I wish I could, but I can hear anything wrong with it. This is honestly goals for me. Your voice went high a couple times, and it sounded really natural. I can't even get that high
This made me tear up a little. I've been really struggling with how I perceive my voice, so this means a lot. Thank you ๐
You're struggling from the same issue that I am only now starting to overcome: since you've tried to fem your voice so much, you can't see that you're voice is perfectly passing and you get insecure because of that. The thing that helped me was someone random on the phone calling me "miss" without me telling me their name at a time when I wasn't even trying hard to do a fem voice. (Best Spam/Phishing call I ever received btw)
So if you keep talking like this and can sustain a voice like this for longer and longer then congrats: you have a new amazing girl voice.
For me, I didn't manage to sustain my "perfect" girl voice (but I also didn't try too hard) so I slipped into a passing but low feminin voice which may even fit me better since I feel like it's more natural (and for NB reasons). So don't worry if that specific tonality isn't sustainable for long
It's quite good, but if you're looking for something to practice anyway I'd suggest resonance exercises. I might just be picking up because my ear is listening for it, but it's a super important part of voice training so I'm gonna infodump for anyone interested.
What is resonance?
If you're not familiar with resonance, it's a super important component of a voice (possibly even more important than pitch), which is determined by the distance from your mouth to your voice box. This video gives examples of each combination of high-low pitch and bright-dark resonance, the most important to know is "low-pitch, bright-resonance," if you know Stephen Universe, Peridot's voice is my go-to example, generally, people describe that sort of voice as "nasally" or "annoying" but notably, even if it sounds bad it still sounds female. The reason it's important is that if you break down each component of voice and work on them individually, you can get better results than if you try to do everything at once. My strategy is to aim for a "Peridot" voice first, and then raise pitch from there, which is easier/more natural to do.
How can you train resonance?
To get brighter resonance, you need to learn how to control the muscles that raise/lower your voice box, and there are two exercises that help with that. One is called, "swallow and hold" - put your finger on your voice box and swallow and you'll notice it raise, try to "hold" for a bit to keep it there, then gradually release muscles, taking note of when the voice box lowers. The second is "big dog, little dog" - pant like a dog and switch between imitating a big dog and a little dog, while again keeping a finger on your voice box to note its movement. When you pant like a little dog, it should raise higher, again, pay attention to which muscles you're using to move it. I believe both of those exercises come from the channel I linked before but I don't remember which specific video.
Thank you, could you be more specific about where the resonance sounded off? Adjusting resonance is respectfully, one of the first things I started working on, and that was quite a long time ago.
OK it turns out I'm actually just dumb ๐ฃ. I listened to it a bunch of times trying to pin it down and finally identified that it was audio fuzz.
"only one I found," "long-lasting," "spearmint, cooling peppermint" "cinnamon is called" those were all around the parts where I thought I was hearing something, and then the last section was clear, and when I turned the volume up, those parts all have a sort of "blown out mic" sound with a low frequency, and I heard that sound as part of your voice.
Oh gotcha, that makes sense! Thanks for checking!
Sounds very female to me.
how are you gendered on the phone (and in-person, though this depends a lot more on how you look as well, but if you visually pass the question is how do people gender you when you speak)?
In your clip you are able to speak softly which helps feminize the voice, but I wonder if I'm hearing correctly some weight inconsistencies which are being managed with volume.
There is a quality to the voice that feels a bit boyish to me, but overall I think the voice is on the fem side of androgynous. The stylistics really feminize the voice, even though I don't hear huge expressiveness (no dramatic pitch changes for example) it's not monotone either, and I think I'm hearing sharpness.
I would encourage recording a candid clip of your voice when on the phone or talking to someone else, at normal volumes. You might also try to capture what your voice sounds like when you need to be heard, like across a room or house, or over a din.
Candid clips are better for evaluating where you are really at with your voice, because we can control our voices more when we are reading a passage, and thus the performance is more artificial and will sound different than when just chatting.
Capturing a clip where you have to be louder will help identify places you might need to refine your voice in case there are weight issues at higher volumes.
Regardless, you've done a lovely job and I'm sure it has taken an immense amount of work to get here, so you should feel really great about your voice - to my ear it sounds like a practical voice that isn't overtly imbalanced or unnatural, while still being fem enough to allow you to pass as needed. Lots of people struggle to ever get there.
Thank you for the robust feedback!
How are you gendered on the phone?
Since making this post I have started using it on the phone, and I have not yet been misgendered.
Weight inconsistencies being managed with volume... No dramatic pitch changes...
Yeah I definitely struggle with my range when using this voice. It's getting slightly better, but I have significantly fewer pitches to express myself.
There is a quality to the voice that feels a bit boyish to me
I think I know what you are referring to, but am not sure how to address it ;-;
Candid clip
I will try to upload one later, that would be a good idea!
You've done a lovely job and I'm sure it has taken an immense amount of work to get here
Thank you so much! It hasn't been easy, that's for sure.
I think I know what you are referring to, but am not sure how to address it ;-;
honestly I think it might be a combination of pitch falling back and its influence on weight - it just reads a bit heavy to my ears, and there might be some minor inconsistencies with resonance, but honestly I have a hard time separating brightness from pitch perceptually
Feel free to tag me if you make a new recording!
I have significantly fewer pitches to express myself.
same girl, ugh - it is such a huge pain to be unable to be as expressive as I want because my voice will break if it goes to high, and that leads me to become insecure and not even be as expressive as I could be!
I still think within your pitch range you probably have enough room for more pitch variation within the pitches you're speaking at, the clip came across as in that fuzzy area bordering flat or monotone at times (but definitely wasn't monotone, for sure). Regardless it's not that important, stuff like that is far less important than weight and size / resonance.
Hi! This community exists as a place for trans people of all genders (or gender fluidity, or non-binary etc.) to help them overcome the challenges of being able to speak normally as their preferred gender. Upload audio clips, screenshots from analyzers, or what ever you feel like in order to get feedback and help perfected the voice you have into a state where you are comfortable.
These are going to be fairly open, since I trust that most posts here are seeking genuine help.
Welcome! As I find them, I will be linking resources in this sidebar.