Many of you at the Tiffany Club are aware of how much effort I have been putting into developing a female voice. Well, I’m happy to say that I have been able to develop a convincingly feminine voice. I have written this to assist others who would like to develop a female voice themselves.

Before proceeding further, I wish to give great credit to the Melanie Speaks video tape. After viewing it once, I began to practice and ordered my own copy right away. Had I not seen that tape I would not have understood the basis from which to develop a female voice. I will let any club member borrow it who would like to. You can order your own copy of the Melanie Speaks video tape from this web site http://heartcorps.com/jcurneys/voice.htm. Snail mailers can purchase the video tape for $19.95, plus $4.95 shipping and handing in cash, check or money order from Heart Corps, P.O. Box 295, Burbank, CA 91503.

[Ed:] Tiffany Club does not specifically endorse this product. All opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author.]

Many of the methods described here I devised on my own through practice. Most of the tips in this article are not in Melanie’s tape, and most of the tips in Melanie’s tape are not included here.

There are really three important steps necessary to developing a female voice: conditioning, vocalization, and and dynamic range.

I think that the problem many people encounter when trying to make their voice sound feminine is they leave out the first step of conditioning. I believe conditioning develops the vocal chords and throat muscles to a point where a female resonance can be obtained without significant effort.

In the conditioning phase, I read aloud from a book in as high a pitch voice as I could for about five minutes. This high pitch is a very high falsetto. This is the most critical element to the whole thing. If you sustain speaking in a high falsetto voice long enough, enough times, you will eventually be able to come very close to obtaining a true female voice. DO NOT LEAVE OUT THIS STEP!

For the next five minutes I read from the book switching voices between Ross Perot, Julia Child, and an old man. I do not think it really matters if you sound just like Julia Child or not, the key is to practice high pitched voices in different ranges. For the next five minutes I tried to hold as convincing a female voice as I could. While the falsetto voice is the primary conditioning voice, the other voices aid in developing more range.

The first day I did this for 15 minutes and my throat was sore afterwards. I eventually worked my way up to four 15 minute sessions a day. This was too much, and I would not recommend doing this for more two 15 minute a day. For the first few weeks conditioning and practicing caused discomfort, and cleared mucus from my throat causing dryness. I have now been doing this for eight weeks and have neither discomfort nor dryness in practice, or when using my female voice.

The conditioning phase is the most critical. It took me four weeks before I could really work on phase 2, vocalization.

Reading from a book is valuable for training those throat muscles, but I found that real conversation was necessary to be able to speak with any credibility. The problem with reading from a book is that it is monotone, and there are no pauses as there are in real speech. I began talking to an imaginary listener. This was difficult at first, but eventually I could talk to my imaginary listener until she fell asleep. While driving in the car alone is a good time practice this.

Holding conversations with my imaginary listener really helped to build confidence in my voice, but I was still having trouble with dynamic range. In these conversations I was afraid to make the pitch go high or low because my voice would break up. Singing old folk songs like "She’ll Be Comin’ Round The Mountain" really helped. At first my singing voice sounded really terrible, but now it sounds pretty good, and only rarely breaks up even when singing.

After practicing enough songs my voice did not break up in normal conversation. In normal conversation a much narrower hand of dynamic range is used than is used when singing.

I was able to produce a believable female voice after four weeks of effort, but it took me six weeks to feel confident about using my voice in conversation to an unsuspecting public. I have been practicing now for eight weeks and can speak with considerable confidence. I am continuing to condition, and practice. My voice is still improving, but it is quite acceptable now.

Not only has it made it wonderful for me when I go out in public, I now look forward to those annoying sales calls. They give me a chance to test my voice. I have caller ID, so when I see a call come in that says "unavailable" I assume it is a sales call. I answer it in my female voice. So far every caller has assumed that I am a woman.

Having a nice fem voice has actually made me want to have people talk to me when I go out dressed up in public. It’s a great feeling to be able to have a convincing female voice. Developing a female voice has not altered my male voice in any way. I still have to think about it when I want to sound like a woman, but it’s really pretty easy to do at this time. I can speak, laugh, sing, and even clear my throat in my female voice.

There were a couple of minor things that seemed to help me set the tone besides those which I’ve already mentioned. Vocalizing numbers really helped me to develop a feel for how to set the voice when initiating a conversation. Holding a partially empty bottle with the opening near my lips while reading helped me to control my breathing while I was speaking.

I am convinced that anyone who puts in the effort can do this too. You may feel a little foolish practicing these voices at first, but when you start to make real progress you will be glad you did. I am not claiming to be some expert, I am just reporting what has worked remarkably well for me. I am normally at the Tiffany Club on Tuesdays between 7:00 and 9:00 and would be happy to help anyone who asks.

Delilah Garrison is a member of TCNE.
Rosebuds June 98