Hey y'all. My name is Ernest and I am currently pre-T. I have been experiencing dysphoria about my body for ages and I can really say the only thing that can get me through this whole mess is my voice. I really dislike my speaking voice but I really like my singing voice, especially after all the hard work I've done to refine it. I'm a member of various singing clubs and I do my school's musical every year.
What I'm worried about is the changes that will come from transitioning. Will my voice be destroyed? Will all the work that I've done with my voice be worthless? If I wanted to pursue singing as a career, would transitioning end that opportunity, especially if I transition in my 20s? How different is singing with a male voice from a female voice?
I really love to sing. It is probably one of the few things that brings me happiness but I really want to transition, trust me I really do. But I am just afraid of the effects it will have.
Even if you're not a singer, if you could please tell me what happened to your voice and if it was difficult to speak at first.
Thanks for reading my rant.
 

I sing in the shower

I started on a low dose of T and increased to a full dose after one month. My voice started to drop very quickly (it was pretty low to start with). Within that first month I started to really struggle getting into higher octaves. My voice would crack and just cut out all together. I was thirsty all the time. That continued to around the three month mark.

Now, it's kind of settled.  Very low. I do not sound female in any way. I can't sing along to songs with female singers unless I drop it into a lower range. My voice just doesn't go up that way anymore.

I just started T a month ago and don't yet have a substantial drop. Nor am I a singer!
But I wanted to emphasize that, though it may not be ideal, you can transition without using testosterone.
And here's this interesting info, if you haven't seen it already: http://transguys.com/features/testosterone-ftm-singing

I'm certainly not an expert but I have had formal vocal training. This is where guys really get a break. If/when your voice changes, you should have the full natural range of your original voice, just lower.

Chin up!
Cindi

There are a few trans men who have looked into that.
They say that if you start with a low dose and raise it gradually your larynx might expand more naturally.
They also kept on singing.

You might look up a few articles on exact recommendations.

There are definitely guys who have successfully continued singing after T! Skylarkeleven comes to mind, his stuff I think is more casual, but here's his youtube if you want- https://www.youtube.com/user/skylarkeleven/videos There have also been plenty of other guys.

As long as you keep practicing and training while your voice is changing, you shouldn't have too much trouble. You'll have to deal with cracking and some times where your voice is hard to manage during drops, but when it settles in between and after dropping, then you shouldn't have too many issues. For me, when it drops (which has been at 2 months, 4 months, and 6 months so far) I've gone through a few days where there is no hope of it being manageable, but then I go for the rest of the time perfectly able to sing.

Granted, I've never been formally trained, I just sing for fun to myself, so I can't know exactly how I actually sound.

I was a classically-trained vocalist for 15 years before starting T. 

I started T with 3-weekly IM injections at 1/2 dose for the first 3, then full dose thereafter.  My voice drop occurred gradually, not dramatically - from about the 3 month mark.  I noticed before that, that my singing voice started to struggle - at first with the higher notes, then the higher end of the mid-range notes that I used to hit effortlessly.  By "struggle", I mean that I would open my mouth to sing the note, and nothing would come out at all - or, if it did, it was cracking and hoarse.

On the other hand, I began to easily hit notes in the lower baritone range nearly straight away - and after a year, I could sing in bass range.  However, my entire upper range is gone - I struggle to sing high tenor notes.  Granted, I haven't practiced or pushed myself as hard as some guys to do regain their abilities, but I have noticed that if I sing for a couple of hours - hitting the high notes becomes a little easier. 

I lost my singing voice with T and am kind of always a bit hoarse (actually going for speech/voice therapy for this), I think I'm not entirely typical here. I have heard a low dose to gradually increase the size of the larynx, singing thru the transition, and coaching are helpful. The article from transguys is very good.

My range is really decreased, but working the voice can help since I've been able to get about an octave thru that.

I think Sky (skylarkeleven) has some good things to say, but his voice is not too low (I'd say tenor maximum) and not everybody gets a nice tenor voice like that that is easy to work with.

--Jay

If family voices are any indication, my voice will turn out quite low. My cac's singing voice is down in the basement somewhere, and my brother's wasn't much higher. Hopefully I'll retain the ability to sing period, since my dad's tone deaf and I never heard my bro sing.

Currently I am a Soprano, classically I'm a Lyric Coloratura Soprano, and quite proud of my pipes! I have had issues with people being jealous because of my ability to fly over other voices and harmonise or sing descant with ease.

I think I'll look into voice lessons and - if possible - get on that well before I get onto T.

I used to sing in a four piece soft rock band. We played mostly high school formal dances and weddings. Our signature was three and four part harmony on the songs. I could sing bass to tenor and then in two sets of falsetto ranges to hit high note harmonizing parts. I can't tell you how much I miss that.

I have a friend in a similar situation. She decided a couple or three years ago to cast worry to the wind to play guitar and sing. She has recordings on the wind. She sings in her natural voice which is quite pleasing but it is also still where it is. Who knows. I might give it another go. Anyone need a 59 year old bass player? Ha!

Perhaps I'll just stick to my cello.

Cindi

I asked this awhile back and got much less encouraging answers. lol. What I did was research boy choir singers who hit puberty. I heard there were some vocal trainers who specialized in this area, but I couldn't find any. I did find a bunch of choir-boy-moms chatting about their sons' voices, though, and they said that for the most part, as long as they kept singing through the changes, kept practicing, even if they sounded horrible, eventually their voices settled and they became nice baritones/tenors/etc.

This basically mirrors what I've heard from other trans men. Keep singing and eventually your voice will settle.

The moms did say that a few of those boys could never sing quite like they used to once they grew into men. I wonder if it has anything to do with how deep your voice gets, i.e. how drastically it changes.

My hunch is that, because the voice is an instrument, once that instrument changes you will sort of have to retrain it. Part two of my hunch is that if you have already developed good singing habits, you will be able to train your new man voice quickly. I hope that's how things work out for me...

I'm six weeks in, nearly seven, and in the last week or so my voice has been cracking.  My throat's been sore, too, like a dull ache.  I rode with my housemate down to Florida yesterday and we were singing old school Elton.  I used to be able to match his old, higher-pitched, somewhat nasal tone from the 1970s.  Can't do it any more.  And of course my housemate thinks it's hilarious when my voice cracks.  She's very supportive, so I can take some of her good-natured laughter.  It really is funny; I mean, I'm thirty-three and going through a second puberty.

Can't really sing as I used to, voice changed alot. Best I can hope for if I want to continue is to rap.

I had a good range before T, and after ~3 months of it settling in, I'm finally finding the "sweet spot" again. I never had any formal training, but I've always loved singing, and others have been quick to tell me that I had a good voice for it... I dunno why I never did choir. It seems like results vary here though, so while I may have a success story, it's just a matter of rolling the dice, yeah?

TBH I was afraid I'd lose my singing voice too, as music is the love of my life, but I guess at some point I just decided that if transitioning meant losing my ability to hit a few notes, that was a risk I was willing to take. It was something that troubled me, but I'm glad it worked out okay. Hopefully, whichever path you choose, you'll be just as happy. 

My voice went.

Im a music education major so singing is something i do oftenand for a grade.

I used to be like a soprano before T now i easily sing in the tenor/bass range

I can describe my experience in a time line for you because i dont think my voice is too fargone to ever sing well again but things happened quickly


First couple months i sounded just sick and hoarse. A pretty large chunk of notes just became out of range for me and i would squeak bad.

Around the 4th month my voice began to drop, i still couldnt hit the block of notes but i had a bigger range going lower.

That sort of pattern continued to about 8-9months and i noticed i could pop into a falsetto. Still a big hunk of notes i couldnt hit and would just squeak but now i had a head voice and the large lower range.

Now im one year and my voice is still going lower i could safely say my range is from like D2 to like G3 after that i get cracky.

So basically you wont lose your ability to sing probably, more likely it will just shift lower and you'll just have to learn to retrain your voice as you go. Lots of adjusting and learning your limits as they change.

Hope that helps.

I'm not a pro singer by any stretch but I have done voice work for English audio test materials. Even three years in I notice that I can't speak at certain pitches anymore. At a year I could do higher tones and speak in roles for older women or young boys. Now I can only do neutral male voices and occasionally I can do hoarse voices (think someone with a cold for the sections on illness and doctors visits).

Like others have said, it's likely you will have to readjust how you sing or what pitches you sing at, but if you keep training you will be able to keep your singing voice. It'll just change.