Hey everyone I wanted to see what people know about voice feminising and pitch.
I am a little torn, and basically am looking for second opinions..
I always assumed that I would need voice surgery to get the feminine voice that I always dreamed of but now I'm a little confused.
I have been having voice lessons for around 6months and my my speech therapist is now telling me that I shouldn't need surgery because my voice is already making good progress.
For reference I started with a average of around 120hz and my average pitch is now sitting around 180-190hz
My speech therapist says that at 180-190 I am within the feminine range and that now I should focus more on pronunciation, inflection and all that jazz.
It's just not what I was expecting, as a 30yr old I Automatically assumed surgery was basically a given.
Basically what have other people's experiences been and is 180-190hz going to be enough?? Because to me my voice still sounds like a husky bloke.
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If you need surgery depends on your starting voice and what you can do with it. Most people can get by without surgery as they have a mid range or higher starting voice. Others have the flexibility in their voice to hit the proper range. In my case, I had a very low starting voice and less than an octave of range which put my feminine pitch at 130-140 Hz which was clearly male. Surgery was my only option. Your starting voice of 120 HZ suggest you should be able to hit the feminine range without surgery. As for pitch ranges, this link (http://www.nyspeechandvoicelab.net/transgender/voice-feminization/) might help you understand what your therapist is saying.
I'd keep at the training. I was in a similar place with my voice and my range is typically 190-200 these days and I pass with no trouble. Haven't been misgendered on the phone in what feels like forever. I know it felt like I wouldn't get here at first, but I did! I strongly suggest sticking with it for more than 6 months before considering surgery. It took me about a year to get where I am.
I just measured mine with an app my voice sits right around 210hz average with a range of 160-300 hz. My CIS girlfriend got 247 hz 164hz-300hz. my phone is low by about 5hz (I calibrated it for tuning my violin on a different app). I really think your average pitch is high enough and like your therapist said the rest will help dramatically. pitch is just one aspect of the process get the rest down I bet you will be really happy with your voice if you keep at it :) Keep in mind that both her and I have high pitched voices for females as well. With time I bet your voice will naturally raise a bit as well, I know mine did
180-190 can be just fine. Once you get the hang of inflection you'll be golden. As Esphoria mentioned, my voice climbed a bit with use. It was about 180-190 and now I'm more in the 190-200 average range.
Inflection is such an underappreciated thing especially to people first starting out with voice training. I fly a lot for work and as a result of breathing super dry air on planes I end up getting a bit hoarse fairly often. Inflection saves the day every single time. Learning to modulate pitch instead of volume as you've been trained to do your whole life is tricky but you can do it.
Don't worry about how your voice sounds to you (yes I know this sounds impossible). Because that's not at all how people hear it. You hear your own voice a lot lower than it actually is due to how your skull transmits sound.