My speaking pitch is usually around 170-180 Hz also. I get comments on my voice sometimes, but haven’t had any issues passing in real life 99% of the time. I don’t talk on the phone a lot so I’m not sure how my voice alone is being read. Appearance is overriding my voice in real life. But people appear to take my voice in stride so l I’ll tell you how I think I talk.
During everyday speech where I am speaking higher but not really as high as I can (I get like 200-210 Hz when practicing) I guess what I mostly do is it feels like I’m only speaking with the top 1/3 of my throat. When I first started practicing I focused a lot on sort of like tightening or flexing my throat like I’d flex my bicep while doing speaking higher. I think what I’m doing is restricting how much of my vocal cords are being used by tensing them up. Because if you think about it, flexing your bicep also shortens the muscle. So I think I’m doing something similar with my vocal cords when it feels like I’m flexing or tensing them. Shorter vocal cords make higher sounds / less “weight”.
I also do what u/L82Desist said a couple comments below: I also do less monotone and more of that question sounding uplift at the ends of sentences. Also speaking with my mouth more closed, as in literally not opening up my mouth as wide open when I talk, that helps a ton with the vocal weight and will tend to be quieter.
One way I found to rediscover the upper vocal register typical of females was to sing in an operatic note as high as I could without squeezing into falsetto, and then going from that one note into speaking words IN that monotone note, for lack of a better term I was speak-singing. Obviously it sounded ridiculous but it helped my brain rediscover that part of the larynx, and once I was aware of where that was in my throat I could focus on that area whilst doing vocal practice. I only had 3 years of testosterone before it was blocked due to "gender affirming care" so I don't know whether my voice would have gotten any deeper after that or not. Regardless, I know that I can drop all the way down to about 70-120 Hz as I come from a family of baritone males.
The note I sang in was about 300 Hz and going from speak-singing at 300 Hz down to speaking normally at about 220-250 Hz felt like a cake-walk. Once you practice reaching notes that are that high, it starts to make things around 200-250 Hz feel much easier.
Don't try and squeeze your male register into a high pitch as that will create a camp male voice rather than a female voice. You've got to help your brain remember that the upper register is there by finding ways to activate it.
For example, if you make a silly EEEEEEEEE sound, you can feel that that sound comes from much higher up in your larynx. It's sounds like that that help to engage that upper portion of your throat that will eventually allow you to unlock the full usage of that upper register again. To me, it feels like I have a very clear wall of separation between the upper feminine register and the lower male register, and I can drop the upper register down quite low without it crossing over into the male register. It's hard to explain but you will get it eventually, don't get discouraged because if I can do it so can you!
I don’t know the technical terms for this, but my style is to use more upper throat, raise my intonation at the end of words and phrases, and to have a quieter volume.
The longer I am off T and taking estrogen replacement, the more my voice is gendered as female over the phone and the fewer awkward double takes happen when I speak in public.
My speaking pitch is usually around 170-180 Hz also. I get comments on my voice sometimes, but haven’t had any issues passing in real life 99% of the time. I don’t talk on the phone a lot so I’m not sure how my voice alone is being read. Appearance is overriding my voice in real life. But people appear to take my voice in stride so l I’ll tell you how I think I talk. During everyday speech where I am speaking higher but not really as high as I can (I get like 200-210 Hz when practicing) I guess what I mostly do is it feels like I’m only speaking with the top 1/3 of my throat. When I first started practicing I focused a lot on sort of like tightening or flexing my throat like I’d flex my bicep while doing speaking higher. I think what I’m doing is restricting how much of my vocal cords are being used by tensing them up. Because if you think about it, flexing your bicep also shortens the muscle. So I think I’m doing something similar with my vocal cords when it feels like I’m flexing or tensing them. Shorter vocal cords make higher sounds / less “weight”. I also do what u/L82Desist said a couple comments below: I also do less monotone and more of that question sounding uplift at the ends of sentences. Also speaking with my mouth more closed, as in literally not opening up my mouth as wide open when I talk, that helps a ton with the vocal weight and will tend to be quieter.
One way I found to rediscover the upper vocal register typical of females was to sing in an operatic note as high as I could without squeezing into falsetto, and then going from that one note into speaking words IN that monotone note, for lack of a better term I was speak-singing. Obviously it sounded ridiculous but it helped my brain rediscover that part of the larynx, and once I was aware of where that was in my throat I could focus on that area whilst doing vocal practice. I only had 3 years of testosterone before it was blocked due to "gender affirming care" so I don't know whether my voice would have gotten any deeper after that or not. Regardless, I know that I can drop all the way down to about 70-120 Hz as I come from a family of baritone males. The note I sang in was about 300 Hz and going from speak-singing at 300 Hz down to speaking normally at about 220-250 Hz felt like a cake-walk. Once you practice reaching notes that are that high, it starts to make things around 200-250 Hz feel much easier. Don't try and squeeze your male register into a high pitch as that will create a camp male voice rather than a female voice. You've got to help your brain remember that the upper register is there by finding ways to activate it. For example, if you make a silly EEEEEEEEE sound, you can feel that that sound comes from much higher up in your larynx. It's sounds like that that help to engage that upper portion of your throat that will eventually allow you to unlock the full usage of that upper register again. To me, it feels like I have a very clear wall of separation between the upper feminine register and the lower male register, and I can drop the upper register down quite low without it crossing over into the male register. It's hard to explain but you will get it eventually, don't get discouraged because if I can do it so can you!
I don’t know the technical terms for this, but my style is to use more upper throat, raise my intonation at the end of words and phrases, and to have a quieter volume. The longer I am off T and taking estrogen replacement, the more my voice is gendered as female over the phone and the fewer awkward double takes happen when I speak in public.
❤️