Voice weird dilemma.

Hey there,

I know the feeling - I'm a pre-everything FTM who loves to sing. The vocal control that singing taught me sometimes allows me to control my speaking voice well enough to pass, so I'd advise taking advantage of it as a tool for that - my partner (who is MtF) uses it the same way.

Also, though it's definitely not for everyone: I tend to make recordings of myself when I learn a new song. It's difficult to play it back because I pretty much hear a girl and that sucks. I use Audacity to shift the pitch of the recording down a few notes, just enough to make it sound like a guy my age. It means I can enjoy my own work, and that's kinda nice.

 

If it makes you feel any better, Ryan Cassata hasn't been on hormones and he's a singer - if highly recommend listening to some of his stuff.
Also, I practised my lower voice by singing along to male singers so maybe you could give that a go?

 

I'm MtF too, and I love singing. Love it. It's, like, a major passion of mine. I would say that I am a little better at singing in a masculine voice than a feminine voice, but I'm working on that.

So, basically, your throat etc. are muscles. And, assuming you've gone through puberty at least partially since you're fifteen, your voice will have dropped and stuff, right? So... that sucks. But it doesn't mean that you won't ever be able to sing in a genuinely convincing feminine voice. You just have to train your upper throat muscles a lot and stuff.

One thing that I do, is I find songs with female signers that aren't too high-pitched, and I sing along as well as I can without using a falsetto. Because, you know, with a falsetto it's easy, but if you use your falsetto all the time, you'll wear it out, plus it's kind of cheating imo and it can be hard singing more powerful singing with a falsetto (it's best suited for soft acoustic music (or opera, but that's another story)). That way I can feel my upper throat muscles getting their exercise.
I also just want to emphasize choosing songs that are not too high-pitched. For example, I listen to a lot of anime songs and stuff, that are often sung by, like, 15-year old cis girls, so it's really high-pitched, a bit too much so.

 

As a MtF person who goes to karaoke a LOT, I practice with women singers who are in my natural range or just above it. I will never be a soprano, but being contralto is okay. Develop those muscles and keep working at it.

 

I see no point in forcing your singing voice to "pass". If anything, you can add some softer tone to it but really... don't struggle with pitch. Voice is controlled by muscles, yes, but they have limits. Best to utilize what you have than try to strain it.

What I do is that I train my head voice and I do like to sing high... but I also work on practicing and embracing my low, chest voice. And if you look at trans women singers, they tend to do the same. Against me!, Steam Powered Giraffe (one of the singers), Antony and the Johnsonsi/Anohni are just some examples. The latter makes the tone feminine but it is her "normal" range. And it is the best way to both use what you have to the best ability and most importantly, not hurt yourself.

I tend to be inspired by AmandaPalmwr, she has the same range in chest voice as I do. Which is rather low. And even if you go lower, it's your skill and I recommend using that to your advantage, not to burden yourself with another worry.

Tl,Dr: forget the pitch aspect. Focus on the sound alone, use your full range and expand it both ways. It is the sound quality that makes it feminine, not how high notes are.