As part of transition, many trans people do voice training. But I think that everyone should do it.
Voice training is when you gain more awareness and control over the sound of your voice. There are many reasons why someone might want to do it.
I first started voice training because I did a lot of performing.
I did a lot of voice training on how to sound louder on stage. We did a lot of exercises on how to project better, and how to speak clearly.
I also did voice training on how to sing less shitly. We did a bunch of musical comedy, so the goal wasn’t to sound good. We just didn’t want to be painful to listen to, that’s all.
And I also did voice training on how to modify your voice to sound like different characters. We learned lots of tricks for how to transform your voice without too much thought. It was really funny.
In fact, all of these exercises were really funny. You had to say all sorts of silly things. It would have been embarrassing if it didn’t make everyone laugh so much.
And it worked! I got a lot better at all three things. And now I find it easy to slip into a completely silly chilled out voice over voice.
Later on, I started voice training again for a different reason. I wanted to be able to make my voice sound less manny. I wanted to be able to make it sound a bit more feminine.
So I binge watched the entire TransVoiceLessons youtube channel and started practising.
In one of the videos, the host tells you that “mindset is the most important thing” when it comes to voice training. And at first I thought “that can’t be right”.
Anyway, time went on, and I kept practising, but it always felt so awkward. It was very embarrassing to try out the exercises, only to fail, and sometimes backfire, making my voice sound even worse. So I stopped.
But then I remembered! The heat from fire lady was right! I failed because I didn’t have a good mindset.
And then I remembered the voice training I used to do for performing. Yes it was embarrassing, but we were always laughing through it. It was funny and fun, and it felt like a game.
So I had another go at voice training, and this time I made sure that it was fun.
Over the years, I’ve gotten better at controlling my voice, and things have started to become habitual. I now find it hard to speak like I used to.
But the funny thing is… I haven’t changed my voice that much. Just a tiny bit.
No, the much bigger change is that I now have more ownership over my voice. Before, I felt trapped. I was stuck with the voice I had. But now, I feel empowered. I speak like this because I want to speak like this, not because I have to speak like this. And if I ever want to change, I can.
I think it’s great to be able to ask yourself: “What do I want to sound like?” and then have ownership over that.
I think people would be happier, and I think boundaries would be broken on what people can and can’t sound like.
So, yeah… have a think…
If you could choose, what would you sound like?
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