One of the more difficult aspect of gender transition is developing a feminine voice. Even with the most convincing physical appearance and movement many transgender women are outed the minute they open their mouths. Below you’ll find tips for developing your feminine voice, as well as some valuable resources.
How to Develop a Feminine Voice
Creating a feminine voice takes many hours of practice and hard work, but it is possible! It’s important to keep track of these four areas:
- Language user: Pay attention to how woman speak, the way we weave our words and how we are inclusive and encouraging. Direct, bland, ego-driven language is like putting up a sign over your head that says, “Imposter Alert! Male here!”
- Resonance: Men have a lower, heavier resonance that starts from their chest when speaking. Women have a lighter, free-er resonance that comes from the forward mouth. The air tingles the lips with a gentle buzz.
- Sparkle: Listen to men speak and you’ll hear a distant lack of pitch variation. They speak in a monotone using volume for emphasis. Women, on the other hand, use pitch for emphasis and regularly sparkle into a feminine ‘ping’.
- Pitch: By far the least important, pitch is how high or low your voice is. The typical female voice is A3, or 220Hz, but your voice can sound feminine even as low as E3 (165Hz) with the right resonance and sparkle.
Voice Femininity Training
I highly recommend the resources below as you continue your quest for the perfect feminine voice.
- Kathy Perez’s Voice Femininity Course: An excellent do it yourself course – the complete course may initially seem a bit pricey, but it’s less than a good outfit and will help you pass better than any article of clothing every could.
- Sandy Hirsch: Sandy is an excellent voice coach who has been working with transgender women for years. I’ve worked with her on my voice and have been very happy with the results. She offers training over Skype if you’re not in the Seattle area.