Finally had a breakthrough!

[Guest Jenn348]

I've been working on Kathe Perez's 30 Day Crash Course, and while it was really helpful I struggled after week 3. Pitch, articulation, etc weren't a problem for me at all because I've been in choir and theater in the past, but resonance was the big issue. Doing the resonance exercises, my wife said I made some big improvements but was nowhere near where I needed to be.

I was really starting to feel some stress and wondering if I'd ever be able to get my voice together

On Saturday, I was driving to another town for business and had some time to myself. I decided to go ahead and play around with all sorts of noises and theater voices to see if I could make some headway. An hour there, and no real progress.

On the way back, I decided I was going to master just one word: hello. I must've said hello 500 times 300 different ways, and had to pull over and grab something from the ice chest to soothe my throat. After a few miles, suddenly it hit me. Not sure what it was, but I said hello a couple of times and it sounded really pretty and feminine. Running a voice recorder app in the car on a 2-lane road with hills and curves seemed like a bad idea, so I used the hands free and called home.

After a couple minutes in male mode, I told my wife about the potential breakthrough and she had to hear it. I put the phone on mute for a bit and warmed up, then unmuted and said "Hello." in the new voice.

"Hello?" she said back to me. "Are you there, is that you?"

She honestly thought the call had been disconnected and she was hearing an unfamiliar woman on the line I went back to my normal voice, and confirmed it was me. She said she wouldn't quite use the word perfect, but that it was nearly perfect.

I got back home and tested the new hello and a few other words in the new voice, and I saw it was just a tad below the A3 (220 Hz) target frequency, more in the G3# (205 Hz or so) range. I pushed the pitch up, and it didn't sound quite as good. Looks like G3-G3# is more natural for me, which is fine, because my wife actually talks a little lower than that and it would be a little strange to have a voice way higher than her when I'm taller and bigger

I know my dynamic melodic range will need to be higher for some words and a bit lower for others, but playing with some short phrases today it sounds just fine to center below A3. Now, to start working on the fluency and melody

I feel waaayyy better about my transition now!

[Carolyn Marie]

Sometimes a single change, a chance try at some new approach, will reap amazing benefits. I'm glad it happened for you, Jenn.

Now, all you have to do is work on the other 13,697.514 words in the English language. Good luck with that!

HUGS

Carolyn Marie

[Guest chibi_usa]

Keep it up! That one word might be the confidence you need to help you speak better too!

[Guest Sarah Faith]

Good for you Jenn! Keep it up.

[Charlize]

It sounds like your work has payed off. It is funny how confidence helps it just work better and you should feel that now.

Hugs,

Charlie

[Guest Zeda]

That is awesome! I hope I can figure that out, too XD I spent 8 hours a little while ago trying to figure out how to change my resonance to no avail, then I went to bed, got up the next day and decided to try something random and weird and it almost sounded right :3

Your success definitely makes me a tad more hopeful that all I need to do is keep working at it.

[Guest Jenn348]

I practice 4-5 times per week talking to myself in the car now, and it is slowly improving. Instead of trying to use a voice recorder and listening, I just have my wife listen and she can hear little improvements here and there. I'd rather have somebody else test so I know what the right sound sounds like when I'm talking so I can match that.

Sometime in the near future I'll do a test on the phone when I call a store or something and see if I get ma'amed I'll also have to use my new and improved voice on amateur radio to see how that goes.

[Guest Ney'ite]

Another suggestion I have seen offered is to take a small frying pan and talk into it. You can roughly hear what others here.

Jenn has another good suggestion I have heard many times: call a store. I know a friend used that approach while she worked on her voice. She would call a bookstore and ask if they had XXXXXX title. This allowed for a slightly longer voice interaction with a perfect stranger with nothing to go on but your voice.