So a big concern of mine before taking any more of the more serious steps is going to be perfecting my voice. For those of you who have already been through transition, if you don't mind I'm really curious as to how long I should expect it take of endless daily effort training my voice to produce a usuable feminine voice?
guys speak from their chest, girls speak with there throat. if you try to speak with your throat you can get a very good female voice, i,ve tried it, it seems to work.
hi lillim it took my about 2 years for me to get my voice more feminine i use my throat aswell and i say things slower i found that way my voice sounded more feminine instead of saying things that come off my chest keep practicing its not easy but the more you do it sure you will get the female you want also try doing abit of singing aswell that will help your voice pitch good luck femmym
I've done some research on this, I'm no expert at all, but what I've found is that the general ideas that the Melanie Speaks program (she's created a program to help with feminizing the voice for mtf transsexuals, has her own website, just google Melanie speaks ) seem to be what someone needs to get a successful feminine voice. SorchaA had it right, speak from the throat, not from the chest. A good way to think about it is how men and women laugh. Guys laugh with a sort of booming sound and women giggle rather than laugh loudly. That same principle is carried over in speech as well, men tend to talk with loud, low, booming voices that you can feel "echoing" in your chest. Try to take that booming, low sound away and talk with more of a softer, gentler voice. Also singing is a GREAT way to warm up your voice and strengthen your throat and muscles around your vocal chords, which in turn will give you more control over your voice and the ability to talk without getting hoarse. If you can play guitar that's even better, if not that's ok. Try finding some female singers or even male singers, my wife uses Bob Dylan to warm up her voice so we can practice her feminine voice. Find some that you want to use and then just sing along at first with the singer and try to match pitch, the best you can, and try to make sure to go up and down with tones. That will help the "dynamic range" or the sing song effect of female voices; the ups and downs. The Melanie speaks program goes into detail to explain the differences between male and female voices. She pretty much said that men talk with a monotone and only vary their volume to show emotion, and women vary their pitch when showing emotion but don't really vary their volume. A good routine idea is to sing 3-5 songs, depending on how much you've talked during the day, and depending on when you practice. Early in the day you would want to sing more because you haven't done much talking and you need to warm up your voice enough that your not raspy or have that "morning mumble". Then work on your voice, talk to yourself, a pet, a friend, anyone that will help. Try not to read, unless you feel that would be easier for you, since it can sound somewhat forced and fake. Melanie recommends starting small; try going as long as you can without getting hoarse, as you don't want to damage your voice/vocal cords. Usually what she means by starting small is that you will find you can only talk for 10 - 15 minutes at first. Work on increasing that time more and more until you're able to go all day. (Melanie's experience took her about 3-6 months to talk all day in the voice, but it took her about that long just to find the voice) A good test is then to be able to talk with others, on the phone, or out and about and see how they respond to you. Phone is probably the best, because it takes the visual out of the equation and leaves the listener to rely only on auditory cues to see if your voice passes. Good luck on getting your voice!
I would suggest voice feminization lessons. The voice is often more difficult to make female and feminine than a translady's looks or mannerisms.
