Embedded Files
Free and Low Cost Resources
Links to Materials For Practice
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Get the book and learn the unique curriculum: Buy Paperback or Kindle on Amazon or Purchase the EPub or Purchase PDF
English Harvard Sentences to Practice Voice. Google search them to learn more about their origin and use; or check out this description.
Spanish Harvard Sentences to Practice Voice. Learn more about their creation and use here.
French Harvard Sentences to Practice Voice. Google search them to learn more; or check out this link.
Harvard Sentences Randomizer App GVC inspired!
Standardized Passages to Practice Voice. Includes Rainbow Passage, Grandfather Passage, Comma Gets a Cure, Arthur the Rat.
Standardized Short Stories to Practice Voice. Includes the misadventures of Lexie, Gracie, Zander, Katie, Luke and Hollie!
Barbie Movie Monologue. For practicing emotion and feeling in Feminine Voice.
Short Jokes to Practice Fem/Masc/Gender Neutral Laughing (have someone read the joke to you and practice laughing while pitching up/down)
Everyday Conversational Scripts for Voice Practice (download and edit if you wish!)
Online Pitch Mic Showing Harmonics in Real Time Pair this with the Pitch Chart for Trans Speakers to understand your voice real time
Fem/upper range: ~160 Hz - 225 Hz (and up); Gender Neutral/mid range: ~135 Hz - 155Hz; Masc/lower range: ~85 Hz - 130 HzOnline Spectrogram Different way of measuring your voice real time using colors (green = breath, yellow/red = voice production + intensity)
2nd option: https://musiclab.chromeexperiments.com/spectrogram/Pitch Chart for Trans Speakers Created by NY Speech and Voice Lab, with primarily fem speakers in mind but gender neutral and masc voices can use it too! Fem/upper range: ~160 Hz - 225 Hz (and up); Gender Neutral/mid range: ~135 Hz - 155Hz; Masc/lower range: ~85 Hz - 130 Hz
Resonance Explanations and Fem Voice Intonation Explanations and Vocal Fold Size Poster OR Quick Link to the GAVT Resources Bundle
Linklater vocal warm-up steps you can do at home; great for voice recovery after a cold or vocal strength building
Voice Strengthening Exercises you can do at home; great for voice recovery after a cold or vocal strength building
Addtional Vocal Exercises you can do at home; great for voice recovery after a cold or vocal strength building
Home Practice Log: keep track of your practice!
Wendler Glottoplasty aka pitch elevation surgery for fem voice
All the things you ever wanted to know about voice! Great explanations! Nerd out! LOTS of Voice Discord Servers to connect to!
Steps for Inhaling and Exhaling Patterns
(inspired by Olin EILOBI)
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Steps for the Inhaling and Exhaling patterns paired with the voicing for feminine, masculine, and gender neutral voices.
Pair with the straw and water, straw, panting, and Harvard Sentences.
Inhaling/Exhaling Patterns
For Feminine Voice: Basic 3 step process
1. Pant with voicing the sentence high, light, and bright
2. Voice the sentence into the straw/water high, light, and bright
3. Optional 3rd step: 1-3 guhs with cheeks puffed high, light, and bright
4. Lift the chin, Close the mouth, Inhale through the nose
a. DO NOT INHALE THROUGH THE MOUTH!
b. DO NOT SWALLOW THE INHALE OR EXHALE THE INHALE!
5. Lift the tongue up and forward toward the front teeth for the starting position
6. Keep chin lifted
7. Say the sentence and elevate pitch (go higher even if it's into falsetto) and let the breath come forward; you should hear a lot of breathing coming forward in the beginning
For Gender Neutral Voice:
1. Pant with voicing the sentence neutral sound and tone
2. Voice the sentence into the straw/water neutral sound and tone
3. Optional 3rd step: 1-3 guhs with cheeks puffed neutral sound and tone
4. Open the mouth, Inhale through the mouth straight back to the oropharynx
a. DO NOT SWALLOW YOUR INHALE
b. DO NOT INHALE THROUGH THE NOSE
5. Tongue stays neutral OR lifts up and forward to skew voice fem OR lowers down and
back toward throat to skew voice masc
6. Say the sentence and let the breath come forward straight back out, do not shift up or down (imagine the inhale and exhale as a slingshot - straight back and straight back out)
For Masculine Voice:
1. Voice the sentence into the straw/water low, loose, and deep
2. Open the mouth, Inhale through the mouth, Swallow the breath shifting breath into the chest
a. OR Open the mouth, Inhale through the mouth, Exhale completely shifting the exhale in to the chest
b. DO NOT INHALE AGAIN BEFORE SENTENCE PRODUCTION
c. DO NOT INHALE THROUGH THE NOSE
3. Flatten the lips and the teeth to bring them closer together for closed resonance (make both as flat and close together as possible); reduce smile/pucker lip movements
4. Pull the tongue back and down toward the throat
5. Tuck the chin in toward your neck
6. Say the sentence; you should hear a lack of breath coming forward and mostly hear grit gravel and boom
Steps for Water and Boba Straw Technique
(inspired by Water Resistance Therapy)
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Great for voices that are rehabilitating before or while voice training, and all voices looking to ease strain, pain, and irritation during voice production.
Get a cup with a lid and a boba straw. Fill the cup halfway. Put the boba straw into the cup with the slanted edge in the water. If there is no slanted edge, cut the bottom with scissors to make it slanted. This prevents the straw from laying flat against the bottom of the cup, preventing blockage.
Bring the straw and cup to your lips (do not bend over to it). Place the straw a little further back into your mouth, not right at your lips.
Close your lips around the straw. Blow bubbles with no sound first.
Take a breath. Now close your lips around the straw and using your voice, produce "ahhhhhhh" into the straw, creaitng water bubbles. Keep practicing this until your bubbles have a nice flow and steady pattern (not chaotic).
Go to your Harvard Sentences. Focus on one sentence. Take a breath. Now close your lips around the straw and using your voice, produce the sentence into the straw (remember, you're not articulating, you're bring sound and breath together to practice pitching up or down and get control over your resonance). It WILL sound muffled or like you're under water -- that's good!
For fem voices, breath should glide along the roof of the mouth. Pitch way up into your falsetto. The falsetto sits in the nasal passages; natural cis-passing fem voices sit in the cheeks/cheekbones. It's a lot easier to get from the nasal passages to the cheek bones than it is from the chest to the cheek bones so start HIGH and work on shifting into the cheekbones slowly but surely.
For masc voices, the breath should sit lower below the jaw, lowering into laryngeal and chest resonance while pitching down.
This primes the breath along the vocal tract and teaches it where to go.
Now say the sentence out loud, pitching up or down. Place the breath where you placed it for the sentence into the straw.
Repeat with next sentence.
Steps for Whisper Voice Technique
(inspired by Confidential Voice Therapy)
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Great for voices that are rehabilitating before or while voice training, and/or voices that don't like the WRT and/or panting method.
Go to your Harvard Sentences. Focus on one sentence. Whisper the sentence. The whisper should have no sound!
For fem voices, breath should glide along the roof of the mouth. For masc voices, the breath should sit lower below the jaw.
This primes the breath along the vocal tract and teaches it where to go.
Now say the sentence out loud, pitching up or down. Place the breath where you placed it for the whispered sentence. Repeat with next sentence.
Steps for Panting Voice Technique
(inspired by the Stanley Method)
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Great for voices that are working on correcting a lisp while voice training, and/or voices that don't like the WRT and/or whisper methods.
Go to your Harvard Sentences. Focus on one sentence. Open your mouth wide like you're at the dentist.
Do not articulate the sentence. Using a yoga breath that externalizes, pant the sentence by marking syllables using "ha".
For example, sentence #1, "The birch canoe slid along the smooth planks" will sound like "Ha ha haha ha haha ha haaa ha."
For fem voices, breath and sound should pitch up and glide along the roof of the mouth. Do not get stuck in your throat or chest.
For masc voices, the breath should sit lower below the jaw, getting lower into your throat and chest as you go.
This primes the breath along the vocal tract and teaches it where to go.
Now say the sentence out loud, pitching up or down. Place the breath where you placed it for the panted sentence. Repeat with next sentence.
Steps for Working on Articulation While Voice Training
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For correcting frontalized lisp (/s/), try using the panting method step above. Be sure to keep the tongue down while panting.
For correcting lateralized lisp (/s/), try closing your lips more and/or positioning them into the pucker position.
For correcting gliding (/r/) in the initial position (words like ran, read, etc): Lift the tongue up and forward toward the roof of the mouth, behind the front teeth. Start AND End the sentence in this position. Also see "taco tongue": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Yw0PQDApp4
For correcting gliding (/r/ vowels, rhotic vowels): Use the taco tongue position above AND close/flatten the lips. Avoid rounded/puckered lips. Produce rhotic vowels using an "er" base (like "grrr") as the underlying foundation for the sound.
If you're dealing with nasality...
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First, check and see if it's a structural issue. Get a partner and a flashlight for this. Open your mouth wide like you're at the dentist and produce a nice long "ahhhhhhh" sound. Have your partner shine the flashlight in your mouth, then look to see if the uvula (dangly thing in the back of your throat) lifts while you produce that sound. If it lifts but does not stay lifted (drops) OR does not lift at all, you have a structural issue that's contributing to nasality.
If it lifts and stays lifted, you do not have a structural issue and your nasality is likely "socialized" or a vocal behavior you've taken on to sound a certain way, whether intentional or not.
Produce the "ahhhh" sound in your upper and lower ranges; sometimes people have the issue in one voice but not the other.
If it IS a structural issue, working with a cocktail straw (no water) is recommended (more air resistance).
It's also recommended to do strengthening exercises; look for the links to the strengthening exercises in the materials drop down menu and follow those steps daily.
If it is NOT a structural issue, and you want to reduce your nasality, then you need to teach the brain a new vocal behavior to replace it.
Working with a cocktail straw (no water) is recommended (more air resistance).
Most socialized nasality uses a smiling position for the lips; try puckering the lips instead during sentence production.
Vocal Fold Size Poster
easy to understand
Larynx Poster
by Blue Tree Publishing
Respiration Poster
by Blue Tree Publishing
Reminder: Fundamental Frequency Pitch refers to the source of the sound. Pitch ranges related to gender are useful, to a point but they don't reflect harmonics and formants, which give the voice its fullness, richness, and conversation vibrato. Use the pitch charts as a guide, not the final authority.
Signs of Phonotrauma Include: Voice Cutting Out, Loss of Vocal Range, Sudden Change of Speaking Pitch, and Increased Effort While Speaking.
BE KIND TO YOUR VOICE: Vocal rest for at least 4 hours after session (no talking, no practice); throat lozenges; water; warm tea; Throat Coat tea. Sleep!
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