Conscious versus Intuitive (optional reading)
First, let's break down what that phrase means, Intuitive Resonance Control. The last two are easy if you're reading this guide in order with the others. Resonance is of course the same resonance that changes the gender of a voice that we spent so long working in the voiceless to learn! Control doesn't mean very much on its own so lets talk about what it means when it's paired with Intuitive. So then what exactly does Intuitive Control mean? It's got a sister term, Conscious Control and these are the two ways your brain handles tasks that you want it to achieve.
Conscious Control is the way that your brain does things that you are unfamiliar with, so you have to think about them as they happen. Imagine that I was teaching you how to type on a keyboard. As you're first learning, you'll likely be using the "hunt and peck" method where you think about which letter you need to type next, you search for it visually on the keyboard, then you press that singular key, and repeat until you're finished typing. This is a very conscious process, you have to think about every step as they happen. Of course, as you do this more and more, you begin to memorize how to press keys, where the keys are located, and more impressively how to translate the thought of a word to a spelling which you can type to create the word on the screen! You eventually abandon the "hunt and peck" method because while the slowness was helpful before, now it's limiting. You begin to learn how to type more properly with both hands on the keyboard, and different fingers covering different letters. This switch forces us briefly back into that conscious control, but you quickly begin to learn to type without thinking at all.
This is where we transition from Conscious Control to Intuitive Control! You are now familiar with all of those fine details I mentioned before, and you've repeated them so many times that it becomes second nature. Typing has not stopped being an incredibly complex process, your brain has simply learned a better way to handle it. Intuitive Control is where incredibly complicated processes become a skill, habit, second nature, whatever you'd like to call it. You no longer have to think about doing this incredibly complex thing, you simply ask your brain to do it and it happens. A great example of this is your ability to curl your own fingers! If I asked you explain to me how you curl your finger, you'd likely only be able to tell me that you simply think about it and then it happens. This is another key difference between Conscious and Intuitive Control, where for Conscious Control you'll be able to describe it in detail where for Intuitive Control it's just something you do.
How does this relate to trans voice?
Like any other skill, we'd like to simply be able to change our voices at will, without having to think about it or perform a list of exercises to get there! It makes things much faster and more simple. If you were mid-conversation in your trained voice, and it begins to fall away and revert back to your former voice, would you rather simply push it back to the trained voice, or have to step away to perform a series of exercises to get back to it before re-entering the conversation? Of course we'd prefer to simply fix it, the same way you can simply curl your finger without having to think or do exercises!
(end of optional reading)
How do we apply this to trans voice?
Though our Intuitive Resonance Control exercises! We have two, and we'll start with the simpler first. You'll want to head to this website for a multiple lists of numbered sentences to use for these exercises. These lists are awesome because each list contains every sound in the English language!
Intuitive Resonance Control (IRC)
Notice how your voice currently sounds, this is your comfortable level.
(Feminizing)
Sentence 1: Speak at a higher than comfortable resonance (try to just speak higher but if that fails use a voiceless to voiced transition)
Sentence 2: Drop resonance to comfortable level
Sentence 3: Raise your resonance back to that of Sen 1
Sentence 4+: Raise your resonance higher and higher with each new sentence
(Masculinizing)
Sentence 1: Speak at a lower than comfortable resonance (try to just speak lower but if that fails use a voiceless to voiced transition)
Sentence 2: Relax resonance to comfortable level
Sentence 3: Lower your resonance back to that of Sen 1
Sentence 4+: Lower your resonance further and further with each new sentence
This exercise begins to teach us how to move in resonance simply by speaking! We start in the first three sentences doing something called "priming." This essentially has us move a little up or down then to the other and back again to warm up and remind out body how to shift in that thing. In this case, resonance! Once we've done our little bit of resonance priming, then we're off to the races, spending the whole rest of the list getting as much closer and closer to our target resonance as we can. That means higher for feminizing, and lower for masculinizing. Since we've been spending so long working in moving solidly in resonance in the voiceless, then using voiceless to voiced transitions to bring that into voice, we should be able to mainly move in resonance during this IRC! We can keep pushing further and further in resonance by adding more sentences on the end if we'd like to. This is the strength of the IRC, being able to reach our limits!
So now we've learned how to move in resonance intuitively, we've got a new problem. When we move in resonance we probably do it very slowly and maybe not as strongly as we could. By the end of a 10 sentence list, we might have made it to androgynous, slightly past, or if you're lucky farther. Regardless, we need this to happen a little faster for it to be useful in the real world. This brings us to the sister exercise, the Extremes Intuitive Resonance Control or EIRC. This is called so not because it is particularly extreme, but because we're trying to move between extremes fast.
Extremes Intuitive Resonance Control (EIRC)
(Feminizing)
Sentences 1-3 : Current resonance to highest resonanceSentences 4-5 : Stay at highest resonance
Sentences 6-8 : Highest resonance to lowest resonance
Sentences 9-10 : Stay at lowest resonance
(Masculinizing)
Sentences 1-3 : Current resonance to lowest resonanceSentences 4-5 : Stay at lowest resonance
Sentences 6-8 : Lowest resonance to highest resonance
Sentences 9-10 : Stay at highest resonance
Tips:
This one is much tougher since we're trying to traverse our entire range in about three sentences either up or down without priming. A trick that will help is to try to move in resonance with every new word instead of moving in resonance just between sentences like we did with the basic IRC.
The pattern is 3 moving, 2 staying, 3 moving, 2 staying.
It's also important that during the 2 sentences staying, the resonance doesn't change at all! Your ears need a moment to listen and decide whether you were able to push high or low enough so you can do better next time.
We never do just one EIRC at a time, we always do at least two sets back to back.
With the EIRC now under our belt, we can also start applying this speed to the basic IRC to achieve even more. Now that we've learned that the IRC is great for exploring limits, the EIRC is great for improving speed and control,
How do we keep pushing our limits?
We actually can already answer this question with something we already know how to do, the Voiceless! The voiceless is still the best tool for pushing limits. The formula of sorts is:
Use the voiceless to push to new resonance.
Use the IRC to reach those new limits in the voice.
Use the EIRC to try to be able to push to them quickly and in a controlled manner.
This brings us to our new homework! First we'll keep the voiceless to voiced transitions for a bit longer while we get use to the IRC's. We'll also get rid of the BDLD/LDBD finally because at this point it's simply doing the same job as our oropharyngeal voiceless exercise, but worse. For the next 2-3 weeks follow this homework:
Homework:
Goals
1. Get used to the IRC exercises.
2. Continue pushing limits in the voiceless and voice.
3. Reduce aspects of vocal weight as needed.Exercises
4x Voiceless "puh"/"eh" up/down and hold (10s)
5x Voiceless "puh"/"eh" -> voiced reading of five sentences
- Strength reading, push as far as you can to your goal resonance and hold for shorter1x EIRC ( 2 sets of 10 sentences)
3x IRC ( 1 set of 10 sentences ) -> additional voiced reading of fifteen sentences
- Endurance reading, push as far-ish as you can to your goal resonance and hold for longer
Repeat until 5-20 minutes has passed
Aim for three 5-10 minute or two 10-20 minute sessions a day, spaced out by a few hours each
Then we'll move on to replacing the voiceless to voiced transitions with the IRC completely. We also should be much stronger now, having learned how to use the voiceless, fullness balancing, and the IRCs. We start to put it all together to use the IRC's to start getting into a voice of the correct gender. For the next 2-3 weeks follow this homework:
Homework:
Goals
1. Use the IRC's to move quickly and effectively into our ideal voice.
2. Continue pushing limits in the voiceless and voice.
3. Reduce aspects of vocal weight as needed.Exercises
4x Voiceless "puh"/"eh" up/down and hold (10s)2x EIRC ( 2 sets of 10 sentences)
5x IRC ( 1 set of 10 sentences ) -> additional voiced reading of ten sentences
- Strength reading, push as far as you can to your goal resonance and hold for shorter
3x IRC ( 1 set of 10 sentences ) -> additional voiced reading of thirty sentences
- Endurance reading, push as far-ish as you can to your goal resonance and hold for longer
Repeat until 5-20 minutes has passedAim for three 5-10 minute or two 10-20 minute sessions a day, spaced out by a few hours each
Thanks for writing this but it's really quite long, please tell me we're at the end.
This is the last article in the journey to voice! You should now consider all of these techniques here to be tools in your toolbox that you can use to create whatever voice you need.
If you need your voice to last longer, add more sentences to your endurance readings or start trying ti use the voice as much as you can. If you need your voice to get closer to your target resonance, go back to pushing your limits in the voiceless. If you need to be able to tell whether you're losing resonance, you can use the Voiceless "eh"/"puh" measuring trick with the IRC (as discussed here).
You are now the architect, recognizing problems you have and using these solutions to try and solve them, all in an effort to build a voice that makes you happy. If you find that you have a problem that nothing here tells you how to solve, as always you should feel free to email me or join our Discord community server and ask your question there!