Grrrrrly voice?

[Robin414]

I've seen the Web sites that 'validate' a photo and even your verbiage (yah, I'm 66% chic 😉 so far) but how about voice? My GG friend says I have a 'natural' femme tone but I don't believe her...I sound like Darth Vader IMHO and I'm sure there's 'an app for that' but anyone found one 😞

[donnalee]

There was a you tube series on this that had someone who's voice was so good it was difficult to realize it was not a GG. The basic info was to "squeeze" a falsetto into something with more harmonics. Others described it as moving the resonance toward the palate. combining those techniques I was able to record a voice that was so female I was shocked, however I still don't have the confidence to try it in public.
The other part of it is the cadence and where pitch rises and falls as well as the speech patterns, which requires studying and trying to organize the components of women's voice.

[I Am Paula]

There are iphone apps avail; youtube vids, and voice coaches.
If I may make one blunt comment please. PLEASE don't try to sound like Minnie Mouse, or a suburban gay waiter. Your regular voice is much better than trying too hard.
Chances are very good your voice is already girlier than- Demi Moore, Lorraine Bracco, or Bea Arthur.

[mechamoose]

I kinda sound like Samuel Jackson (in my dreams)

I'm like Dischord in MLP. What you hear doesn't have much to do with what you see.

- MM

[Krisi]

I would say the voice is one of the hardest things for most of us to change. You can pay for boobs, hips, facial feminization, hair transplants and body hair removal. You can even have your adams apple reduced, but there's no way to "buy" a feminine voice.

Even if you manage to control the pitch, women typically speak differently than men. Much faster, different inflections and they will usually use a lot more words than a man to say the same thing. You might get it if you concentrate on it but doing it naturally will take a long, long time if you ever get it.

[mechamoose]

there's no way to "buy" a feminine voice.

Right, so true, I couldn't pull off a femme voice in any circumstances. I'm 'too old' to change that. Do it when you ate like 13? Ok. I'm over 50, it isn't happening.

- MM

[pamela7]

for years phone callers have often assumed i'm "mrs ...", much to their consternation once i contradicted them, so perhaps my voice has always been more girly than i realised?! you can easily teach yourself to play with vocalising from different resonance parts of your vocal tract; just do that and practice it?

[jeni]

I practice on my way work and home, I don't know how much it will help cause I'm in my late 30s but it don't hurt to try.

[sometimes_miss]

There was a youtube channel, the TS person was Candy something, an asian mtf who had mastered the vocal transition. this was back in 2008, and her videos have been taken down off of youtube, I suspect that she's completed her transition and so removed any evidence of her/his past life as a male. I wouldn't feel comfortable uploading her old videos but could strip the video out and maybe upload part of the audio somewhere. One other person remembers her technique, she isn't as good, but she explains it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKKgBmKXyMQ

Candy spoke of using a 'sliding' vocal technique; this woman uses the same technique in a slightly different way, but the theory is the same: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ch5gBKsvSwo

One other thing I remember; play videos of normal speaking, and repeatedly try to duplicate the sentences that you hear the GG speak. That will give you the proper inflections in your voice when you have to repeat that sentence. Look for common speech, and work on those sentences. One at a time. Practice, practice, practice.

[Helen_Highwater]

One thing I've started to notice from mainly watching female news/weather/sports announcers is that when speaking they don't close the lips together as often as their male counterparts. The lips stay apart nearly all the time with the exception of certain percussive sounds, Per...., Pro....., Mo..., Me... etc. Mouth movements are more articulated. The mouth is stretched wider for eee sounds. The natural at rest position is with the lips apart not together as with male announcers.

Try it; it makes the voice more "breathy", gentler.

[Robin414]

Wow, great pick up Helen! Looks like an 'easy' thing to try!

[Ashley Lyn]

I was sitting with my wife and step-daughter in a restaurant (during my first real outing as Ashley) when the wife asked me why I was so quiet..
I whispered to her that I didn't want to sound too 'manly', so thought it best not to try 'girly' talk.. She said "listen" to my tone, as well as your step-daughter!
Little did I realize that my voice was very similar to both of theirs.. and then the "gabbing started"..

[Jenny123]

This is an area that I have spent a lot of time working on and have essentially given up hope on it. I'd love to have a more feminine voice, but I think I'd need to work with somebody on it.

[Judith96a]

I have a GG friend who has one of the most masculine voices I've ever heard. So much so, that the first time that I had reason to phone her (having not previously met her) I thought that her father or brother had answered the phone! Thankfully, she has a good sense of humour and we had a good laugh about it when we finally met. Go figure!

[AllieBellema]

That's one I'm not sure about. I do have a deep, announcer like, voice. I got somewhat of a practice female voice, but not sure how forced it sound. I tried to stay in that voice at the halloween party, but at the same time, I kept my talking to a minimum.

[Krisi]

Ask a man "When did you get home from your vacation?"

Man: "Yesterday"

Ask a woman "When did you get home from your vacation?"

Woman: "Well we were late getting started because we overslept, then we had to stop for gas. There was a big traffic jam on the highway so we lost a couple hours dealing with that, then we stopped for lunch but the service was really slow because they were crowded and didn't have enough waitresses so we lost more time there. The whole trip took twice as long as usual."

[Tonya Fox]

Some really good tips here, I've been singing along to Britney Spears myself, trying to match my pitch.

[Robin414]

OMG Krisi, that is so totally true!

er... I mean... 'Yep' LOL 😁

[Helen_Highwater]

About a year or so ago I attended a support group meeting where I met the SO of one of the CD'ers. She was a speech specialist and we got talking about femme voices. She commented that the worst thing to do was simply to raise your voice 3 or 4 octaves. "You'll end up sounding like Micky mouse or someone on helium" she said. And if you think about it the last thing that makes you sound femme is talking with a lung full of helium. Her advice was to soften your voice, speak more gently. OK if you've a bass baritone natural voice then you will need to bring it up an octave or two but don't feel the need to push it too far. Inflection and intonation play just as an important part.

I liked Krisi's post #16; made me smile. However try saying it as a GG would; note I've slightly altered the punctuation.

"Well..... we were late getting started because we overslept, then we had to stop for gas. There was a big traffic jam on the highway, so, we lost a couple hours dealing with THAT! tTHEN we stopped for lunch but the service was really slow becausetheywerecrowdedanddidn'thaveenoughwaitresse s so we lost more time there. The whole trip took twice as long as usual."

Note; there will be an inflection in the voice in saying "we overslept" the "we" inferring "he"!!

[Krisi]

Notice in my example above, the woman never did answer the question.

[Robin414]

I totally missed that point Krisi, I don't know what I wasn't thinking , my stockings were totally falling down 'n stuff (seriuosly 😉 )

I mean, 'yep, I hear ya!' 😉

[Lorileah]

I would say the voice is one of the hardest things for most of us to change. You can pay for boobs, hips, facial feminization, hair transplants and body hair removal. You can even have your adams apple reduced, but there's no way to "buy" a feminine voice.

there is actually http://voicedoctor.net/surgery/pitch...-laryngoplasty

[Krisi]

Only the pitch. You would still have to learn the rest.