Hi. I have mentioned in my "introduction" post that I am not good with introductions at all. I will cut to the chase... I am pre-T. I do pass as a male when it comes to my looks. I have been told that I pass even when I open my mouth and the voice is not one of a 12 yo boy.! My questions are, when I start T will my voice sound like a kid's voice for a while even though now it doesn't? Is it possible to sound more mature without T? What are the best exercises you've come across and how long does it usually take?
I tried to post about this before, but I don't know what happened. I can't find the topic...

As a moderator, I can see deleted posts and you only have your introduction post and this one so there must have been a mistake somewhere. Without T, you need to relax the neck muscles above your larynx when you speak. That will drop you into the chest voice and with take your voice as low as possible without T. When you are on T, your voice might break so for a while you will sound like you are going through puberty but that will pass. You may find the following link useful and if you have questions about voice training, feel free to ask me.

http://www.nyspeechandvoicelab.net/transgender/voice-masculinization/

Quote from: Dena on July 08, 2016, 07:33:06 PM
As a moderator, I can see deleted posts and you only have your introduction post and this one so there must have been a mistake somewhere. Without T, you need to relax the neck muscles above your larynx when you speak. That will drop you into the chest voice and with take your voice as low as possible without T. When you are on T, your voice might break so for a while you will sound like you are going through puberty but that will pass. You may find the following link useful and if you have questions about voice training, feel free to ask me.

http://www.nyspeechandvoicelab.net/transgender/voice-masculinization/

Thank you for your reply. Yes, I do have a few questions, if you don't mind. How do I relax the muscles? Would the techniques cis-male singers use work in my case, too?

Males naturally use the chest voice and have to tighten the muscles to push their voice into the head voice for the higher pitch head voice. Women normally tighten the muscles and have to relax them in order to use the chest voice. Singers are trained to do the so they can cover a greater range. Karen Carpenter was noted for singing in the chest voice and the Carpenters referred to it as her money voice.

You should be able to put your hand above the larynx and feel if there is tension the muscles. If there is, just try to relax your body and that area. Try doing a relaxes aaahhhhh at a low volume for starter to get a feel for the voice. Once you can reproduce this, attempt to speak while maintaining the relaxed state. When done correctly, you will feel vibration from around your larynx area instead of the mouth/facial mask area that you may be used to.