I have come upon the best voice training tool that all transgirls should seize. It isn’t a self help CD, a YouTube video, classes or even surgery. No, this wonderful training tool is Rock Band.

I recently got bit by the Rock Band bug, but it’s only the other day that I finally went out and purchased the full deluxe system that includes a guitar, drums and microphone. (drums are hard!) But it’s while playing around with the microphone that I realized what a wonderful tool it is for voice training.

The microphone basically works by measuring the pitch of your voice which you can see as an arrow on the side that will climb or lower as you modify your range. Success in the song happens when you hit the right pitch level and sing (or make any noise for that matter) along with the lyrics.

If you do any research on feminizing your voice, you’ll find that it’s not the pitch you want to raise, but actually your resonance. Men and women actually have very little difference in pitch range. There’s a few lower registers that only men can hit, and a few upper ones that are privy to women, but for the most part, everyone hits the same pitch range. It’s the resonance that allows you to naturally alter your pitch but still have a feminine sounding voice. This comes from speaking less from your gut, and more from your face (if that makes sense). It’s like a muscle, not easy to do if you’ve never exercised, or even know where it is, but with practice anyone can do it.

How wonderful it would be if we had a tool to measure those ranges so we know when we’re outside the boundaries as we practice. Voila, Rock Band! While it doesn’t measure your resonance, it does ensure that you’re not just raising your pitch to get your voice more feminine. Spend enough time singing with Rock Band, and with the clear goal of getting a more feminine voice, and the pitch constraints will get you there faster and in a much more entertaining way.

Rock on.

Ashley