FtM and “male passing” voice/speaking “with your chest”
So I got an ask about this subject, and it was not anon so I answered privately, but I am gonna copy here what I told the person because I think it can be helpful in general for other trans guys to know. It’s a bit hard to describe but I’ll try my best!
There were some videos in particular that were linked in some FtM groups back when I started practicing that, I remember that one of them was called “Boom Your Voice” for example (should be this one). I think stretching vocal cords is also part of it, but not so much during HRT as your vocal chords are already being altered.
What I mean with speaking with your chest is indeed compromised of more than one factor. For starters, as an average, men will breathe more from their diaphragm than from their chest. There are a few resources to learn the difference of “chest breath” vs “belly breath”, from yoga-related ones to singing-related ones, for example this one.
I remember that one tip I learned from my high school music book of all places was to put your hand above your navel and distinctly say “X”. You can feel a contraction when you do that, and that’s your diaphragm contracting. What you are supposed to feel when you breathe from your belly is exactly that, just much slower.
Here is a voice clip as example: http://vocaroo.com/i/s06CjSWzH66O. It’s kinda subtle, but it’s already one factor.
To explain another factor I will borrow this thread on reddit about MtF voice training:
“Put your hand on your chest. Go back to guymode and speak normally. Feel that rumbling in your chest? That is your resonance. You’re using you chest as a sounding board, this is what gives you a deep, rumbling sound.Start talking like you’re super excited about something, something you just can’t help but share with the world! You should notice your pitch becoming higher and your resonance changing. This is because you are now using your head for resonance. (This is the secret to girlmode voice, shh…) Try to get a feel for how to do this, practice head resonating while speaking in guymode. It’s a bit esoteric trying to explain this with text, sorry. The best way I can describe it is speaking with your nose. I know that sounds weird and stupid, but trust me, once you get a feel for it, you’ll know what I mean.”
That’s the main thing that I mean with speaking with your chest vs speaking with your throat. It would probably be more accurate to say “speaking with your chest instead of with your head”. You want to move the resonance from your head to your chest. You can check this by putting one hand on your chest around the collarbone area and one hand between the nape of your neck and one of your ears. Try humming a tune and practice until you can feel the difference of vibration, then you can try going “up and down”.
Here’s a clip as example to hear the difference in resonance: http://vocaroo.com/i/s0O6jDxuZyDQ
Speaking of the previous link, one thing that you can do in general is look up voice tips for MtFs and then do the absolute opposite (that’s also one way to find good tips to pass as male in general. That’s what I used to do when there were much fewer resources targeted towards FtMs)
As this video on speaking in general explains, speaking is a combination of air (how you breathe), vibration (larynx + vocal chords), resonance (nose, head, throat, chest), and articulation (tongue + inside of your mouth in general). HRT influences only ONE of these factors. That’s why testosterone is not a guaranteed way to get a male passing voice, because it is only affecting how your voice vibrates, not how you breathe or how your voice resonates, much less how you articulate.
Articulation is a more complex subject and it’s more complex to explain, but basically it’s about adopting a more masculine way of speaking. Most of this in my experience can be done by emulation, studying a bit how men tend to speak vs how women tend to speak, in terms of language, how monotone one tends to sound, how certain things are pronounced, and so forth. And if you don’t care about “sounding gay” it’s also not as important. I unfortunately do because “sounding gay” in my country is… uhm… not advisable, so I had to adapt to be more straight-passing.
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