So every time I have an alone moment or a moment when I can, I attempt to practice my feminine voice. A lot of times though I can't help but feel silly about it! First of all I don't have a clue what to actually, well, say. "Hello my name is Sadie, how are you?" is something I usually start with, but I can't just keep repeating that forever . Then I start to feel kind of embarrassed when I hear how overly high-pitched my voice starts out as when I first start trying. Honestly it would help so much if I could train my voice via singing, since I do that on a regular basis (I think I could pull off a girl's singing voice to an extent), but I know it won't help in the long run.

Oh believe me I know that a good female voice will be well worth all the practice, but I can't help laughing at myself or feeling embarrassed whenever I try to start! It's not a bad embarrassed, it's more of the type of embarrassed one feels if they, for example, played a note wrong while trying to play a song on an instrument or made a horribly and obviously wrong move in a video game. Has anyone else felt this way when practicing their voice? Any tips on how to deal with it? If I keep laughing at myself I'll never get my voice right .

That happens to me too, i NEVER know what to say. Usually I find a book and start reading it outloud and try different tones/etc and i'm sure i sound pretty crazy to anyone hearing me

If introductions feel repetitive, might I suggest using enunciation practices (poems, tongue twisters, etc.) instead? We use them a lot in theater when warming up our voices. Here's one:

QuoteTo sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock,
  In a pestilential prison, with a life-long lock,
  Awaiting the sensation of a short, sharp shock,
  From a cheap and chippy chopper on a big black block!

Here's another:

QuoteWhat a to-do to die today, at a minute or two to two;
A thing distinctly hard to say, but harder still to do.
For they'll beat a tattoo, at twenty to two
A rat-tat-tat- tat-tat-tat- tat-tat-tattoo
And a dragon will come when he hears the drum,
At a minute or two to two today, at a minute or two to two.

Of course, there are pages and pages of more warm ups.

And let's not forget the screen plays and other scripted works. There are plenty of female monologues to work with. If I hit a bad patch when I'm reciting these, I push through to the next exercise. The embarrassment tends to fade when you have more material to work with. Any way, that's what I find useful when I practice voice.

I usually talk to myself. I do it a lot anyway when I'm working out technical problems and trying to put together a mental plan of attack. I think it's helped me quite a bit since it's something you generally do automatically, or without noticing, so you start to get used to using your adjusted voice without having to think about it. I know the other night I had used my voice all day and my throat was starting to feel sore, like the soreness after a long workout, but my voice kept accidentally slipping back up.

Another one I do is after I see a movie, or listen to a new album, I critique/review it to myself out loud while I'm driving. This works best when you're being critical over praising of whatever it is you're critiquing, more emotion come out that way and what to say comes more fluidly.

It gets easier.

I read while recording it on my computer and play it back when I think I've hit the right sound.

I totally understand i feel really, really silly, like I will even put on music so that my roomates will have a tough time hearing my through the walls, and also practice in a volume that is far lower than it should be. I mean I just feel I sound to weird, I mean I have made good progress since starting, but I still would just about die of embarrassment if someone played the files I have been recording.

I have been trying to get over it, but so far I really can't seem to do anything that makes me feel more comfortable, the best I can really do is ensure that other people aren't hearing me, but still, I feel really silly.

I know how you feel Hun. So, let me give you a little help that was given to me.

Read childrens books. Find a book for kids who are still young and read it aloud. Imagine you are reading it to a child. It will hep put some singsong into your voice too.

Must be working too because I got called Ma'am right off the bat when I called work a moment ago.

I think everyone knows that feeling. I'm still at the very beginning phase of voice practice, (i'm going to start seeing a speech therapist soon I think). I have the same problem finding something to say so what I try to do is read something out loud, like a poem or even a news article from online or something. Just something with lots of words so I don't have to talk to myself This also helps me with the awkwardness because i don't feel like I'm babbling away in a bad voice, it feels more like training my voice (which is what it is).

Hope that helps,
Claire xoxo

Welcome to what I call the "Butthole Complex" - Every time you hear yourself, you feel like a butthole. This is normal. We all experience this. After a while you get desensitized to it. The reason it happens is because speaking - even just casually - is a performance. When you are speaking and everyone is watching you, you are performing. Trying to break out of your comfort zone, even in private, to practice a new voice may cause you to have performance anxiety. Do it more and the anxiety goes away.

When you start trying to speak in public, the anxiety may (or rather, definitely will) set in. Again, it all just comes down to doing it and getting used to it.

I too, feel silly while practicing, although I don't really have to think about anything to say. I talk to myself literally all the time (when alone), so instead of talking to myself in a male voice, I've taken it upon myself to use that time to practice my female voice instead.

Earlier today, my mom came in my room to drop off some laundry and she "caught" me practicing my voice. On one hand I felt so silly, but on the other I was just so proud of myself because my reaction to her was "Hi! :3". A month ago I would've pretended I was skyping with someone instead haha.

I also tried singing in a female voice earlier (I haven't even sung in a male voice of YEARS), and it was SO bad ... but it didn't matter one bit. I had tons of fun just singing again, I stopped singing when my voice changed because of puberty ... Next up is looking into dancing classes, but I'm going a bit off topic here.

Try this: open a news web site and read the news as if you were the female anchor of a radio or TV news program.  News announcers train their voices to present with authority and clarity.  You will be adding the pitch.  Also it gives you a large vocabulary to practice with.  You can start off by listening to a few female anchors first and then mimicking them.  I recommend Rachel Maddow.

Ember

I've noticed a new weird thing while practicing my voice today. For some reason I do much better and don't feel as embarrassed when I use a British accent...and I'm American! Just a funny thing I noticed .

Maybe I'll play some text-based RPGs and narrate them in a female voice sometime. Until then, poems and news articles sound like a good idea!

@whitney, you talk to yourself me too. But for some reason when working on my voice I don't know what to say. Lol. I sing a lot.

I also feel ridiculous while practicing. I'm not even sure if I have the correct pitch yet. I can hit it while singing but talking in it is still a challenge. There seem to be some good suggestions in this thread I will have to try though. 

Quote from: Fighter Sadie on October 11, 2011, 08:49:47 PM
I've noticed a new weird thing while practicing my voice today. For some reason I do much better and don't feel as embarrassed when I use a British accent...and I'm American! Just a funny thing I noticed .

Maybe I'll play some text-based RPGs and narrate them in a female voice sometime. Until then, poems and news articles sound like a good idea!

thats kind of interesting because I'm Scottish, but my first language is German and my normal english speaking accent that I grew up with is Mixed English but I talk with an American accent mostly. But because you can just still hear a 'twang' as my friend calls it, of my British/ German accents, I'm told it just helps me sound more feminine, even when I use my natural voice.

I usually sing along with the radio. *Female songs anyways*

I'm usually pissed off cause of stupid people so I will rant even, if it's too myself, in my female voice.

After I met Julie she asked me if I felt silly speaking with a male voice when presenting as female.  The answer was obvious. 

Back in my "CD days" I would go out to gay bars all dolled up and speak with a baritone voice.  A CD I met at Be-All did that and I thought it was easier and I wouldn't feel foolish trying to speak in a female voice (which usually came out as falsetto.)  Looking back, I must have really seemed foolish.  But since gays love drag, maybe that's how they saw me.

So I guess one has to weigh feeling silly speaking with a female voice vs. looking silly presenting as a woman and talking like a man.