Why Am I Struggling to Feminize My Voice?

Written by: Laura Janzen / Transgender Voice / November 18, 2020 / 10 minutes read

Gender affirming voice care involves modifying different elements of a client’s voice to better reflect their gender identity and authentic self. When a transgender woman chooses to train her voice to sound more feminine, this process is called voice feminization. Deciding to change one’s voice is a personal choice. While voice feminization may be an important part of transitioning for some trans women, others do not feel the need to modify their voice at all and both experiences are equally valid. 

Although there are free voice feminization resources online, these can be frustrating and potentially damaging to the voice without feedback to ensure you are using effective techniques and training your voice in a healthy way. Clients who have been working on feminizing their voice at home, through YouTube videos or free online guides, often express that they are not getting their desired results and have therefor sought out professional guidance. 

Certain ways of attempting to sound more feminine are unsustainable, damaging to the vocal cords and/or simply will not lead to a passable feminine voice. Let’s explore some of the common mistakes and misunderstandings that can prevent someone from achieving a natural and sustainable feminine voice: 

1. Poor Vocal Hygiene

When beginning voice feminization, it is essential to have a healthy instrument to work with to achieve optimal results. Otherwise, it is like learning to play the piano with half the keys missing. Avoid yelling, harsh throat clearing/coughing and speaking over noise to prevent potential damage to the vocal cords. Additionally, be sure to warm up before practicing for a prolonged period of time and take breaks as needed. Gentle humming, pitch glides and lip trills are all good options for warming up as well as relaxing the vocal tract if things start feeling tense. Ensure you are staying well hydrated, limit vocally drying drinks like coffee and alcohol and limit smoking cigarettes or marijuana. 

2. Pushing Pitch Elevation

Pitch is undoubtedly part of the voice feminization process, as women have naturally higher speaking voices then men. However, when transgender women focus solely on increasing their pitch too high this can lead to an unnatural sounding voice. There are several reasons this may occur. They may be speaking in a falsetto voice in order to reach a higher pitch, which means the voice isn’t fully activated and therefor sounds thin and artificial. Another reason may be that although their pitch is in a feminine range, they are using dark, chest resonance rather than bright, forward, head resonance. Instead of trying to push the pitch ceiling, choose a “basement pitch” that you won’t go below and incrementally elevate that pitch target as your auditory memory and vocal muscles adapt.

While voice feminization may be an important part of transitioning for some trans women, others do not feel the need to modify their voice at all and both experiences are equally valid. 

3. Not Incorporating Intonation

Feminine speakers have more variable intonation patterns, meaning their pitch goes up and down a lot while speaking to mark emphasis. Generally, Masculine speakers tend to use volume to emphasize instead of pitch and stay within a smaller range of pitches. When feminizing the voice, another common mistake is elevating the pitch without also integrating rising and falling inflections to imitate feminine intonation. A monotone voice in the feminine range will lack the melodic, legato style of most feminine speakers and therefor sound unnatural.

4. Not Understanding Resonance

Resonance is the tone or “colour” of your voice. Resonance changes based on the size and shape of the instrument as well as the location of vibrations that flow through it. Forward, bright resonance, means feeling the vibrations of voicing in the front of mouth and in the facial bones, rather than in the throat or chest. This is also referred to as “mask resonance”. Bright resonance is also achieved by decreasing the length and volume of the vocal tract, so the sound has less space to vibrate in. One potential mistake people make is confusing resonance with nasality. This means when trying to achieve bright resonance they direct all of their air through the nose which results in a hypernasal voice. Another mistake when working on resonance is to simply be increasing pitch instead of using more forward resonance. 

5. Strain and Tension

When trying to achieve a higher pitch or brighter resonance, another common mistake is to strain and push when voicing. This occurs when additional muscles are enlisted and create a tight sounding voice. It is important to not constrict your throat as this will lead to a pinched voice quality and can also damage your voice. Squeezing when voicing can enlist the false vocal folds (a second thicker set of folds above the true vocal folds) which leads to a grainy and rough voice quality. This type of voicing can also lead to muscle tension dysphonia, a voice pathology resulting from speaking with the increased muscle activation and false fold constriction. 

All Voices Are Valid

There is no “right” or “wrong” way to find your authentic voice. There are, however, certain voicing techniques that may be unhealthy or frustrating because they aren’t achieving the results you want. If you are having trouble feminizing your voice at home and would like to speak to a registered speech-language pathologist about your voice goals, book an initial consultation today!

To speak with one of the speech-language pathologists at Well Said: Toronto Speech Therapy, schedule an initial consultation by clicking the link below or calling (647) 795-5277.