I think I've found my way to my female voice; the only problem is keeping it up there. My voice sounds very female when i push my Adam's Apple up in my face. At this point, I'm just pushing my Adam's Apple up with my fingers and holding it there for as long as i can. This is much easier for me than the falsetto-and-slide-down technique.

Tight leather strap? Punk rock style?

...
Jade

I am trying to keep my adam's apple in the upper position too (it totally disappears from my neck) and from what I've read practising over and over whatever allows you to comfortably speak in a female voice with the adam's apple in this position will eventually strengthen the muscles there to more easily allow it to stay in that position.

For me I find (and this may be different for you) if I say "heeeeeeeeee" in my female voice it raises my adam's apple. I've gotten to the point I can move it to that position without having to say out loud the word so it just becomes a muscle strengthening exercise now.

Well - if nothing helps - Dr Thomas the voice surgeon in Portland actually sutures the larynx into a raised position - he actually is the only voice surgeon that seems to be able to also change resonance and not just pitch.

On a more soft side - you need to train the muscles and it has to enter muscle memory. And you cannot force it by the hand - the muscles will have to do that for you - and that is what those falsetto exercises are doing  .

Please get a few sessions at a professional voice trainer with trans specialization. You can damage your throat by the stuff you are doing. You try to force something that only will work with patience, relaxation and softness. You cannot force it or it will not work, or it will create damage. You need to be gentle and caring to your voice.

Quote from: anjaq on January 27, 2015, 04:21:53 PM
Well - if nothing helps - Dr Thomas the voice surgeon in Portland actually sutures the larynx into a raised position - he actually is the only voice surgeon that seems to be able to also change resonance and not just pitch.

On a more soft side - you need to train the muscles and it has to enter muscle memory. And you cannot force it by the hand - the muscles will have to do that for you - and that is what those falsetto exercises are doing  .

Please get a few sessions at a professional voice trainer with trans specialization. You can damage your throat by the stuff you are doing. You try to force something that only will work with patience, relaxation and softness. You cannot force it or it will not work, or it will create damage. You need to be gentle and caring to your voice.

Yes, I was only joking about the punk rock neck strap. Do not hurt yourself!

-Jade

Have you viewed the CandiFla videos?

The technique she says is to talk with the highest squeakiest voice you can manage, and to note where the adam's apple while you're doing that. If you hold throat in that position, the effect will be that your adam's apple will be raised.

Does this help?

Quote from: Jade_404 on January 27, 2015, 05:21:59 PM
Yes, I was only joking about the punk rock neck strap. Do not hurt yourself!

-Jade

Jeez, NOW you tell me.    Oh well, at least I put in The Misfits.

Quote from: suzifrommd on January 27, 2015, 06:09:05 PM
Have you viewed the CandiFla videos?

The technique she says is to talk with the highest squeakiest voice you can manage, and to note where the adam's apple while you're doing that. If you hold throat in that position, the effect will be that your adam's apple will be raised.

Does this help?

I've watched all of CandiFLA's voice videos and even took notes on them. It's not that they don't help. The thing about it is I live in a duplex... with my mother, mind you, where I cannot be making loud or strange noises. Therefore, I doubt I will be able to fit in 5-20 minutes a day working on my voice each and every day. However, I am taking classes at my local community college in a large campus three days a week, so if I just find an empty classroom so I can work on my voice, I can do that.

Quote from: anjaq on January 27, 2015, 04:21:53 PM
Well - if nothing helps - Dr Thomas the voice surgeon in Portland actually sutures the larynx into a raised position - he actually is the only voice surgeon that seems to be able to also change resonance and not just pitch.

On a more soft side - you need to train the muscles and it has to enter muscle memory. And you cannot force it by the hand - the muscles will have to do that for you - and that is what those falsetto exercises are doing  .

Please get a few sessions at a professional voice trainer with trans specialization. You can damage your throat by the stuff you are doing. You try to force something that only will work with patience, relaxation and softness. You cannot force it or it will not work, or it will create damage. You need to be gentle and caring to your voice.

I live in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I've been Googling around for voice coaches in the Philadelphia area who work with transgender women on their voices but came up short. I am determined to stay away from voice surgeries because a.) I'm transitioning on a tight enough budget as is; b.) even as popular as Yeson is, vocal surgery has too high a failure rate and is too expensive for something that may not even work; c.) I find it pretty interesting to be able to shift from male to female voice at will and wanted to do that; and d.) it's more anatomically correct to just train the voice to speak at a higher range and raise the resonance.

Not to mention voice training will (or should) destroy the need to undergo an Adam's Apple shave surgery as voice training should in turn hide the Adam's Apple from sight if its up in my face. So I'd be killing two birds with one stone... for free... so with all that being said, I will stick with the voice training for as long as I can.

I didn't realize that the falsetto method will strengthen the voice muscles and get the Adam's Apple to stay in the up position. I thought that this would only raise the resonance. Also, sometimes when I do the falsetto method, I find that my Adam's Apple is still in the same position so there must've been something I'm doing wrong. What I'll do is I raise my Adam's Apple up, tighten my throat, make sure my Adam's Apple is still up, go into falsetto, and bring down my voice.

Ugh, if only I had started my HRT pre-puberty...

There was even a woman on YouTube who trained her voice by raising her Adam's Apple (not with her hands) and speaking with her Adam's Apple up into her face to get her female voice.

Well - resonance change and hiding the adams apple are usually the same thing - raising pitch will not change the adams apple position much. The idea about CandiFla and others is to change the resonance by making voices - basically just do something unusual with your voice like falsetto or doing cartoon characters - and use different muscles there. If you are lucky you suddenly stumble upon your female voice like that - otherwise there seem to be those methods that are more likely to succeed in finding it like the CandiFla, MAP oer FYFV videos and instructions. In the end those all do not jus twork like "you do them and if you are through with them you have a feminine voice". They are all just designed so that you can experience different ways to use your voice and also find your female voice among that. And once you have that, the task is to stick with it longer and longer - if you are lucky you "snap into it" and need to deliberately change it to get back to the original.

Dont get too hung up on the adams apple position though - feel more where the resonance is coming from and such.

But honestly, it is not easy to do this by DIY instructables alone, many made it, but others did not. There is also Kathie Perez among others who do Sykpe voice training sessions, so if you really have no one in your are - you can try that. Or you ask your local trans support groups about it, maybe they know something google did not tell you.

Is your mum unsupportive or why cant you just train this at home?

Surgery is an option - but many have done it without it. I was half joking suggesting Dr Thomas for the surgery, but he is the only one I know who physically fixes the Adams apple in an upward position. But I think the voice examples are not as convincing as I would like.

Quote from: anjaq on January 28, 2015, 10:59:22 AM
Well - resonance change and hiding the adams apple are usually the same thing - raising pitch will not change the adams apple position much. The idea about CandiFla and others is to change the resonance by making voices - basically just do something unusual with your voice like falsetto or doing cartoon characters - and use different muscles there. If you are lucky you suddenly stumble upon your female voice like that - otherwise there seem to be those methods that are more likely to succeed in finding it like the CandiFla, MAP oer FYFV videos and instructions. In the end those all do not jus twork like "you do them and if you are through with them you have a feminine voice". They are all just designed so that you can experience different ways to use your voice and also find your female voice among that. And once you have that, the task is to stick with it longer and longer - if you are lucky you "snap into it" and need to deliberately change it to get back to the original.

Dont get too hung up on the adams apple position though - feel more where the resonance is coming from and such.

But honestly, it is not easy to do this by DIY instructables alone, many made it, but others did not. There is also Kathie Perez among others who do Sykpe voice training sessions, so if you really have no one in your are - you can try that. Or you ask your local trans support groups about it, maybe they know something google did not tell you.

Is your mum unsupportive or why cant you just train this at home?

Surgery is an option - but many have done it without it. I was half joking suggesting Dr Thomas for the surgery, but he is the only one I know who physically fixes the Adams apple in an upward position. But I think the voice examples are not as convincing as I would like.

UPDATE: When I speak, I am now vibrating at the very bottom of my neck! My resonance is now at the base of my neck! My normal voice still sounds the same (it sounds like it) but I'm not vibrating as much in my chest. So maybe this falsetto method is working for me after all!

Let's just say that my mom still isn't a big fan of my decision to transition but has respected my decision to do so. That being said, she doesn't like the weird sounds that I make when I'm training my voice and I don't blame her. She isn't too confident the falsetto method will produce a natural voice but I'd prefer to take it from trans people who've done it and succeeded as opposed to a cis person who doesn't know much about what it's like to be trans and only recommended that I just undergo vocal surgery.

edit-
And thank you for your help, Anjaq, and for giving me the wherewithal to not give up on it completely.