how to develop a female voice | part 2 | Tara's Transgender Resources

The main difference between a male and female voice is pitch. Don't believe anyone who says pitch isn't important!

Males have deeper voices due to longer and thicker vocal cords. It's like the difference between a flute and an oboe. If pipe diagram

you picture your vocal cords as a pipe (diagram on left) pipe B will make a higher pitched sound than pipe A, since pipe B is shorter. This is what you want to accomplish with your throat by tightening your vocal cords. You want to move the resonance out of your chest and lower throat and up into your nasal passages and head.

Try this: place your index finger just above your Adam's apple and your middle finger just below it. Now speak in your normal voice. You should feel vibration under both your fingers. Now tighten your throat, raise your pitch and try to make your voice resonate from just your upper throat. You should now feel vibration mainly under your index finger. Don't be discouraged if your pitch doesn't sound natural at first—it'll rise over time with practice.

I recommend two techniques to raise your pitch: first is emitting an audible sigh—like a big yawn—in the highest pitch you can go without breaking into falsetto. In other words, take a breath and say "Haaaa" in as high a pitch as you can without breaking into falsetto. This technique is taught to singers.

The second is deliberately going into falsetto and sliding down into a pitch that feels comfortable. If your voice cracks or breaks that's OK -- your throat isn't accustomed to using the upper vocal cords exclusively.

Now playback your recording. Sounds horrible, doesn't it? That's OK! You have to start somewhere. Could you learn to play the piano in one lesson?

Marilyn Monroe (bless her soul) had the classic sexy, breathy voice . Breathiness begins by whispering. In other words, pretend you're whispering something into your best girlfriend's ear. You may be thinking, "No one will hear me if I whisper all the time!" That might be true in group situations or when speaking in front of an audience, but one-on-one you can speak with enough volume and still keep a whispering quality. Over time your volume will increase.

People are used to women having softer voices. Don't over do it though, talking with too much breathiness can make you sound like a drag queen! When I was developing my voice and talking on the phone sometimes people would ask if I'd just woken up. I didn't have the right balance of breathiness compared to the other components.

In the beginning it's OK to over-do the techniques. You may think you sound funny -- ignore that and keep practicing.

Men tend to slur words and not speak as clearly as women; probably due to having louder voices, so they don't have to enunciate as clearly. For example, a man would say,"Gonna go-da Tom's house 'n' watch the game." Whereas a woman would say, "I'm going to visit Mary. We're going to do each other's hair." A good way to learn to enunciate is to read something and over e-nun-ci-ate each word. This will sound overdone, but you're breaking the male pattern of slurring words. Find your pitch and read a few paragraphs from your reading material and o-ver e-nun-ci-ate ev-er-y word.

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