Heyy!

After too much of procrastination, I have finally started working on my voice. This is only my first day of training, and my voice is too deep.

I would be really glad if you can give me feedback on how it is now, and what should I focus on more to feminize my voice. I would also like some help with resources to improve my voice.

https://soundcloud.com/priyanka-sharma-742517039/voice-july-4-2016/s-ZQrLv


Thank you, and be harsh in your criticism. ;-)

Sorry for the strong accent

Sorry that you've not had any responses.  However, your question can be answered via google, really or just searching old forum posts, which probably contributes to this.

There are a few techniques out there.  The main focus should be on resonance before pitch, but some voice training techniques address both at once.  When I started way way back, the technique consisted of going to falsetto and then going just low enough to be in a 'normal' voice - this seemed to get pitch and a decent resonance.  However, it seems to have caused me some issues over the years so I'm sure there must be better methods now.

Your voice sample indicates that you are obviously in the early days and the pitch is pretty low, and resonance is off.  Depending on the language, the prosody/melody of the language should be more pronounced for females, too.

D

I think your  you voice sounds feminine  the accent really enhance it , if i had heard that clip with out knowing who it was from i would have automatically  assumed  female

Sorry but it sounds male to me. You need.to.work on pitch, resonance and prosody. There are plenty resources both on here and on google to help you with that.

Dena has some useful linkw too.

HOw about the surgery. That's what I got and it changed my life.

The primary problem is in pitch. By ear it sounds like you are in the gender neutral areas so some of us hear male and others hear female. With a strong feminine presentation the voice wouldn't hurt you but over the phone it could be a problem. If you haven't already done so, you should get PRAAT and then look at this chart to get a feel for where you want to be.

@Markie- Awe! That's so great. Finally, someone who heard it right ;-) Thank you.

@Ritana- I guess, it sounds male to most people. Thank you for your honest feedback.

Quote from: Dena on August 05, 2016, 07:41:08 PM
The primary problem is in pitch. By ear it sounds like you are in the gender neutral areas so some of us hear male and others hear female. With a strong feminine presentation the voice wouldn't hurt you but over the phone it could be a problem. If you haven't already done so, you should get PRAAT and then look at this chart to get a feel for where you want to be.

What you have said is 100% true. That's exactly my experience. In person, I never get misgendered, even with my voice, but on telephone I always get sir'ed, like 99% of the times.

I know that I need to increase the pitch, and I do have softwares to analyze, but I am in no way actually able to do that. I have tried singing along with female singers, going into falsetto and coming back, but apparently I am not doing it right, since I have not had any improvement at all. Any tips on how to actually increase pitch? Thank you

The head voice which you need to use accomplished by tightening the muscles above the larynx. These are are the same muscles you use to swallow with. One way to find that spot is Ahhhh in your normal male voice then go slowly up the scale. There should be a spot where your voice breaks and the range above that point is were your female voice will be. There is one gotcha that can be a problem. My male voice was so low that my break point was around 130 hz making my head voice in the male range as well. The only fix for that was voice surgery.

Hi

After 4 months of working at my voice, this is where I have reached:

https://soundcloud.com/priyanka-sharma-742517039/rainbow-passage-nov-4-2016/s-UO6o8

To put things in perspective, here is a link to an old recording from July:

https://soundcloud.com/priyanka-sharma-742517039/july-11-2016

I can see that my pitch right now is around 165-180 Hz on average when I speak, and I can't tell about the resonance and inflection part. I would you love some honest feedback on how I sound now, and how can I improve further Thank you.

You've made some marked improvements!  Your timbre or resonance are much more female now.  Your pitch is better, too, though it's still pretty low -- try for an average of 220hz, with your lowest notes never dropping below 160. 

There are some advanced techniques you might want to explore, if you haven't already, ways of creating more tension around your larynx which will open up higher pitches for your voice. 

Keep going!  This is very good progress for four months. 

And yes, many have had excellent results with voice surgery -- even with this, though, the best results come to those who've done all the work you're doing now.

I would suggest surrounding yourself with as many girls as possible and picking up on how they speak and the way they say words and you'll notice the difference. Also i find it helps to find a celebrity girl who voice is somewhat similar to yours and what you aspire to  sound like and watch them on tv or interviews and talk along with them. And lastly, to really push yourself, meet guys however and get their number and talk to them on the phone. Or girls, if your a lesbian. Talk to people you find attractive and it'll push you to try to sound more feminine and eventually you won't even have to think about it anymore because it'll come naturally to you.

Quote from: Aria94 on November 04, 2016, 09:48:29 PMAlso i find it helps to find a celebrity girl who voice is somewhat similar to yours and what you aspire to  sound like and watch them on tv or interviews and talk along with them.

I too think this is a really good technique.  Queue up a sound bite that you can play over and over again, something like two or three sentences.  Talk along with her, recording yourself.  Then play that recording back, and see where you've aligned and where you've faltered.  After four or five tries, go on to the next part of the interview.  (I do think interviews are better than scripted dramas, because interviews are much more like normal conversations.)

@ Sophia: Thank you for such wonderful suggestions Although, I couldn't make out a lot from the page you shared But, that's on me.

I tried that falsetto thing though. I was actually trying to speak like Yoda just in a higher pitch (it didn't sound anything like him), and this is what I ended up blabbering out: https://soundcloud.com/priyanka-sharma-742517039/november-8-2016-falsetto

It still doesn't sound quite like a female falsetto to me. Although, it is around 350 Hz in Pitch. Does it, to you?

@ Aria: Thanks for the suggestion. I will try and imitate Emma Watson's speaking manners. Hopefully, I will pick up her accent too

The technique is called mirroring. Run an interview from youtube, not a movie because in movies they are ACTING. My therapist has me mirroring Meryl Streep. Besides the pitch, it teaches me mannerisms that will help with the presentation. Notice the hand movements, the eye contact, the connection through touch, small talk which is very hard for me. I am going to therapy tomorrow where I will discuss with Emili how fabulous her outfit is, how she got highlights in her blonde hair. Who she sees to get her nails done. Emili told me my pitch should be in the E3 range or about 165 htz. It has been very hard as forgetting 64 years of maleness is not that easy. Forget the falsetto as it is immediately determined not to be genuine. Although it would be a lot easier to talk in falsetto. Do you really know anyone that does?

There are no bad experiments when it comes to finding your voice.  This is what you get when you speak in falsetto -- it's basically a falsetto voice.  It's not actually creating tension around the entire larynx.  I also recommend trying out funny voices -- all kinds, but especially the strange voices of animal cartoon characters.  Try to mimic them as best you can.  Just for practice. 

Okay, here's another exercise.  It's more about getting an idea of what happens when you do different things, kind of like building blocks can help to make a foundation.  Spend a couple days working on your pitch, but not through reading words, just vocalizing vowels at higher and higher notes, up until just before your voice cracks -- which is the falsetto that we don't want, so once you know on what note your voice cracks, practice just below that because this isn't actually about making your voice crack.  Anyways.  Do it for the sounds of "ahh" and "eee"  and "oh" and "ooo".  When you do this exercise, feel your jaw and throat with your fingers.  Feel where in your throat the sound resonates, but also figure out what muscles around your throat, around your jaw, and under your chin are being activated.  10 minutes a day.

Second, consider how your tongue gets engaged with speaking the following words in order: "YE -- YAY -- YO -- YOU -- YAH -- YES".  Say those words in varying pitch over and over again, for like 10 minutes every day as part of your regular pitch practice, and do each word in a different pitch, up or down, it doesn't matter, just so no two consecutive words have the same pitch.  We are doing this to strengthen the tongue muscles.

Third, some aftercare.  When you're done practicing, do a salt water gargle -- a quarter-teaspoon of salt for 8 ounces of water.  Gargle just a mouthful at a time, and be careful not to swallow!  One to two minutes of this.  Voice practice can lead to swelling in your throat, and a salt-water gargles helps to ameliorate that.

Finally, whenever you're swallowing regular water or food, I want you to feel your throat muscles with your fingers.  Feel the sides, feel the adam's apple, feel the top and bottom, and again between your jaw and under your chin, just become familiar with all the complicated stuff that's going on there. 

And keep up the good work.

Excellent progress! I think with your accent you have a very exotic sound to your voice which definitely works in your favor.

For me you do still sound like a feminine male even though you have a accent which is easier to hide back than what a regular American or British accent would. I thinks you have to work at making the voice pitch higher. But it's also smart to warm up before practicing and at the same time relax when you're making your voice higher. To appear natural you should avoid funny faces and sounding fake: exaggerating and too much straining.

Some people manage to achieve a cis woman's voice with much voice training and doesn't have a natural deep voice. But other people won't get it so easily no matter how hard they tries. Voice surgery is a solution, but it's the last thing you does if other things doesn't work. There are many risks with voice surgery and therefor it shouldn't be the first thing you does. Anyway, even with surgery people needs voice training. The surgery do only lightening the voice, but not making it sounding cis woman. Rest of it is training after the surgery recovering.