After having achieved a decent voice in years, my voice is not too good again

[greeneyedpam]

Hi all!

I just wanted to share this and try find out if this has happened to anyone else.

I have been using my so-called female voice for more than three years now. In pitch, I have always done fine, always in the female range. But in resonance and most specially intonation, is where I totally suck. I used to sort of "put up an act" and exaggerate my inflection, sometimes sounding annoyingly nasal and fake, but I "passed" better as a female speaker.

Now, it seems my subconscious mind has gotten tired of this "act" I was putting, and I am back to my semi-monotone inflection.  That is, I talk between 200 and 240 Hz, my average being around 220. In notes, that's only about four notes! When I was putting up a huge fake effort to sound "singsongy" I'd say I may have been maybe 180-280 Hz in range, averaging around 230. That's a speaking range of around 8 notes, not so bad, but I got really tired of "faking it" so much when it comes to intonation. The singsonginess just doesn't come natural to me!

So now I sound very monotone, not singsongy or vivid at all. Also, my voice sounds different than a woman's, less "thin," it sounds much fuller, more like an adolescent guy (or a girl resembling a guy) in puberty or something like that IDK. My resonance is in the right place (the face mask) but I just can't sound "thin" like cis women do in general. I sound "thick" rather. And I hate it.

If anyone can tell me any tips to try force my subconscious mind to "feel comfortable" by speaking singsongy all the time and not feeling stupid or fake while doing that, and also any tricks to "thin out" one's voice to get rid of overtones or undertones, please do share your experience, thanks!

[Jani]

I don't have any good advice for forcing yourself to be comfortable with the voice you like.  Was there something you could point to that changed that made it harder to do?  I do believe you've hit upon the key point that a person must be comfortable when speaking otherwise it goes to the default voice.   Hopefully someone will come along that will have others points to consider.  Best of luck, 

 

Jani

[MarcieMarie12]

I am just getting over a major cold/flu. My voice went all over the place during the coughing and sneezing and conjestion. I try to use one word "anyway" as a word to key my voice to. I know how that word sounds in my head and that it sounds right to others. But as Jani pointed out, you need to be comfortable with the voice you develop. Both mentally and physically.