This is going to be hard to describe, but when your voice started to break, did you feel like it needed 'tuning' or something? I currently have no idea how it is going to sound when it's finished dropping, but at the moment I can reach most of my former "normal" tone range, except the highest which just disappears into air now when I try to reach it. Which is good.
But -
I realize this new range is totally weird to me and sounds completely unused or even toneless. It's not monotone or anything, but I'm just not sure how to use it yet. I figure it will drop some more for sure at this point.
I know many people ask whether they can train their voices to make them deeper, I'll look into that if it turns out my voice just stops where it is right now... but did anyone need to re-find their own voice? Or create a different sort of voice for themselves? I assumed that I would just sound deeper, not different as well. But I do sound quite different now. Amusing thing is, I am still not waking up expecting to sound the way I do, so at this stage my own voice surprises me daily.
It also sounds like someone who's been living in cave for 10 years with no human contact and trying to use their voice now they've come back to civilization. As this deeper pitch it seems like you need to be louder to be eqully audible. Female voices are more ...how to put it, they cut across white noise or industrial noise easier with the higher pitch. My old voice was low for one of them, but I'd figured out how to make myself heard in different situations. Now it looks like I gotta figure that all out again.
In my first six months on T I was basically constantly clearing my throat. The hardest thing for me is using any kind of volume. My inclination is to go into a higher pitch if I'm yelling or speaking loudly, but my voice generally can't reach those levels anymore. I don't think I sound too different, but it is noticeably deeper.
I'm taking voice lessons for MTF and my therapist says the female voice comes from the head. The breath is generated from the stomach rather than the chest. Which is the opposite for guys. That's why forward resonance is important to successful voice presentation for MTF. I would make the same recommendation to download a guitar tuner app like Da Tuner as you can use it to find and maintain your pitch in the lower registers as well. https://uiowa.edu/voice-academy/your-personal-voice-trainer has some information that may be helpful.
Yeah the first 3 months it sounded like just a deeper version of my original voice, although a bit croaky, and it hadn't stabilised yet and sometimes could revert to my old voice. At 6 months it started stabilising and still sounded monotone. Recently it sometimes sounds not like my voice at all. Took me 6 months to get used to my new voice I'd say but it's exciting that it's developed a lot already.
CIS males often have trouble with this. When their voice starts crossing the line it can break and they may flip between higher and lower pitches. It may go on for months and sometimes boys will talk in a muted voice or avoid talking at all to avoid embarrassment. Your voice will continue to drop until it's low enough to maintain a male range and with usage you will learn the new voice. Soon you will have forgot about the old voice and you will find you can produce the booming male sound.
Yeah, I remember a childhood friend going through a squeaky phase and giving him hell about it, though it only lasted about a month for him. If anyone makes fun of my voice now I deserve it.
I forgot to mention, how many regulars posting here developed an Adam's Apple after T and how long did it take? I heard not everyone does. Feeling a tightness in the throat where one should be though, wondering if that will eventually result in one or some cartilage growth at least, as I can only describe the feeling as if something IS expanding there, but I see nothing at the moment.
Quote from: Kylo on December 26, 2016, 01:12:09 PM
I forgot to mention, how many regulars posting here developed an Adam's Apple after T and how long did it take?
I have a small one. It would probably stand out more if my neck was thinner. I honestly didn't notice when it started developing. So probably sometime between my first and second year on T?
Quote from: Kylo on December 26, 2016, 01:12:09 PM
I forgot to mention, how many regulars posting here developed an Adam's Apple after T and how long did it take? I heard not everyone does. Feeling a tightness in the throat where one should be though, wondering if that will eventually result in one or some cartilage growth at least, as I can only describe the feeling as if something IS expanding there, but I see nothing at the moment.
I think I started noticing it 2/3 months ago.
The weird throat feeling is common, Adams apple is up to genetics, I think. I never got one but none in my family really have one either.
I hope something develops there. It's a small detail but to me one of the more visible hallmarks that could help.
I've spent 10 years drawing males and females and it's one of those things you get used to drawing every time you draw a male. But it's something I overlooked when thinking about what T would or wouldn't do.
Developing an Adams apple was a surprise to me. For some reason I didn't think to notice them on trans guys and I don't really pay attention to them on cis guys either. Hopefully it doesn't become really noticeable.
I noticed cis people sharing it as some "infallible" method to ID transwomen with, but if there's plenty of cis males with negligible Adam's apples, they won't get very far.
If they use it with transwomen though, might also be a way of trying to spot us.
It's not something I typically look at when I look at someone, but these days people are more clued in to trying to figure gender out aren't they.
I think we are more aware of adam's apples but most people do not really think of them. I only really use to notice them when a guy has one that really sticks out. I pay a bit more attention now but its not the first thing to look for on a guy.
Quote from: Kylo on December 21, 2016, 01:49:33 PM
This is going to be hard to describe, but when your voice started to break, did you feel like it needed 'tuning' or something? I currently have no idea how it is going to sound when it's finished dropping, but at the moment I can reach most of my former "normal" tone range, except the highest which just disappears into air now when I try to reach it. Which is good.
But -
I realize this new range is totally weird to me and sounds completely unused or even toneless. It's not monotone or anything, but I'm just not sure how to use it yet. I figure it will drop some more for sure at this point.
I know many people ask whether they can train their voices to make them deeper, I'll look into that if it turns out my voice just stops where it is right now... but did anyone need to re-find their own voice? Or create a different sort of voice for themselves? I assumed that I would just sound deeper, not different as well. But I do sound quite different now. Amusing thing is, I am still not waking up expecting to sound the way I do, so at this stage my own voice surprises me daily.
It also sounds like someone who's been living in cave for 10 years with no human contact and trying to use their voice now they've come back to civilization. As this deeper pitch it seems like you need to be louder to be eqully audible. Female voices are more ...how to put it, they cut across white noise or industrial noise easier with the higher pitch. My old voice was low for one of them, but I'd figured out how to make myself heard in different situations. Now it looks like I gotta figure that all out again.
I've been told my voice sounds like its dropping and slightly out of wack although i'll be honest i don't feel the need to attempt to tune or work on my voice it's dropping on its own and doing a fairly good job alone. it does make me wonder if i should work on it more but it's naturally doing it anyways so i don't see the reason as to why i'd do this for myself but that's just me. I don't know if this helps but i do realize my voice has to be louder iv'e been told its hard to hear sometimes so i'd agree on that. I don't dare to say to much here because my voice just started dropping i'm really soon in on hrt and i don't want to over step on something that i could be wrong about in the future. But yea i guess in a way did i feel it needed tuning yes, but did i do that no not really at least not for me :) but my voice was androgynous to start with anyways.