So I have been really busy with work lately and on my days off I have been trying to feminize my voice. I haven't officially started lessons yet and am hoping to do that this week. I am starting my HRT on the eighteenth and am starting to get worried that my voice will not be ready in time for me to pass. I think a lot of this is the dysphoria but still I am extremely worried.

My voice didn't pass for many years but I didn't realize it because nobody mentioned it to me. Never passing is a stretch. Most people have sufficient range in their voice that they can produce a presentable feminine voice. For the few of us who have a very low starting voice, surgery is an option. For the time being it's best not to worry about it until you know what you have to work with and you learn what it is capable of.

Yes. My voice is the only obstacle to pass. But I do not care so much. I am anyway not a cis-female, but m2f transgender. I admit that I am between a man and a woman.

barbie~~

I am reluctant to suggest surgery, but I will. If you have been struggling for some time, you might at least wish to investigate what's available in the USA and in Asia. Results vary widely. Compared to FFS and SRS, the price is relatively low. I saw a voice forum within Susans, so I am sure there are people who can speak to the efficacy.

It seems to be that a part of the problem for a lot of transwomen is education.  Not only must one be aware of such a possibility of learning to speak with a more passable range or register of the voice, but one must also have access to someone who knows HOW to teach someone to put the voice into that appropriate register.  It's just like playing the didgeridoo.  For decades, I thought that circular breathing (how you keep a trumpet playing for minutes at a time without running out of air) was impossible for the vast majority of people, only possible for those with the "magic" to pull it off.  A few years ago, I learned to do circular breathing for didgeridoo, which is essential to play well on this instrument.  All it was needed was for someone to show me 3 or 4 things, and once the understanding "click" took place, it was easy from that point on.

Similarly, what is needed is someone who has the ability to help you to remember to do something.  That is to relearn how to speak with a preadolescent voice.  Remember when you were speaking one day, and suddenly, your voice cracked, and later on, it dropped into a strange lower voice for a few seconds before hopping back into your usual voice?  It means that the changes to your voice box was gradual over the few years of growth, but the voice change may not have been gradual as well, but shifted down suddenly.  It was shifting up and down uncontrollably.  That happened to my older nephew, and I still can hear in my head him struggling with his voice in front of us. 

Eventually, you learn how it feels to be in the lower vocal register, and you learn to stay there, soon forgetting how to access the pre-adolescent mode of vocalization.  Even though I'm nearly completely deaf, I can access three voices; male, pre-adolescent, and falsetto.  You will hear the deaf accent, it might be enough to throw people off my "trans-trail" enough to miss that the voice doesn't sound entirely right.

Between the age of 16 and 19, I think, I was sitting at a restaurant with a friend of mine.  We were ordering.  He ordered, and then I ordered.  Afterwards, he laughed at me and said, "You sounded like a girl!"  I was taken aback and thought, "Oh...  I didn't realize that!"  Apparently, I had slipped back into that voice after a number of years (2-3 years?), probably out of an age-old eagerness to eat a large pizza.  I don't recall, though, that I had a cracking voice, but rather, it was gradual.

Someone recently said that the "cracking" voice is getting access to the lower registers, but that the higher registers are still there. I am not sure it's exactly true. Voice is far more "psychological" that either FFS or SRS. At least that's one view of it.

See the thing of it is, I am easily able to hit the higher registers. My numbers are close to 150hz just speaking normally. I think one of my issues is the resonance, when I am in the higher register I am only resonating in my throat. I can not figure out how to use the mask voice and make it sound feminine. 

Virginia Hall, yes.  It is like the person accidentally triggers the new-found function of the voice, and eventually, he learns how to access it and stay there.  It is muscle memory.  Yes, the higher, pre-adolescent registers are still there in my case.  However, it is largely forgotten in the average male.

Quote from: supergirl23 on October 04, 2016, 01:11:22 PM
See the thing of it is, I am easily able to hit the higher registers. My numbers are close to 150hz just speaking normally. I think one of my issues is the resonance, when I am in the higher register I am only resonating in my throat. I can not figure out how to use the mask voice and make it sound feminine.

Yes. Part of it for me was relaxing and getting playful. I would walk around my home telling everyone I was "a mouse!" I would stay in character for an hour, with people rolling their eyes (Oh no. Not again!) but when I came out I loved to an acceptable timbre. Silly, I know, but there you are.

It is also possible to practice alone in the house or while driving.

Quote from: Mohini on October 04, 2016, 01:14:26 PM
Virginia Hall, yes.  It is like the person accidentally triggers the new-found function of the voice, and eventually, he learns how to access it and stay there.  It is muscle memory.  Yes, the higher, pre-adolescent registers are still there in my case.  However, it is largely forgotten in the average male.

I agree. I think voice psychology is huge and I for one have areas where I struggle--for example when talking with a tone of authority, for example with someone who wants to play fast and loose with a car repair and is trying to pull the wool over my eyes. I am caught between sounding "like a girl" or sounding "like a force of nature" when dealing with BS. Just one example. There are many others. When all is good at 220, but when pissed off, I drop out of that.

I had some voice therapy with a speech pathologist and one of the things I took away from that experience is that pitch is not the be all and end all.. In fact, you can have a quite low pitch and get away with it if things like resonance, intonation, etc are right..

I still have much the same voice as I did before and, apart from on the phone, I rarely have any issues.

For years I have HATED the P word that so many trans people use. One of the definitions of that word is to present something that is not real or accurate. With that said I am me and I am nothing more.

I would like to replace that word with presentation or package.

Using the word package you might look perfect, you might have all the correct mannerisms but if your voice does not fit this package you will be giving yourself away.

So perhaps thats the best way to describe it. I lived for years with a voice I liked but was not perfect and it hindered my package. I NOW have had the surgery and wished I had had it done years ago.

When you are out in the world there are 1000 things that people use to cue in on what you are. I choose to have as many of those close to perfect.

Katie

I think "never" is too strong- Its always a gliding thing. If your appearance is female , and your voice is androgynous, it maybe that for 80% of the people it will be ok and they have no questions but for 20% it is different - or the numbers may be different and the more you practice and have the help of a professional, the better it gets. It rarely is 100%, but if you eventually get misgendered because of the voice just once a month, thats already pretty good. And maybe even that goes away with time.

It took me six months of daily experimentation before I found my voice.  And then it was like an "aha!" moment!  It was just a matter of trying everything.  Funny thing is, it was through doing funny cartoon voices that I had my breakthrough. 

It took another good six months to strengthen it to the point where it was the only voice I had.