I can make all the sounds, but maintaining a feminine tone is still pretty hit-or-miss. Since I spend all day at work talking to my team online, I figured it would be good to use that time for voice practice. (I’m already out, so hopefully they won’t think I’m going insane)
I’ve been slowly pushing the pitch up over the past few weeks to avoid straining, and with a pitch tracker going it looks like I’m sitting at around 150 Hz right now (for reference I usually aim for 200 Hz when training, which I can comfortably manage for short periods). Not quite target pitch, but at least I’m not dropping out of the androgynous range too often. End-of-day huskiness is slowly getting better but my resonance is all over the place.
Anyway, how do you all get your practice hours in? Any fun anecdotes? I’m still in awe of all the trans women on Youtube with perfectly passable voices.
Pitch actually doesn’t matter too much. Like others in this thread have said, resonance is way more important.
For example, it’s actually really difficult for me to talk in my old voice, because I haven’t used it in such a long time. While I can get the pitch down if I try hard enough, I can’t do the same for my resonance, so my voice still sounds somewhat feminine even when I’m talking in a low pitched voice.
I never practiced for a set amount of time. I’d just do it kind of randomly whenever I felt like it. Usually I would practice at night when I was having trouble sleeping, but I’d sometimes do it while driving as well.
Also random hot tip: Have a word that you can say really well in your feminine voice that can be worked into any sentence, such as um or like, because then you can use it to recalibrate when you feel your feminine voice starting to falter.
Just as you say - if I concentrate I can (sometimes) get a really good bright sound, but maintaining it is going to take a lot of practice so I can do it without thinking. I like the idea of a “reset” word; I’m going to try that going forward.
Something you might benefit from is practicing with an “increased cognitive load” - basically doing something that uses your brain while also speaking. It can be difficult at first, but eventually, it helps with being able to use your voice without thinking about it.