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Hey, friend. Want to change your voice? Well... you can - that's an option.
Your voice is much more malleable than you may realize. There are at least a dozen different dimensions that you can learn to control independently to change the sound of your voice. The way you talk right now is not your one "true" voice, it is a habit. A habit that can be changed, if you so choose.
I like to come at this challenge from two angles. One is to break down all the muscle movements involved and learn to manipulate them individually, through simple drills. The other is to listen to carefully selected example voices and learn to imitate them, intuitively. You will get results much faster by using both, as you do in this guide.
My approach to voice training is not a process of feminization. It is a journey in flexibility, to full fluency over the entire possibility space of your voice. This guide is aimed at those of you who are already comfortable in the masculine end of the spectrum. With the exercises I've gathered here, you will familiarize yourself with the feminine end - and everything in between.
Once you have gained complete freedom across your vocal range, you can choose exactly where you'd like to live - whether that is within one voice, or two. Or three. Masculine, feminine, or androgynous, young or old, human or cartoon. Any or all. It's up to you.
So now, listen to clip 1 to hear me demonstrate the eight most important elements for vocal feminization, gradually transforming a masculine voice into a feminine one. Then, listen to clip 2 to hear how they sound one at a time, in isolation. With practice, you can learn to do this too!
Most of the material in this guide can be traced back to the pioneering work of Zheanna Erose of TransVoiceLessons, as well as the excellent free tutorial videos at New York Vocal Coaching. Many thanks, also, to the Scinguistics community, and of course, all of you lovely people here on r/transvoice
I've organized this guide into four levels, from Foundations to Mastery, each split into three subsections. You could easily spend a month on each level - a week or two per subsection. But you don't have to master each subsection before moving on to the next. Just give yourself enough time to digest the material and get a feel for it, and then start the next subsection as soon as you no longer feel overwhelmed.
Ready? Let's begin.
Start by watching Video 1 for a really quick overview of the voice feminization process (and optionally, video 2 to learn more about the acoustic theory involved). Then watch video 3 for a breakdown of the vocal anatomy involved.
Your homework is to find a recording of a female speaking voice that you'd like to be able to imitate, that can serve as an inspiration and a point of reference. It doesn't have to be the one perfect, ultimate voice - just find one or two examples that seem pleasant and relatable. Think of female actresses or characters with nice voices, or YouTubers or podcast hosts you enjoy (search for "female youtubers" or "female podcast hosts" if you need some ideas). Mine is this podcast interview with Keon Saghari. Go ahead and use that if you can't decide on one right now!
Podcast Interview with Keon Saghari
Then start listening to it, at least a little bit every day. This will help you internalize the sounds and speech patterns of the voice that you like. And be on the lookout for new voices - if you find one you like better, start listening to that one instead!
Next you want to start strengthening and learning to control the muscles that raise your larynx (or voice box). This is how you shorten the length of your vocal tract, from your larynx to your lips, to match the proportions of a typical female vocal tract. Building these muscles will take a while, so we'll start with this first.
Watch video 1 and try the swallow-and-hold exercise. You want to touch your larynx (Adam's apple) lightly with your finger, and then yawn and feel it move down, and then swallow and feel it move up.
Once you have felt this a few times, watch video 2 and try the "big dog, small dog" exercise. If you're having trouble with the small dog, it can help to start yawning, to bring the larynx down, and then start to swallow to bring the larynx up, and then stick your tongue out like a dog panting and say "ahh" in a whisper to make sure you're not closing off your throat. Then watch video 3 and try the whisper siren exercise. You want to smoothly slide from a big dog "uhh" to a small dog "ehh" as your larynx slides upward. Again, place a finger or two lightly on your throat to feel your larynx move up and down.
Your homework is to practice the whisper siren for few minutes whenever you remember, throughout the day - say, whenever you go to the bathroom. It's almost silent, so you can do it anywhere and practice holding your muscles in place at the top (the high end of the siren, or the small dog) to build strength. Eventually, you want to learn to lift your larynx easily, without straining the muscles in your jaw and neck. As you get more comfortable with it, try to relax your neck a little bit more each time, until you can do it without tension.
Keep doing the previous exercises every day, but when you're ready for something more, you can start working on your pitch, or how high or low your voice is. Pitch is just one of many elements, and not even the most important, but it's probably the most well-known difference between the average male and female voice.
In addition to pitch, there are several registers that your voice will lock into at different points along your range, each with a different sound quality. Watch video 1 to hear the differences between a chest voice and a falsetto (and a mix voice, which is technically the same register as your chest voice, your modal register). Follow along with the warmups in video 2, and then try switching between the registers a few times, both singing and speaking.
Then download the Android app Vocal Pitch Monitor (or Vocal Pitch Monitor on iOS) and in the settings, change the Scale to F Major and check the box to Display frequency in Hz. With the app running, talk in your starting voice and see where your pitch falls, naturally. A typical male speaking voice will stay between F2 and F3 (which are marked by horizontal lines, since we set the Scale to F Major). Now try talking higher and higher in pitch, until your voice is in the female range, around F3 and above. Don't go higher than F4, though, or you'll sound like a cartoon character!
You might find that you start in your modal register when you're in the male range, but flip over into falsetto at some point in order to get into the female range. Or you might find that you have to strain and shout to get that high. If that happens, just go back down to the pitch where you can still speak comfortably in your modal register and don't worry about going higher for now.
Your homework is to set aside some time every day (say, half an hour) to warm up with the video above and then practice speaking in the female range (between F3 and F4) or as close as you can get without straining or going into a falsetto. You can just say random things that pop into your head, recite lines from memory, or read a book or reddit comments out loud, while keeping an eye on your pitch in Vocal Pitch Monitor.
It might sound terrible, but that's okay - the important thing is to get used to speaking in that range. Drink water throughout and take a break if you feel your voice getting strained or hoarse.