Hey everyone. So, I'm going to post a clip of myself speaking (it's just the audio to a video I made a while back). It's my natural speaking voice, and I'd like to hear people's opinions. I mean, I know it's not a masculine voice, but it doesn't sound 'girly' to me either, but a couple of people have said it is. I don't think I can judge anything to do with myself, because...I know me. So yeah, how much deeper do you reckon I need to go for my voice to sound convincingly male?

http://vocaroo.com/i/s0hKuYtbKy4k

To me, you're speaking from your throat and definitely sound female. Try speaking from your chest. It's helped me quite a bit even without hormones.

yeah, your voice sounds feminine to me. I've been starting to practice talking lower when I'm alone. wouldn't it be nice if we could just wave a magic wand and change it.

Quote from: Charliedogist on March 20, 2014, 12:27:11 AM
To me, you're speaking from your throat and definitely sound female. Try speaking from your chest. It's helped me quite a bit even without hormones.

I'm sorry, but I don't get that head voice, speaking from your throat, speaking from your chest thing. Could you explain it to me please, if you have the time? Thanks for your input

Quote from: tomboy on March 20, 2014, 12:41:15 AM
yeah, your voice sounds feminine to me. I've been starting to practice talking lower when I'm alone. wouldn't it be nice if we could just wave a magic wand and change it.

Most definitely! I don't speak much to be honest, so my voice will be a difficult thing for me to practice changing.

It sounds like a very naturally feminine voice!

I know you didn't asking me but I'm trying to think how to explain.... actually if you try to sign it happens naturally. start off singing wherever you want. it doesn't matter what you sing. it  can just be lalalalala. try going higher and higher. your voice will get breathier and it sort of feels like your voice/head open up. go lower and there's a point where it will change and go into your chest. it will have less breathiness and feel more ... rumbly.  this is how men can hit high notes. it's what a falsetto is, going into a head voice. it's all air and your throat has to sort of open up. a chest voice is sort of the opposite. you don't want to close up but you want to shift where it's coming from.... gah. I've been singing for so much of my life this just comes natural for me. sorry if my explanation makes no sense.

It sounds a lot like my voice, which is quite feminine. I hate it. I just want to pass, man, and my voice kills any chance. I've tried talking more from my chest but I still sound pretty girly. Sometimes I wish I had vocal training to control my voice better.

Yup, sorry bro, it sounds pretty feminine. But once you get on T that will be fixed soon enough, until then... you could do some voice exercises, and hope the people who know you're trans accept you as male regardless of your voice. I have a feminine voice too (not as much as yours, but still not believable as a guys voice), and I thought no one would ever take me seriously as a guy, but quite some friends are consistently treating me as a guy, which feels great. I hope for you you can find a couple of such friends too! Even if it's just one or two, it's great to have a 'safe haven' where you can be yourself and vent your frustrations on being treated as female on a daily basis.

Quote from: tomboy on March 20, 2014, 10:28:05 PM
I know you didn't asking me but I'm trying to think how to explain.... actually if you try to sign it happens naturally. start off singing wherever you want. it doesn't matter what you sing. it  can just be lalalalala. try going higher and higher. your voice will get breathier and it sort of feels like your voice/head open up. go lower and there's a point where it will change and go into your chest. it will have less breathiness and feel more ... rumbly.  this is how men can hit high notes. it's what a falsetto is, going into a head voice. it's all air and your throat has to sort of open up. a chest voice is sort of the opposite. you don't want to close up but you want to shift where it's coming from.... gah. I've been singing for so much of my life this just comes natural for me. sorry if my explanation makes no sense.

I asked my singer friend and he said the same thing, that it's hard to explain because it's very natural to him. Ah, I'll try, thanks for your advice

Quote from: Whynaut on March 22, 2014, 11:36:07 AM
It sounds a lot like my voice, which is quite feminine. I hate it. I just want to pass, man, and my voice kills any chance. I've tried talking more from my chest but I still sound pretty girly. Sometimes I wish I had vocal training to control my voice better.

Ah, sorry about your feminine voice too, man, it sucks. The only good thing for me is that I don't have a social life, so I'm never in a position where passing matters just yet, because hardly anyone sees me or hears me speak. Hopefully the testosterone will help your voice out soon, though

Quote from: Erik Ezrin on March 25, 2014, 09:21:47 AM
Yup, sorry bro, it sounds pretty feminine. But once you get on T that will be fixed soon enough, until then... you could do some voice exercises, and hope the people who know you're trans accept you as male regardless of your voice. I have a feminine voice too (not as much as yours, but still not believable as a guys voice), and I thought no one would ever take me seriously as a guy, but quite some friends are consistently treating me as a guy, which feels great. I hope for you you can find a couple of such friends too! Even if it's just one or two, it's great to have a 'safe haven' where you can be yourself and vent your frustrations on being treated as female on a daily basis.

Yeah, hopefully voice exercises will help. Oh yeah, all my friends are accepting; my best friend has always said I look/sound feminine, but even he's been calling me Jason and using male pronouns, which feels really awesome, because I know that's difficult for him but he's still doing that. It's mostly just strangers, I guess, or when I start college. I worry that, you know, I'll introduce myself and people will be like, "But Jason's a boy's name..." and I'll be kind of put in an awkward position.

Disclaimer: I'm not a trained singer or voice coach and may be talking outta my a-- (now there's a speech pattern).
I didn't understand the head/throat/chest thing either until reading somewhere to place your hand where you want the voice coming from, hum/sing/talk, and feel for vibration. It helped me to place one hand on my throat, and one on my sternum and hum scales to get the feel of where that "chest voice" is. Just don't try to force a deeper voice, at best it'll sound off and at worst it can strain the vocal chords. Practice and vocal exercises (try the "boom your voice" youtube video) can make some difference over time, and it's helpful even with HRT because no amount of hormone therapy will change speech patterns.

Speech patterns are a big part of how people gender voices, and there's more to it than head/throat/chest. Some cis women have deep voices and even speak from their chests, but still sound "girly" due to inflection, filler words/phrases, and various things such as elongating vowel sounds, use of vocal fry (bad for vocal chords too), soft vs. hard "s" sounds in words, etc. It can be helpful to listen to both feminine and masculine speakers and pay attention to differences, just like paying attention to body language, clothing, and hair cuts.

Your voice sounds female, sorry.

Voice, place your finger on your throat and yawn then swallow. Females nave a smaller voice box and have a higher pitch. When males speak  the adams apple is in the swallow position.

Male sentence structure is choppy and slower. They use less expressive and harder sounding words. Gut or stomach vs tummy. Peanut butter and jelly vs chunky peanut butter and strawberry all natural jam.

Women speak twice as many word in a day and have a larger vocabulary.

Females speak through the center of their far head and resonate. Males use their tummy and chop their words, speak slower, use less expressive more abrupt words and have volume in their throat to bellow out sound to be heard and females raise their pitch to be  heard.

Females use melodic intonation and raise the infection ( W questions accent the W Word. example: What are you wearing? Males do not)

I have been working on my voice for a year to and from work each day ( an hour or two). I have results but vocal fold surgery may be my recourse. With a higher pitch my voice will not sound feminine unless I master the speech fluency, intonation, rate and inflection. Other than pitch everything else is learned.

Can anyone give more tips on how to speak from your chest voice? I find this difficult to accomplish and it's really hard to find this on the internet for some reason. I should be able to feel the "resonance" in my chest when I speak from there right? For some reason it always sounds like it's coming from my throat, even when I'm speaking relatively deeply (without straining ofc) (for those who understand, around F3 to A3).  I have looked all over the net and can't find anything that helps with this. 

http://tvchix.com/articles/female-to-male-voice-training


Using the Diaphragm
Speaking with your "chest voice" rather than your "head voice" will automatically drop your voice into a slightly deeper register, whether you're taking hormones or not. Learning how to breathe with the diaphragm consciously will also aid you in projecting your voice, which gives a more powerful tone and helps with traditionally masculine speaking.

If you are unfamiliar with diaphragm breathing, the best way to start is by laying on your back with one hand on your chest and one on your stomach just below your ribs. As you breathe in slowly through your nose, the hand on your stomach should rise while the hand on your chest should remain largely stationary. As you exhale through your mouth, the hand on your stomach will descend. If you wear a binder, the compression of your ribcage may have restricted your lung capacity, making this exercise both difficult but also even more beneficial.

Practice diaphragm breathing while laying down for no more than five minutes a day until you are comfortable with it. Then graduate to doing it standing up against a wall. Eventually, you will want to practice it without any support and only a mirror for a guide on your movements.

Once you feel comfortable with diaphragm breathing, you can begin practising humming as you exhale each deep breath. Don't alter your breathing beyond making sounds as you exhale. Your voice will likely sound uneven and even crack a bit when you begin doing this, but eventually you'll find the control to achieve a richer, deeper tone. At that point, you can begin practising speaking from your chest.

Here is another link. I typed in FTM voice training.

http://boxersandbinders.com/2012/03/tips-on-voice-training-part-one.html


I am MTF and use Exceptional Voice and Cathy Perez mp3 recordings. They do not do FTM work unfortunately, they are very good.

Thank you Cynthia! I've seen the first one and, though didn't find it too helpful at the time, I think I might have missed something that should have been obvious to me  So gonna give it another go and see what happens.  Also that second link looks really good, I've never seen it before!! I have no idea how this has eluded all my searches but I digress.  I appreciate your help! Now to get over this sore throat.  Time to pop a few more C's...

QuoteYeah, hopefully voice exercises will help. Oh yeah, all my friends are accepting; my best friend has always said I look/sound feminine, but even he's been calling me Jason and using male pronouns, which feels really awesome, because I know that's difficult for him but he's still doing that. It's mostly just strangers, I guess, or when I start college. I worry that, you know, I'll introduce myself and people will be like, "But Jason's a boy's name..." and I'll be kind of put in an awkward position.

Yeah, I know the feel. My voice isn't exactly masculine either, trust me (I shall make a recording someday soon, but my laptop's mic is broken :s), I have been practising diaphragm breathing and chest-voice talking, but still... not really doing the trick. AND when I get enthusiastic and excited my pitch gets higher, I talk quicker and louder and generally more femininely :s which is really annoying, cause I LIKE being enthusiastic and energised about something.
I am a bit anxious for introducing myself as Erik too. I probably have to tell people I'm trans... but that's even better than being treated like a girl. I just hope I won't be TOO nervous, because then I get tense and my pitch goes up even more, lol. Doesn't quite help