Maryanne_sa
11-23-2012, 01:48 PM
Today, I went for my first speech appointment with a speech therapist on the NHS after a very long wait. He told me that he was a musician and had perfect pitch, and I can believe him. A wonderful range.
He asked me how long I had been full time, and what my concerns about my voice were. I told him that to me, my voice did not sound feminine and that as a result, I am not confident to use it. I told him that when I use what I thought of as my feminine voice, it had no strength, for example if I am ordering drinks in a bar, I often had to repeat myself. I also told him that my GG friend thought I was fine, and did not know what I was on about. He asked me lots of other questions, e.g how much water I drink in a day. He very kindly told me that he thought I look really at ease in the female role, and that I was petite. ( I loved that)
Then he spent a lot of time explaining about the vocal folds (no longer called chords) - they are more like small folds which vibrate when you talk. Males vibrate less that females. He explained about hertz which are the number of vibrations per second, Males up to roughly 140 hz and females from here on up.
Young women tend to be in the 200's and older women less than this as menopause and other factors come into play. ( smoking being one of them)
Then it was time to check at what HZ I speak at. He fitted a device around my neck which had two disc's which rested on my larynx, and the wires went through a box and then, hooked up to the computer. The machine cost £15,000! He had to keep fiddling with the discs until the reading was clear. He got me to drink water all through the appointment and before the test. Once everything was working fine, I had to read from a printed page. while the computer program recorded all the data. I then had to talk about my journey from home until arriving at the clinic.
He then looked at the data and said that the results were very interesting. With the reading, my voice was at 177HZ, and with the talking it was at 223Hz. He said that I am one of the highest he had ever had. However, my voice does sound a bit hoarse, and he noticed that I do clear my throat a lot. He said he thought I might have put a bit of strain on the vocal folds with trying over the years to sound feminine. He said he was going to write to my Doctor and get me to the ENT specialist to check there was no problem with my throat. As luck would have it, I already have an appointment with an Ent in early December for a slight giddyness problem I have. So he is going to write a letter for me to take to the ENT about the hoarseness. Once he gets the results and knows what he is dealing with, we will be working on getting a lot more clarity in my voice and getting rid of the hoarseness.
He told me that he can understand why my GG friend had said what she said. He said when I first spoke, he heard that I was in the female range.
I know a there is a great deal of interest in this subject, so I thought I would share this with you. I hope it is not boring. I can't wait until the new year and future appointments.
Take care,
Maryanne
He asked me how long I had been full time, and what my concerns about my voice were. I told him that to me, my voice did not sound feminine and that as a result, I am not confident to use it. I told him that when I use what I thought of as my feminine voice, it had no strength, for example if I am ordering drinks in a bar, I often had to repeat myself. I also told him that my GG friend thought I was fine, and did not know what I was on about. He asked me lots of other questions, e.g how much water I drink in a day. He very kindly told me that he thought I look really at ease in the female role, and that I was petite. ( I loved that)
Then he spent a lot of time explaining about the vocal folds (no longer called chords) - they are more like small folds which vibrate when you talk. Males vibrate less that females. He explained about hertz which are the number of vibrations per second, Males up to roughly 140 hz and females from here on up.
Young women tend to be in the 200's and older women less than this as menopause and other factors come into play. ( smoking being one of them)
Then it was time to check at what HZ I speak at. He fitted a device around my neck which had two disc's which rested on my larynx, and the wires went through a box and then, hooked up to the computer. The machine cost £15,000! He had to keep fiddling with the discs until the reading was clear. He got me to drink water all through the appointment and before the test. Once everything was working fine, I had to read from a printed page. while the computer program recorded all the data. I then had to talk about my journey from home until arriving at the clinic.
He then looked at the data and said that the results were very interesting. With the reading, my voice was at 177HZ, and with the talking it was at 223Hz. He said that I am one of the highest he had ever had. However, my voice does sound a bit hoarse, and he noticed that I do clear my throat a lot. He said he thought I might have put a bit of strain on the vocal folds with trying over the years to sound feminine. He said he was going to write to my Doctor and get me to the ENT specialist to check there was no problem with my throat. As luck would have it, I already have an appointment with an Ent in early December for a slight giddyness problem I have. So he is going to write a letter for me to take to the ENT about the hoarseness. Once he gets the results and knows what he is dealing with, we will be working on getting a lot more clarity in my voice and getting rid of the hoarseness.
He told me that he can understand why my GG friend had said what she said. He said when I first spoke, he heard that I was in the female range.
I know a there is a great deal of interest in this subject, so I thought I would share this with you. I hope it is not boring. I can't wait until the new year and future appointments.
Take care,
Maryanne