Hearing your own voice

[izzfan]

It was quite strange because recently I had a phone call where there was some kind of "echo" and I could hear my own voice. The thing is, it sounded nothing like how I imagined it would, for a start, it sounded a lot deeper and more of a monotone than I expected. It's true when peole say that most people don't really know what their own voice sounds like.

I'm sure there have been threads about voice before but it was quite disconcerting to say the least. No wonder I really can't pass that well.

[nancyish]

Dear izzfan.im a musician and found i dont sound at all like I thought,my voice is way softer than I realised.(i'm constantly mistaken for a women on the phone )and yes i've pranked a few people.Recently at a tim hortons drive the thru i gave them my best and they called me "Mam"how sweet is that! you should've seen her face when she saw me!I still like to practise my voice and I pay attention to ladies voices,inflection and manerisms.Record your voice ,practise and enjoy.Nancy

[sherri52]

I grew up in Boston and have a distinctive Boston voice. No matter where I go people can guess as to where I'm from. When I speak I sound deeper in voice to myself. When I hear my voice played back I can hear what everyone else does. I could never get a femme voice with that pitch.

[aggi123]

I've been told I sound exactly like the actor Casey Affleck. I don't hear it.

[Karren H]

Oh yeah... I've done a couple video tutorials for makeuptalk and though the girls there say I sound sexy... Ekkkkkk.. Just doesn't match the image I have for sure.. But then again I don't care much about passing and I usually just talk quieter and softer... Plus the checkout SA's take my money so if that's not acceptance I don't know what is? Lol.

[NathalieX66]

My voice is right around the range of Jodie Foster's. I always think I sound deeper that it actually is.

[msginaadoll]

My voice I guess tends to be ambigious. I am mistaken for a female on the phone frequently. It used to bother me, now not so much!

[Joni Marie Cruz]

Hi Izz-

Personally, I think getting "the voice" down is the hardest thing there is. Other things, like walk, gestures, mannerisms, clothes sense and so on can me mastered (mistressed?) with lots of practice and observation but losing that male voice is so hard.

One thing you pointed out that can be improved on, besides the fact that male voices are deeper, is that men tend to speak in a monotone, whereas women's voices are more melodic, they use more of their vocal range than men. When a man wants to emphasize something he tends to talk louder, when a woman wants to make a point, she raises the pitch of her voice. Not that women don't shout, of course.

One thing you can try is using more of your vocal range, it isn't huge, maybe a half octave or so that women use more of than men. The first two notes of Somewhere Over the Rainbow are a full octave jump, you don't have to be able to nail it, but if you can get close then you have enough range to get closer to a femme voice.

As one of the other girls pointed out if you can get hold of a mini-casette recorder to practice with, it really helps. Radio Shack carries them. The voice we hear in our head (no, not the voice that tells you to buy those shoes anyway) but our own voice, is a product of bone conduction in our skulls and doesn't sound much like our "real" voice, as you pointed out.

Oh, and there are quite a few online places to get training/practice DVDs and so on, I've never tried one, but there are probably some that are effective. Calpernia Addams has one that I hear is pretty good, just google her name.

Good luck.

Hugs...Joni Mari

[SuzanneBender]

....and is great to carry around and practice when ever I have a few minutes, like in the car on the way to work, or at lunch when I go for a walk, etc.
Might want to look into getting one (if they still make them)
Practice, Practice, Practice, Practice, :daydreaming:

My male voice is a cross between Barry White and Fran Dresher. :heehee: Evie is right its all about practicing. I have been working hard on my femme voice lately and have improved my femme voice tremendously. Feedback is key. I use the voice recorder on my cell phone and I always use a tuner to provide feedback for my pitch.

I love messing with the telemarketers that call the house and ordering with my femme voice and the drive through. Getting Mam'd in those situations is always nice.

[jenna_woods]

I agree I don't like the sound of my voice either, hate it in fact, working to change it to a more female voice,

[Toni_Lynn]

I first had the chance to hear my own voice back in the mid 70s when I was a DJ (disk-jockette) at local radio station. I made a tape of my show to hear what it sounded like. WOW! Was that me?

Now I try to listen to my voice as I speak, and do note a lilt of feminine inflection in it. Its hard to put it into words (huh?) but it is definite difference in the rise and fall.

I also have been told that I have an Ontario accent. That's a weird one because I am in Pittsburgh PA. BUT -- I have spent a lot of time in Ontario as my wife moved there before we got married and I commuted to there every weekend.

I am very good at acquiring accents it seems and vocal patterns.

Huggles

Toni-Lynn

[Christinedreamer]

The reason your voice sounds deeper and more resonant to you than to others is that what YOU hear from your voice is about 50% acoustic (by actually hearing) and 50% through bone conduction of your crainium (skull).

The bone density of your crainium dampens the higher frequencies in your voice and as your expelled breath and voice are 90 degrees skewed from your ear canals, you get a composite acoustic response when you speak.

The fastest way to to learn to control your voice and alter the timbre and pitch is to use a good set of headphones that completely cover your ears. These are not usually cheap and look rather large but they will help.

Radio Shack makes a cheap small sized PA amplifier with a hand held mic. Speak into the mic and you will hear what you sound like to others through the headphones while drastically diminishing the direct hearing of your own ears. Using a good quality tape deck or digital recorder (being fed through the RS system for recording and playback) will allow you to play back your voice with no bone conduction alteration of your voice's pitch or timbre.

This same technique is used to help severe stutterers learn to control the stuttering. They wear earphones that blocks out their voice with white noise or sound masking "negative sound" until the brain is retrained and can quickly enable them to stop stuttering.