Hi everyone! In this video I'd like to discuss the 8 most common transvoice mistakes I see across the internet and in my own private practice. If you are making any of these mistakes, hopefully this video can help set you on the right path.
1. Speaking in falsetto. Simply put, this is the wrong behavior of the vocal folds and it generates an incorrect source tone to feminize. Don't do this!
2. Misunderstanding resonance. Many people get stuck in time sinks which involve a mythical understanding of resonance. Resonance is an objective and empirical fact of our universe and it's simple to manipulate.
3. Hyperfocusing on the pitch ceiling. The ceiling is the highest comfortable speaking pitch that occurs during speech. Many students seem to tunnel vision on how high they can go. It's more important to focus on how low you dont go.
4. Releasing resonance after it's been dialed in. Often when doing mechanical exercises that require a student to "dial" their resonance in then speak, students will release the resonance when starting the speech and be confused about why the voice isn't changing. Pay attention to if you release any muscular holds when you go to speak!
5. Too breathy or too closed. People often crutch on breathiness. People often strain when doing new exercises which squeezes the folds hard. Both are sounds we don't want.
6. Overthinking/Hypermanaging muscles. Your muscles don't work based on direct control. They work based on thinking about the function you want to perform then executing a command to fulfill the function. If you try and directly manipulate the muscles of your tongue when first beginning, you will most likely move the wrong parts of the tongue. Defer to sound to learn the correct muscles, then practice those.
7. Not listening. Y'all know how I feel about this. Open those ears!
8. Harsh and destructive self criticism. Feedback is important and evaluating your sound is a key component to doing anything with voice. We must make our self criticisms constructive and conducive to growth, not destructive or rooted in self hate/anxiety.
I hope this is helpful for many of you out there! There are certainly more common mistakes and more specialized issues people struggle with but I hope this can solve some problems. Feel free to ask any questions in the comments below.
warmly,
Amelia Zheanna H.
Love my videos? Consider supporting me on patreon! We have an extremely active community on Discord! / transvoicelessons
E-mail me for lessons: TransVoiceLessons@gmail.com
transvoicelessons@gmail.com
transvoicelessons.com
all music used is my own