Written by: Laura Janzen / Transgender Voice / September 22, 2021 / 10 minutes read

“I want to sound like a woman” “I want to pass” “I want to be gendered correctly based on my voice” 

These are goals many transgender women and gender non-conforming clients verbalize to me during their initial consultation. It’s important to unpack these statements and realize that there is no one “feminine” voice. Gender is a social construct and therefore, “gendered” voice is also a construct. With this in mind, instead of “voice feminization”, I will refer to this work as “voice modification”. When modifying your voice, first you have to understand the different elements at play in how a voice will sound. Next, you have to explore these features of voice to determine what you want your authentic voice to sound like. 

We can divide the elements of voice modification into 2 main buckets.

1. How the sound is produced

2. How the sound is modified 

Let’s begin by covering how you can change the way a sound is produced. This bucket includes: pitch, vocal fold mass and breath support.

This is one of the most obvious difference between masculine and feminine voices, although in my experience, it is actually not the most important piece when feminizing a voice. In general, women speak in a higher range than men. However, many feminine speakers are below this typical range, and yet they are still gendered correctly. We will get to why this happens when we explore how a sound is modified. 

In addition to the habitual pitch of a voice, we also look at how the pitch moves around in speech. This feature of voice is referred to as intonation. Feminine speakers have more dramatic jumps in pitch compared to masculine speakers who tend to remain within a limited range.

A sound can be produced with a thin vocal fold configuration or a thick vocal fold configuration. The singing world would label these different states as vocal registers, where a thicker configuration is termed “chest voice” and a thinner configuration is termed “head voice”. When feminizing the voice, it is important to be able to modify the “weight” of the voice to access this “head voice” register. Trying to elevate your pitch while using a thick vocal fold configuration will lead to strain and it will sound buzzy and heavy. Once you can access the thinner voice, it will sound lighter and smoother.

In any type of voice therapy, breath support is a key element to consider. If a client is not releasing air when speaking, this will limit their ability to modify their voice in a healthy way. Some bad habits include breath holding and squeezing the muscles around the glottis when speaking. Allowing the voice to flow on the breath will allow a client to increase pitch without strain, access the head voice register and allow for more efficient voicing. When breath is released evenly and effectively, the voice will sound rich and smooth. When breath is not being used effectively, the voice can sound tight, strained and rough. 

If you want to learn more about breath support when speaking, Well Said offers a free “Breathing for Communication” course that covers this topic in depth.

Now,  let’s talk about sound modification. Once a sound is created, it is then modified based on the size and shape of the cavity that it travels through. This is where we dive into the mysterious and often misunderstood concept of resonance.

The most basic way to explain this concept, is that a sound played in a smaller space will have a “brighter” resonance and a sound played in a bigger space will have a “darker” resonance. Cis women typically have smaller vocal tracts and mouths than trans women. If a client’s goal is to “pass” when speaking, resonance is arguably the most important feature of voice modification. A high pitch will sound hollow and unnatural if it’s resonating in a big space. This is one of the most common mistakes when trying to feminize a voice. So, let’s take a look at the different ways to change the shape of your instrument to brighten your voice! 

1. Tongue placement: Keeping your tongue in a more forward and high position when creating vowels will make the space in the mouth smaller. This is because the tongue is occupying more space in the mouth and thus the sound has less space to resonate in. 

2. Lip spreading: Spreading the lips into a slight smile while speaking will reduce the length of the vocal tract and produce a brighter sound

3. Larynx elevation: This is a technique which has not been researched thoroughly but it is a very popular technique amongst the trans community. The theory is that when you raise your larynx (aka your voice box) the length of the vocal tract is decreased, once again reducing the amount of space the sound will resonate in. 

This is not an exhaustive list of the elements at play in voice modification, but in my experience, these are the most important for being correctly gendered based on your voice. An additional element for how the sound is produced would include the style of speaking. Feminine speakers tend to have longer vowel durations, and connect their words while speaking. Another factor for how a sound is modified would be how consonants are articulated. Feminine speakers tend to use light touches on these sounds, leading to a more “delicate” way of speaking. 

Every client is different, and the elements of a voice that are important to one person may not matter at all to another person. This is why play and exploration are so important when modifying your voice. We are not trying to make you sound “like a woman”, trans women ARE women. What we are doing, is gaining control and understanding of the elements that make up a voice and experimenting with them until you find a voice that sounds like YOU. Of course, this journey can be confusing and frustrating when you aren’t making progress towards your ideal voice. If you are struggling to modify your voice, book an initial consultation so you can begin to find your true, authentic voice.

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.