I haven't posted here in a while but wanted to give some information on developing your voice.

First off I spent the money on a GOOD voice coach who understands transgender voice therapy. The person I used is Mavis Ivy in Atlanta (678-592-0052). I'm sure there are many others who can provide this service.

First she gave me some simple things to practice to learn how to move my voice from my throat to my head. Some of it seemed very silly but it worked. That is something you MUST learn to do first step to sound even remotely female. Good breathing is important too and learning to add some breathyness/less stacato sound to your voice is also something needed. Think -smoooth-.

Then we worked on lists of words, dealing with ones I would trip on in conversation, then short phrases and moved onto intonation etc. It takes a --LOT-- of practice to smooth out your voice. You have to record yourself and listen. You can do this practice in traffic etc so it doesn't kill a bunch of your time. I've recently starting using some software called -sing and see- when at home practicing (student version is fine and is $50) which lets you SEE where your voice is along with a key board to help you find your range. A tuner device like used for tuning a guitar can help too, I got one off ebay for $10 shipped.  I'm around an octave higher (middle C) mid point compared to my guy voice, which wasn't hard for me to move to.

For us, raising your pitch a bit also helps smooth out the resonance, but mainly this is done by moving your voice into your head from your throat.  You do have to leave room to raise and lower pitch for intonation so don't try to get too high and end up monotone. You should aim to keep the volume the same and use -pitch raise- for emphasis. Spend time listening to different women to learn their speech patterns and how they are different than a mans. You really do have to think and learn to talk all over again. No voice surgery is going to change your speech pattern which is a major part of this. I've been working on mine for about 3 months now (practice daily, plus I have been full time for a few years so get to practice my new voice a lot) and am very happy with the progress.

I see SOOOOO many really pretty trans girls, but they sound like a truck driver, and they can't understand why they have problems integrating into society. The disconnect between their appearance and what they sound like is disturbing even to me. I've seen a HUGE boost both to my own self confidence and other people's reaction to me in public. I'm ma'amed 100% of the time on the phone and drive thru's etc. I can not stress enough how important this is to a successful transition. So many people will spend $10,000+ and hundreds of hours on electrolysis, another 40K on mega facial surgery but then refuse to spend anything on their voice. If your voice is good, no one will ever notice if you have a few physical flaws as far as passing. I feel it's a combination of -reasonable- appearance, sound and mannerisms that will allow you to be accepted as just another woman. It doesn't matter what your ID says if you aren't just seen as a woman without having to pull out your ID to prove it.

OK (drumroll) here is a short clip of my voice. This was done with a cheap headset and I still plan to keep working on my voice but I could live with it if it never improved from this. http://atlantaracing.tripod.com/funky/my_voice.mp3

Wow, Stephe, it's nice to see you posting again. I hope everything is well with you.

And, of course, totally agree on the need to have the voice sorted. Doesn't matter an inch how you look if you can't get the voice.

Oooh, I like the voice. well done. ^_^

Quote from: Sarah7 on January 16, 2012, 01:22:42 AM
Wow, Stephe, it's nice to see you posting again. I hope everything is well with you.

And, of course, totally agree on the need to have the voice sorted. Doesn't matter an inch how you look if you can't get the voice.

Life has been great! Really feel accepted by the whole "real world" community as a woman now and between the little FFS I had (nose job) and this voice work, I have zero self confidence issues anymore. I plan to continue working on my voice, but feel it's going in a good direction. I wanted to add my voice coaches info as I had a hard time finding one in Atlanta.

Another example of why this is so important: I was in the restroom a couple of days ago and the lady next to me sighs, says "once again I'm in a stall with no paper can you share some?". 6 months ago I would have panicked, now I just said "I think I can spare a square" (Seinfeld reference) She laughed and after, we chatted at the mirror some as we washed our hands. Can you imagine if a booming guy voice had said anything in a crowded restroom? Or how weird it would seem to say nothing and just hand her some paper? And I feel if your voice is decent and you start off the interaction using it, they WILL gender you as female and honestly I think many people know it's fairly easy nowadays to look like a girl but the real "test" is the voice. If you sound decent, they won't look for any more clues. 

BTW I had a very deep and resonant guys voice, absolutely NOTHING feminine about it so it wasn't like I was close already. ANYONE can do this with enough time and effort.

Absolutely amazing!

The voice is so important.

I have been getting hung up on my voice. Listening to yourself is odd. Fortunately, I have had years of vocal training.

Voice is one of the things that hormones won't change. Surgery is risky. Therapy and/or practice should be the very first step.

I am alerted by many MtF voices as well. A great voice indeed reduces the number of awkward situations.

Great stuff, Stephe.  Thanks for posing this.

I'm presently going the "cheap(er)" route of video coaching. I have two that I'm working through, and I'm finding that having both is definitely much better than just having one (or the other).

I'm using Kathe Perez's "Fundamentals of Your Feminine Voice" (link: http://www.voicefeminization.com/)

in addition to Andrea James' (from TSRoadmap) "Finding Your Female Voice" (link: http://www.genderlife.com/top-videos/finding-your-female-voice-dvd-and-audio-cd/)

I'm finding that using a stereograph is extremely helpful (details at the latter link) in addition to just a chromatic tuner. Being able to see the over tones makes a world of difference. Even after just a couple of weeks' work, and the last few days especially, things are moving a lot more quickly than I had expected.

I totally agree that having a good voice is one of the most important features of a successful transition, and that's why I'm getting started early (along with laser removal) well before I plan to transition, or even venture out with some test runs.

One thing that I learned from Andrea's video is that a good feminine voice is sufficiently breathy (which I didn't quite get from Kathe's). Working on that has helped immensely. I have to speak a lot in my profession (professor), and being able to project my voice and speak for long periods of time is important. What I've noticed is that speaking with more breathiness actually makes my normal speaking much less painful (I used to get a sore throat from speaking for more than 30 minutes).

Yeah those tips are great actually very good. I was told the same things "pitch and resonance" I had to practice sentences and say silly words like "Ice Cube" and "Apple" learning to breath, - and take my voice from my throat. It CAN be very difficult though. Sorry for activating this old thread, but I wanted to comment on what the OP said.