ToyGirl
05-22-2007, 11:33 PM
Hi everyone ,
I've seen a few voice related threads in the past in the CD section of the site and most people had stated that having a female voice was not important to them. Although a small few seemed to think it was a good thing.
For this reason I posted this in the TS section as I think ALL TS should put some thought into this. I apologise upfront to the FTM's that this is directed at FTM's but maybe some of it is worth reading I don't know :p
I have no qualifications to be giving any advice other than that it was something that was important to me and that i put alot of effort into. I have not read any books on it , or listened to the training video's so i am unsure of what advice they contained or the levels of success they hoped to provide.
-Onto the positives !
I think alot of people think of there voice as something that lets them down or that is something that will 'out' them. I like to think of it as tool we have that works on our side that helps us to 'pass' and just makes people more confortable around us and talking to us.
As a teen I ended up with the worsed voice a little TS could imagine (I didn't transition till i was 26). It was deep and I hated it to the point of I stopped talking unless i really had to, there were points in my life I would talk so little that when I did have to speak for 20 mins or so, I would get quite sore. So from this I know that even with a bad starting point there is hope , and that you can get through life pretty much without speaking. Just a smile and a lipsync works fine in most encounters etc.
The basic difference between male and female voice is that the male is more monotone and lower , and the females is higher and more melodic. Men generally project there voice from there chest growl from there belly :p
Where as a female wants to project there voice from there head. Though I think this happens by itself as your raise or lower your pitch. For me and I assume most girls , the pitch you want to speak at would be between your male voice and mickeymouse/falsetto (someone said they still sound like goofy , silly :p)
I don't know about everyone else , but I am a magnificent singer in my mind , but I sound like a drowned cat by the time I get it out into an actual sound. While I have managed to be able to project my inner voice, i still cannot sing for the life of me.
The point is find your inner voice , what you would like to sound like as realistically as you can. I used to try and sing in the car i'd find some songs that agree'd with me more than others, I also found the car a perfect spot to practice if you have little privacy elsewhere. I think finding a song line or a favourite line from a movie that you can learn to emulate is a good place to start, it also will help you get into the zone for when you need to 'get back' to your voice. Once you can emulate one line , or bits and pieces your well on your way to speaking naturally , from there it is just a matter of learning new lines and making up your own, It took me about 2 years to get from this point to being able to comfortably speak with a stranger or friend.
Even when i had a 'female voice' that i could put on, doing it in front of people was proving an issue for me. I remember saying over and over in the car in my best voice 'Could i get a quarter chicken and chips please!' i finally got to the speakerbox wound down the window and said 'LUKE , I AM YOUR FATHER' well i did't say that exactly but i sure as hell did sound like Darth Vader.
Phones, Skype and voice chats are your friend. It's all about practice practice practice. It took me quite a while to be able to speak on voice chats to my friends (that knew i was TS). My best friend dragged someone into our skype call that didn't know i was TS , and that was an experience but i managed to get through the conversation without making a mistake. Eventually i decided to start talking on Ventrillo to people that knew me as a female from games. I spent a year or so talking on voice chats and phones (and IRL) before I was confident at being able to talk to anyone anywhere and knowing my voice was working for me , and not against me.
In conclusion i hope someone can get something out of this , and i salvaged a small clip (380kb 12 seconds) of me talking to a friend on MSN (i do apoligise for MSN's low quality), so if anyones interest they can hear my voice. Yes i'm Aussie >.<
-Nicole
Click to hear (http://www.kitteh.org/files/toyn1.wav)
I've seen a few voice related threads in the past in the CD section of the site and most people had stated that having a female voice was not important to them. Although a small few seemed to think it was a good thing.
For this reason I posted this in the TS section as I think ALL TS should put some thought into this. I apologise upfront to the FTM's that this is directed at FTM's but maybe some of it is worth reading I don't know :p
I have no qualifications to be giving any advice other than that it was something that was important to me and that i put alot of effort into. I have not read any books on it , or listened to the training video's so i am unsure of what advice they contained or the levels of success they hoped to provide.
-Onto the positives !
I think alot of people think of there voice as something that lets them down or that is something that will 'out' them. I like to think of it as tool we have that works on our side that helps us to 'pass' and just makes people more confortable around us and talking to us.
As a teen I ended up with the worsed voice a little TS could imagine (I didn't transition till i was 26). It was deep and I hated it to the point of I stopped talking unless i really had to, there were points in my life I would talk so little that when I did have to speak for 20 mins or so, I would get quite sore. So from this I know that even with a bad starting point there is hope , and that you can get through life pretty much without speaking. Just a smile and a lipsync works fine in most encounters etc.
The basic difference between male and female voice is that the male is more monotone and lower , and the females is higher and more melodic. Men generally project there voice from there chest growl from there belly :p
Where as a female wants to project there voice from there head. Though I think this happens by itself as your raise or lower your pitch. For me and I assume most girls , the pitch you want to speak at would be between your male voice and mickeymouse/falsetto (someone said they still sound like goofy , silly :p)
I don't know about everyone else , but I am a magnificent singer in my mind , but I sound like a drowned cat by the time I get it out into an actual sound. While I have managed to be able to project my inner voice, i still cannot sing for the life of me.
The point is find your inner voice , what you would like to sound like as realistically as you can. I used to try and sing in the car i'd find some songs that agree'd with me more than others, I also found the car a perfect spot to practice if you have little privacy elsewhere. I think finding a song line or a favourite line from a movie that you can learn to emulate is a good place to start, it also will help you get into the zone for when you need to 'get back' to your voice. Once you can emulate one line , or bits and pieces your well on your way to speaking naturally , from there it is just a matter of learning new lines and making up your own, It took me about 2 years to get from this point to being able to comfortably speak with a stranger or friend.
Even when i had a 'female voice' that i could put on, doing it in front of people was proving an issue for me. I remember saying over and over in the car in my best voice 'Could i get a quarter chicken and chips please!' i finally got to the speakerbox wound down the window and said 'LUKE , I AM YOUR FATHER' well i did't say that exactly but i sure as hell did sound like Darth Vader.
Phones, Skype and voice chats are your friend. It's all about practice practice practice. It took me quite a while to be able to speak on voice chats to my friends (that knew i was TS). My best friend dragged someone into our skype call that didn't know i was TS , and that was an experience but i managed to get through the conversation without making a mistake. Eventually i decided to start talking on Ventrillo to people that knew me as a female from games. I spent a year or so talking on voice chats and phones (and IRL) before I was confident at being able to talk to anyone anywhere and knowing my voice was working for me , and not against me.
In conclusion i hope someone can get something out of this , and i salvaged a small clip (380kb 12 seconds) of me talking to a friend on MSN (i do apoligise for MSN's low quality), so if anyones interest they can hear my voice. Yes i'm Aussie >.<
-Nicole
Click to hear (http://www.kitteh.org/files/toyn1.wav)