The Transgender Dictionary
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Voice Training

Table of Contents

Introduction

Regardless of how well a transgender person "passes" as their true gender, the voice is often an indicator that causes someone to be clocked as transgender. If you are unsure as to what any of those words mean, feel free to consult the alphabet buttons at the top of this page, and navigate to the section that you think is relevant (I'll give you a hint, it's all in alphabetical order - you've gotten to the v page, if you haven't figured it out yet, I'm not quite sure how you got here).

While most transgender men are able to achieve a natural male voice after only a few months of GAHT, there are some transgender men who do not want to undergo GAHT, or are otherwise unhappy with their voices. This can cause gender dysphoria regarding one's voice, and prompt one to voice train. That being said, transgender women are more prone to having to voice train than transgender men are. The GAHT available for transfeminine people does not alter the vocal cords of someone who was unable to go on puberty blockers before the voice dropped.

The only alternative to voice training for transgender women is intense vocal surgery, which not everyone wants to go through. Either way, having the wrong voice can cause a signifigant amount of gender dysphoria for transgender people, especially transgender women. If you want to be a good ally, be kind.

General Information

Voice training is the process of training your voice to sound a certain way. Here, this pertains to making your voice sound more masculine or feminine. While voice training is more common among trans-feminine individuals (as estrogen does not change your voice), some trans-masculine individuals who opt not to go on testosterone (or are otherwise unsatisfied by the voice drop typically provided by going on testosterone) will train their voices to sound more masculine.

Voice training can be done at any age, and by anyone of any gender. There are no restrictions on who can voice train. That being said, it does require a lot of time and effort to do.

Voice training is often required prior to vocal surgery.

Methods

Sometimes, it can be awkward to voice train. Why wouldn't it be? You are essentially talking to yourself (unless you are working with a professional voice coach). Here are some suggestions to make the experience maybe a little bit less awkward

Try voice training in the shower. No one will be able to hear you doing warm-up sounds.

Try playing loud music while you voice train. You can use the singer as a target (for your voice).

Try voice training around your pets. If you have roaming pets, try calling them by their names, species, and common discriptors (ex. Jellybean, cat, orange, ginger, kitty, feline, fluffy, cute, etc) in different types of voices. You can practice voice control while also training your animal to respond to what someone would potentially refer to them as, just in case it runs off! Either way, you get to practice with your voice to an audience.

Glossary

The resources below have been provided for education, information sourcing, and entertainment purposes. The views expressed in these videos, websites, etc, do not inherently reflect those of The Transgender Dictionary. These resources are not sponsored, nor endorsed. (Voice training is an audible thing, and this is a text based website. I kind of have to provide some videos and such to )