problem with voice therapy

[Zoe Michelle]

Hey everyone, I know this is a fairly common problem and topic here on the forums, but I can't seem to find a thread about it at the moment, though I know there are more than a few. Anyway, a few months ago I started voice therapy with a local voice teacher, but we had a misunderstanding about the price. Given that I recently became unemployed, and remain so, unfortunately, I had to stop after only two sessions. I've been doing some research online and have found numerous dvds, audio cds, etc, for voice training, some including an interesting program called spectrogram (I'll provide a link to this page at the end of my post). Does anyone know where I can obtain this software, as well as voice training videos, audio files, etc, for free? I would be more than willing to purchase something reputable when I have an income again, but I could really use something to tide me over. Thanks.

http://www.femimage.com/tg_voice_training_new.htm

[DanaR]

There were a couple of threads on voice training. What you might try is take some dialog that is by a female speaker and watch the spectrogram as how the voice varies compared to your voice saying the same words.

[Rachel Smith]

This is the one i practice with http://www.genderlife.com/products-page/voicetutor

Love Rachel

[Andie Elisabeth]

This is the one i practice with http://www.genderlife.com/products-page/voicetutor

Love Rachel

When I tried to download the spectrogram I found just a dead link, try this one
http://www.elektron-bbs.de/files/index.htm?Hauptframe=http://www.elektron-bbs.de/files/elektron/messwert/
file gram50.zip
or another spectrogram which I like more http://www.ultimaserial.com/UltimaSound.html

[Katesback]

I have a thought for you that might save you some money.

I would say that when someone goes 100% full time their voice changes real quick on its own. Why do I say this? Because it all becomes real and your mind realizes it has to happen.

If your not 100% then your mind knows you can always go back to the old boy voice. You have a choice and so the girl voice your working at is really not direly important.

Hope this helps because I never spent any money for voice training, I just went 100% full time and everything fell into place real quick.

Katie

[JohnH]

Kate,

You probably have excellent control of your voice so it was really easy for you to acquire a feminine voice. I don't have any problems either, and I am only part time en femme. However, I know someone who has transitioned and presenting full time en femme and she is having an extremely difficult time finding her feminine voice.

Johanna

[ZosKiaCultusC7]

This may be stuff that you already know but I'm just going to go ahead and provide my input as if you have no knowledge in this subject. I know that this doesn't directly answer the question you have but I want to "show" you what Youtube videos and a little bit of reading have provided for me thus far.

Finding information on this topic is incredibly easy but a lot of it is unstructured, which is why a lot of people opt in paying for a voice tutorial "suite". There are countless tutorials on Youtube and although they are not professional, they are still informative. I find that the problem people run into is that they try using methods that don't work for them. For example, a lot of tutorials out there say that you should go into falsetto, soften and bring it down. This may work for some but it doesn't really seem to work for me. The thing that you'll want to do is find the method that works best for you and stick with it.

I don't know what stage you're at with your voice so some of this may seem pointless. Also, this is from my own experience and I'm not saying that it'll apply to you. To be perfectly honest, I've only put a couple of hours into my voice. I'm not full-time and won't be for a while, so I have time. However, in the couple of hours I spent yesterday, even though I'm nowhere near where I want to be, I've found a good foundation to work from. One thing that I learned yesterday is that higher pitch is not necessary. When I was trying to find my pitch, I was trying stuff out in middle-C but quickly realized that it doesn't match me. My male speaking voice isn't super low but I find that it floats around A2/A#2 (110-116hz), so I decided to set A3 as a target because it is one octave higher than my male voice.

I think that it's fair to mention that although I have no formal training, I have been a musician practically my entire life. Primarily a guitarist, I do sing and feel that I have a decent vocal range. The low-end of my range is somewhere around C2 whereas my high-end....I'm not too entirely sure where it's at but I know that I can hit an F#5. Because of the fact that I sing very often, my vocal cords are pretty strong and I don't tire as easily as someone who doesn't sing. The thing that seems to be my personal difficulty is resonance. I don't have a booming speaking voice but when I alter the pitch of my voice consciously, it seems like I project it to much because I'm so used to projecting it when I sing. Forcing my voice into my head actually still produces slight chest vibrations so this is where I personally have to focus on.

I am by no means an expert at voice and haven't been practicing my voice for long at all. However, I have done quite a bit of research and the little experience I have has taught me a few things. Remember, when you speak, you hear yourself differently than others hear you. When I recorded myself while practicing yesterday, I was actually surprised at the result.

Anyway, find the pitch that is comfortable for you (which you may already know since you did vocal training for a couple of sessions) and work off of it. When I practice (seems weird to type because I've only officially practiced for a couple of hours), I target A3 (220hz, about an octave higher than my male voice) but it seems that I keep falling down to G3 (196hz), which seems to be a little more comfortable for me. Even though both are well into the female vocal range, I'm personally going to try to work with A3 but if I keep going back down to G3, I'll settle with it. Remember, you don't need a super high pitch to sound female because the female voice is more than just pitch.

[Zoe Michelle]

Thank you Rachel and Elisabeth, I'm finding your links pretty useful.

Kate, what your saying does make sence to me, but I like to have something I can work on in my free time. That way I can see for myself that I am or am not making progress with my voice.

Dana, taking the audio from a female speaker and watching it on spectrogram is a great idea.

Johanna, yeah that's my problem. I'm living full time as Zoe, and have been for about half a year now. I always get "ma'am'd" unless I open my mouth and say something.

Xulvalhalla, thanks for your insiteful post. I found it fairly interesting.

[JohnH]

I have a slightly deeper voice - my male speaking voice is about F2 to G2 (87 to 92 Hz) so my target for a female voice would be anything above D2 (147 Hz). Remember there are some genetic women that speak deeper than that. So in my opinion one can certainly go below G3 (196hz) if that is more comfortable.

The main thing is to put the resonance in the head instead of the chest, speak with a breathier way, and vary the pitch more than what is typical for male speech. Also don't hit the word accents as hard as what is typical for male speech.

I would certainly make it a point to get my speaking voice to sound feminine before I would attempt to live full time en femme, which may not happen.

Johanna

[Stephenie S]

I often tell people that the quickest way to find your female voice is to go full time. I kinda think that for me, that was true. I found it difficult to go "back and forth". But we hear above, about someone for whom that was not true. For certain, you have to just DO IT at some point or it never gets done. If two years of living "out" has gone by with no progress I would consider professional help. All large universities have Speech/Language departments.

S

[Traci Elizabeth]

I have a thought for you that might save you some money.

I would say that when someone goes 100% full time their voice changes real quick on its own. Why do I say this? Because it all becomes real and your mind realizes it has to happen.

If your not 100% then your mind knows you can always go back to the old boy voice. You have a choice and so the girl voice your working at is really not direly important.

Hope this helps because I never spent any money for voice training, I just went 100% full time and everything fell into place real quick.

Katie

Damn here I go again for the second time this week that I agree 100% with what Katie has written. Maybe Katie in her ruff and direct advice is starting to make sense to me. Is there a Doctor in the house?

[ameliabee]

Never needed voice therapy?

Seriously, just find the right pitch, practice saying a few words at the right pitch, and use that voice every time you present female. After a little while, it should lock in automatically. If you have to think about it every time, you're doing it wrong.

If by some horrifying accident you can't actually hit an appropriate pitch, then yeah, you should probably look into more voice therapy or surgery on your vocal chords.

[Stephanie-L]

I do have to agree a bit with the part about going full time. I am having voice therapy at the local university and I have come to the conclusion that changing my voice is going to require and cause a change in my personality. Women speak differently than men, they communicate differently, it takes a lot of changing, and it isn't easy to just turn it on and off. The physical parts of it are not hard, at least for me. My male voice is already in the 160 range, and I can easily converse in the 220 range without stress. In fact yesterdays session involved keeping me down in the 220 range as I was getting up to 240 average and losing some of the power behind my voice. I have to work on things like resonance and intonation, as well as stressing words differently. It has also widened my usable vocabulary, I know all the words, but as a guy I don't use as many as I do as a woman. Also do not overlook the nonverbal stuff, women do a lot of it. Good luck........Stephanie