How to achieve a female voice

[TranSketch]

How is the best way to achieve a female voice, I ask because the usual methods of maybe practising at home is pretty much unviable without feeling like an idiot as I live with my mum and her partner and feel uncomfortable trying to do so, my mum's partner completely hates the fact I'm transitioning and I'm self conscious of my own screwed up attempts, practising even singing won;t help as I can't sing even as a male so what other methods are there that are more realistic to practice and achieve.

[Mendi]

Go to a library and get a study room and practise there? Or any place, where you can be alone, park etc.

And it is practise and practise. I didn´t take any therapy sessions, but just practised and finally settled to a voice that I can achieve easily and without taxing my throat. It might not be the most feminine voice, which I could achieve, but to me that sounds fake.

But it´s my voice 

Here´s a program that I´ve used to analyze my voice:

http://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/praat/

[MissyMay2.0]

What helped me the most was learning to speak while escalating my throat where the Adam's apple is (practice this by moving your throat up and down), while simultaneously speaking and gently exhaling with my diaphragm as this eliminates the chest voice (google diaphragmatic breathing). I hope this helps!

[Eryn T]

Hey, TranSketch!

I saw this post earlier yesterday, and I was already planning on doing something like this, but I hope this is helpful to you; seeing your post made me think I should go ahead and do this now:

[OU812]

Practice while alone in the car. Honestly the best option for most.

[TranSketch]

Practice while alone in the car. Honestly the best option for most.

Would if I had a car, sadly all I have is a license XD but naturally you didn't know as I haven't mentioned it

[Nova_Noelle]

Good luck with working on your voice TranSketch. 

Thanks ladies for your tips here as well.

With Love,
Noelle

[Nova_Noelle]

Oh, I just downloaded an app to help with my voice.  Once I try it out a little, I'll let you girls know if I recommend it. 

With Love,
Noelle

[Doreen]

There are apps for your phone that will show you if its in female range or not.. Now as far as tonality, resonance, pitch, timbre, all those big fancy words .. Not sure if there are better programs out there.  The one I use is voice pitch analyzer and its showing my voice always in female range.

If you can find something better let me know!

[Nova_Noelle]

That's the same app that I just downloaded Doreen.  I think that I'm going to try it out sometime in the next few days to see if it's helpful. 

With Love,
Noelle

[TranSketch]

There are apps for your phone that will show you if its in female range or not.. Now as far as tonality, resonance, pitch, timbre, all those big fancy words .. Not sure if there are better programs out there.  The one I use is voice pitch analyzer and its showing my voice always in female range.

If you can find something better let me know!

I'm still using a flip phone so apps really aren't a thing I can access as it's nowhere near the tech level of a smart phone, it'd have to be PC software.

[OU812]

You're chasing your tail in circles listening to any tips, if you do not have a place to practice where you can feel comfortable.

I never used "pitch analyzers" (which, by the way, people on this forum focus 10,000% too much on pitch...) and neither did most people prior to ~5 years ago when that sort of technology became common. What I did use was 100's of hours of practice during commute, in particular. My job required 50+ miles of driving a day, and the isolation of a car is perfect for practicing the voice.

Get you a place to practice for hours on end where you can be alone and not feel awkward. Do you have any friends with a safe house who would help you out? If you don't have a car, smart-phone, or even a place/time you can be alone at will, then you'll be fighting a very uphill battle trying to get any progress with your voice.

In the meantime my suggestion would be to start at a soft volume others can't hear? Really it just sounds like you're in a toxic living situation, so I don't even know what you have. Can you (pretend to, if necessary) talk to a friend on the phone a lot? Any voice teacher will tell you to start everything at a soft, effortless volume and work up from there - especially the case in voice transition.

Which, by the way, I highly encourage voice work. I think it's the most important part of transition besides hormone treatments and GCS. Good luck!

[TranSketch]

You're chasing your tail in circles listening to any tips, if you do not have a place to practice where you can feel comfortable.

I never used "pitch analyzers" (which, by the way, people on this forum focus 10,000% too much on pitch...) and neither did most people prior to ~5 years ago when that sort of technology became common. What I did use was 100's of hours of practice during commute, in particular. My job required 50+ miles of driving a day, and the isolation of a car is perfect for practicing the voice.

Get you a place to practice for hours on end where you can be alone and not feel awkward. Do you have any friends with a safe house who would help you out? If you don't have a car, smart-phone, or even a place/time you can be alone at will, then you'll be fighting a very uphill battle trying to get any progress with your voice.

In the meantime my suggestion would be to start at a soft volume others can't hear? Really it just sounds like you're in a toxic living situation, so I don't even know what you have. Can you (pretend to, if necessary) talk to a friend on the phone a lot? Any voice teacher will tell you to start everything at a soft, effortless volume and work up from there - especially the case in voice transition.

Which, by the way, I highly encourage voice work. I think it's the most important part of transition besides hormone treatments and GCS. Good luck!

I suspect even with transitioning I'll probably have developed female physically on HRT more so than actually developed a voice, as you say there's no where I feel I can practice without either feeling unsafe or like a total prat, I can throw my voice for male characters but not so much female.
As it stands I know I'd have to move out probably to do any such practice like this but am not financially in a situation for at least 3 -5 years to do this (more debts than income), I'm at risk of of (potentially) looking female eventually and then all that comes out my mouth is a male voice still ruining that whole illusion I'm trying to present, if I had the money and the guarantee voice surgery worked I'd go for it but despite the lack of money I've heard surgery is not a guaranteed fix, it's frustrating how reversed a F to M has an easier time to transtion there voice to more masculine  yet a M to F has to struggle to achieve it, I feel sometimes M to F get the raw deal when transitioning compared to there counterparts.

[Mendi]

You just have to practise and practise...and not just at home, but to use it everywhere, even when it doesn´t sound perfect at first. It takes months, but eventually you start to think, that how was my voice in the beginning, because the new voice will stick and come automatically after months of using it.

After that, you don´t have to anymore always think to produce female voice.

And don´t set your goals too high or unrealistic. Seriously, as there are billion of different looking women, there are also billion of different sounding women. Just start observing and you´ll notice that some sound very low and not too feminine...and still they are women.

I don´t think my voice is that feminine. But it´s my voice...

[Nova_Noelle]

Hi TranSketch,

It really is frustrating that trans men can alter their voices just with the introduction of testosterone while the introduction of estrogen doesn't have comparable effects for trans women. 

There really are different advantages for transitioners going from M2F and F2M.  It does seem for the most part that it is easier/quicker in many cases to masculinize the body with T than it is to feminize the body with E.  However, at this time,  genital surgery is much more successful for trans women than it is for trans men.  Those are just a couple of quick examples off the top of my head. 

I'm really hoping that you are able to overcome the obstacles that you are facing in you life to your transition.  Just try to stay positive no matter how difficult it might seem at times.  When I'm dealing with a daunting situation I try to remind myself that more than likely there has been someone (or many other people) that has been in my same predicament that I'm in and have come out on the other side okay. 

With Love,
Noelle

[OU812]

Also adding a note to the OP to please be patient and realistic. I consider myself "skilled", yet even with a voice that wasn't particularly masculine, it took a solid 8 years across a lot of different social engagements for me to really feel good about the voice I could create - even at that, it was a task that took uncomfortable physical effort, and could not be sustained. At ~5 years, I'd left my job after hearing what I sounded like, and it was a serious hit to my self-confidence.

I did end up having voice surgery. It was so easy and things are a lot better now. Even with what I'd accomplished, if I'd not been able to have a successful surgical outcome, I probably would have just stopped talking altogether because the years of strain and feeling of "posing" every time I spoke (or else, when not trying, feeling like I could not at all passably reflect the varied emotions and expressions I'd need to with any kind of genuine personality) were getting to be too saddening a weight on my conscience for me to handle on a daily basis, particularly because it felt like being forced to betray others in my life out of being locked away from a huge part of myself that I wanted to give to them. In other words, the essence of transition. It's not supposed to feel artificial or limited. You deserve to be a whole person, and you know it - or else you would not have ever had the guts to start down this path to begin with.

When the time comes that it's accessible to you, if you have any doubts about your voice at all, please don't be scared away from voice surgery. It's a damn miracle that Drs. like Kim, Haben, Remacle, and others have become widely known and available to us in the last 5 years.

[DawnOday]

OU812... Pitch is very important without it you do not have a baseline in which to base your progress on. By practicing maintaining a level near F3 I have been able to consistently hit my mark. Now I can slip into my female voice with relative ease. Yes, you are correct, it does take a lot,lot,lot of practice  The big three of voice training as taught to me by my voice coach with a masters degree in speech therapy. Pitch, breathing and forward resonance

[Chanteur]

I am lucky enough to have vocal therapy covered by my insurance.

But I am the first transgender patient for her and so we both are learning as we go.

One resource we keep coming back to is this book. I highly recommend it for MtF vocal therapy. It is written for a speech pathologist so has a lot of technical terms, but also explains it in simple terms to understand.

"Voice and Communication Therapy or the Transgender/Transsexual Client: A comprehensive Clinical Guide - 2nd Edition"
Richard Adler, Sandy Hirsch, Michelle Mordaunt.

My therapist and myself keep coming back to that book for guidance.

Therapist also gave me some handouts for vocal exercises to work on Forward Resonance and Ease of Onset. But I am not sure on copyrights and such to post them here.

[epvanbeveren]

If I might add the following book to the post, this is the one my voice coach and myself are using...

The Voice Book for Trans and Non-Binary People
A Practical Guide to Creating and Sustaining Authentic Voice and Communication
Matthew Mills and Gillie Stoneham

I do have a few other books and online "classes" I purchased, but this one I like the most.

I will check into the link Chanteur mentioned, as I like to learn.

https://www.jkp.com/uk/the-transgender-experience-2.html

[OU812]

OU812... Pitch is very important without it you do not have a baseline in which to base your progress on. By practicing maintaining a level near F3 I have been able to consistently hit my mark...

The big three of voice training as taught to me by my voice coach with a masters degree in speech therapy. Pitch, breathing and forward resonance

You actually focus a lot less on pitch, then, than most here, if you're satisfied with F3, which yes is completely sufficient. I am very sharply critical, however, of those who obsess over small gains in pitch, because their focus will not help them towards their goals. Women can sound so unnatural if trying to elevate the pitch too high at all times...

Larynx position / resonance is vastly more important and I've made examples numerous times on this forum of women who speak solidly within the 'male range' with a distinctly female resonance. Some voices are more suited to it than others but it is absolutely possible to sound undeniably female and rarely if ever exceed most peoples' target goal of A=220, in fact a lot of film and TV stars regularly go as low as G100 rarely exceeding G=200. It's so common as to not even be remarkable, yet we see many transitioning women (not the OP) who seem to think they should sound like Hatsune Miku or something...

We have all heard women since birth, so should have no difficulty knowing if we are too deep and what a ballpark register is for women. It's the other details that need actual practice to avoid sounding like a gay male with feminine inflection patterns but no such resonance. And my point is that the reason so many struggle or just get surgery is because, yes, it is physically challenging even for those less cursed than others, and if you want to pass consistently you'll have to be constantly on guard in ways that are really not healthy for the core problem of gender dysphoria (unless your puberty left you with the voice of Ross Mathews).

The entire point of transition is to alleviate the experience of gender dysphoria, and being on guard with the voice does not help that. If you're always thinking about it and always having to try very hard, then that is not healthy for you psychologically as far as moving into a new stage of your life. If I were some billionaire or something I'd literally just pay for voice surgery for anyone who wanted it because it's had that big of an impact on my quality of life.

This is also why I'd argue against breath support as a necessity, because you should sound female regardless of whether your voice is well composed or if you're out of breath, half conscious or whatever. I think we've all met or seen trans women online who just seem a lot less concerned with how their voice sounds, and I suspect it's a matter of giving up because the physiological challenge is so high. If it took me 8 years, I wouldn't be surprised if it took someone else 20+. But the voice and the psychological force also gets tired after all that effort, which is why I have the utmost praise for feminizing glottoplasty - and to the point of the OP, my advice is to not have terribly high expectations because this is an area of transition that even diligent practice is not necessarily successful at overcoming on its own.