by Kathie Perez and Lynn Skinner, this has helped me more in two days then the Andrea James course did in two months. Kathie teaches to set your pitch at a3, if it's lower go higher, if its higher come down.

I am going to order the other two CDs, I may have a session or two with her as well.

Talking into the frequency tuner and trying to maintain a3 has been a great help. I am hitting just below it most times, but I will keep working, I just recorded my voice and noticed an improvement.


One tip I had never heard: never clear your voice, take a sip of water instead or just swallow.

My natural pitch is A#3 (235 Hertz), I think its close enough 

I am curious about their logic of having people go down from their natural pitch of say F0=250?

Pitch varies a great deal during speach, for the F0 to be at A3, you need to speak a good deal of the time at a lower and higher pitch than that. You can see this if you have a free computer based spectrograf like Praat.

A3 is the average GG pitch , according to Kathie. That is the anchor pitch that everyone should strive for, if a transwoman's natural pitch is above a3, she doesn't need the course most likely. A transwoman going too high will sound unnatural, I think I was guilty of that. Another thing that one needs to consider is that this is a one size fits all course.

a3 = 220

I can see my pitch modulating while I speak into my frequency tuner and I can carry it in my purse and do.

What's an A3? And how do I know if I do an A3 or not?

YOu can download a computer spectrograf and find your fondamental frequency F0.

Praat is a free one that's very thorough, though the interface is the not the easiest. Just google it. You'll need a microphone obviously.

Melissa also got a cheap electronic tuning thing.

I am starting to think that my singing range (2a to 4a, natural not falsetto,  on a good day) is to my detriment, I just have to stay in my upper range, I guess. And AJ's course had me focusing on pitch too much.

My natural voice seems to fall somewhere between C4 (262Hz) and D4 (294Hz)  It's difficult for me to go below A3 (233Hz), which seems to be about as low as it goes now.  I'm not sure why it went up there.  It was either hormones, practice, or both.  It didn't used to be that high.

Melissa, since estrogen doesn't affect the voice, you put your voice up there yourself, since your a singer, its not that hard for you. But, it is more strain on the voice and does diminish the dynamic range.

My normal vocal pitch range is not AT the FO its about 215-300; its easy to see on the spectrograf, it looks like a mountain with a rounded peek, I''ve got a LOT of variation in pitch when I speak. Different vowels, consonants have a different natural pitch and resonnance for everyone, the resultant mix creates a muddle F0 that's not that defined. If you want more precision, you look at specific vowels, like the ee sound in heed. The enveloppe for these vowels is distinct from male to females and this enables you to compare yourself with a precise metric.

If your F0 too high, your F1 risk on being about the same or lower (that happens when I'm singing in the high end of soprano). The resulting envelloppe is more like a spoken song than a typical voice (I'd be curious if you also have a big formant around 4000 Hertz, that would really make it like your singing).

I'm a singer as well and I could easily speak at F0=335 Hertz for quite awhile (that really sounds weird) but after experimenting quite a bit at different frequencies, I've come back to my original 235 Hertz and just played with the resonnance instead to add rich timbre to my voice, its like adding a trumpet to my orchestra  . At that frequency, I can talk with more volume for longer. That is always good when doing presentations.

Also, a funny thing I saw in a study, the most attractive female voice is slightly higher than the female average (think Marylin Monroe), but the one that inspires the most respect is slightly lower than the female average. So, I guess the female average is what you shoot for if you want it all.

Quote from: Melissa on June 21, 2007, 04:26:46 PM
My natural voice seems to fall somewhere between C4 (262Hz) and D4 (294Hz)  It's difficult for me to go below A3 (233Hz), which seems to be about as low as it goes now.  I'm not sure why it went up there.  It was either hormones, practice, or both.  It didn't used to be that high.

Hmmm...that would be seem highly unusual even for a genetic female. Interesting though, I will check the vocal ranges of alto, sopranos,

EDIT:

QuoteIn music, an alto or contralto is a singer with a vocal range somewhere between a tenor and a mezzo-soprano. The term is used to refer to the lowest female singing voice, or to a kind of male singing voice utilizing falsetto called a countertenor. Alto pieces normally span between G below middle C to the E a tenth above middle C (i.e. G3-E5). At the bottom of their range, male altos sound almost like tenors. Some altos have even larger ranges; from the C below middle C to the C two octaves above (C3-C6 if middle C is C4), but like all singers, their vocal type is defined mostly by their "vocal center" and not by their range (a soprano for instance could technically possess the lower range of an alto, but would not be comfortable singing it). In four part choral harmony, the alto is the second highest voice. Alto pieces were originally written in the alto clef, but now use the treble clef.

Although both men and women may have voices in the alto range, the word is usually used to mean a female singer. The word "contralto" can be used to refer specifically to a female alto singer, versus alto male singers or instruments or clefs. However, choirs singing early music frequently include adult male altos, also called countertenors. If a singer is a man and a natural tenor, if they choose to sing using falsetto they are referred to as a countertenor, whereas a male alto's true vocal weight usually is that of a baritone or bass.

A soprano is a singer with a voice range from approximately middle C (C4) to "high A" (A5) in choral music, or to "soprano C" (C6, two octaves above middle C) or higher in operatic music. In four part chorale style harmony the soprano takes the highest part which usually encompasses the melody.

So though unusual for a genetic male, it's not for a genetic female, I saw a male on American Idol who sang soprano.

Eeek, I was wrong.  I just used my voice analysis software since I'm at home now.  It actually was about 225Hz for F0.  So, nevermind.

Quote from: Melissa on June 22, 2007, 12:03:58 AM
Eeek, I was wrong.  I just used my voice analysis software since I'm at home now.  It actually was about 225Hz for F0.  So, nevermind.

That's 5hz higher than the average for a genetic female,according to Kathie.

Quote from: melissa90299 on June 21, 2007, 07:19:33 PM
So though unusual for a genetic male, it's not for a genetic female, I saw a male on American Idol who sang soprano.

A male who sings soprano is called a countertenor.  I used similar techniques to achieve a female singing range for my musical tryout.  However, I had to modify the technique somewhat since a countertenor is supposed to still sound male.

Quote from: melissa90299 on June 22, 2007, 12:28:02 AM

Quote from: Melissa on June 22, 2007, 12:03:58 AM
Eeek, I was wrong.  I just used my voice analysis software since I'm at home now.  It actually was about 225Hz for F0.  So, nevermind.

That's 5hz higher than the average for a genetic female,according to Kathie.

Cool. 

OK, I have Bank of America on the line, holding for a rep...here comes my first test...still on hold...still on hold, now I am getting pissed and going to blow it?

Ok well no sir or ma'am so far, he put me on hold...I wish I would have gotten a woman...be nice to get a ma'am but if I don't get a sir, at least that would be an inprovement...

Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He called me ma'am!

Congratulations Melissa   That must certainly be a good feeling.

Jessica

Quote from: melissa90299 on June 22, 2007, 10:58:35 AM
OK, I have Bank of America on the line, holding for a rep...here comes my first test...still on hold...still on hold, now I am getting pissed and going to blow it?

Ok well no sir or ma'am so far, he put me on hold...I wish I would have gotten a woman...be nice to get a ma'am but if I don't get a sir, at least that would be an inprovement...

Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He called me ma'am!

Cool.  If you ever get called sir, just say "excuse me?". 

I think I had that happen once just after going fulltime and I wasn't sure if I heard him right, so I said that and he switched to ma'am right away.  Other than that, it's either nothing or ma'am.  I do have my good days and bad days with voice and on the bad days, it can get low, but it apparently still sounds female to others.  After recording my voice last night though, I am going to work on it some more.  It wasn't quite sounding how I want it to sound and I think I need to add just a bit of breathiness to it.

Something I will never forget.

I received a phone call once by accident. I didn't know him, and he didn't know me.

We talked for over half an hour, and he never questioned my gender; assumed female.

I wasn't even trying at the time! Made me feel great, and still brings back a good memory.

Got ma'med three times on the phone this am. I psent a lot of time while camping taking walks and practicing, one thing I noticed is that when I said "um" or "uh" when  speaking extemporaneously, my voice dropped down, at times, all the way down to A2, which is the average GM pitch, I practiced getting that up to around E3, I think it's natural for the voice to drop when saying um. I notice a lot of GGs will say um and elongate the vowel and consonant, it sounds very feminine to my ear.

I wonder if others voice drops when they say um.

The only time when my voice sounds manly, is when I am REALLY REALLY mad.
Raging mad. Its not because of the pitch, it drops just a bit, its because my
voice becomes so incredibly loud and comes from the chest.

Quote from: Keira on June 21, 2007, 01:52:05 PM

YOu can download a computer spectrograf and find your fondamental frequency F0.

Praat is a free one that's very thorough, though the interface is the not the easiest. Just google it. You'll need a microphone obviously.

Melissa also got a cheap electronic tuning thing.

Great! I found it on the net, and I'm now downloading it. What's even better, is that there's a Mac version.
Okay, I'm trying to work the program, but it makes no sense at all. I don't know what to press -- I tried clicking all kinds of things, and I get some graphs sometimes that make no sense and don't say anything about frequency.

gothique, if you really serious about perfecting your voice, I would invest the $30 in the guitar tuner Seiko ST 757 or something that displays octaves. I use walking down the street waiting for buses, etc. any timoe I have an extra few minutes, you don't have to wait to record and playback, you get instant readings.