Trans Voices! How to adapt to new changes

Trans Voices! How to adapt to new changes with tags trans, transexual, singing lessons, vocal lessons, voice teacher, singing teacher, intersex, non binary, voice lessons, matt ramsey, ramsey voice studio

Everyone deserves respect and to be treated in a way that reflects how they want to be seen in the world.

But rather than being super general, it’s important to remember that every single trans person that you work with will be totally different.

You may wish to be identified with different pronouns, be having hormone therapy, or even have an operation to confirm your gender identity--or all 3

And this is a very simplistic way to look at it! I’m not going to try to cover all the different aspects of trans people.

However, there are two main ways that I think about teaching trans people that I think merits some discussion: the first is identification of voice type

I am of the opinion that your gender identity should match which vocal category you are.

In other words, if you identify as male, you should categorize yourself with a male voice type such as Bass, Baritone and Tenor for example.

This holds true even if you were born with a more typically female vocal structure.

I know there are lots of teachers that will disagree with me on this, but I believe that your voice type should match your identity, not necessarily on your anatomy.

It’s really not that difficult! I was teaching a young man at the local high school choir who decided to switch pronouns to be more in line with his identity. He went from the alto section to the Tenor section. That was it!

The same is true if you identify as female, but have a typically male vocal structure. If you identify as female, then you should categorize your voice type as an Alto, Mezzo or Soprano.

The most important thing is that you need to look across the traditional gender roles in the voice types so that you find the one that matches you best.

For instance if you identify as male but have a typically female vocal structure and range, then you should look at the higher end of male vocal types such as the Tenor or CounterTenor.

Or if you identify as female but have a typically male vocal structure and range, then you should look at the lower end of female vocal types such as the Alto or Contralto.

There’s plenty of room in the voice type categorization for people of all gender identities! That’s what makes it so cool!

The second area I think is important to discuss with trans voices is bridging.

Bridging or the ability to sing from the chest voice to head voice seamlessly is something that is difficult for everyone, but can be especially confusing for trans people.

Bridging is essentially a discovery process for trans people in that often, especially if you’re doing hormone therapy or have had surgery that the area of your bridge will change.

I remember teaching a young man who had recently transitioned that his bridge was no longer where he was used to it being.

Rather than bridging around a G4, he was now bridging around an Eb4. This dissonance was very frustrating for him because he was accustomed to the Eb4 still being in chest voice.

So if you’re still in transition, just know that it’s very important to keep working with a good vocal coach who has experience working with people whose voices can change and vary even on a day to day basis.

My advice is to observe where your bridge or vocal break is and take note of it. It may change slightly. But you’ll probably notice that it hangs out in one area of your voice.

Just remember, that no matter how you identify you deserve respect and to be treated in line with your gender identity. That may be as simple as a teacher getting to know you and how you prefer to be identified, using which pronouns etc