Your voice is an important part of your image as a trans woman or crossdresser. Even if you rarely go out in public as a woman, there will be times when you’ll need to speak to someone.
You want to be the whole pretty package, right? Having a voice that’s congruent with your image is a big part of that.
In this post, I’ll share 5 common voice feminization mistakes that can hold you back from achieving a natural, “passable” female voice.
1. Speaking Too Deeply
No surprise here, but the deeper your voice, the more masculine it will sound.
How do you know if your voice is too deep? Your best option is to use a frequency tuner to measure the pitch of your voice. Here are the typical frequency ranges for masculine and feminine voices:
- Male voices typically range from 100-150 Hz
- Female voices typically range from 175-250 Hz
The good news is that you can easily measure the pitch of your voice by using a frequency tuner app on your phone. Here are a couple free apps for both iOS and Android:
2. Speaking In Falsetto
Trying to mask a deep voice by speaking in an unnaturally high voice – otherwise known as falsetto – isn’t good, either. Speaking this way doesn’t make you sound like a woman, it makes you sound like Minnie Mouse.
While you do want to raise the pitch of your voice, you never want to go too high. Again, a frequency tuner is invaluable for helping you find your correct range.
3. Whispering
If you are self conscious about your voice, you may try to compensate by speaking more softly.
However, lowering the volume of your voice doesn’t make you sound more feminine, it just makes it impossible to hear you.
4. Upswinging Your Sentences
Women naturally have more “melodic intonation” to their voices. In other words, they are more animated when they speak.
Some crossdressers and transgender women make the mistake of trying to imitate this by “upswinging” their voices at the end of every sentence.
Upswinging your voice tends to make each sentence sound like a question. The result is that you sound like a stereotypical Valley Girl, which is probably not the type of woman you want to emulate.
5. Pinching Your Voice
One of the reasons that men have deeper, richer voices than women is because they have a larger “throat space.”
If you try to compensate for your deeper voice by constricting your throat, the result will sound pinched. Think Pee Wee Herman or Kermit the Frog. Again, this is something you will want to avoid.
Avoiding these mistakes is the first step towards achieving a passable feminine voice
It’s easy to go wrong in your attempts to feminize your voice. The good news is that you CAN achieve a passable feminine voice with the right tools and strategy.
That’s why I’m so excited to share my new course, Vocal Feminization for Beginners: 30 Day Transformation!
Taught by opera singer and vocal coach Lera Sonzogni, this easy-to-follow program will teach you the basics of achieving a feminine voice in just 30 days.
Learn more about Vocal Feminization for Beginners here!
Love,
Lucille
P.S. Before you go, be sure to take my voice feminization poll below. I’d love to know how important this issue is for you, along with your thoughts on the topic!
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It take a lot of work and practice but I finally got it with the help of a voice coach…
Rochelle you look great. With the right voice you will have it made.
Good luck, Love Roxanne
Thank You very much , I do have a lot of fun going out…
Downloaded Pano Tuner after reading your post Lucilla and it was really helpful for finding the right pitch. For me the voice isn´t terrible important, since I am a crossdresser (not a transsexual) and have stopped trying to pass as a female in public. However sometimes when I am more in girl mode I still like the feeling of sounding cute when I talk, and then I sometimes unconcious or concious raises my pitch a bit… I was delighted to find out with Pano Tuner that my voice just needed a little adjustment to go from the male pitch to the female pitch.
I have been called “ma’am” on the phone whenever I talk, so I guess I wouldn’t have that far to go. Is there something that will work on my laptop instead of the iPhone, or maybe an MP3 file for the iPod? That would be great!
Still going through the Stepping out Secrets Program. It’s a massive amount of info, and I really recommend it.
Lucille can you suggest a good free tuner programme for pc’s , cause I dont have Ipod and android :))
I have never mastered it.
I feel almost tone deaf.
My doctors have held back for voice
Therapy.
This is not just frustration but more
Traumatic every time I open my mouth.
Sorry to hear that Becky! Why have your doctors held back on voice therapy? I’m sure you could experience improvement if you worked with a speech pathologist specifically trained in voice feminization.
have downloaded the datunerlite but unsure how to use it
I agree with Denise. Manage to walk in heels,use make up effectively but still self
conscious when it comes to speaking.
Voice has to be the biggest challenge –even more difficult than a feminine walk and presence.