FTM Voice Guide

Words you need to know:

1) Open/closed quotient - how long the vocal folds are open or closed during a vibrational
cycle. Abbreviated OQ and CQ. High OQ sounds soft, High CQ sounds buzzy.

2) Larynx - Your voice box. Your vocal folds are in here. Position can be determined by the
position of your adam's apple (if you have one) or by placing hand on your throat and
feeling it go up or down. A higher larynx position makes you sound brighter, a lower
larynx makes you sound darker.

3) Pitch - How high or low a note is.
Transmasc voice comes down to three main things in order of importance.

1) Larynx height. This is the most important step of masculinizing your voice. To lower your
larynx, yawn, and try to hold it in that position. You will sound darker. You can also try the big
dog small dog exercise- but in reverse. Pant like a dog. Imitate a chihuahua's pant. Then,
imitate a lab. Make the “pitch” of your pant sound lower.

2) Closed quotient. This is easily the hardest part of transmasc voice. There are a few different
routes to approach this, and you have to find one that works best for you.

● Go at a really low pitch, and drag up. This will increase your CQ. The result when done
successfully will make you sound buzzier.
● Choose a random vowel, preferably a dark vowel like “Oh” or “Ah”. Go from a straight,
non breathy tone to vocal fry/creak. When in creak, “pull back” so that it sounds like you
are buzzier, but not completely in fry. This is a difficult maneuver.
● Glottal Strikes. In the word, “Uh-Oh”, you have what is called a “glottal stop” (or strike in
this case). Try and have a heavy, strong onset like in that word, and see if it increases
CQ.

3) Larger embouchure (mouth shapes) - Essentially, open your mouth more. Try and make your
S’s, C’s, T’s, etc. sound like they are darker (almost as if they are at a lower pitch).
Other possible modifications that are optional but my help masculinize:

1) Less pitch fluctuation. This can help masculinize, but also can be limiting and really suck
to have to do if you want to sound like an effeminate guy. It’s easier to be clocked
without it, but it’s still totally possible to pass without doing so.

2) Vocal fry/Creak in speech. Won’t masculinize or feminize, just an optional effect.

3) Lower pitch. Ideally, you want to go below G#3 for your regular speaking voice, (though
excited shrieks can be higher!) Pre T, realistically you can expect with enough training to
be able to get down to C3, and while lower notes are possible, it starts to become much
more difficult utilize them. Pitch isn’t really that important though, try not to obsess too
much over it.

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Guide from icebirb (scinguistics)

These guidelines are intended to work whether you're on T or not, and will help you achieve a passing voice.

For all trans voice stuff, it's important to understand that what we're responding to when we gender a voice is the perception of resonance, not in the sense of "where do I feel sympathetic vibration," but rather as an acoustic property.

Resonance is a quality of all sounds that propagate through three dimensional space. When a pitch is produced, it is never produced in isolation -- I could be singing A3 (220hz), but at the same time I am producing every whole integer multiple of 220Hz (440Hz, 660Hz, 880Hz, etc., infinitely).

These frequencies are called "overtones" or "partials," and they are produced at the same time as the fundamental frequency. The resonance of a space determines which of those overtones is highlighted -- smaller spaces bring out higher overtones, and lower spaces emphasize lower overtones and the fundamental.

Because AFAB skulls are about 20% smaller than AMAB skulls (since testosterone enlarges the morphological features of AMAB bodies), AFAB vocal tracts are a smaller resonating space than AMAB vocal tracts, and therefore they emphasize different overtones in the series. When we talk about "altering resonance," what we mean is that we can shift the
various features of the vocal tract so that it takes on the resonant qualities of our gender.

The average AFAB vocal tract is 14cm. The average AMAB vocal tract is 17cm. For trans masc voice practitioners, that means that we need to increase the length of the vocal tract about 3cm in order to enter the "masc passing" zone.

https://clyp.it/lno1tr2z

The next vocal quality that helps us gender a voice is "vocal weight," the amount of the vocal folds that is involved in vibration during the glottal cycle. This is measured in "glottal quotient," the ratio between the amount of time the folds spend opened vs the time it spends closed during its vibratory phase. High closed quotient (meaning the folds spend more time closed, rather than open) imparts a bright, brassy, heavy quality to the voice, and is one of the markers of masc voices (because AMAB vocal folds are bigger, due to testosterone, they're also likelier to have high CQ). The following is a quick comparison of CQ vs OQ in terms of sound, as well as an exercise to increase CQ.

https://clyp.it/eo3clf2c

For masculinization, we need to find as many ways to increase vocal tract length as possible, to create as much "darkness" in the voice as we can. One way we can do that is by utilizing "pharyngeal lift," which some people conflate with "raising the soft palate." I will demonstrate the sound, as well as a couple different ways to achieve it, in the following recording.

https://clyp.it/amp023qh