Written by Undead Voice Founder, Speech-Language Pathologist and Voice Transition Expert, Nicole Gress (she/they)
Note: At Undead Voice we don’t use gendered terms like “masculine voice” or “feminine voice”. For the rest of this guide we’ll be referring to the voice as how it sounds to our ear when we go DOWN in range, darker! Because voices don’t have gender, people do.
At Undead Voice, we focus on a comprehensive approach that emphasizes five key proprietary pillars essential for developing full control over your voice and creating an effortless, natural-sounding, and sustainable voice you love. This guide will help you hear how your voice would sound if it were darker and more affirming! If you want to explore how to make this a habitual, permanent change in your voice, check out our full voice training program, Undead Voice Lab.
How DO you darken your voice?
Easy, you learn to control the darker setting of each of the 5 pillars of voice. Let’s break them down…
Pillar One - Vocal Weight
Vocal Weight is all about controlling the bass in your voice. If you want a deeper sounding voice with more bass in it, you’ll want to increase the weight!
Here’s how…
In the same way a bass guitar has thicker strings than a standard guitar, you can control the thickness of the strings of your voice, your vocal folds. If you thicken them up (like bass guitar strings) you add more weight and bass to your voice. If you thin them out (like standard guitar strings) you remove weight and decrease the bass in your voice.
Here’s a quick trick you can do to hear what your voice sounds like with less bass in the voice…
Pillar Two - Vocal Tilt
Vocal Tilt is how you maintain access to ALL the emotions in your voice! If you turn tilt off, then you can access the darker emotions like directness, assertiveness, and seriousness. If you turn tilt on, you can more easily express all those bright emotions like joy, empathy, and excitement.
So whether you want a brighter or darker voice, it’s important to learn to control tilt completely, because everyone needs to express themselves!
Here’s our favorite way to control tilt at Undead Voice…
Pillar Three - Resonance
Resonance is the MOST important part of voice transition training. It is the number ONE way society codes gender in the voice. The first thing people tune into when they hear someone speak is their resonance.
To control your resonance, you want to change the size of the tube you speak through. So a bigger tube darkens the voice, and a smaller tube brightens the voice.
Note: What resonance is NOT is feeling vibrations in the chest or the face. That’s an old-school, outdated, unuseful way of transitioning the voice and I want you to forget it ever existed, and run far away from anyone who says they use that technique.
Here’s a quick trick you can do to darken the resonance of your voice…
Pillar Four - Pitch
If you want a darker voice, you may want to explore a lower pitch! Pitch is the easiest thing for us to hear and usually the first thing people start trying to change when they start exploring their voice.
A lower pitch range is exactly what you gain access to when you take testosterone. BUT just gaining access to a lower pitch range, doesn’t change the HABIT of how you speak. So if you ARE taking testosterone, it’s SUPER important to do voice training so you can access all that juicy lower range, and smooth out all the breaks that can happen as your voice changes.
Whether you’re taking T or want to explore a lower pitch because it feels affirming, you’ll want to do it in small increments instead of making a huge jump down in your range! If you all of a sudden start speaking in a lower pitch than your body is used to, you can cause tension and bad habits in the voice. That’s because the muscles that control the pitch of your voice aren’t yet strong enough to sustain a lower pitch without working them out first.
Here’s a quick trick to find a slightly lower part of your pitch range that is healthy and affirming to start speaking in today…
Pillar Five - Dynamics
Dynamics is the fifth and final pillar of voice transition. You’ll want to feel confident that you’ve pretty much mastered the first 4 pillars first.
Dynamics is all about using all the new range and control you’ve gained in your vocal weight, vocal tilt, resonance, and pitch to find the combination of settings that most aligns with your unique personality. It’s how you infuse your voice with your identity and the secret stuff that makes YOU sound like YOU.
There are 6 different dynamic settings to explore, but let’s start with the easiest and my personal favorite, intonation! Here’s a quick trick to play with the intonation of your voice…
TLDR:
To review, at Undead Voice Lab, we use five proprietary pillars as the foundation for voice mastery. If you want to darken your voice you’ll focus on:
- Vocal Weight: Increasing the bass in your tone to make your voice sound thicken and bassier
- Vocal Tilt: Controlling the level of sweetness and directness in your voice to express ALL emotions
- Resonance: Adjusting the darkness of your voice by making the tube your voice travels through bigger
- Pitch: Lowering your pitch gradually without causing tension and smoothing out the breaks
- Dynamics: Incorporating your unique personality and identity into your vocal expression
HOW TO GET HELP
Achieving a bright voice involves mastering all 5 pillars of vocal control. It’s not easy, but we promise to make it fun!
At Undead Voice Lab, we offer lifetime membership with access to unlimited voice coaching, 8 comprehensive voice courses, community practice groups, curriculum tracks for all gender identities and have tuition assistance available!
Falling in love with your voice isn’t easy, but we promise to make it fun!
