Was just casually checking out some videos from this voice coach lady… when suddenly I find out she’s trans too! Kinda makes me feel inspired, with progress like that.
Was just casually checking out some videos from this voice coach lady… when suddenly I find out she’s trans too! Kinda makes me feel inspired, with progress like that.
Yes? Lol, I’m a little perplexed that you’re perplexed by that?
But I guess it’s a little niche. And not specifically focused for transition. I’m not surprised at all that she’s a musician because my own vocal training was also in the context of music. But I used that training extensively outside of my singing (and still do).
It’s funny because my vocal coach used to absolutely harangue me about deepening my voice. But as a female presenting person in the business world (in the 90s), that was necessary for survival. And I was deeply uncomfortable with my feminine sounding voice when I was younger. I’ve grown to accept it more now, although I still lower and project my voice at work or in other situations where I need to make myself be taken seriously.
That vocal training also allowed me to selectively “turn off” my native Appalachian accent - another thing that gets you nowhere in a lot of professional settings. But I slip back into it when I’m really tired or when I’m talking to my dad lol
Is this where I admit that I forgot that is a thing? :)
Hahaha
I’d like to throw in there that vocal training is a large part of acting training as well. I took classes like this. In fact in one we spent the whole first semester doing a little stretching routine, laying on the floor and then “moaning” or vocalizing for about an hour. (In the follow up class we started working on words, phonetics, and speaking) The whole idea is that much like how we are trained and ingrained with behaviors from society, so too is our voice a history of expectations, trauma, ect. Simply the way we hold tension in our bodies we cut off certain parts from vibrating and this results in different sounds. By vocalizing openly we found our unimpeded resonant frequency so that we could unlearn our lifetime of habits (this also includes social habits that effect how we sound and connect with another-- e.g. not holding your breath in preparation to speak something you are planning to respond when someone else is talking, it opens you up to listen, or tension from being told to sit up straight as a kid) and physical trauma. Only then could we see all the possibilities so we could make choices about how we wanted our voice to be. Everyone sounded different after that class. Sometimes really intense emotions trauma and otherwise would be released as parts of ones body finally let go. I remember just bursting out laughing in the middle one day, and there were several days I cried. It was the most centering class I’ve ever taken. And after that I liked my voice, I liked feeling it in my body, like a friend giving a vibrating hug
If anyone is further interested theres a fantastic book we read called “The Right to Speak: Working with the Voice” By Patsy Rodenburg that talks in great detail about these ingrained vocal habits