Passing with voice

[tracy_j]

Just thought I would pass on my experiences from today which perhaps would be just as much directed towards the passing forum

When out today (not locally) I found that I was immediatley accepted as female in a supermarket I was shopping in but as soon as I spoke I had the feeling that people were less sure.

I was not confident - I will get there but I thought would like to share

Tracy

[Guest Jamie61]

Hi Tracy, it's seems that voice is the most difficult aspect for me. I practice with strangers because it's very difficult for me to practice my voice with my friends or family members. That is my experience anyway. I do like the exercise where you slowly speak a list of related words ( like colors) and try to swoop up the pitch at the end of every word. It helps move your pitch higher. Best of luck!

Jamie

[StephanieVikingGirl]

Hi Tracy,

Yep, I would agree that voice is real important in passing, and that's why I practiced from day one of "coming out". Nowadays, I get practice everyday, but I pay the most attention to my voice when I am at work. I think it really helps using my voice so much with tour guests. Since we are outside, it forces me to project my feminine voice in order to be heard. I think Alex is going to record my voice again today, and I am very interested in hearing what the tour guests hear (I led another tour yesterday). He records his voice every week, and it is getting much deeper.

hugs,

Stephanie

[Guest Chris546]

My voice has been the really tough for me as I have a deep resonance. I kept getting confused when working on it to pitch and tried way to hard on the pitch. I was wishing my pitch was higher and didn't sound so pinched. I have a spectrogram setup and always open and practice raising my pitch and have noticed as my pitch goes up so does my resonance and that is what actually is that part of the voice that is going to give you that unique sound to your voice. I have been very unsatisfied with it but it passes as female. Make sure you are recording yourself and use a spectrogram due to this is where you will actually be able to see that your voice is in the range that you are looking for.

When I first set my spectrogram up I set it up like the voice tutorial told me to and THAT was where it was messing me up. The tutorial had me set it up just to see the pitch and not the resonance. I played with the settings and once I started to be able to see both the pitch and resonance it was a wahlah, why they it is my female voice.

i have a teamspeak server if you ever want to practice your voice and we can practice together on my teamspeak. Just PM me and I can send you the info and cordinate a time.

Hope this helps!

Clarissa Jo

[Guest sydney]

For those that are struggling,

It's not just about pitch, resonance, and speech pattern is what makes a feminine voice. This video is a great overview of what work for me, especially trying to make it nasal and then back off a bit. It's a great way to get a head voice versus a chest voice that screams male.

[tracy_j]

Thank you for responding everyone - It's good to hear other experiences as they do help

Thank you for the video link. It gives a good overview of things. I think my position in it at present is that I have managed to minimise chest resonance such that it is nearly non existant and I am now trying to increase the output of my 'head resonant' voice as well as looking at pitch.

Recording is a good idea which I use fairly often but I have always thought my voice pretty poor anyway. It is difficult to judge your own voice, I find. That said I must admit that I have sometimes really liked my recorded female voice, even though it is not there yet.

Thank you Clarissa Jo. I do have the Praat program installed and am learning to use it as chance permits. Thank you for your offer with Teamspeak. It is not something I am familiar with. I will bear it in mind.

I have been a little slow in replying as I wanted to test my voice in practical situations and have been on leave from work this week so have had two outings.

The first was on Tuesday when I went to a coastal resort just outside my local area so would be unlikely to be recognised. As such I went fully female. I found out very quickly that my biggest problem is lack of confidence because I effectively lost my voice (female that is) and could only really speak in a similar way to someone who has a bad throat or something. As I was confident that there would be no lasting comeback and the area that I was in was very safe I just went for it and deliberately had lunch in a cafe with waitress service, such that I would have to order and respond to staff etc (after all a woman can lose her voice ). It was the best thing that i have done recently because all went well (even to as far as later having a few minutes discussion with a couple of women in a sewing fabric shop about my new sewing machine and how I was learning how to use it - my first). I was beginning to enjoy myself!

Today I went to a city not far away that I have never visited. I had regained my voice and although I did not think it brilliant I had the confidence to use it and avoided chest resonance so it was not overtly male. The city was a far less friendly place and I was visually gendered male quite a few times [maybe how I was dressed as, thinking back, I did stand out a bit], but at least my voice did not let me down

Tracy x

[Guest]

Good luck, Tracy...

[tracy_j]

Thank you Fiona

xx