I have been practicing my voice for the last month very hard and can sound female very easily but there is only once catch. I can only get it right when I am alone or when I am recording myself. The moment I have to talk to someone or talk over the phone I default to a much deeper male voice. I was so embarrassed today when a woman called me for a job and she said "but you sound like a man". I just don't know why I do this and then to get it back to female is impossible while I am talking to the person.
I don't know how to shake this man voice. I am so frustrated I want to scream and sometimes end up crying because I work so hard on it and then I end up not making any progress when I talk to someone.
Have you guys got any tips that can just help me shake the tendency to default to a male voice.
A trick my voice therapist gave me was to have a sentence to say BEFORE answering the phone.
There sentence she suggested is:
"My mother made lemon muffins"
Then answer the phone with the same voice. After a pause in your speech hummm an "mmmmmmm" to move the voice forward.
Sent from my LG-H910 using Tapatalk
One month of practice isn't enough to lock the voice in. You already have the feminine appearance so use your voice every time you talk. After you use it for a few months it will become habit and after you use it long enough, you will need to force your voice to the male range if you want to the male range.
I had the same block at first, When I practiced my female voice I had a passage I would recite to practice. When I first started using my voice I had to recite a bit of it, eventually I just had to think the passage and now it just natural.
I had a very similar experience with singing and playing the guitar at the same time, I relate this because what you're trying to do is similar, at first during practice you are just focusing on your voice and how it sounds, but when you engage in a conversation you not only have to watch your voice, but you need to ....well engage in the conversation. Eventually like guitar it will become second nature where you rarely if ever have to think about it but at first it takes a great deal of concentration.
Start with easy conversations, even with yourself in front of the mirror just saying whatever is on your mind or with a friend. I promise you it gets much easier.
It took me a year to be able to hold a normal conversation with my voice. The thing is, it is not just changing your pitch, but also your speech patterns and inflections. You are already used to speaking a certain way with a certain vocal pitch, and if you continue to speak that particular way, then your pitch will fall into its natural range.
I have a few tips you can try:
The first is an exercise that I did all day everyday (in the car, in the shower, in my room, etc., etc.). I would repeat the line "Mia was driving" and have my voice come out of my mouth and nose, rather than my chest (which is what causes the low resonance in a man's voice). There are plenty of videos explaining this technique if you google voice training. I'm not sure what techniques you are using but I would check these out if you haven't already.
The second is having realistic expectations in terms of how high your voice will actually get. If you are already past puberty there is only so high your voice will be able to go, but this does not mean you can't sound female! As I said before, it is all in the inflections and patterns of speech. Watch movies and TV shows and observe how the actresses in them use their voices and imitate their inflections and behaviors. Also, find a "voice model" you can emulate. I chose actresses Laura Prepon (she plays Alex in Orange is the New Black) and Zooey Deschanel, because they have fairly deep voices and I found that I could pretty easily match their pitch and maintain it, then I observed how they spoke and based my inflections off of that. I knew I was successful when a customer at work told me I sounded like Laura Prepon lol
Hang in there, it is one of the hardest things to change, but like they say, practice makes perfect! And I really mean it when I say that observing other women in real life and media is so so so helpful! None of us have grown up in a vacuum, we all pick up our behaviors through observing others. It is the same for trans people, the difference is that what cis women have learned at age 5 some of us are only just starting to learn past puberty.
Hi guy's well I have to admit I have a little sentence that I say before I talk in my female voice. "This is the voice I want to use this is my female voice". I made a typo I am actually at it for two months that I am trying to change it. It is the hardest thing to change. The strange thing the inflections is female. People asked me when I was a guy if I am gay. They are just natural to me. I don't really observe other woman I am just me being female comes so natural to me that I don't even try. I had to try to be a guy gauge every move I made to try and pull off being male. So all I am struggling with is my voice now.
I made a lot of progress in one day with my voice I just switched over on some unexplained way and now I talk in a female voice all the time. My fiance said it still sounds a bit pushed but at least I sound female now.
Quote from: Amoré on September 26, 2017, 12:34:55 PM
I have been practicing my voice for the last month very hard and can sound female very easily but there is only once catch. I can only get it right when I am alone or when I am recording myself. The moment I have to talk to someone or talk over the phone I default to a much deeper male voice. I was so embarrassed today when a woman called me for a job and she said "but you sound like a man". I just don't know why I do this and then to get it back to female is impossible while I am talking to the person.
I don't know how to shake this man voice. I am so frustrated I want to scream and sometimes end up crying because I work so hard on it and then I end up not making any progress when I talk to someone.
Have you guys got any tips that can just help me shake the tendency to default to a male voice.
I experienced the same thing. I've had some good voice coaching sessions but to resist the urge to slip into the old voice when i am tired, stressed, hungry (you name it) takes time to overcome. On the bright side i am overcoming it with time and making steady process. Hang in there.
Quote from: Amoré on September 28, 2017, 02:32:03 AM
I made a lot of progress in one day with my voice I just switched over on some unexplained way and now I talk in a female voice all the time. My fiance said it still sounds a bit pushed but at least I sound female now.
At first it always sounds forced especially if you haven't used it a lot. you need to exercise your vocal chords to handle the higher pitches. if your voice is feeling sore or raspy its time to give them a break... they're sorta similar to any other muscle in your body
Quote from: esphoria on September 29, 2017, 09:05:06 PM
At first it always sounds forced especially if you haven't used it a lot. you need to exercise your vocal chords to handle the higher pitches. if your voice is feeling sore or raspy its time to give them a break... they're sorta similar to any other muscle in your body
You are probably right on this one. I just hate sounding like a guy. :-\
Can I ask what you've been doing to practice? I'm trying to figure out something that works for me, and have been unhappy with what I've tried so far based on random youtube videos and tutorials on ->-bleeped-<-.
I used the pitchlab app and started off with humming on 220hz. Trying to keep it there the whole time. When I got that under the belt I started with simple sentinces just trying to keep it at 220hz. You sound like a robot at that stage. Then when I get a feel where my voice should be I started recording myself and try to sound female. I basically started talking about my day and my story how I transitioned and such things while recording myself. But at this stage I try to talk half a day in my female voice until I feel it is tired and then take a break.
No matter how much I practice the male voice comes out when I cough or sneeze, Try it you'll see.
Leslie
The hardest thing for me to change was how my scream sounded (like on roller coasters and stuff). But I've gotten it to a nice, ear-bleedingly shrill pitch since then :P
Quote from: Leslie601 on October 01, 2017, 02:35:04 PM
No matter how much I practice the male voice comes out when I cough or sneeze, Try it you'll see.
Leslie
I've read that as you use female voice exclusively and the muscles adjust (male voice atrophy) that this issue somewhat solves itself (since the "path of least resistance" for the sounds is now the female range). Can anyone with experience weigh in on this?
The voice is still fully capable of producing the lower notes but you forget how to do it. Before voice surgery I attempted to access my old voice to demonstrate to somebody else. I hadn't use the old voice in about 35 years and I had to force my muscle to relax to access the chest voice. It was as difficult to do this as it was finding the feminine voice in the first place. Now when I want to speak, it's an automatic reflex to access the head voice and I don't have to think about it.
Exactly what Dena said!
I've been voice training for two years and I can no longer naturally go down to my original voice's pitch. When I try to force a deeper voice, I just sound like a woman feigning a deeper voice.
I have been practicing for perhaps 6 months. The biggest roadblock I have had revolves around work. The tips, tricks and exercises that I find useful in my home or social practice still take up mental bandwidth at this point. Since my job involves making life-critical decisions with and for other people, I can't do it unless I'm 100% present in what I am doing. Eventually, I will alter my voice at work, but the conundrum is that I can only do so when it takes essential no conscious effort and it is all but impossible for the new voice to become minimally conscious so long as I am lapsing out of it for purposes of work. Slow going...
The coughing, sneezing, and even screaming can and will sound female if you have been practicing your voice for long enough (I'm talking about years, not months). Once you get to a point where you can speak in a female voice without thinking about it, the other sounds will just come out naturally female as well (in my experience).
I sound like Lemmy from Motorhead! At first I hated it but now I look on it as part of my character like being tall & having green eyes.
Quote from: Amoré on October 01, 2017, 01:41:55 PM
I used the pitchlab app and started off with humming on 220hz. Trying to keep it there the whole time. When I got that under the belt I started with simple sentinces just trying to keep it at 220hz. You sound like a robot at that stage. Then when I get a feel where my voice should be I started recording myself and try to sound female. I basically started talking about my day and my story how I transitioned and such things while recording myself. But at this stage I try to talk half a day in my female voice until I feel it is tired and then take a break.
Wow, you weren't joking about the robot thing, I just burst out laughing when I got there. I seem like I can maintain speaking at 220 fairly well (I've always been good with voices/accents so I'm hopeful its translating to this), but I don't know how to move past the semi-falsetto sound to it. Is it just a matter of training the muscles at this point for having a more resonant voice later?
(Odd, several snippets of my post were missing and I had to edit words back in. Not sure what I did. :D)
Quote from: Roll on October 02, 2017, 09:25:36 AM
Is it just a matter of training the muscles at this point for having a more resonant voice later?
Resonating (Iirc) is a huge part of it yeah, at least that's what my teacher told me. Your voice also will change and adjust over time too.
It took about 3.5 months of heavy practice, but I finally gained the ability register in female ranges without sounding like the cartoon character. I'm really not sure when it happened or how I did it though, but I can't even speak like I used to without making the conscious effort to drop my voice down into my chest.
My natural state has shifted to a mix point, I subconsciously resonate female-ish now from the head/nose/etc., and it confuses people over phone and internet. I'm not at the point where the other major part, pitch, is subconscious and perfect. I'm about halfway there; but if I try I get ma'am'ed.
Now my normal speaking voice sounds some sort of weird butchy girl/super gay.
Doing the various exercises to smooth out the mix and stop the breaks was huge in being able to rest in that mix between falsetto and normal.
Quote from: Amoré on October 01, 2017, 01:41:55 PM
I used the pitchlab app and started off with humming on 220hz. Trying to keep it there the whole time. When I got that under the belt I started with simple sentinces just trying to keep it at 220hz. You sound like a robot at that stage. Then when I get a feel where my voice should be I started recording myself and try to sound female. I basically started talking about my day and my story how I transitioned and such things while recording myself. But at this stage I try to talk half a day in my female voice until I feel it is tired and then take a break.
What I did, and this is because I learned this from a minor in music and they made me take aural skills, Is to practice above the pitch you want your voice to be centered on. what this does is allows you to speak easier at your given pitch average.
I call it an average because opposed to males who don't change pitch as much, a feminine voice tends to have a wider range among other things.
Just keep up the practice and it will come.
I've only been doing voice lessons for 3-1/2 months or so, but I'm able to hit a fairly feminine speaking voice. I seem to do better with it out in public than at home. I do the voice lessons every morning. I use the Deep Stealth lessons - but I've worked in some other techniques I learned from youtube that have helped.
The one thing that truly gets me into my female voice is singing. Pick out some favorite lady singers you like and sing along as best you can. I don't know if I sing well or not, but I love to do it anyway.
Sadly I only get to use my female voice on weekends. I've tried to pick it back up in the evenings after work, but can't always do it without some extra warm-up.
Singing is a great way to practice getting your voice up! I do it all the time. I'm an awful singer but it's so much fun and it helps so much.
I've only been trying to train my voice for a few weeks now, operating from guides I found online. In particular this one I found on ->-bleeped-<- called MTF voice training regimen. One of the first things that recommends is trying to use your muscles to pull your larynx up and back, but this does not seem to work for me. Even after I feel like I trained the muscles, my voice comes out sounding like Kermit the Frog. I think the voice training for me is probably going to be the hardest part of my transition because I was never even good at singing. Nor do I have any musical background . In karaoke the only thing I could do reasonably well, ironically, was the Bee Gees. When playing around with my nephew, I can do a pretty convincing Elmo voice. But all my attempts to sound like a girl are not even close.
All of you who have done so well, you are so impressive. I think I'm going to need professional help! Self-help guides are super attractive because they are free, and I am unemployed, but I think this one requires real talent!
I know exactly what ->-bleeped-<- post you mean. The entire shelving the trachea by pulling up and back eludes me, and makes me burp actually. Still, I want to keep trying because I feel as though it will be just another piece in the puzzle.
What I've been doing when I find the time (which hasn't been as much as i'd like) is doing some basic vocal exercises based on one youtube video involving a humming warmup then doing vocal slides. It noticeably strengthens the voice. I combine it with practicing maintaining and returning to specific pitches via tuner apps, so I try to learn control and consistency at the same time I'm just strengthening muscles. I don't know if this will do anything long term, but it definitely has helped me become more in touch with how my voice works and improved my understanding of other techniques as well.
My biggest personal problem continues to be projecting any voice I do. I can hit the right sound and pitch at times, but I know that I could never yell or raise my voice doing it.
This problem is not exclusive at all to transgenders, most males tend to talk in a lower register than their natural voice. Before starting to sing and take lessons, i always spoke in a deep bassy voice, but found out that my natural register is actually quite high and i try now (as a male) to use more of my natural voice. I find that i still tend to use a lower voice when i'm not in a confortable social situation. So i guess it's just a question of practice and that it will come naturally once you're totally confortable with using your new female voice in social situations.