Voice Practice

[Robin Leigh]

Like some of the others have said, it is more a matter of resonance rather than pitch. There are some very beautiful, feminine women such as Lauren Bacall, who had very low-pitched voices.

Her voice is still pretty low. While a guest on Michael Parkinson's show, Kathleen Turner told an amusing anecdote about working with her. Lauren would greet Kathleen with "Good morning, Miss Turner!" in a very deep pitch. Kathleen would respond with "Good morning, Miss Bacall!" in an even deeper pitch. Lauren would then reply at an even deeper pitch, and so forth.

My worth on voice training: practice your feminine tones whispering. This lets you concentrate on getting the right resonances in your head, allowing you to (temporarily) ignore the chest reverberations & the tone produced by the vocal chords.

Singing is good, too. Singing high notes is (usually) easier than speaking at a higher pitch, and is less likely to cause wear & tear on your vocal chords. But it's not really about producing high notes, it's about allowing the higher notes to resonate while not allowing the deeper notes to do so. That's why the whispering technique can be so helpful.

FWIW, I was a boy soprano before my voice broke, but I've still got a fairly wide range.

Robin

[Sugar01]

Whenever I try to speak in a normal women's voice, I end up sounding like Mrs Doubtfire. It doesn't help that I use an english accent as well.

So I usually just try to talk as softly as I can.

[JoAnnDallas]

At HEF2006 last year, we had a professer from one of the local colleges that help TS's with their voices. He said that one way to judge how well you have a fem voice is if you are reconized as a female over a telephone. Even if your voice sounds fem in person, the same voice may not sound fem over a telephone.

They also showed some software programs that helps train your fem voice. I will have to dig around and get the software titles and post them here.

[Tess Myers]

I tried to speak quietly and ended up not being heard ever! So I tried an accent, and I ended up Irish. Which is fine because I am Irish, but the only wig I have right now is blond.


Tess

[Wendi {LI NY}]

Personal ,I think your voice is as important as dressing properly when we go out and try to pass . I think making your voice as femmeine as you can ,as not to scare little children !

[Svetlana]

I'm a little worried. My voice is really deep, and I've recorded myself when I tried to sound like a woman, but it hasn't sounded very ladylike so far. Maybe it's just because I know I'm a guy, so when I play back the recording I know the sex of the person speaking, but it's more likely that I just sound like a guy trying (in vain) to sound like a woman. :P Rats.

[Kitty Sue]

This is an interesting topic. I have female friend who is speech therapist and who is also a wonderful woman. She knows I am a CD. I wonder if she would be interested in helping the TG community with female voice lessons. She does accent reduction with foreigners now living in the USA. I must speak to her about this. Seems there is a certainly a calling for trained and understanding professionals in this area.