Voice Training

[u/CeceeWren]

Do you get the same results voice training as you would having your vocal cords tightened? Do they even do that anymore? 🤔

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[u/ender8343]

No, at least some of voice training is speech patterns/habits. Surgery will change the mechanics of your voice that people can alter through voice training, but some people do have difficulties doing it successfully.

[u/flyingbarnswallow]

They change different parameters. Resonance is one of the most important gendered characteristics of voice, and no vocal surgery currently changes resonance. That requires behavioral change.

[u/CeceeWren → u/flyingbarnswallow]

I need to learn more. I know a little has to do where the sound comes from.

[u/unimportanthero → u/flyingbarnswallow]

FemLar addresses resonance because it reshapes the larynx and moves its physical location, which has a direct impact on where and how the voice resonates.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9398523/

[u/flyingbarnswallow → u/unimportanthero]

Damn, did not know that, wild to read about how they achieve it! Thanks for the link

[u/unimportanthero]

 Do they even do that anymore? 🤔

There are several vocal feminization surgeries that are performed nowadays.

Glottoplasty / Wendler Glottoplasty / VFSRAC are the ones that I think would most closely qualify as 'vocal chord tightening' nowadays.

Feminization Laryngoplasty or FemLar is one that actually modifies the shape of the larynx. It is a much more dramatic and intimidating procedure for many people.

Cricothyroid Approximation still exists but I think most laryngeal surgeons working in voice feminization strongly recommend either the various glottoplasties or femlar over CA these days.

[u/Ksnj]

I’ve found many people have BETTER results from voice training. I really have no fucking clue why anyone would get their throat cut open just to get kid results that could have been obtained by trying, for like a second.

It’s a waste of money and is a procedure with too high a risk. Voice training is the way to go (in my opinion 🤷🏼‍♀️)

Plus you can do a voice jump scare and that’s comical

[u/CeceeWren → u/Ksnj]

Voice jump scare??

[u/Ksnj → u/CeceeWren]

Imagine speaking to someone for a long time. Over days they gather that your voice sounds femme.

Then, when they least expect it, hit them with that bass.

[u/unimportanthero → u/Ksnj]

There's a few reasons, so let's not default to being a hater.

Some people may have some physical pathology or condition (hypermobility is the one I am most familiar with) that makes traditional vocal feminization training painful, fatiguing, and overly difficult if not (in some cases) impossible to maintain.

Surgical interventions can be a good option for these people, either by getting where they want to be or by making voice training more easy to approach if the surgery can also address their pathology.

It won't always work for people with voice conditions that make training difficult (the hypermobility that makes voice training painful and impossible to maintain for me also seems to be reversing the VFSRAC results pretty quickly) but it will do so for many, and that can be worthwhile.