In-person voice therapy

[Lucca]

Who here has done in-person voice lessons? I found out that there's a speech therapist iny my city who does vocal training recommended to me by my therapist, and I'm planning to start soon. I just have to go to a throat specialist and get some kind of examination done first.

[Michelle_P]

Who here has done in-person voice lessons? I found out that there's a speech therapist iny my city who does vocal training recommended to me by my therapist, and I'm planning to start soon. I just have to go to a throat specialist and get some kind of examination done first.

I did several in-person sessions, followed by a number of video (like Skype) 30 minute sessions.  The first visit included an exam and imaging of the vocal folds while I sang a note.  (Weird experience!)

Much of the initial sessions was spent doing basic exercises, practicing conversational phrases to try and get prosody, the rhythmic structure of feminine speech, down.  We determined that I had the range to be able to speak with a feminine voice without surgery, so everything past that point became practice, practice, practice.

If at all possible, I encourage you to use only your feminine voice when speaking, to both develop strength and the habit of using it, so it becomes your default way of speaking.  Otherwise, when distracted you may 'slip' to the old male voice.

[KathyLauren]

Who here has done in-person voice lessons? I found out that there's a speech therapist iny my city who does vocal training recommended to me by my therapist, and I'm planning to start soon. I just have to go to a throat specialist and get some kind of examination done first.

I did private voice lessons.  If I had wanted to go within the public health system, I would have needed the throat exam, which would have meant months of waiting.  Going private was expensive, but I had no delays.  I learned a lot from my speech therapy.

I see my speech therapist regularly - we are working on a stage play together - and I hope she can hear that I am applying her lessons.

[ainsley]

I did in-person speech therapy with a licensed speech language pathologist for a year before VFS and for a year after.

[Lucca]

If at all possible, I encourage you to use only your feminine voice when speaking, to both develop strength and the habit of using it, so it becomes your default way of speaking.  Otherwise, when distracted you may 'slip' to the old male voice.

That's my hope, but it can't happen until go full time eventually. Hopefully next year.

I also talk on the phone all day to over a hundred different people for work, I'm not sure what my boss will allow considering the large amounts of people this could potentially confuse. Silly, I know, but I just don't know what expect until I eventually come out at work.

[Lucca]

I went to my first appointment, and apparently, I have an extremely large vocal range; the lowest pitch I can do is lower than the lowest that most men can do, and the highest pitch I can do is higher than the highest most women can do. I was also able to sustain an "s" sound for 44 seconds, showing I have a large lung capacity. The speech therapist seemed impressed. I was worried about tone more than pitch, but she said the female voice I did for her was already very good and usable. So, maybe I don't have much to worry about.

[BlueJaye]

I am thinking about speech therapy. I'm glad to hear that you have so much range and lung volume. I am also a bit unusual with those same traits. I had an asthma test done earlier last year and one thing they measure is lung volume. I measured 142% of normal male lung capacity for my age. Literally off the charts. I was a competitive cyclist and triathlete in my younger (and fitter) years. Apparently my lungs are still quite excellent.

I have never had any kind of voice analysis done, but my wife (who had some voice training for choir when she was younger) has commented many times on my amazing vocal range. I can sing like the best of male opera singers from a very low range to a fairly high range. I don't enjoy singing and rarely do it, but would be very talented if I really wanted to. My wife has lamented for years that I have a naturally incredible singing voice and range and don't care a bit about it.

I started learning to play with my vocal range and stuff when I was entering puberty. I was terrified of anyone discovering that I suffered from gender dysphoria and tried to hide any sign of any feminine tendencies. I have always had a slightly higher pitch voice than other boys and men and was very aware of it. When puberty started and other boys were sounding much deeper, I started experimenting with my voice to try to get it to sound more masculine. I became very good at it. Over the years I have made a hobby of playing with my voice. When I read books to my kids, I do different voices for all of the characters in their books. Male and female. I add in various accents and stuff. I always enjoyed voicing the female characters, because it gave me an opportunity to practice a female voice without drawing any suspicion.