There are so many nuances when it comes to trans voice training, it’s both comical and ridiculous. To help you with understanding what’s what, here’s a quick reference guide with a bunch of helpful tips aimed at helping you to get a better understanding of how to support yourself through voice training. 

• Watch how long you’re practicing for as more isn’t better. I typically recommended practicing for 30 minutes a day, yep, that’s it. This is because when were working to feminize or masculinize the voice, we’re working with very delicate and fragile muscles and the chances of ‘over doing it’ are high and when this happens we risk vocal injury which needless to say, we don’t want.

• Split up your practice! Practicing 30 minutes a day in one big chunk is great but do you know what’s better? Splitting it up into smaller chunks throughout the day. The reason for this is that not only is developing muscle/ muscle control important, but so is developing vocal habits. How you’ve been speaking for most of your life is purely habitual, you do it without even thinking about it, so if you’re practicing in lots of little chunks you’re giving your brain more opportunities to relearn and adapt.

• If you need a quick and dirty method to feminize the voice fast, let’s say when answering the phone, gasp. When you gasp you will likely feel the soft palate raise up, now once you do try to keep in there and this change in space will assist you in feminizing your voice. 

• Don’t underestimate the power of the breath, it’s truly the foundation of the voice. We need strong airflow passing over the vocal folds in order to effectively develop the resonance.

• Placement of the tongue matters. A more forward placement is typically associated with a feminine pitch and it refers to the tongue’s position when it’s positioned closer to the front of the mouth, often near the teeth or lips. This is used for sounds like /t/, /d/, /n/, and sometimes /s/ and /z/. The opposite is true for masculinization where a backwards placement is key, this is felt most commonly for the sounds like /k/, /g/, the “ng” sound, and vowels like /u/ and /o/.

• Don’t underestimate the limiting properties of muscle tension. Our muscles are a complex web, and tension in one part of that web can tug on another. For example, tension originating in the pelvis can travel through the body and ultimately restrict the delicate movements of the vocal muscles, affecting the voice.

• Be mindful of what your tongue is doing. The position of your tongue can hugely affect your vocal resonance. For instance a higher/ more forward tongue position brightens the voice whereas a lower/ more pulled back position darkens the voice. 

• Don’t underestimate Vocal Health/ Hygiene. There many factors that can erode the quality of our vocal tissues through causing dehydration, irritation and inflammation. When ignored, the voice won’t be afraid to tell you that it’s unhappy. So make sure to be drinking plenty of water and to avoid vocal irritants as best as you can. 

• Vocal warmups are important, do them! Warming up is crucial for both voice feminization and masculinzation and well, all vocal activities as it prepares your vocal folds (which are muscles), for new and potentially strenuous use. Just like physical warm-ups prevent muscle injury, vocal warm-ups reduce strain and the risk of hoarseness or damage. They also improve vocal flexibility and control, increasing range and making subtle changes in pitch, resonance, and intonation easier to achieve. Additionally, warm-ups help release tension in the neck and shoulders, promoting a more relaxed and natural sound while improving breath control, which is essential for a steady voice.

• I know it’s convenient but please stop practicing vocal exercises while driving. When you’re focused on driving, you’re not focused on what the voice is precisely doing, and that is a problem because without that focus you will likely be inadvertently practicing a voice that you don’t necessarily want. Furthermore, while driving, think of your posture, you’re tense, your arms are forward and gripping the steering wheel, you’re looking around at all times, all these things create tension in the body and these things can easily start to creep into the voice if you’re not careful.

• This sort of ties back to muscle tension but be wary of stress as it can trigger a whole host of problems when it comes to the voice. Stress tightens up the muscles, sometimes you feel that tension and sometimes you don’t. Regardless of what you feel you can trust that if you’ve been under stress lately, it will be impacting your voice so make sure to stretch out and loosen up before practice. Make extra sure to try to release your neck, jaw, clavicle, shoulders and back muscles.

• Where you practice matters too. Always practice where your spine is properly supported eg. while standing or sitting in an office/ dining chair. Places to practice that are no go’s include being on the couch, bed and anywhere soft and comfy. The reason for this is that these places causes the spine to collapse which causes muscle tension and breath support issues to suddenly arise.

• When working to feminize the voice be careful that you’re not restricting your own volume and thereby reducing the amount of breath needed in order to vocalize properly. This will create tension in the vocal tract and lead to an unnatural sounding voice. 

• Play with the voice, experiment and have fun! There is no one size fits all approach to voice work and this is because no two voices are exactly alike, from the vocal structure, to how and where the voice resonates to the lip, mouth and facial expressions, there’s an endless amount of combinations so play around with the exercises, the movements and the smaller things. You’ll be surprised what a difference it can make! 

Transitioning is complicated hopefully with these trans voice training tips, it's a little less so. If going about voice training yourself is proving to be frustrating and overly complicated don't be afraid to hit me up at https://www.voicebykylie.com/contact

Till’ next time,

Kylie