- Here are some links to
sites that have useful information for practicing and developing that
passable voice you've been hoping for..
| Melanie
Anne Philips |
Melanie Anne has a very
good site dealing with voice training. She also produces a video which
outlines the techniques on her site. |
| Andrea
James |
Andrea has been through it all and
certainly knows what she is talking about. I like her no-nonsense
approach to all aspects of TS/TG issues. |
| Amy |
Some good information, and a
slightly different approach |
| TS
Voice |
A whole website devoted to this
subject. Lots of samples of before and after voices - which show the
kind of progress that can be made with perserverance. |
| Looking
Glass Society. |
A U.K. based group with some good
pointers on technique. |
Here is a piece that I thought was
particularly useful. I wish I knew who the originator of
this piece was, I would love to give them credit...
There are really three important
steps necessary to developing a female voice, conditioning, vocalization, and
dynamic range.
- Conditioning.
- Conditioning exercises the throat
muscles to a point where a female resonance can be obtained without
significant effort. In the conditioning phase I read aloud from a book in as
high a pitch voice as I could for about five minutes. This high pitch is a
very high falsetto. This is the most critical element to the whole thing. If
you sustain speaking in a high falsetto voice long enough, enough times, you
will eventually be able to come very close to obtaining a true female voice.
Practice high pitched voices in different ranges.
- DO NOT LEAVE OUT THIS STEP!
For the next five minutes I tried to
hold as convincing a female voice as long as I could. Whilst the falsetto
voice is the primary conditioning voice, other voices aid in developing more
range.
The first day I did this for 15
minutes and my throat was sore afterwards. I eventually worked my way up to
four 15 minute sessions a day. This was too much, and I would not recommend
doing this for more than two 15 minute sessions a day. For the first few weeks
conditioning and practicing caused discomfort, and cleared mucus from my
throat causing dryness. After practicing for about 6 weeks I had neither
discomfort nor dryness in practice, or when using my female voice.
Even though I now have a convincing
female voice, I still condition every day. Eventually I do not think it will
be necessary, but I am still working to improve my voice.
The conditioning phase is the most
critical. It took me four weeks before I could really work on phase 2,
vocalization.
Reading from a book is valuable for
training those throat muscles, but I found that real conversation was
necessary to be able to speak with any credibility. I began talking to an
imaginary listener. This was difficult at first, but eventually I could talk
to my imaginary listener until she fell asleep.
- Vocalization.
- Holding conversations with my
imaginary listener really helped to build confidence in my voice, but I was
still having trouble with dynamic range. In these conversations I was afraid
to make the pitch go high or low because my voice would break up. Singing
old folk songs like "She’ll Be Comin’ Round The Mountain"
really helped. At first my singing voice sounded really terrible, but now it
sounds pretty good, and does not break up even when singing.
I was able to produce a believable
female voice after four weeks of effort, but it took me six weeks to feel
confident about using my voice in conversation to an unsuspecting public.
Having a nice fem voice has actually
made me want to have people talk to me when I go out dressed up in public.
It’s a great feeling to be able to have a convincing female voice.
Developing a female voice has not altered my male voice in any way. My female
voice does not come as naturally to me as does my male voice, but I can use it
with a minimal amount of thought. I can speak, laugh, sing, and even clear my
throat in my female voice.
There were a couple of minor things
that seemed to help me set the tone besides those which have already been
mentioned. Vocalizing numbers really helped me to develop a feel for how to
set the voice when initiating a conversation. Holding a partially empty bottle
with the opening near my lips while reading helped me to control my breathing
while I was speaking.
You may feel a little foolish
practicing these voices at first, but when you start to make real progress you
will be glad you did. I am not claiming to be some expert, I am just reporting
what has worked remarkably well for me.
Think of developing a female voice
like learning how to juggle. Most people cannot just pick up three bean bags
and start juggling. It takes practice. With enough practice most people can
learn how to juggle, some can even juggle chain saws. If you use the methods I
have outlined here you too will have a female voice.
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