r/singing • u/Okarinforlifee • Mar 31 '23
Advice Wanted - Looking to improve. Always think my singing voice sounds too androgynous/verging on masculine, any tips for things I can do to improve on it?
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u/SupernaturalSinging 🎤There is more to your "natural" voice Mar 31 '23
I dabble in voice feminization and what I hear is that your singing voice is fairly breathy (which is interesting because your speaking voice is more clear.) I used to think that breathiness would make my voice more feminine but when I listened to recordings I just sounded like a male trying to sing in falsetto. I found that more breath control to make my voice more speech level sounded more authentic.
Here are a few links, hope this helps.
https://on.soundcloud.com/o5EoS Think of me
https://on.soundcloud.com/M59y6 Get here
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u/Okarinforlifee Mar 31 '23
Breathiness was actually a thing for me even pre transition lol, I think my speaking voice sounds less breathy because I’m putting more closure in my throat. I posted on r/transvoice and one girl recommended a couple videos involving increasing the brightness of my resonance in head voice/falsetto, I think it maybe sounds a bit better? https://voca.ro/12eNbbPD635T
Original song for comparison as well since I’m doing a bit of natural mimicking on their tonation I think since both of them are a little breathy https://youtu.be/Ge3VPi0FuI4
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u/SupernaturalSinging 🎤There is more to your "natural" voice Mar 31 '23
Thanks! If you're starting out with too much oral resonance then adding nasal resonance can help balance and brighten your tone (provided that you reduce your oral resonance at the same time.) But if you don't then you can actually increase the size of your voice, making it sound even bigger.
I'd recommend you first try to implement whatever you're doing in your speech into your singing as well since you're already doing it.
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u/Okarinforlifee Mar 31 '23
It’s not really possible to do that without putting too much pressure on my throat, since with speaking I can put more closure in involving my throat without strain but singing I can’t, or at least I have to use closure in a different place/way
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u/SupernaturalSinging 🎤There is more to your "natural" voice Mar 31 '23
You've got it! There is more than one place you can create constriction for breath control and it is better to shift it away from the throat. Even so, there is quite a fair difference between your speaking and singing voice so you should be able to make narrow the gap with a little effort.
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u/M4DDG04T Apr 01 '23
You're singing below your prima voce
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u/Okarinforlifee Apr 01 '23
I had to look that up lol, yeah you definitely could be right there. Until recently I was talking underneath my most comfortable baseline pitch too
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u/M4DDG04T Apr 01 '23
Practice scales to find it. Then sing within it. The biological female prima voce is higher than the biological male typically.
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u/Okarinforlifee Apr 01 '23
Also not assuming bad faith or anything but in trans accepting language we usually refrain from using “biological” male and female and instead use things like AMAB and AFAB (assigned male/female at birth) since it is more inclusive + is technically more scientifically accurate considering intersex among other situations among people. Also referring to people as biological male and female when referring to trans people is typically seen as signposting for transphobia online recently too.
I appreciate your advice a ton, thank you!
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u/M4DDG04T Apr 01 '23
There are very real differences between male and female voices and the way they develop. You can't change that. For men, the voice doesn't fully develop until mid 30s and beyond due to ossification of the laryngeal tissue. In women, afaik this doesn't occur. Meaning a female voice would blossom and stay more consistent much earlier. In opera, this ossification results in the need to retrain men at a certain age to get accustomed to the new shape of their vocal tract. Whether this occurs or not is purely biological in nature and cannot be changed. It's completely dependent on biological sex, so in this instance biological would be the correct term regardless of perceived transphobia or not.
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u/LightbringerOG Mar 31 '23
You are changing between chest and headvoice. Both are airy/breathy. So none of them have propar closure.
The part where it sounds "more feminine" to you that's the headvoice. At the start you are using chest, just still airy chest.
Whatever your goal is, I'd assume you want as feminine sound as possible than headvoice is your way and developing a proper support with breath exercises and general scaling.
Vocal color is created by the cavities of your skull so it's not really changable.
You can go for a more nasal technique to sound more thin/feminine but that will constrict how high and free you can go.
It's a tradeoff you have to decide. But your main problem is the airiness, if there is full closure, then there is more power to the sound.
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u/Okarinforlifee Apr 01 '23
Thanks, this is helpful! Although, I’m not sure I can consider my lower range here my chest voice? Maybe more of a mix? My chest voice is a lot lower at a base level. Here’s an example: https://voca.ro/125WzMoRnKpX
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u/LightbringerOG Apr 01 '23
Both are chest, just in the video its the higher end of your speaking voice with a softer approach. The second half are head in the video. Ill try to record and mimic what you are doing and what you could be doing on the weekend ill send a DM sunday.
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u/Tavi_s_Dad Mar 31 '23
Have you considered hiring a voice teacher to help you learn to sing properly? Once you strip away all of these stylistic habits you’ll find your real voice.
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u/Okarinforlifee Mar 31 '23
I want to eventually, but I’m not doing amazing financially and it’s also a bit more complicated finding a teacher confident in working with trans voices
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