Session 0: Week 0 - Intro

———————————————————————–



so you probably have found a bunch of really technical pieces talking about biology and resonances and stuff, and its true that there are many smaller resonances that you can adjust to affect your voice, but most of those come naturally once you’ve practiced a bit and worked on the major resonance which is the larynx;



(Samantha Read was my voice therapist and she is amazing and kind and lovely and patient and I recommend her wholeheartedly if you ever come to wellington)



Session 1: week 1 - Larynx Stretches

———————————————————————–

to get better at controlling your larynx, you need to build up some strength in those muscles and stretch it out a bit. I blew bubbles.



basically, get a straw, fill a glass halfway, put the straw halfway in the water, and blow.



as you are blowing, start to hum



as you are humming, raise your pitch slowly until you can feel a tingling in your lips



this is the resonance you want!!

instead of resonating in your chest, you want to resonate in your head, and the lip tingling is the sign that you’re doing that



the exercises on that sheet are for increasing strength and flexibility of the larynx so you can achieve this resonance without hurting yourself. i did it for 10 minutes a day every day for two weeks before moving on to the next exercises.

Session 2: week 3 - Resonance With Words

———————————————————————–

the next step was to maintain this resonance without the bubbles;

I did these while I had a resonance generator running on my phone. I targetted 175hz based on how high I was comfortable humming after the two weeks of blowing bubbles, but at the end of my therapy I was closer to 200hz



humming while matching the resonance will help you get a feel for where your average pitch should be while talking

that was the first two sessions, and they were the biggest help for finding my femme voice



Session 3: week 7 - Baby Trans’ First Sentences

———————————————————————–

the third session was about actually making sentences, and it was about maintaining that resonance while speaking and modulating my pitch up and down, like the siren exercise;



I started saying the sentences at a flat pitch at the resonance I wanted, then i added the modulation and character to it. it feels really weird to talk like you’re going to church with the flat affect, but its useful at first for keeping the resonance.

Every day for a month, i went through that resonant voice exercise sheet three times;

once with a flat affect at the pitch I was targetting, as if i was at church doing a sermon (first it was 175Hz, then it was 200Hz when I realised I was comfortable going higher)

once with an exaggerated modulation, targetting the upper and lower limits of my femme voice range

once at a more realistic modulation, speaking comfortably

near the end of the month, I began working on intonation drills to add emphasis to words while keeping my target pitch. this is harder than it seems, and was really useful to help me add character and depth to my new voice.



Session 4: week 11 - Finishing Up



———————————————————————–



once you think you’ve got a voice you are happy with doing the exercises, there are some other things you can practice to help you;

3:15 pm • 16 August 2020 • 35 notes 1 month ago, #personal #trans #voice feminization