Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Community Conversation => Transitioning => Voice Therapy and Surgery => Topic started by: kariann330 on July 26, 2014, 10:30:01 PM

Title: Voice questions.
Post by: kariann330 on July 26, 2014, 10:30:01 PM
So I went to a speech therapist Friday for a consultation. After talking and discussing my goals she said she wasn't going to take me on as a client yet, but gave me a way to feminize my voice with out her help. She said in every octive there is a note that in speech is the boarder between male and female voices, it C below middle A on a piano. She said once I can get my voice there and hold it there while talking vs singing im about halfway there and all that is left is to slowly raise my voice a note or two every so often until my voice reaches a fully feminized tone and pitch.

So uhhh was she right, or did I just get brushed off by someone who don't wanna work with a transwoman??
Title: Re: Voice questions.
Post by: Madeline182 on July 27, 2014, 01:36:02 AM
I haven't been to a speech therapist, but it sounds like both.  The first doc I went to for hrt declined, but gave me great advice on foods to avoid and foods to include and also explained how to exercise without raising my t levels.  Helpful stuff, sure, but yeah I was totally brushed off. 
Singing for me seems to be helping soo much!  My biggest downside is I'm a huge fan of coheed an cambria and I seems to always drop down to his octave... It's starting to feel weird d:
Surprisingly, I've found that snoop 'lion's  Reincarnated helps me "get back on track"
Title: Re: Voice questions.
Post by: kariann330 on July 27, 2014, 03:13:27 AM
I'm sorry but who and who?? If they ain't got anything to do with mud, trucks, beer and whatnot....aka country I don't listen to it and personally think it's either noise or....well I can't say the other one because of the TOS.
Title: Re: Voice questions.
Post by: Madeline182 on July 27, 2014, 04:44:48 AM
Lmao!  Ok then we are on oppo sides of the music genre d:
Title: Re: Voice questions.
Post by: anjaq on July 27, 2014, 04:48:40 PM
I think you should get to someone who specialized a bit more in that direction. She seems to just have general knowledge about famle and female voice differences. One thing that really bugs me is that she only seems to have talked about pitch, its true that it is important but she did not mention resonance and prosody at all which are key components. Either you are already good in having them changed, or she is not really competent enough. I would get at least a second opinion from soneone who knows about male and female voices
Title: Re: Voice questions.
Post by: GenTechJ on August 01, 2014, 08:05:38 AM
As for the whole voice thing, I still plan on growling while having a very feminine voice otherwise. Some of my favorite metal bands have women who can growl just as good as if not better than their male counterparts. While still having such beautiful voices otherwise. Arch Enemy, Kittie, The Agonist, etc. The hard part is working on my pitch, I can sing along with certain female artists, but it takes a lot for me to do. And sounding like a woman on day to day is difficult for me because I don't want it to sound forced. It's the one side of transitioning I hate.
Title: Re: Voice questions.
Post by: suzifrommd on August 01, 2014, 12:05:38 PM
Kariann, I found my speech therapist worse than useless (and she SPECIALIZED in working with trans people). I learned from youtube videos (CANDIFLA), and I'm very happy with my voice.

I'm tone deaf, so your person's advice wouldn't have helped me one bit. For me it was more finding the right position in my throat, after which every thing that came out of my mouth, regardless of pitch, sounded female.

Resonance is much more important than pitch, in my experience.
Title: Re: Voice questions.
Post by: Lady_Oracle on August 03, 2014, 12:47:33 AM
Yea what your speech therapist said is true about pitch. However as Suzi stated achieving proper resonance is key and more important than just squiring the right pitch. I'm a musician so it was pretty easy to get that part down but resonance took a lot longer since training your muscle (voice box) to stay small as you speak loudly/project comes in time with constant training, which is a very slow process.