Does Your Voice Ever Stay?

[Guest Katrina_Carter]

I've been working on my voice for months. I have the tone down just fine, and truthfully have most of my life, but the pitch is my problem. I get called ma'am constantly when someone hears my voice at work or over the phone so I know I am almost there.

My problem is that when I wake up in the morning I have a deeper voice. Louder, more masculine. I have to consciously make an effort to talk softer and with a higher pitch. After a few hours it is no longer a conscious effort and is just my normal speaking voice. So does there ever come a time where I will simply wake up with a normal voice? or is this something that will be on going the rest of my life?

[Guest viv]

Gonna guess yes Katrina , tho someone may differ in opinion and I aint

even got that far yet . But yeh, my guess is you will subconsciously

drop the male stuff after a while ,,retrain the brain ????. I have always

believed the American accent is easier to ""convert"" from male to

female , hope you get there 100% Hun , luv,viv

[Guest AshleyRF]

Even natal females have a deeper more course voice in the mornings. It's caused by them not being used over the night and mucus builds on them. Take an extra 10 minutes or so every morning to "wake up" your vocal cords. Drink warm drinks like coffee or hot tea to release the mucus coating off them quickly, stretch the vocal cords out by using them when you first wake up, etc...

[Guest Elizabeth K]

Ashley is right on the money. Its a mucus build up. Singers will steam their throats early in the morning - I take a hot shower when I first get up - and I have a little song or two i use wo warm up my voice. Yawn wide - feel that? - that is where you want your voice to be. That helps sets your muscle memory.

My problem is I gradually slip lower in tone - it's a habit hard to break I guess. Also I get excited around friends and drop back toward male.

Weird thing - I have been sick with bronchitis - and coughing for three weeks. It has strengthened my vocal cord muscles! Added a good three or four higher tone notes and it smoothed out the lower range of my falsetto to sound natural,

I don't recommend that method - but it's amazing! Like six monthes of training!

Lizzy

[Guest Jewel]

Ahhh... the dreaded "Morning Voice."

Everyone gets it, male, female, cis, trans. You _notice_ it a lot more when you're trans and still a bit insecure about being misgendered based on your voice.

What Ashley said basically. Give it a little time to settle. Speak softly. Don't push the pitch up higher to compensate... try making it a bit croakier and focus on dampening those unwanted deeper resonances. "Go with the flow" and embrace the croakiness. As always with voice issues for trans women, I advise to focus far more on resonance than pitch.

Over time you get better at coping with that. You'll run into the same issues in other cases. Like having the flu and having a lot of phlegm in your throat and chest. Or having that hoarse, sore voice right after a surgery involving general anesthesia.

One of my ex's had a voice like Henry Kissinger in the mornings. Heheh. Okay, not that bad, but for a cis woman, she definitely got some serious low notes and depth to her voice for about 15 minutes after she woke up. I'm certain she got more than her share of "sirs" when answering the phone straight from a night's sleep.

[Guest AshleyRF]

Voices are the hardest thing for transwomen. Honestly it's the one thing that can make or break you in passing. I don't care if you look like Meghan Fox. If you bust out an Sylvester Stalone voice, you are gonna get read but if you look like Sylvester Stalone and break out a Judy Garland voice then you will pass just fine.

I worry about mine still and I'm told I have one of the best voices ever.

[Guest Elizabeth K]

Voices are the hardest thing for transwomen. Honestly it's the one thing that can make or break you in passing. I don't care if you look like Meghan Fox. If you bust out an Sylvester Stalone voice, you are gonna get read but if you look like Sylvester Stalone and break out a Judy Garland voice then you will pass just fine.

I worry about mine still and I'm told I have one of the best voices ever.

I have talked with Ashley (Ashley RF) on the telephone - DANG I was sure I had her sister or daughter - she is that great! So it is doable!

WOW

Lizzy

[Guest Donna Jean]

Yes...our voices...probably the hardest thing to change...

While FTM's voices deepen with HRT due to vocal cords stretching...our voices do not noticably change and we must work on it...

Also Lizzy was talking to me and told me about Ashley's remarkable voice...She was VERY impressed !!!

Huggs

Donna Jean

[Sally]

Now, I do not have the best 'girl' voice in the world - the truth is I don't even try.

When I admitted to myself that I needed to transition I read about voice work and I just knew that as a Bass I would never get into a female range.

I had taken a vocal class in college where I was forced to sing Tenor - I remembered a bit about that and I can now reach Alto to Mezzo-Soprano while singing but that is not practical for my everyday speech.

All I have done is to remove the resonance from the chest and I have always had a bit more feminine inflection in my speech so I just stopped holding back.

I may sound a bit like Bea Arthur but why not - I sort of look like her!

The main trick is to not worry about it, I have had conversations with men who never seemed to even notice that I have a low voice - it goes with being as tall as I am.

Love ya,

Sally

[Guest Charlene_Leona]

I just got to be one of the lucky few that when I had my Orchi 13 days later my voice started changing towards a higher pitch. It was real funny when it first started to happen I had rolled over and went to tell Larry I love you and my voice sounded like a teenager going through puberty with that squeaky voice. I even physically hurts when I try to talk in a deeper male voice. Several of the ladies in this thread have heard my voice what do they think?

Take Care

Charlene Leona

[Guest Donna Jean]

. Several of the ladies in this thread have heard my voice what do they think?

Take Care

Charlene Leona

Well, Charlene.....

I've heard your voice ad I can vouch for the fact that you have a wonderful female voice.....

Huggs!

Donna Jean

[Guest slntcandy]

I agree with everyone saying that its mainly about training your brain to remember to use certain muscles. Like Elizabeth K said its best to do some vocal warm ups after you wake up.

But its not really so much about it 'staying'. For me, there is no 'jump' that 'keeps' my voice in my female mode. Its all about remembering to use certain muscles to make sounds and not to depend on others.

Some mornings, I place a finger/hand at the base of my chin. Then I start trying to talk from there just to make sure the sounds are coming from the right place.

[Guest Lora]

With time, you do wake up with a female voice. It may be a little more coarse than it is a couple of hours after getting out of bed, but still it sounds female.

I haven't been called anything but 'ma'am' on the phone for a couple of years now. And even when someone calls and wakes me, still I get "I'm sorry I woke you, ma'am." For clearing out that morning roughness, as mentioned by others here, hot tea and such does help.

There remain a very few friends and more distant relatives of mine who, for varying reasons, I have not told about my transition. It is becoming increasingly difficult when they call to speak to them in a semblance of my old voice, often bringing an "Is that you? it doesn't sound like you," to which I usually mention my allergies or a lingering cold. And more than just the tonal quality of your voice changes -- so does cadence, word selection and inflection, which also carry male or female qualities.

So yes, once you've found your voice you one day realize you sound like the woman you are without having to try.

Lora