Voice

Would you like to hear someone’s voice turn from deep and masculine to feminine?

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This is something I published in a facebook group I’m in. Most of you are also from the group but plenty aren’t, so I’m sharing it here, since it’s pretty interesting.

So my gender therapist messaged me earlier in the week and asked if I still had the number for my old voice therapist, since she wanted to recommend him to a new client of hers.

I looked him up in my old email account, and while getting his info, I stumbled on some old recordings of my voice. And oh my god, it’s so terrible. I don’t know how I ever thought it sounded anything but horrible. Which makes me feel a little anxious, as I might look back at my current voice in a few years and feel the same way.

I thought it might be slightly amusing and of interest to hear what that old voice sounded like, and how it’s changed over the last couple of years.This is what my voice sounded like at the end of 2013. This is my old guy voice: https://soundcloud.com/lily-mcken…/voice-challenge-1/s-qAq0d

We’re gonna skip over a recording of an ooooold voice practise where I honest to god sound like a bad Mickey Mouse impersonator. It’s genuinely humiliating. I can’t believe I ever shared that with anyone, nevermind all my followers on tumblr.

Here is a short clip from two years and a half ago:
https://soundcloud.com/lily-mckenzie-1/grave/s-6S8Md

And from the same day, after a session with my voice therapist:
https://soundcloud.com/lily-mckenzie-1/agudo-b/s-qwd8z

Now here’s one from the end of 2014. The voice isn’t THAT horrible, but I’m cringing listening to it now because I was clearly hurting my voice and starting to strain it: https://soundcloud.com/lily-mckenzie-1/ss-1/s-4HYZk

(seriously, if you think that’s awful you should’ve listened to the mickey mouse one. except not, because it’s too awful for anyone else to ever hear)

Here’s a clip showing my improvement by mid January 2015:
https://soundcloud.com/lily-m…/lilys-voice-1-18-2015/s-R2dfH

Here’s my squeaky voice from about a year ago:
https://soundcloud.com/lily-mckenzie-1/voice_012-1/s-XNcm1

Aaaaand here’s how my voice sounds right NOW, as captured through my chromebook’s crappy microphone:
https://soundcloud.com/lily-mc…/vocaroo-s0or7wlbnkfc/s-8YuYf

This has been such a bizarre experience. Just like my old face slips more and more from my memory, and pre-transition pictures feel like they’re of someone else, listening to my old voice is just… wrong. I feel a complete disconnect. Of COURSE that’s not my voice.
Except, you know, it was….

It’s one of the weird situations you find yourself when you transition.

I hope you found interesting! 🙂

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By the way, if you’re transgender and only starting your transition, feel free to message me. I’m NOT a voice therapist and I can’t recommend working with a professional highly enough, but I know not everyone can afford it. So go ahead and message me, and I’ll give you some basic and gentle breathing and speaking exercises to help you start finding your true voice.