Voice when out

[PattiL]

Ladies,
A question for you - I'm getting a makeover tomorrow night and plan on going to a mall to hopefully do some shopping. The makeover will be a professional one so I'm not worried about my looks. I have a CC with my feminine name. My worry is my voice. How do you handle that when you're dressed and out? Do you try to change your voice? Do you use your regular voice? Please let me know what you do.

Thanks,

Patti

[Katrina]

Patti,
The two times I have been out and actually had to say something to somebody, I used a fem voice. I made my voice a lot softer and put more inflection in it. Somebody said that women tend to "sing" more with their voices and guys tend to monotone more often. I started listening for that and am reasonable at imitating it now.

[GypsyKaren]

Hi Patti

I've tried to do a femme voice, and I sounded like Minnie Mouse on acid. People kept saying "pardon?", so I basically gave up. I do try to talk a little softer, but that's about it.

GypsyKaren

[Gale R]

I agree with the girls about softening your voice, you could try raising the pitch a little but not too much or, as was said, you'll end up talking like Minnie mouse.
Just remember that a lot of GG's have gravelly voices.;)
Just relax and enjoy the experience Patti.:)

[Marlena Dahlstrom]

You can find a variety of tips on developing a female voice here (http://heartcorps.com/journeys/voice.htm). The biggest thing that helps is reducing the resonance in your voice, and adopting the great pitch variation that women use, while reducing the male-like use of volume for emphasis.

But to be honest, developing a "realistic" female voice usually takes a lot of work and a fair amount of time. It's something I haven't mastered myself.

So I usually just try to soften my voice a bit and use more inflection.

[swiss_susan]

It is much easier, I think to fool somone by using a fake accent of sorts, that puts the focus on the accent rather than tone. Not a perfect solution but it certainly helps.

Susan

[SherriePall]

The last time I was out, I had some interaction with salespeople, etc. I tried raising the pitch of my voice, plus speak softly. I don't think I had any strange looks and got a couple of ma'ams.

[MandyTS]

To be honest I do not do anything with my voice. I naturally have lots of inflection already, the pitch is in the androgious range really, not phone passable, but not too many issues in person (voice surgery of therapy will fix the pitch issues).

I have recieved some strange looks but basically acting and wearing approate female attire passes most of the time.

Mandy

[JennyCD]

My voice is so deep I couldn't do a femme voice if my life depended on it. LOL

[BeckyCath]

To be honest I do not do anything with my voice. I naturally have lots of inflection already, the pitch is in the androgious range really, not phone passable, but not too many issues in person (voice surgery of therapy will fix the pitch issues).

Hi Mandy

Try Speech and Language therapy first, as vocal cord surgery is still in it's infancy...

I've just had my 2nd S&LT session this morning, and it's very technical and detailed, but worth it in the end, and it's so much easier when you're doing it with someone who has put in lots of training and knows what they're at...



I have recieved some strange looks but basically acting and wearing approate female attire passes most of the time.


There's an old adage that goes something like...

If it looks like a dog, walks like a dog, smells like a dog, woofs like a dog, it aint no cat...

And i agree the same is true for us, if I dress as a woman, walk properly in my heels, use perfume and smell nice, and try not to talk like a docker, then, well, people are going to take me at face value...

As far as voice when out goes Patti, i'd suggest not to worry to much about it at this stage, if you're really worried about it, say the minimum you can get away with... "looks" have far more impact on someone's perception than voice... you might not get ma'amed, they will probably leave out gender specifiers all together, which is as good as isn't it?

Hope you have a really enjoyable day, and good luck

Rebecca

PS, my accent is english, proper northern english... spiced up with plenty of thames valley... I don't need a silly accent...

[sweet_maria]

It is much easier, I think to fool somone by using a fake accent of sorts, that puts the focus on the accent rather than tone. Not a perfect solution but it certainly helps.

Susan

Whenever i try to put on a femme voice i put on a slightly english accent. Also softening the voice and slightly raising the pitch of the voice will work.

[cindybarnes]

My voice is low like my feet are big :)
I can just speak softly and hope for the best *S*
Cindy

[Stelli]

If you really need to talk and you cannot mask your voice - whisper. You can whisper quite loud - enough for conversation. Whisper is gender neutral you cannot really tell who whispers. Otherwise smile. That's it. I prefer to be "silent" girl. But I believe that voice can be trained.

[Wenda]

Do a search, I have read some posts in the past. As mentioned, a lot of girls find adding a bit of an accent makes a difference (Mrs Doubtfire)" Takes practice, like anything. Sometimes I can really nail it, other times not.

[PattiL]

Thanks for all the feedback!