Hey,
I'm wondering if it's possible to get a passable singing voice on T. I have a fairly low range, but I always sound like a girl singing in a lower register.
I've seen a few ftms with youtube channels who can pass singing really well on T. I PMed you one example in case he doesn't want his channel listed on here but there are others.
I never thought a slightly off tune, voice crack-y song could sound so comforting. :laugh:
He does sound normal. That's a huge relief.
Have you heard of Lucas Silveira? He's a trans man singer with the band The Cliks. He didn't go on T for the longest time because he was worried about what T would do to his voice. He started T, I'm not sure how long he's been on it, I think by now it's been almost a year? But he has clips on youtube and his voice is handling T really well, in my opinion.
I'm a singer, it's what I'm currently going to university for, so I'm very nervous that taking T will hurt my singing voice. I want to be a passable male singer.
This has been a major concern for me as well. I'm really worried about what will happen to my voice on T
Definitely look up Lucas Silveira, his voice's progress on T is amazing. He seems sad to have lost his upper range, but he still sounds good and is still a brilliant musician. Also, a transguy called Joshua Klipp recorded a song called "Little Girl" with both his female voice and voice on T. Worthwhile to look up.
I'm not really sure I understand the question. "Passable singing voice"?
When all is said and done, you'll have a male singing voice, just as you'll have a male speaking voice, with testosterone.
Will you sing as well as you did before T? Is that the question? That's every bit as much a mystery as any other guy going through puberty. Some guys will lose their singing ability, some won't, some will improve.
The biggest thing is to keep singing, even when your voice starts doing weird things and cracking. That's how you maintain vocal control as your anatomy shifts, and gives you the best chance of having good control and range after you've been on T for awhile.
I'm thirding the look up Lucas Silveira notion. He is an amazing singer both pre-T and during transition. I'm sure he had to retrain himself a bit to get used to his new range, but he still sound awesome regardless.
Adding a fourth Lucas plug.
He's also generally pretty good at responding to comments asking him about singing and testosterone, on his YouTube channel, for the record.
I was put on a weekly injectable dose, to give me a smoother slope into transition. That allowed my voice to deepen slowly rather than suddenly, which helped me retain my singing ability. As for the range difference, my full range shrunk but also dropped. Prior, I could sing a full soprano range down through the full alto. Currently I can sing the full baritone range up to mid-tenor. If I try to sing upper tenor my voice wobbles and cracks, although I'm only 4 months into my HRT so I'm not going to push it. When my voice eventually settles I'll re-train to ease my range open again.
Prior to my voice change I could sing in a lowish register but yeah, it just sounded like a female voice singing in a low register. After my voice changed, it really resonates and thrums--it feels different, it doesn't just sound different.
Thanks for the info, Grimm. I guess that I'm just worried about how I have a semi-passable speaking voice and a lower register than many of the tenors I know, but I still sound very feminine when I sing. Thanks for the suggestion of checking youtube. The more videos I find, the better I feel about it. I'm not looking to be Pavarotti, but it would be nice to be able to join a choir as a guy.
Not sure if you've seen this link or not but my friend who sings found it to be pretty helpful.
http://transguys.com/features/testosterone-ftm-singing (http://transguys.com/features/testosterone-ftm-singing)
That's a great link Jesse, thanks. Joe Stevens sounds so much like how I'd like to.
I used to sing in a way that was...I guess the opposite of falsetto? I tried to match my sound to that of a male...typically high for a male but lower than my usual speaking register. I still had the ability to sing really high but right now that's changed. I can't sing Carol of the Bells any more which is a total bummer. I squeek when I try to sing after the key change, which I just noticed today. *sighs*