Currently I have a comprehensive audio document available on my Patreon which covers 10 techniques for thinness and thickness. It also contains ear training for the sounds. I also publicly taught several methods in a recent patron workshop which is fairly accessible. Otherwise, I will be making a video on the topic soon enough. Here is just a very very brief overview of approaches and methods you can use to find vocal fold thinness. These are all mix-ups and variations I use when teaching it and there are a few other approaches as well like a proprioceptive or mechanical transmission of the idea. 7 simple exercises to explore thinness: 1. Start thick neutral singing then adding hot air and slightly go up in pitch, it should trigger a highly audible and feel-able cue. It's also visible on a spectrogram as a tall line. 2. Ultra strong exhalation with a shred of tone is a self confirmation exercise to first feel the thin configuration and refine it as to allow for ultra smooth onsets and releases. I've used approaches like this with varying success. Usually if a student can't gentle onset in thinness like 6-10 mimics, it's best to try something else. 3. Big success with starting at a low thick pitch and having the student mildly glissando up while thinning the sound a bit. The folds should automatically thin and the student can try to bring it back down but keep the thinness. It seems to help people who can’t find the coordination well in other ways. I believe Estill documented that 1/2 or 1/3rd up a "trained singers" vocal range, the coordination would flip from thick to thin. This happens in untrained voices too and makes for a very easy approach. This is also interesting because it creates a new connection for pitch training in feminization. It's really great to anchor the higher pitches with thinness to build the foundation behaviorally quicker. 4. Basic Mimicry of straight tone sounds or speech sounds. 5. I've observed holding a thick sound and tucking the chin into the sternum to mechanically force a thin configuration. Leaning the head back to hear the thicker configuration. Student can try to maintain the quality of sound while returning the neutral neck neck position. 6. Estill type sob exercises/yawn/aww cute etc (these seem to be less successful in untrained or inexperienced voices who aren’t comfortable really committing to sob quality). 7. New one I found today: teach the student to create gentle ingressive pitched phonation, then just have them go from inhaling to exhaling. It's super uncomfortable to create ingressive sounds (for me at least) with thick folds, so this almost like forces the hand shout outs to Nick at OnlineVoiceCoach.com, hes a great friend and cued me into the pseudo-independent nature of fold mass from Estills initial work.

​@@TransVoiceLessons This woman is fucking insane, like holy shit your amazing TransVoiceLessons.

Rose thank you! c: your comments have been so sweet. Glad to have your support and presence here! 😌

@@TransVoiceLessons This comment turned into your 8 Exercises to Reduce Vocal Fold Mass video, didn't it?

Aeleas sort of. that short list was a comment of mine on my server which I expanded into a document and released to my patrons then made a video on it to release publicly :3

omg ty im gonna cry.

Lmao yes that was my first thought

@@TransVoiceLessons are you on a trackpad? maybe it corrects itself or something? sic vids too tho!

The screaming crow posture is fundamental to voice alteration! Make sure that while jogging you rapidly pinch your nose and each step should be no more than 4 inches off the ground. Hope this helps with your practice!!

@@TransVoiceLessons You never know, you might pass by someone doing that and feel great you have touched the life of a subscriber. : ) Very impressive model embedded in the video both in content and delivery. I am gonna have to figure out how to do that in FCP because that could be handy. Well done.

@@TransVoiceLessons as a little crow who recently came to terms with their own gender identity, this is good to know 😂 I will be sure to practice screaming at my kin while jogging 😉

:D

That brings me so much joy to hear.

And positivity and hope for those of us who struggle with the "negative feedback loop" . Thanks for commenting.

That's so awesome to read!! I'm very grateful I can help you in such ways!

Precisely, a talk at the university. Did you work on the rate of your folds? How did you do it? Did you ever try? It is like explaining what happens when you travel at the speed of light; it may be very clear, but it does not mean it will happen anyday. The comparaison is not perfect, of course. But you get the point: knowing that that your voice is influenced by the rate of the folds will not bring you in itself very far, however scientific it is.

the gals bring you in with open arms hehe

Is it just me, or does your PFP kind of date this comment?

@@AtaraxianWistI’m pretty sure that he’s saying that he’s transmasc and was reverse engineering a route to vocal masculinization, as opposed to the more traditional use-case of this video, which is feminization

@@embergeos Oh. OHHHHH. Yeah that makes a lot more sense LOL

True!

Hi there! This is a lovely post! This model is actually a reduction for students. There is a tremendous amount of other variables and micro-variables we can factor into the speakers identity and phoneme inventory beyond these. I actually love exploring and building conlangs! I disagree with your statement about R2 though and I'd love to share why! :) There are actually so many incredible micro-variables that factor R2 behavior and it's expression during identical vowels between speakers. First, the tongue has way more dimensions than traditional phonetics models consider. Just as one example, the tongue can be micro-constricted in numerous places simultaneously and psuedo-independently of each other. Many speakers hold subtle micro-constrictions across different parts of the tongue which contributes to each speakers unique identity. This means that we could be speaking the exact same perceivable vowel for a language but form it with dozens of different subtle colors. Even the dynamic behavior between these micro-constrictions as they evolve during speech is a quality of R2. Further, the velar pinch is criminally under discussed in phonetics and impacts R2's expression. The sound can be altered by changing the velar pinch's location, shape, strength, length, or persistence. Further, alteration of consonant formation has a ton of dimensions and it ultimately impacts the R2 due to the co-articulatory nature of speech. There is also the specific contour of each approximant behavior and/or diphthong that corresponds to driving a lot of R2 motion. Lastly, R2 is a factor of vowels but vowels are fuzzy abstractions. You can produce the same vowel with several different R2 qualities with the techniques mentioned before or even basic techniques. When I talk about R1 and R2 I am actually referring to them as a meta variable which is the expression of a lot of other dimensions that build them. I.e. R1 is an expression of larynx height behaviors, pharyngeal constrictor behaviors, nasopharynx/pharyngeus muscle behavior, tongue dorsum shape, tongue root behavior, aryepoglottic stuff, etc. Each of these have their own levels upon levels. Thanks so much for the stimulating and engaging post! Love it, how fun!

This will be my next big video. There is very little information on this out there so I'm excited to change that. :)

I go to a speech therapist. The exercises are more like using the right breathing and tons of repetition and exercising. I recommend going to one.

@@Kopfschmerz86 But doesn't it cost money ?

@@jennifervanko5587 Here in Sweden no. The fee is ~38EURO for each visit (till you get a free card to the public healthcare). And you literally go through with the speech therapist what your goals are and how your conditions are. So its very individual and your excercises are individually suited for you. As I wrote I recommend going to one since they the help you thoroughly from your situation specifically. Not sure how it is with insurances and stuff in USA tho, sorry (or other countries)

@@RoninPrincess lol you think we have free healthcare

I mean, if you can impersonate female voices, you definitely have what it takes, and have a good amount of control, even if subconsciously, just keep going, nothing worthwhile is easy.

Thank you so much for your post. I'm grateful to be able to help. Do you mind if I share this post (anonymously) with a round table of speech pathologists and voice teachers tomorrow? I'm working to improve the standard of care trans individuals get through speech pathologists. It's honestly so weird. They aren't even trained in this kind of thing and don't actively live it or do it themselves (in 99% of cases). How anybody thought specialists in pathological disorders of voice were fit to teach voice alteration is beyond me. They are largely clueless and circles of SLP's having discourse on transvoice is basically just filled with discussion of identity and inclusivity and completely devoid of technique or voice discussion. Your post is an amazing anecdote I'd appreciate having consent to share forward.

@@TransVoiceLessons absolutely! I just shared this comment and your video with the speech pathologist who taught the speech pathologist I worked with last, and it’s very cool that this other speech pathologist seems very receptive to hearing about this side of my experience. She admitted a lot of what you just said, that she is still learning a lot about trans experience. And while I don’t assume that I’m typical in anyway, I do try to reflect on my own experience and try to make sense of why I struggle with voice. So if that can be helpful to someone else, that would be great!

@@TransVoiceLessons also, if you are curious, you can find a Tedtalk I gave before I really worked on voice at all- in fact there is someone in the comment section of that KZfaq video who blames me for causing a lack of acceptance for trans women, because I hadn’t worked on my voice enough before giving the talk. My response to this critic was that we should be accepting of all people at different stages of transition, and that we shouldn’t invalidate someone because of their voice. But in reality, for my day to day experience, I’d rather my voice didn’t immediately “out me” and support misgendering of me. Socially, I want my voice to cause less friction, and for all my interactions with others, more often than not, to result in more confidence in and more validation of who I know myself to be. I am a woman. I’m not non-binary, so I definitely want to get over the plateau I’ve had with my voice. Thanks for the work you are sharing on KZfaq! I am benefiting from it!

Definitely will!

see elsewhere in the comments :)

So glad it was helpful! Beatboxing is so cool. Yes, I give lessons online. I also have group classes. see: transvoicelessons.com/booking :)

Thanks so much! I'm very grateful to be able to help!