Sound Off

[Patricia1]

No matter how passable we may be, the voice is usually the one sure tell. What effort to you make to feminize your voice? Do you care? Do you practice? Do you put on a voice for yourself when dressed alone? Do you sound feminine when dressed with your SO or even want to? The voice is the last thing we put on and our weakest link. Advice? Speak now or forever hold your piece.

[MJ]

i only have one voice.. yep a dead giveaway

[Shikyo]

I was never good with my voice, not in singing, not in anything. All I know is one way to talk which ain't going to change that easily, if at all. For my luck, with the past few situations happened, I think it can somehow pass as a feminine voice. Though, I'm far from being sure or even confident in this. I'm just keeping the eye open for the reactions from the people I meet outside and actually talk to.

[Kate Simmons]

Only use my own voice. It doesn't matter that much if we are sure of ourself as that is more what people notice anyway.:)

[Karren H]

Only use my own voice. It doesn't matter that much if we are sure of ourself as that is more what people notice anyway.:)

:iagree:

[dilane]

No matter how passable we may be, the voice is usually the one sure tell. What effort to you make to feminize your voice? Do you care? Do you practice?

Since I love to go out and blend in public, I felt I had to do something about my voice. Over many years, I've developed a pretty decent femme voice. But it was not easy. I practiced on the tape starting about 5 years ago, and even had some phone lessons with a T-girl who had a good femme voice.

If I haven't gone out in a couple of weeks, I practice by talking along with women I hear on the radio, in commercials or whatever snippets I can find. I also sing along with my Joni Mitchell CD's :-)


Do you put on a voice for yourself when dressed alone? Do you sound feminine when dressed with your SO or even want to?

I don't dress alone, only to go out. My voice switches to femme mode pretty much by itself when I'm dressed, even when talking with my wife.


Advice? Speak now or forever hold your piece.

:)

Voice is just one piece of the puzzle. Women gesture, and use what for males would be greatly exaggerated facial expressions. The head, face, eyes, and hands are all part of the speaking presentation, and this other stuff can make up for a less than perfect voice.

If you want a good example of the multidimensional aspect of female speech, look at some of CandiFLA's voice videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbaj4tIX1kw

If the link doesn't work, get on youtube and do a search for transgender voice, and go to one of Candi's videos, they're great, and show the power of all the "other stuff" that makes for a female presentation.

[carhill2mn]

Fortunately, I do not have a really deep voice. Many GWs have fairly deep voices but, even then with most of them, they do not talk "like men". I soften my voice, try to use words and phrases that are more typically used by women, use some more feminine motions (hand and body) and try to talk from a little "higher place". I have had conversations of some length with both women and men and no one has seemed to place me as a man vs. the woman that I am presenting. It does take some practice, however.

[Sarah89]

My voice is rather deep ,
I actually Have a large vocal range, but theres alot of notes in between low and high that I can't get to,
I mean,...I can get REALLY REALLY high pitched, but it just doesnt sound natural haha.
A few weeks ago I was sure I was getting somewhere with practicing, getting very close,
But then i ended up getting a cold, and that buggered up my throat, so it kinda put me back to the drawing board :P
Damnit !

[Erica K.]

I have been mocking/making fun of the Cali valley girl voice since I can remember. Little did I know I was getting a head start at my femme voice. It's not the biggest deal though, and people don't seem to care. My walk & mannerisms get more of my focus, since they need the most work.

[Nicole Erin]

Yes I do care.
I practice mine but it still needs practice.
I think it is important cause even if people do read you for looks, they are more likely to take someone serious if they have a good femme voice.

See, when people hear a male voice, they just think "man" no matter how good the person looks otherwise.

Getting the voice to sound femme is not easy. I think a lot of TS probably don't bother cause there is no magic pill and they can't just throw money at it and change it. God forbid if someone would have to work at something.

[Lorileah]

The main things to do different is to speak slower and softer. You can change inflections where your voice goes up more at the end like a question. Instead of saying 'You see what I mean. ' and telling the person what you want them to hear you say "see what I mean?" and go up at the end Hard to do that in print but you get the idea. Of course you should try and be a bit higher in tone but going into a falsetto or head tone won't work. Just speaking softer will help that. Guys tend to do everything fast so slowing your pattern and maybe even hesitating a bit can help.

Of course there is always distraction by using your hands more and being a little more physical.

[Marilynn]

If I were going to try to do anything with my voice, I'd model the effort on the great actresses who have had husky voices. As has been said before, just trying to do a high-pitched "girlie" voice is a no-no. You just end up sounding like a cartoon character rather than a woman. Lauren Bacall sounded perfectly feminine, and her voice was closer to a man's range than many women.

[suchacutie]

I thought it would just be the next step. Just to remind anyone, I have evolved into wanting to exist as two personalities, one of each gender. We found immediately that the voice softened as Tina, but I'm a base/baritone, so soft wasn't enough for the vision in the mirror. As a result I started reading about the differences between the genders as far as voice is concerned and started to act on it. I am a musician, so I did understand all the pitch and resonance issues. I have a 20 minute drive to work every day so I just started messing around with my voice to see what was there. It wasn't very long before I succeeded in finding a voice that, when recorded, sounded very different from my male voice and was one that seemed feminine.

Here's the rub. I was all set to try it out on my wife and when I started...I got very unsure, and I don't know why. We discussed it and realized it might have just been the newness of it so we haven't thought anything about it, and we haven't had another opportunity to try it out (I have dressed alone but Tina and she haven't been to gether for a while).

The bottom line is that I certainly could find a feminine voice that was very different from my male voice, not that much higher in pitch, but certainly different in use. Without the big resonance cavity we have as males, the diction and emphasis have to change, and in doing that the process of speaking moves almost naturally to a more feminine manner. It is really neat, in fact, though a bit unnerving at the beginning (which is where I am).

I do want the vision that people see and the voice to match since I do want Tina to be treated as a woman, and without the voice I don't see how that can happen regularly and naturally. Now if I can only get my mind around using that voice I've developed.

tina

[dilane]

Hey, Tina,

I had the same problem -- I had a decent voice, but was very reluctant to use it around wife and friends whom were used to my old "male" voice.

Gradually, that issue disappeared, and the switchover occurs almost automatically without any self-consciousness.

My voice is fairly deep in male mode, but I just use my head-voice, it's difficult to describe, but the voice box rises and there's more of a nasal intonation and slight (just slight) breathiness -- that's the main change. There's no chest resonance. Pitch is about a fifth higher (for you music buffs) than boy-mode, so it doesn't sound falsetto, just gets into the low-normal range for women.

-- Diane

[Gabrielle Hermosa]

I've been practicing a feminine voice on and off for many weeks now. It's slowly getting better, but still just sounds a lot like a guy talking in a high voice. lol

I've been meaning to do a voice sample and post it here for people to comment on... or laugh at, or whatever. Hell, it cracks me up sometimes so I really don't care if people laugh at it. :heehee:

I'm working on it though. I'm not quite passable, but I would like the voice to better fit my female image when I venture out.

[joann07]

It used to be that I was afraid open my mouth, for fear of being discovered, but now I'm not really nervous anymore because I'm very confident in myself, I present myself very well, and I've been able to change how I talk so as to sound somewhat female.

My voice is not 100% and has been a work in progress, but I think I have made some progress.
When I talk, I lighten my voice, speak softer, and vary the pitch and the tone. Just as I observe women's mannerisms, walk, dress, etc., I also study how they talk, how they say their words, the words they use, and their expressions when they carry on a conversation.

All this I have been able to pickup by just observing and so as I continue to go out, I am constantly practicing my voice by interacting with ordinary everyday people.

Hugs!

[TSchapes]

I bought the three CD set from Exceptional Voice (http://www.exceptionalvoice.com/voicefeminization/audiocds.html)

Practice in the car on the way to and from work. I really need to sit down with the tape recorder though.

Honestly though, my height 6'4" is usually the give away though...

[MissConstrued]

What effort to you make to feminize your voice? Do you care?

None whatsoever, and no. I don't try to pass myself off as anything other than a guy in a dress.

When you're trying to change your voice, your mannerisms, etc, you've become something altogether different than a simple transvestite.

If that's for you, fine... but I have yet to hear a CD's "fem" voice at all convincing.

[Lori Robins]

I am starting to try to change my voice. Practicing lots seems to be the only way, I try singing along with girl singers and copying girls when they talk etc. But as some others mentioned it is also your mannerisms that are just as noticeable as the voice. I am sure someone told me this CDing thing was a piece of cake :eek:

[TSchapes]

... but I have yet to hear a CD's "fem" voice at all convincing.


Then you need to listen to the youtube of CandiFLA that dilane mentioned in her post: dilane's post #6 (http://www.crossdressers.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1685846&postcount=6)

honestly...

[msginaadoll]

Well it used to bother the heck out of me that I was mistaken for a female on the phone. This was never an isolated experience but happened way to often. Now im not sure about my speaking voice when dressed, but sometimes when not dressed I ry to put on a more manly voice.

[Jessica Who]

I don't care, I talk in my regular voice always.

[Alice Torn]

The last time I went out in public, I talked to a number of young ladies that were store workers, cashiers, in my regular voice. I made it clear i was crossdressed. I do find, that my voice seems SLIGHTLY more ladyish, when i try to use a British accent, or foreign accent! Only slightly, but a little like an elderly foreign lady/guy!!