Voice lessons

[karenpayneoregon]

Prior to surgery my female voice was iffy, learned to become better but felt there was more than trying to present a female voice passed video lessons on the web. So several weeks ago I sought out a voice coach, not many in my area but was fortunate to find one who carters to transgender.

At first I was a little skeptical going in to my first lesson, not so much about the coach but my resolve.

Turns out she is an excellent coach/instructor. Although this is only my second time with her I am encouraged from what has been taught to me and her recording before and after techniques were taught and then practiced.

Right now I have committed to eight hours (that is my point to evaluate progress) and hopefully this will have me making good progress.

Would be nice to hear how others have done with voice training.

[PretzelGirl]

I think I have done pretty good. I could possibly take more lessons, but I am not getting any looks due to my voice, so I am at least good enough. I have a hoarse voice and that isn't changing, it is just the way my voice is. But I went through about 9 months/16 sessions of voice lessons and it got me where I am.

[pamela7]

i learned to adapt my voice to those around me during an nlp training in 2001. The tips i got from this and then from living abroad and capturing a foreign language is to go native; spend your time with women, talking with women, and the more you do this the quicker you absorb how to speak/be/express/intone as the natives do; in this case the female of our species. There are also exercises you can do to resonate your vocal cavities and shift the centre higher, thus increasing pitch. Remember women with low voices sound sexy anyway so you don't need to push too high. Hope this helps.

[karen inside]

I agree with Pamela- with a foreign language "immersion" refines what you learn from repitition. In other words, surrounding yourself with female voices is very helpful, we adapt to our environment. Also for me, having sole custody of my daughter since she was a toddler, keeping her involved in "girl" things, constantly hanging out with her friends moms when socializing and participating with the kids really gave me a softer demeanor and voice,and usually accepted into ther "circle", although back then I would have never admitted to anyone what was going on inside of me. I grew up myself with a harsh father who was a labor organizer and I knew instinctively I did not want to become him in anyway, shape or form, especially his loud condescending voice.

[karenpayneoregon]

My iffy part is working with co-workers for over 20 years, they fully accept me as female. With that said the comfort level given by them sometimes has me relax voice-wise but outside of work I do just fine. If I was in a new job then I would not had been relaxed. I would say at work my voice is a medium B many times but when working outside of my unit I go to a middle C. What I am working on is stopping from going to that B range.

[Stephania]

I spent about 6 to 8 weeks over 2 years ago to change my voice. I was actually doing pretty good, then all of a sudden my throat really hurt so I stopped. I have attempted many times since then to no avail. I figure my low voice is always going to be there, so I'm a 6 foot woman with a somewhat low voice.

Stephania

[Wendy me]

it might sound strange but load up your cd's in your car with female singers and sing along with them.....my big problme is when i get angry ..... voice gets way too male....

[Cristy2]

Has anyone tried Kathe Perez's 30 day Coaching Crash Course? I came across a promo on Youtube this morning and was going to post a thread about it, but this thread was already up so no need of starting two threads on the same subject.

http://30daycrashcourse.com/?hop=sfvoicetg

[Brooklyn]

Working on my voice has definitely been the most fun part of transition.

Kathe has a number of excellent recordings, which she updates from time to to time, and all of the ones I used were helpful. I also had some sessions with her via Skype, which were quite fun and helped me become more aware of the specific issues with my voice.

The recommendations to hang with genetic women and sing in the car are good. Also, emulating certain celebrities on YouTube can help as well (I especially like Jennifer Anniston's voice). There is a persistent misconception that a feminine voice is all or mostly about pitch, but there are many other reasons someone will sound female, such as intonation, enunciation, phrasing, use of falsetto, and so on. Some of those are things you can adjust with just a little awareness and some practice.

[Jenny22]

Several months ago, I read somewhere that if you start with your natural voice as "do"(doe) and go up in range using the do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do, you'll arrive at the optimum point where you can begin to develop a feminine sounding voice. Its been working pretty well for this Bass.

[PretzelGirl]

Cristy, I started with Kathe's apps, moved to the 30 day crash course, then to individual sessions. The way I look at it, is we all need a varying amount of work, so what works for one, doesn't necessarily work for others. I doubt just a 30 day course is enough for anyone, but some people adapt easily to things. But you can look at it like doing laser before electrolysis in that it could be a less expensive option that gets you further along before starting the heavier lifting. One thing to watch is over practicing. I did the exercises from the 30 day course so much, the first thing Kathe did was shut me down for a month due to overworking my voice.