Voice work, whether we’re doing it for business or pleasure, is hard work. It can be lots of fun, too – learning to sing, do different voices, project, present. Whether you’re a natural performer or not, vocal knowledge and flexibility can be very interesting and useful. Contrary to popular belief, though, it has little to do with talent. Voice work, like any other work, is a matter of building and using skill sets.
Now, if your motivation for pursuing all of this is vocal dysphoria rather than an active desire to learn, it’s a lot to take on. If you don’t like the sound of your own voice, practising voice skills takes an extra amount of emotional effort. If you just aren’t the type of person who enjoys learning a new physical skill, it’s similarly difficult to find motivation.
Like any hobby, if you’re interested in voice work it’s very interesting, and if you’re not, it isn’t. If you’re pursuing voice work for personal comfort, for safety in public spaces, or because your voice doesn’t work like it did before, don’t worry, you’re not alone! And if you have a trans friend or role model whose voice sounds fantastic and it seems effortless and you’re frustrated that your voice isn’t there yet – you’re *definitely* not alone. And it’s totally ok to be frustrated by it all sometimes.
So, what to do about it?
1. Know that your voice is fine as it is now, and that plenty of women have low voices/plenty of men have high voices. Getting your voice to a point where you’re consistently satisfied with it can be a bit of a journey, but try to take a moment to enjoy the bits that do work already! (If your voice is physically painful or chronically croaky, ask a doctor)
2. Try linking voice to something you *do* like. Any mindful use counts as practice, whether you’re doing the exercises you ‘should’ be or not. Try:
- Playing an RPG and giving characters different voices
- Putting on a puppet show
- Reading a book out loud
- Trying a new accent or impression
- Turning the volume off when you watch sports and narrating the action yourself
- Adding some intoning to your yoga or meditation practise
- Humming to yourself while you do chores
- Taking an acting or improv class
- Getting really nerdy about the physics of sound
- Getting really nerdy about vocal anatomy and mechanical function
- Recruiting a buddy to practise with and make it a social occasion
- __________ Your idea here
3. Set specific goals. Pick one vocal quality at a time to work on, for example brightness/darkness, pitch, weight, inflection, twang etc. The more we break down the skill set the less it feels like ‘pass’ or fail.
4. Take voice work as an opportunity to be mindful and present. As with changing any habit, it’s a matter of consistency. Take a moment here and there to mentally check in with your voice, and consciously reset when you slip.
Hopefully these tips help make the voice work experience more enjoyable! If there were a magic button I could press for all of my students to have the voice they want immediately, I’d do it. I’m sure every teacher, personal trainer, physiotherapist etc in the world would do the same for their clients! But as with many things in life, it’s a journey. Good luck!
London Trans Choir 