM
My singing range does worry me. Can you get outed for having a rubbish singing range? I'll need to sight sing next year for a music exam. What I've done is made an appointment with a voice therapist at The Royal National Throat, Nose & Ear Hospital, who also works with pop singers, to get an objective opinion.
it takes almost as twice as long to sing in that range than it does to learn to speak with a feminine voice.
most voice trainers do not have the experience for gender change musical vocals
Quote from: Annah on December 13, 2012, 12:22:00 PM
it takes almost as twice as long to sing in that range than it does to learn to speak with a feminine voice.
most voice trainers do not have the experience for gender change musical vocals
This is the guy I'm seeing:
http://www.voicetherapy.co.uk/ (http://www.voicetherapy.co.uk/)
What do you think?
It certainly is possible - I used to be a bass-baritone, so had a deeper voice than even a lot of guys, but now I can sing in the contralto/mezzo soprano range - it took a lot of practice and training, and I still make use of my lower range to add a more unique edge to my voice. Most of the training was developing head voice so that my higher range wasn't breathy falsetto but a more connected sounding head voice (which can sound operatic, which may or may not be desirable, but gives the foundation to a fuller high range). Even harder is mixed voice, which is singing in the head voice range and adding a bit of chest voice to give it power.
Here is a sample of me singing below - in the first chorus I deliberately use falsetto as a gentler introduction, but in the second verse I use mixed voice - and it sounds like I'm belting the "distant dreamer" bit, in chest voice, but I'm not, I'm using mixed voice, because I'd never be able to hit a B4 in regular chest voice, but I can make it sound pretty much the same.
Claudia - Distant Dreamer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHLKl6azc8k#)
This song is a sample of me using "head voice" rather than falsetto on the higher notes and shows off more of my vocal range from low to high (A2 to E5, which is most of my vocal range) - 99% of GGs couldn't hit the low notes like I do here, so I make the most of that fact that I can't go as high as GGs by showing more masculine sounding range!
Claudia - SOS Sous un terrien en détresse (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YCK-g0uBM8#)
Also "Soprano" is a vague term - there are many types - Mezzo (the lower soprano, which is the most common, and may sing "alto" in a choir) Dramatic Soprano, Lyric Soprano (Higher), Coloratura Soprano (highest and most agile) Spinto Soprano and others. Personally to me, being able to "sing soprano" is singing up to around C6.
However, there are masculine sounding women singers out there - my deep voiced Contralto heroine is Zarah Leander - this is how I used to sing pre-transition, and still like to sing now sometimes!
Ack Värmeland du sköna (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7y4WTKK3ZQ#)
Quote from: Assoluta on December 13, 2012, 05:22:43 PM
It certainly is possible - I used to be a bass-baritone, so had a deeper voice than even a lot of guys, but now I can sing in the contralto/mezzo soprano range - it took a lot of practice and training, and I still make use of my lower range to add a more unique edge to my voice. Most of the training was developing head voice so that my higher range wasn't breathy falsetto but a more connected sounding head voice (which can sound operatic, which may or may not be desirable, but gives the foundation to a fuller high range). Even harder is mixed voice, which is singing in the head voice range and adding a bit of chest voice to give it power.
That's beautiful Assoluta. I can't get past G4 using chest voice and a shaky D5 for head voice. But I haven't done much singing practice. How far do you think I could push beyond G4?
Quote from: Tesla on December 13, 2012, 05:37:14 PM
That's beautiful Assoluta. I can't get past G4 using chest voice and a shaky D5 for head voice. But I haven't done much singing practice. How far do you think I could push beyond G4?
G4 was my barrier too - it's a very common 'crisis point' for the average male voice - that's where mixed voice comes in - first it pays to practice getting the head voice technique down well and then almost 'shout into it' a little to bring back a bit of the chest voice in. It may sound 'shouty' at first but then this can be controlled and tempered (with vibratto etc) over time. Now I can get a mixed voice up to B4 (or C5 on a good day) so it almost sounds like I can do chest voice up to that point, and then head voice up to about G5.
Well I have an extremely low voice even for guys as well - and sometimes I hate it sometimes I like it - and yes it's especially funny to see people's expression when they get the optimus prime voice. :laugh: :)
Although these days my voice has been all over the place...
Quote from: Assoluta on December 13, 2012, 05:44:46 PM
G4 was my barrier too - it's a very common 'crisis point' for the average male voice - that's where mixed voice comes in - first it pays to practice getting the head voice technique down well and then almost 'shout into it' a little to bring back a bit of the chest voice in. It may sound 'shouty' at first but then this can be controlled and tempered (with vibratto etc) over time. Now I can get a mixed voice up to B4 (or C5 on a good day) so it almost sounds like I can do chest voice up to that point, and then head voice up to about G5.
I'll take this advice to my singing/speech therapist who I'm going to see in January. I may get away with my sight-singing exam if it's singing around middle C, but no higher than F4. I'm allowed to sight-hum, which may disguise my shoddy singing.
This is a really interesting topic. I am 44, and my biggest goal is to blend in. I tend to listen more to women with deeper voices on YouTube (Geena Davis, Catherine Dent, Ashley Judd, Christine McGinn, et cetera), and aim for a feminine but slightly more mature sound. Sometimes it is hard to rein in my pitch; it wants to go higher, especially when I am nervous. But I am working on it!
Some other actresses to listen to, Brenda Vacarro, Suzanne Plashette, Bea Aurther, Debra Winger, Kathleen Turner, Marlo Thomas, they all have deeper gravelly voices but you can still tell they are female.
Having a higher voice that's smooth as satin would be nice, but being in the range of one of those ladies isn't the end of the world.
Careful, you are dating yourself! ;)
Excellent suggestions!
Quote from: PaigeM on December 16, 2012, 07:04:14 AM
Careful, you are dating yourself! ;)
Excellent suggestions!
Oops ;)
Quoteim pretty sure your music teacher never seen someone switch their voice from male to female either
your teacher probably thinks the only way to sound female as a cismale is to sound like mrs doubtfire or any other male actor on tv trying to sound female
Naw, this was not my music teacher, just someone who is a teacher at Texas A&M
I don't think it's a bad thing at all to sound not quite one or the other, in fact that's pretty much the effect i was going for so I'm actually glad you said that. The point of my singing is instead of limiting one's repertoire to songs where one sounds completely cis, one may as well own and flaunt having a different voice And sound ambiguous. Some people don't like this ambiguity but that's fine. Some songs are more challenging for my type and so i pull off some better than others.
I would also suggest you lower the slightly acerbic tone of your posts a little. Criticism is fine when delivered in an appropriately measured way.
Alright folks, if we can not play nice, then it is time for a time out.
Topic locked for now.
My input are always factual. Blunt and assertive perhaps but factual. Ever heard the saying" It's better to be hurt by the truth than comforted with a lie" it's actually true.
They'll be no personal attacks I won't fall for that. I don't know where you got the idea that I was such an example to anyone I'm terribly flawed just like most human beings.
I don't like how some people seems to need a shepherd to settle stuff that don't even need to be settled. Stuff that are not even arguments but rather divergent opinions.
I have unlocked it, but no more baiting each other.
come on gang, don't derail my thread please, starting to be some good info and posts here and I am finding it helpful.