VOICE FEMINIZATION - TECHNIQUES USED FOR TRANSGENDER SPEECH THERAPY

I have had the opportunity to work with many voice feminization cases. I have found that my 15 years of vocal training innovation and experience for singers has proven to be extremely helpful when working with transgender clients. Many of the techniques I have developed to build the strength and coordination of the voice for singers, has given me the unique ability to apply similar techniques to helping transgender clients. Here are some techniques and ideas I have used to assist transgender clients.

3-Point Strategy for Transgender Clients

1. Training to establish a new attractor state for the physiology of Female speech.
   
   Build new muscle memory, strength and coordination that is configured for feminine speech characteristics. We train this by working with specialized vocal modes, or an understanding of how the human vocal mechanism can be configured to facilitate different sound colors, frequency and acoustic attributes.
   
   
2. Understand and train the acoustics of the feminine voice through physiological vocal modes used in singing.
   
   Work to approximate 170 to 220 Hz or F3 – A3 on the piano and understand which physical vocal modes and onsets are key to gaining insights to speaking more feminine.
   
   
3. The Prosody of feminine speech.
   
   Practicing the embellishments, inflections and nuances that characterize feminine speech.

Points To Remember

Physiology

• A higher frequency consistent with feminine speech patterns can be facilitated greatly by better understanding the physical configuration of the human larynx and training to be able to configure your vocal mechanism into a higher larynx position with more vocal fold compression, which is needed for voice feminization.
  
  
• Unique onsets are used to isolation certain musculature to build strength and coordination for feminine speech.

Acoustics

• Understanding the frequencies that are common in typical feminine speech patterns is critical to capturing convincing and favorable feminine voice patterns.

Feminine Prosody

• Prosody is defined as “the patterns of inflection, stress and intonation in any given speech pattern”. Training feminine prosody is as important as the physiology. Without understanding what feminine prodody is and practicing it, it is difficult to complete the transition to convincing, feminine speech.

Robert Lunte Filming a Lecture for “The Four Pillars of Singing.”