My recent Instagram post about my voice was as long as I could make it from a text and video perspective, yet I still feel like I barely scratched the surface of this complicated subject. So much can be said about this topic, and it is my goal in writing this blog post to educate both trans and cis individuals on the process and the benefits of voice coaching (as I have come to understand them). Note that while I sought out voice coaching for my own transition, this is not to say that all transwomen seek the same goals or the same methods in changing their voice. Everyone needs to find their own path and their own journey to determine what is right for them.

As I have stated in a prior post of mine, once a voice is deepened by testosterone there is nothing that feminizing hormone therapy can do to raise your voice. The only methods to feminize your voice are through voice feminization therapy (VFS) or through the slow but steady process of manipulating your own voice to sound more feminine. While in the beginning this task may seem impossible and insurmountable, please believe me that it is definitely possible, and it boils down to the training of various muscle groups in your vocal cords to change certain aspects of your voice.

Backstory / YouTube self practice

To offer some of my personal backstory, my vocal transition started around the summer of 2017. I was out to only one other person at this time and I was struggling to find the strength to tell anyone else. In the meantime, I figured I could make steps in other directions until that happened (namely changing my voice and working on my hair growth/hair care). I then began to look into some online videos relating to MtF voice techniques as an early start before I could find a more solid alternative. My personal favorites were this series by Caroland with some basic techniques, and this video by Charlie Martin on finding your female voice. Check out their other videos too! They are super helpful and I absolutely love their perspectives.

In the first video of the series by Caroland, she discusses vocal training techniques similar to those used by singers to warm up their voice and work on their range. In the case of feminizing your voice, nothing is more important than warming up your voice and performing these various exercises before you practice speaking with some very different muscle groups than you are used to using. I would work through the techniques for hours, making all of the funny sounds she describes in the videos to ensure I was as comfortable as possible speaking in a higher pitch. I would then proceed to (as she describes) count from 1 – 100 and back down again literally dozens to hundreds of times over the next few months.

You may not think this is doing much, but there is definitely a benefit in doing these simple techniques (such as counting) because it enables you to focus on simply “how” to say those numbers, while avoiding thinking of also “what” to say. When you are working on your feminine voice, in a lot of ways it is like working on a new language and speech pattern. It requires you to have to think about how to say something, and the less thought or pressure put on thinking of what you are saying makes it all the easier to practice the “how”

I would eventually move from repeating these numbers over and over to speaking and reading the various signs I saw along my 45 minute commute. Eventually when I got more comfortable, I was able to speak in longer monologues to myself and simply speak until I lost my train of thought. It was all nonsense at the time, but that doesnt matter, the important part is that I was practicing.

Finding a Speech Therapist

Despite all of this practice and slow progress, I couldn’t help but feel like I was practicing the wrong techniques and reinforcing bad habits because I may not have known any better. I wanted desperately to meet with a speech therapist to ensure that I was focusing on the right aspects of changing my voice, that I wasn’t just raising my pitch and also that I wouldn’t end up hurting my voice over time from incorrect practicing/use.

I spoke with my therapist (who is involved with the Mazzoni Center in Philly) and she referred me to this clinic at Temple University’s Speech – Language – Hearing center. Essentially, the clinic is for the benefit of the students in the speech program to assist them with getting real-life practical experience working with someone in need of voice services. In exchange, they offer the benefits of this program to local transwomen at absolutely no charge to them! And as an added benefit, the recordings of the sessions are reviewed by the director of this program and she provides targeted advice and guidance for each student to help you get the best results possible. This really is a win-win-win for the school, the students, and the transwomen they assist!

Temple University TG Voice Clinic

Heading into the clinic, my two main goals were to have a voice that:

1. Sounded feminine, and

2. Was a voice that matched my body/appearance

I didn’t just want a female sounding voice, I wanted it to be MY voice. This was a very subjective goal and it took a lot of tweaking and refinement over time to achieve. For reference, I’ll include a clip of my baseline voice which is how I sounded for the majority of my life.

Within the clinic, they focused on various aspects of my voice with the express goal of feminizing each one. These aspects include the below:

(Note that the below are included for informational purposes. These techniques are not to say that all are required or necessary to sound feminine, or even that sounding feminine is a requirement of being a woman. They are included for reference to assist those that wish to learn from them).

Pitch – this is the frequency at which your voice is vibrating (in Hz), essentially it is the “highness” or “lowness” of how your voice sounds. Males are generally in the 80 – 150 Hz range, Females are from 175 – 250 Hz, and the range in between is more androgynous. Before my voice coaching (in the baseline clip above), my voice sat around 88 Hz. After one semester I was able to maintain it at around 185 Hz, currently it is likely closer to 165 Hz. Although this is technically in the androgynous range, I do not mind (for reasons explained below). The other aspects of my female voice help to compensate for a deeper voice, and I find solace knowing that plenty of cis women have deeper voices as well.

Resonance – this is where you voice resonates or vibrates from. Males generally have their voice resonate in the chest area which is why they usually sound more boomy, females have their voice resonate in their nose & mouth area (called the “head space”). To manually adjust where your voice resonates from involves the training and exercising of different muscle groups in your throat.

Breathy Voice – females usually speak and breath more in their stomach (vs their chest). This allows for a nice, long speech pattern characterized by soft flowing words. In its most exaggerated form, think of Marilyn Monroe singing Happy Birthday to JFK.

Intonation – this includes the cadence of the words that you use to speak, it is the natural rise and fall of your voice over patterns of speech. Men usually indicate exaggeration or inflection using more or less volume and have about 3 typical tones used in speaking. Women typically speak with more of what is called a “sing songy” voice, including numerous changes not in volume but in pitch to indicate inflection in speech. When I was starting out it was tough to speak with inflection. My voice sounded robotic or monotone a lot of the time, and it took practice to ensure that I was speaking with the standard American speech/intonation pattern of “Walk-Jump-Step-Fall” (say out loud “the cat is fat” or “I went to the store today” and take note of how your speech rises and falls naturally).

Body Language – with a majority of your speech being body language and not actual speech, this was a surprisingly crucial aspect to ensure I was working on. My voice coach asked me to come up with a list of about 10 things that women do when expressing themselves other than using their voice. I was able to get at least 12 – 15! I won’t include them here below, simply take note of the many women in your life when they talk and try to make your own list. Incorporating every single one of these aspects is not practical, nor is it effective, doing so would make you seem like a caricature of a woman in my opinion and would not appear natural. Simply incorporate the ones you feel are most natural to you when you speak and it will all fall into place over time.

With all that being said, below is a clip of my voice after one semester of 10 one-hour long sessions (Winter 2018). I felt as if my voice sounded feminine enough to me, but just didn’t sound right. It didn’t sound like it matched my appearance. Given how low my male voice originally was, I felt as if my female voice should be a bit lower on the spectrum too. This was tough to come to terms with – I originally wanted a higher-pitched voice but it just didn’t match and seemed like I was forcing it.

I attended voice coaching for one additional semester of 10 – 12 sessions. We worked on the same techniques but with more refinement over the various aspects of my voice. I felt like this semester was way more productive than the first one, primarily due to the fact that I had gone full time in between these semesters. The issue with the first semester and being part time was I felt as if all of the progress I had worked so hard to achieve during the classes had been undone during the week when I would go to work and use my male speaking voice all day. Once you go full time, literally all day every day is an opportunity to practice and refine your brand new voice.

Additionally, during this second semester I had what can only be described as an epiphany with regards to modifying my resonance. I had been struggling to master this technique in the first semester and I think the problem was that I was focusing too much on how I thought it should sound, and not enough on how it should feel. When I took a step back, ignored the sound of my voice (including pitch), and just focused on feeling the vibrations of my voice then it was SO much easier to know when I was or was not speaking with a forward “head space” resonance.

Moving Forward

Once the sessions ended I felt very confident with my speaking voice and it only required some fine tuning which I would naturally obtain in using my voice all day every day. It has now been an entire year since the completion of my classes and I feel very confident using my female voice. I rarely (if ever) get misgendered when talking on the phone and it just feels so amazing to have a voice that matches my body.

Lastly, I’d like to show a video of me saying the same phrase as the above clips just one short year after my coaching lessons! I’m very happy with my results and I can’t recommend voice coaching enough for those of you that can’t afford or are too afraid of the surgery.

It is now one of my missions to spread the benefits of voice coaching/voice therapy and I truly believe that this clinic was an absolute live saver and helped to change my life for the better. I have since been involved in a few stories, one with Philly Voice and another with WHYY, to help spread the news about this wonderful Temple University program with the hope that every university with a speech graduate degree will adopt the clinical TG voice program Temple University provides.

I tried to be as all-encompassing with regards to my process and my research as I could in the above post, but by all means if you have any further questions please do not hesitate to comment below and I’ll make sure to answer you!

Thank you for reading!

-Erica❤️