Originally posted as a tweet thread.
One of the most common things I get told by trans femme students is:
“I don’t want a high pitched, breathy, quiet voice.”
Why do I get told this so often?
Because most trans voice training is delivered from a binary, stereotyped perspective. But it doesn’t have to be!
I believe knowing what you do want is more important in many ways than what you don’t want.
I know thinking about your own voice can be hard when you’ve got dysphoria, so here’s something else to try to start:
Listen to voices you like & describe what it is you like about them.
You don’t have to know technical voice terms to do this!
Try describing what you hear using textures, colours, movements, shapes, emotions, tastes, places, memories.
Don’t worry if you’re not sure how to translate this into voice stuff – just note down whatever comes to mind.
Try to do this with a few different voices – I’ve had students tell me names of celebs, youtubers, game characters – any voice you like the sound of!
Once you’ve done a few descriptions, it’s possible you’ll start to see some similarities across the various voices.
Now you can start exploring what it is that makes you think of those words.
Here’s some ideas to listen for:
- Pitch inflections
- Vowel, word & sentence lengths
- Pauses
- Volume use
- How they articulate consonants
- Thinker/filler sounds
Then try out some of these things yourself!
If you’d be interested in attending a pay-what-you-can online workshop exploring this sort of thing in more depth, let me know, I’ve got one in the works!
You can also find me on Patreon: http://patreon.com/NonBinaryCreative… If you want to tip me for this thread: http://paypal.me/beckishort