Ok...so in voice training I hear over and over again the reassurance that women have deep voices, and they are sexy! I totally agree, and have always loved a woman with a deep voice. I have always wanted to BE a woman with a deep voice...which ought to be perfect as that is apparently what I am bound to be. Here is my frustration though...
My girlfriend with a deep voice does NOT sound like any of the tutorials I hear about how to develop a female voice. In fact most of my friends aren't like that either. I have always spoken with a feminine inflection, so I understand that this HELPS others hear a female sound, but of course inflection is inconsequential when a GG is speaking. I feel somewhat ridiculous trying to find my voice in a high pitch girly voice when the voice I want to have is a deeper relaxed female one. I know that we ought not try to sound like valley girls, and that resonance is the chief opponent over pitch...but here is my problem...
Do I have to raise my pitch at all? Or should I only work on resonance? Will that ever be enough to pass? Maybe I have to raise my pitch a little, tighten my vocal chords, introduce breath, speak from the head, and then drop my tone within my new pitch range? Sorry thats poorly explained...I am just confused. I feel like it is impossible for me to have a voice that sounds female unless I bring it quite higher than my starting point, which is not entrely objectionable, but I don't hear most of my girlfriends talking up that high, and I don't want to be that stereotype ->-bleeped-<- with the high girly voice. How do I find a natural low AND female voice?
h e l p
In my case I speak in the range 180Hz - 200Hz which is low (the female average is 221Hz) and I get away with it. I worked on reducing chest resonance, increasing head resonance and changing the inflection. It seems to work in every day use. On the phone I get "Ma'am"ed although the phone seems to drop your pitch a bit so I sometimes push my pitch up on the phone.
I find it very hard to speak continuously at 221Hz. So I speak at a lower pitch. It works for me.
Hrm . . . Not an expert at this, so I hope I don't give you bad advice.
I think you're just about there, as far as passing goes, having listened to the files you posted. Being a socalite myself, you actually do sound halfway between valley girl and miss OC in your last posted file. I'm not saying that in a bad way, just saying that you're doing a pretty good job of fitting the part. I'd actually be really surprised if you weren't from socal.
You're right. You do have definite feminine qualities to your voice already. Combined with the fact that you're definitely capable of looking the part, I doubt anybody would ever think anything if you were dressed the right way and using the last voice you posted.
But you want a deeper voice. Let me talk about your first recording. I think you actually came really close in that one. Go back and listen to only the first five or ten seconds. Maybe it's just me, but that sounds like it has many of the qualities you're talking about now. For a little while, I could definitely hear the deep yet feminine thing.
That fades pretty quickly, but I don't think it's for the reason you think. Maybe I'm totally wrong here, but I think your issue might actually be accent. You sound like one of those people who naturally picks up qualities of the accents you're exposed to, even the subtle little nuances. This is going to be prying a bit, but were you ever into your local queer scene before you decided to transition? You've definitely got a bunch of that in your first recording. It sounds like you fall into that a little bit once you're talking in a lower voice.
In my experience, it has been easiest to first achieve a female voice at whatever pitch, so long as it's stable, and then to lower that voice in order to get deeper.
This way, going deeper doesn't put the integrity of the voice at risk... producing the desired result without worry. It does take a little getting used to, though, as when I lower the pitch of my voice for whatever reason it sounds strange to myself. To others, the difference is far more minimal.
Several people who have achieved a female voice told me that a deep female voice is the most difficult to stabilize among the high/medium/low female voices, because it is easily messed up with male voice. They suggested that it could be easier if one first goes towards a medium level of female voice (one of them said even using a falsetto is alright), and then gradually lower it as the muscles get used to a feminine voice.
I have been working with my accent, since I basically have reached a voice cap, so i try to mimic how certain women speak, it helps a lot, because in each area individuals grew up with a culture and certain way of life which caused their accent to shift a certain way, a certain style. Hope this helps :)