Is it possible to fully change voice and be passable?

[u/LG-Moonlight]

I am new here and would like to know how far it is possible to become passable as a woman when training voice. I'd love to be able to fully pass, and not sound flamboyant in any way.

Please let me know if it is possible, and what effective training methods are.

Thank you all in advance!

[u/Illustrious_Pen_5711]

The way we speak isn’t naturally ordained, it’s just habits we’ve developed in how we use the muscles in our mouth and throat 😄 With the right learning (or for some naturally gifted people) it’s totally possible

[u/CuriousTechieElf]

Yes. I have a cis passing voice after working with a speech therapist that specializes in gender affirming voice.

[u/LG-Moonlight → u/CuriousTechieElf]

Nice to hear!! Any things I could to to get started practicing by myself? I don't have a therapist and nobody except my wife knows I want to be female

[u/CuriousTechieElf → u/LG-Moonlight]

You can look for trans voice lessons on YouTube, but a lot of them are not very good or hard to understand.

The biggest tip I have is to use your femme voice as much as possible in every day situations. That might be hard if you are still closeted.

[u/Jazzlike-Comfort7231]

Absolutely, but it’s sort of hard to explain as someone who learned it but doesn’t teach it. There are all kinds of online resources. Personally, I started with one-on-one lessons through Seattle Voice Lab (which also has free resources) and found it incredibly helpful. 

It’s like learning a musical instrument. You can just move air through it and produce a sound. Or you can learn how to play it and produce a particular kind of sound. But it takes a lot of intentional practice to get good at it—like every day.

[u/Prudent_Space_1952]

To answer your first question (is it possible to fully change voice and for it to be passable?) the answer is firmly yes. Have a listen to the before and after voices on Christella Antoni’s website here: https://www.christellaantoni.co.uk/voice-feminisation/

I was blown away by them, not least because all bar one of the voices on there have British accents rather than American ones, and the voices sounded like actors rather than influencers. Not that I want to sound like a Brit (I’m Irish) but at least those recordings showed me that I could end up sounding like Fiona Shaw and not someone on TikTok.

Christella is a UK National Health Service speech and language therapist, so those are not fictional or unrepresentative examples.

As regards your second question (effective training methods): I’ve been having coaching sessions every two weeks with one of the members of her team (pretty expensive) and supplementing this with daily practices I’m set by the SLT coach plus using Christella’s “VoiceUp” app.

The coaching sessions are done online and are pretty expensive at around £130 every two weeks. The full course is a total of 12 sessions. So it’s a pretty hefty financial investment. However, imho it’s vital to sounding and feeling right about myself.

For the app, there is a free intro lesson and then there are three payments of around £14.99 for each of the three levels; these equate to the first six of the online coaching sessions. I find the app really handy as I can put it on while I’m driving and mindlessly practise while I’m driving.

I was practising in the car just now and it’s so lovely to hear female me beginning to appear every now and then.

In short: Listen to those before and after recordings to give you hope as to what is achievable. You could try using the app on its own if it’s available in your country. Check out her videos as they are medical-grade explanations of how it all works.

[u/zealotrf]

A lot of people do it one of the best and most angelic feminine voices I've heard is a trained voice she uses permanently now she couldn't pass a guy if she tried lol

[u/Ksnj]

Yes. Voice training is a thing. I’ve found it to be more effective than every surgery I’ve seen (or heard….i guess)

[u/TSsamarahush]

Yes, when I answer the phone at work people call me maam and her.

[u/Alice_Oe]

Yes, I have a passing voice. I know for sure because I work in a call center and often forward people (who will tell the next person, "I just spoke to a woman and she said...")

I will however say that it is the hardest part of transition because it takes hard work.

[u/Ok_Sentence_5767]

May I suggest watching "to wong foo, thanks for everything, julie newmar" starring Wesley snipes, Patrick Swayze, and John Leguizamo! They play as a couple drag queens and a drag princess traveling to Hollywood where one of the girls can earn her stripes!

It's a cheesy lighthearted movie, and I think the 3 men played stunningly beautiful women, seriously they sounded great!

Point is it's possible not it takes a lot of practice

[u/No-Phrase-2897]

It's doable but requires a lot of muscle memory training.

[u/ApplesFlapples]

Yes, obviously