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Stepping Off the Stone: Transsexual and TransgenderVoice Modification and Presentation. A PracticalResource from a Personal PerspectiveRebecca RootPublished online: 22 Jul 2013.

To cite this article: Rebecca Root (2011) Stepping Off the Stone: Transsexual and Transgender Voice Modificationand Presentation. A Practical Resource from a Personal Perspective, Voice and Speech Review, 7:1, 254-261, DOI:10.1080/23268263.2011.10739548

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I invite you to close your eyes. Empty your mind of the distractions of the day, the sounds of the office, or street be-yond your window; empty yourself of your preoccupations, and imagine yourself on a journey. You have dreamed of this journey for a long time. You’ve planned it thoroughly, studied it on maps, atlases, have downloaded the most ac-curate GPS data. This journey takes you to the Other Side of the Fence.

The Other Side of the Fence is a place uniquely yours. It is the expression of your most precious desires. The Other Side of the Fence is your promotion. It is your exam suc-cess. It is your dream house, the move to the country, the retreat from the Rat-Race. It is the birth of your child. It is your wedding day. Your divorce. The Other Side of the Fence is the place, the thing, the state of being you yearn for. It is everything you have ever wanted. I invite you to stop, to close your eyes, and imagine your journey to this place.

I invite you now to contemplate the possible pitfalls of this journey. Is the path smooth or rough? Are there obstacles in your way? What must you do in order to reach your destination? How much energy–emotional and physical–must you expend in order to realize your ambition? Who gives you permission to try? Who suggests you may fail? What is the risk of failure, the price of success?

And how do you know when you are there, at the Other Side of the Fence? Consider your breath as you picture this journey. Pause in the moment; enjoy your liberty.

Open your eyes, notice your surroundings. I invite you to remember the Other Side of the Fence.

We all have our individual Other Side of the Fence. This is something like the experience of being transsexual or transgender1 (“TS” and “TG” respectively). Gender iden-tity, like the promotion, wedding, divorce and house move, is simply a different Other Side of the Fence, longed for and day-dreamed of by unknown thousands the world over. And like the fulfilment of any ambition, it takes a certain amount of determination to attain.

The purpose of this paper is to impart some of my profes-sional knowledge and personal experience to my peers; that they may better understand the perspective of the TS/TG individual, and more effectively respond to the psychophys-ical requirements of this client population.

Introduction: A Brief History of Rebecca Root, 1969-present

I was born in southern England, just before the first Moon landing. My family is middle-class. I have two sisters;

Essay by Rebecca RootStepping Off the Stone: Transsexual and Transgender Voice Modification and

Presentation. A Practical Resource from a Personal Perspective

In this essay I discuss and review some of the methods applied in helping transsexual and transgender people find a vocal quality they feel to be more appropriate to their identified gender. This work underpins my private studio, and is the primary source material for anticipated further research at Ph.D. level.

The paper is based on the workshop I ran at the VASTA/CEU-VOZ Conference “Muchas Lenguas, Una Voz/Many Languages, One Voice” in Mexico City in August 2010. The workshop was interactive and participants learnt a variety of tools for working with transsexual people. Transsexual myself, I used this opportu-nity to relate some of the experiences I encountered as I made the vocal journey from male to female. Although much of this article relates to vocal adaptation for the trans-female, the exercises are also pertinent for the trans-man.

Invitation: Destination: The Other Side of the Fence

This is an invitation to take a journey of the imagination.

Rebecca Root is the recipient of the 2010 Clyde Vinson Memorial Scholarship bestowed by VASTA and holds MA Voice Studies (MAVS) from Central School of Speech and Drama. Her workshop on transgender voice, upon which this article is based, was presented at the 2010 VASTA/Ceuvoz Conference in Mexico City; her earlier paper There and Back Again: Adventures in Genderland is published in The Moving Voice (VASTA 2009). Ms Root is a guest lecturer on MAVS; is Professional Consultant for the International Centre for Voice; and is principal voice instructor at Performers College, Essex. Ms Root contin-ues her performance career.

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I’m in the middle. My childhood was fairly normal. I did reasonably well at school, I enjoyed acting, I had the usual interests of most boys in the 1970s. Except I always felt something was not quite right with me. My body felt wrong, my head felt wrong; I wanted most ardently to be a girl.

I suppressed this feeling, not without some trauma, throughout my childhood and adolescence. I trained and worked as an actor, generally cast as leading man material: a romantic knight, a shell-shocked soldier, a proselytizing evangelist. My voice, a bass baritone, was integral to this life: I worked in voiceovers and television, playing urbane doctors and consultants. I was a jobbing actor; living the life.

But the greatest and most exhausting acting role I under-took required complete immersion and psychological com-mitment, and after a lifetime of it I needed out. For me, being male was like an impossibly arduous performance. Imagine playing a character in an interminable soap and never being offered a get-out clause. After 34 years it was time to make a stand, time to change. It didn’t matter that I might not work as an actor again: I just needed to be true to me. I needed to make that journey to the Other Side of the Fence–and stay there.

In 2003 I changed my name to Rebecca and began living full-time in female role. My family and friends supported me. Almost immediately I found acting work, but I was soon to discover that the roles available for a TS performer were limited. Nevertheless I was far happier than I had ever been: here on the Other Side of the Fence the grass was, and still is, very much greener.

Yet the journey was not all plain-sailing. My voice re-mained a significant issue for me. Despite extensive speech therapy I was still not happy with it, as it felt too “male” for my new persona. A surgical procedure known as cricothy-roid approximation helped2 me to an extent, but I only really developed the voice I now comfortably use after the year of intensive practise and study on the MA Voice Studies (“MAVS”) course at Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London (“CSSD”). My final thesis3 investigated the nature of voice and speech differences between the genders, and how those differences may be ne-gotiated by the TS/TG person wishing to find a voice more appropriate to their identified gender.

Digression: “Male” and “Female” Voice types

What makes a voice sound “male” or “female”?4 In the course of researching and writing my thesis, I made an extensive review of the voice literature.5 I further sought opinions of voice teachers, actors and directors, as well as

people from non-theatre backgrounds, as to what they felt identified a person as speaking with a specific gender voice. Some of the people who shared their views with me were TS/TG.

I determined that many factors contribute to the percep-tion of gender voice. Intonation, speech rate, language/vocabulary pattern, vocal onset6 and articulation all play a part in denoting one’s gender. The principal differences, however, between male and female voices are generally regarded to be pitch and resonance.

Shewell defines pitch as “a psychological word that de-scribes our impression of the highness or lowness of a sound” (Shewell 2009: 185). Pitch is related to the fre-quency of vocal fold vibration per second and is measured in Hertz (Hz); the higher the frequency, the higher the note, and vice versa. Variation in pitch is caused by altering the shape and length of the vocal folds. Since male vocal folds are generally thicker and longer than female vocal folds they tend to vibrate more slowly, and the resulting sound is therefore deeper7 (see also Shewell 2009, 185).

Higher notes are created by stretching and tensing the vocal folds; so pitch perceived as female may be simulated by constantly elongating them. Many people (both males and females) “do” a stereotypical female voice by going into a falsetto range (think of Terry Jones’ screeching portrayal of Brian’s mother in the Monty Python film Life of Brian (1979): (“He’s not the Messiah, he’s a very naughty boy!”). This falsetto is achieved by lengthening and thinning the vocal folds. Yet this is not necessarily what constitutes “fe-male quality” (it is also inefficient breath usage, particularly over extended periods (Kayes 2004, 161)).

Resonance – the amplification of sound in an air-filled space – is equally significant to the perception of gender. Resonance differences may be affected by the dimensions of the individual speaker’s vocal tract; since the average female pharynx is smaller than the male, the resonation is higher.8 We tend to think of a female sound as resonating more in the head space, while the male sound is felt to be lower down, more in the chest area. The perception of resonance in these areas is largely attributed to the body picking up on the secondary vibrations of the initiated sound. Because of these vibrations, the perception of reso-nance and pitch is sometimes blurred. Nevertheless, it can be a broad (and useful) rule of thumb to recognize female voices as containing predominantly upper resonances and pitch, and males the opposite.

Discussion: Traditional Speech Therapy for the TS/TG population; first steps, 2004-05

When I transitioned to the female role in 2003, I knew

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LOW PITCH/BELLY: a-e-i-o-u10

MIDDLE PITCH/CHEST: a-e-i-o-u

HIGH PITCH/HEAD: a-e-i-o-u

The sequence continued with the words “any-every-inside-only-oozing”; the phrases “any day, every way, inside out, only you”; finally counting the numbers 80-89 (Antoni, 2004).

Sirening or scale-gliding on /ŋ/, an act which flexes the ve-lum and thus helps increase oropharyngeal resonance, also encouraged awareness of upper pitch and range, although this did not always translate to common usage.

After a year of speech therapy, still not entirely content with results, I opted for the surgery mentioned earlier (CTA). It is noteworthy that this procedure does not in it-self raise the pitch of the voice; rather, it “deletes” the lower notes from the range, thereby removing the possibility of unexpectedly sounding “male”, for example when sneez-ing, coughing, or in other moments of involuntary speech. The principal drawback is a likely loss of range, but this is largely outweighed by the expectation of vocally passing, particularly on the telephone.

The surgery was successful and my bass notes disappeared. One aspect the operation could not explicitly address was my use of range and intonation. Monotone and lack of range are noted “male” traits (Vicary, 2007). When living in the male role, my effective range was approximately 2.5 octaves. A limited range might indicate a lack of confi-dence; using a range in which one is most comfortable is psychologically convenient, and certainly from my personal experience I felt at times very safe “hiding down there” in the regions of C below Middle C (approximately 130Hz).

Digression: MA Voice Studies (MAVS); progress, 2007-2008

The MA Voice Studies course at Central School of Speech and Drama is one of the most established practical and aca-demic courses for voice and speech training in the world. Rather than confine its scope to any single practitioner, MAVS draws on the work of an eclectic range of teachers, from Berry to Bunch Dayme, Linklater to Lessac, Roden-burg to McCallion. The course’s aim is to produce voice practitioners who can teach creatively and multifariously; who can generate their own line of pedagogical enquiry and praxis.11

Undertaking this course in 2007-08, I used my experiences as a TS performer and pedagogue to form the springboard of my own practice. During the course of my studies, I

Private Studio PracticeStepping Off the Stone: Transsexual and Transgender Voice Modification and Presentation

A Practical Resource from a Personal Perspective by Rebecca Root

that I would need assistance in modifying my voice to my new gender identity. (This was four years before studying at Central.) As previously noted, my voice was deep and “chocolatey”, and entirely unsuitable, I felt, for the life I was now living. The more female in appearance I became, the more incongruous was the male-sounding voice. This desire to match the voice with the identified gender is not uncommon amongst the TS/TG population; it is one of the first things my clients ask me to help with.

In 2004 I was referred to Christella Antoni, Senior Speech and Language Therapist at Charing Cross Hospital in west London. The hospital is a major centre of treatment9 for TS/TG people in the UK. I worked with Antoni for over a year, meeting initially every fortnight; subsequently less frequently. The exercises Antoni used were designed to raise the pitch of my voice at the same time as developing a more appropriate (to me) female-sounding “head” reso-nance.

In keeping with many speech and language therapy (SLT) sessions, the work was conducted in a seated position. De-spite my theatre background this did not strike me as odd, since I saw the work to be more scientific than creative, and I connected the voice not with the whole body but solely with the larynx; at least insofar as the development of my TS voice was concerned.

I practised rigorously. By humming on an extended /m::/ the sound would be encouraged “out of the chest and into the face” (Antoni, 2004). This was followed by opening the sound into /mi:/, /mɑ:/, /meɪ/. (Later, during my time on the MAVS course, I would recognize the similarity to Kristin Linklater’s resonance exercise, “Mee-May-Mah” (Linklater 2006, 269). This is an exercise I now employ in my private studio practice, as it specifically addresses the forward placement locations of nose, cheekbones and mouth.)

The vowels became words, elongating the initial /m/ before adding the rest of the word: “mmmany”, “mmmmany mm-mmen”, “mmmmagic mmmmountains” (Antoni, 2004) and so on.

In order better to perceive pitch differentials, Antoni asked me to recite a sequence of vowels, words, short phrases, and finally numbers, on a three-part rising scale. It’s designed to reiterate the “natural” or habitual male pitch (i.e., low), and contrast it with subsequently higher pitches, ending on the target “female” pitch.

The first sound was low, imagined in the belly. The pitch increased and the sound was felt more in the chest. Finally, the uppermost notes were felt in the head.

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continued to develop my own “female” voice, and refine my future pedagogy.

I wanted especially to work on increasing my pitch; stretch-ing my range; and developing intonation. I continued sirening and humming, using arpeggios and scales. I found one exercise in particular wonderfully helpful: singing a five note scale counted on numbers, then rising or falling by a semi-tone at the end of each phrase. This final note becomes the first note of the next scale, and so on. I am indebted to my colleague Dr. Johanna Wood for introduc-ing me to this exercise.

Start on Middle C, or your habitual centre note:

1-2-3-4-5-5-4-3-2-1 [↷] or [↗]1-2-3-4-5-5-4-3-2-1 [↷] or [↗]1-2-3-4-5-5-4-3-2-1 [↷] or [↗]

In the above diagram, the symbol [↷] indicates a downward semi-tone while the symbol [↗] indicates the opposite.

An issue that became apparent to me was the male tendency to conflate pitch and volume. It has been observed that where a female speaker may use pitch as emphasis, a male speaker might habitually employ volume (see Mordaunt in Adler et al 2006, 182). A deceptively simple exercise that helps the TS/TG client discern and play with pitch versus volume is described by Michelle Mordaunt in Adler et al (2006, 181). With the phrase “I want that hat” Mordaunt illustrates the four permutations of meaning within it:

The emboldened word in each line is uttered with a change of pitch or volume

1. I want that hat2. I want that hat3. I want that hat4. I want that hat

Although the exercise chiefly illustrates variation of mean-ing through variation of pitch, the same sentence may be utilized as a comparative sample for male and female speech patterns. Thus, the sentence may logically be expressed in at least twelve different ways: four variations with volume, four with pitch, and four with both.

The exercise invites an exploration of these levels through a clearly defined progression, and is remarkably effective.

Discussion: Contemporary Voice Work for the TS population, in development by Rebecca Root

I am not a speech therapist and certainly not a speech sci-entist and I do not claim to possess an in-depth anatomical knowledge of the nature of the TS/TG voice. Yet my back-

ground as an actor, and my ongoing research and practise in this field has given me an insight to the work that I now wish to share with my peers, as well as my clients.

Although I remain grateful for the exposure to Christella Antoni’s work, it was rather too sedentary for my liking.12 My experience of her exercises was fundamentally differ-ent to the creative arts vocal practice I learnt on MAVS. Borrowing elements of the traditional (scientific) model, I use material that represents a synthesis of the two modes of voice work; in other words a marriage of art and science.13

As in the creative arts, I approach the work through physi-cality, believing that a healthy and effective TS/TG voice cannot come from the head alone. Open almost any book on voice and speech and one of the earliest chapters will most likely be on posture and alignment.14 I encourage my clients to think about their breath and body work, and spend time on “everyday” voice exercises15 in addition to those designed more specifically for TS/TG clients.16

Presently, I am exploring two voice systems from the creative arts world with my TS/TG clients. These are the Laban Efforts17 and Archetypes.18

I. Rudolf Laban’s “Efforts”

Many readers will be familiar with the work of Rudolf Laban (1879-1958). Laban was a dancer, choreographer and dance/movement theoretician. He conceived eight “Efforts” as a means to express what he regarded as the fundamental components of human movement and ener-gies. Simply put, the Efforts describe elements of body-voice articulation. Widely used by voice teachers19 and performers, the Efforts can be a useful tool when you are probing access to a different voice or physicality, especially in relation to genders.

Relating to DIRECTION, PRESSURE and SPEED the Efforts may be, respectively:

• Direct or Flexible/multi-directional• Light or Strong/heavy• Sudden or Sustained/slow

Each Effort has its own image designed to stimulate an emotional and physical connection to the work. The table on the next page lists some examples; you may find your own.

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a. Bloated Bear“Oooh, I’m cross, someone’s woken me up,” Bear grumbles. Bear had been dozing after supper, but now lumbers about moodily in a post-prandial strop. The extended /u::/ vowel of the word “Oooh” reaches deep into the belly area; the Bear’s physicality utilizes the client’s own weight, combined with lower pitch and resonances. Clients usually have fun with this character as it involves an element of light-heart-ed play.

b. Confident CommanderThe Commander’s voice is based confidently within the chest resonance area; he is open and assured; he fears noth-ing. He has a mantra, “I am the master of all I survey.” The long open /ɑ:/ vowel of “master” helps to open the pharyn-geal channel, encouraging the speaker to explore his or her lower chest resonances. I used this archetype in a recent workshop. It had a strong effect on a female actor who was playing a drag king21 in a short film. She reported that she was able to move and speak with much more confidence in the male role having experimented with the Commander voice.

c. Wailing WomanThe Wailing Woman holds her hands aloft, beseeching the world “Why, Why, Why?” Although she is described as wailing, the emotional quality of this character should never be forced or become distraught. The intention is to focus the client towards the upper resonances; an increase in pitch is an additional desired consequence. The /aɪ/ diphthong of “why” aids lifting the tone into the head resonances.

For additional text, as with the Efforts, I use the ubiquitous “I want that hat”, or an anonymous poem, “This is the Key” (see below). This is effective since it is a “list poem”, and offers in its structure a variety of short phrases which may be explored in increasingly contrasting manners.

Private Studio PracticeStepping Off the Stone: Transsexual and Transgender Voice Modification and Presentation

A Practical Resource from a Personal Perspective by Rebecca Root

When commencing work with the Efforts, I use a sentence like “I want that hat” (see above), which is by now familiar to the client, although any short phrase will do. The client is invited to practise the phrase using different Efforts. The experiment may influence the voice and physicality in relation to the individual’s identified gender.

While I regularly employ the Laban material in this field, I take care not to prescribe any one Effort for any one par-ticular gender identity. Rather, I encourage clients to use the Efforts more as a means to an end, to help find a way towards expressing more freely their felt gender.

II. Archetypes.

I combine the Laban Efforts with work grounded in the realm of archetypes. These are “universal essences that we all recognize” (Rodgers and Armstrong 2009, xiii). They are drawn from mythology and folk tales and were initially considered in the work of psychologist Carl Jung (op cit, xiv). They can be significantly instrumental in voice work since they encourage the client to examine psychophysical elements of their vocal personality they might previously have struggled with. As Rodgers and Armstrong remind us, “A stereotype is a stricture where an archetype is an en-abler” (Hall in Rodgers and Armstrong 2009, xiv). The ar-chetype paves the way for the TS/TG client to investigate on a profound level the voice of his or her psychophysical gender identity.20

Influenced by the work of Margaret Pikes and Laurann Brown, who separately introduced me to the fundamentals of Roy Hart Theatre, I have slightly adapted the arche-types. In much the way that Antoni suggested a contrastive low-medium-high pitch voice, I employ a tri-character pat-tern to compare differences within TS/TG voice. These are the Bloated Bear, the Confident Commander and the Wailing Woman.

Slashing Flexible, Sudden, Strong Image: Swashbuckling swords

Pressing Direct, Sustained, Strong Image: Pushing a heavy object

Gliding Direct, Sustained, Light Image: Ice Skating

Flicking Flexible, Sudden, Light Image: Flicking away a fly

Dabbing Direct, Sudden, Light Image: Painting a picture a la Seurat

Floating Flexible, Sustained, Light Image: Floating parachute descent

THE LABAN EFFORTS

Punching Direct, Sudden, Strong Image: Hitting a punching bag

Wringing Flexible, Sustained, Strong Image: Wringing out a wet towel

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Maya Angelou’s “Still I Rise” is also useful. Many clients respond to its rhythmic, easy style, and find it life-affirming and confidence-boosting.

This is the keyThis is the key of the Kingdom:In that Kingdom there is a city.In that city there is a town.In that town there is a street.In that street there is a lane.In that lane there is a yard.In that yard there is a house.In that house there is a room.In that room there is a bed.On that bed there is a basket.In that basket there are some flowers.Flowers in a basket.Basket on the bed.Bed in the room.Room in the house.House in the yard.Yard in the lane.Lane in the street.Street in the town.Town in the city.City in the Kingdom.Of the Kingdom this is the key.

Envoi: conclusions; travel safely forwards

Using Laban’s Efforts and the Archetypes in my work this way has so far produced interesting results. Clients attest to feeling more energized in their identified gender, with increased confidence and commitment to the sound. I work both with actors playing cross gender roles and TS/TG people who are coming to terms with the vocal demands of their new life. The suggestion that they might more easily inhabit a new and different vocal gender identity through their physicality is, I believe, an innovative approach to this field.

Where I continue to employ exercises from the SLT arena, I ask clients to devise their own phrases and sentences. This gives them ownership of the work and reinforces their muscle memory.

Central to my practise, however, is the fact that I am from the same population as my clients: I am TS, and clients respond to my ability to draw on my own experiences in developing my own re-gendered voice. This is not to say that my non-TS peers are not qualified to instruct TS clients: anyone who participated in the imaginative jour-ney with which I opened this paper will have more than a modicum of empathy they can share with this client group. But when a TS client describes the distress of being “read”

(the failure to pass as non-TS which is so important to so many individuals), I can truly say, “I know what that’s like”, because it has happened to me. I believe this is what makes my practise unique, certainly in the UK where I am the only known TS voice practitioner.22

At the 2010 VASTA/CEUVOZ conference in Mexico City, several delegates told me they had been previously approached by TS/TG people seeking assistance in vocal re-gendering, but that they didn’t know how best to sup-port them. It is my sincere hope therefore that this essay has met a certain demand for practical information from a personal perspective. Of course, it is not exhaustive, and cannot provide solutions for every pedagogue and her cli-ent. Yet by sharing some of my experiences, I trust more of my peers will now feel better enabled to assist people like myself. I wish that when I was growing up I had had access to someone like me. I believe it would have made my journey less stressful.

I close with a story and an envoi. Recalling my earlier invitation I ask you now to consider your own individual journey; the steps you have taken on your road so far, the avenue that stretches away to the horizon before you. To regard this road is to understand a little of what it’s like to be transsexual. “Changing sex” or fulfilling your gender identity is really no different to moving house, getting mar-ried, starting a job. It’s just a little more permanent…

In the summer of 2003, just after I changed my name and began living as Rebecca, I took a holiday, alone, in the Greek Islands. I chose the remotest, most barren islands I could find as I went about the Aegean. My new life had brought happiness but not without some uncertainty and stress, and I needed space, light and warmth.

On my final day, just before catching the ferry back to Piraeus, I found myself on an outcrop of rock on the empti-est coast of the island of Schinoussa. I stood at the edge of the flat stone, the turquoise water just inches from my toes. The sea floor was visible thirty feet or more below. I reflected on my gendered journey thus far; and welcomed the tears of relief that now blurred my vision. I considered the journey ahead of me: the facial hair removal; the gender surgery; all the voice work I needed to undertake in order to fulfill the potential of my new identity. I took a breath and stepped off the rock. And I swam.

I invite you to relish your journey, wherever it may take you, whatever fence you may be crossing, whatever rocky shelf you may be balancing upon.

Open your eyes. Take a breath, and step forwards.

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Private Studio PracticeStepping Off the Stone: Transsexual and Transgender Voice Modification and Presentation

A Practical Resource from a Personal Perspective by Rebecca Root

Bibliography

ArticlesAdler, Richard K. “Voice and Communication Therapy for Transsexu-al/Transgender Clients.” In Voice and Speech Review (VSR): Voice and Gender, edited by M. Rees. Cincinnati: VASTA. (2007): 293-299.

Antoni, Christella. “Working With Transsexuals.” British Voice As-sociation website: http://www.british-voice-association.com/articles_working-with-transexuals_antoni.htm (accessed 27-09-10)

McAllister-Viel, Tara. “Casting Perceptions: the Performance of Gen-der as a Career Strategy.” In VSR: Voice and Gender. (2007): 216-223.

Power, Terri. “Sonic Trans-dressing: Somewhere in Between.” In VSR: Voice and Gender. (2007): 246-259.

Root, Rebecca. “There and Back Again: Adventures in Genderland” In VSR: The Moving Voice, edited by R. Cook. Cincinnati: VASTA. (2009): 144-155.

Tucker, John. “Breaching the Ultimate Cultural Divide – Voice Work as the Key to Changing Gender.” In VSR: Voice and Gender. (2007): 148-154.

Vicary, Jane. “Cross-Gender Vocal Transformation.” In VSR: Voice and Gender (2007): 236-245.

Notes

1. Gender identity terms are fluid and there is variance amongst the population as to which descriptor is most appropriate for which client. For the purposes of this paper I define Transsexual (TS) as a person who has in some way surgically altered his or her body in order to match another (self-perceived) gender identity. I define Transgender (TG) as someone who identifies with, and possibly lives as a mem-ber of another gender, but who does not seek to undergo surgery to achieve this goal. Both TS and TG people may be described as male-to-female (MtF) or female-to-male (FtM) in their ultimate designa-tion.

2. Cricothyroid approximation surgery, or CTA, repositions the cricoid and thyroid cartilages so they maintain vocal fold tension. This limits range, rather than changes the voice per se; effectively, CTA “deletes” the lower notes of the range.

3. Later published (2009) as “There and Back Again: Adventures in Genderland,” in The Moving Voice (edited by Rena Cook), Cincinnati, VASTA.

4. Inverted commas indicate the notion that gender identity may be subjective as well as objective.

5. The 2007 edition of Voice and Speech Review (edited by Mandy Rees), entitled Voice and Gender, was informative reading. Especially useful were articles by Jane Vicary (“Cross-Gender Vocal Transfor-mation,” 236-245), Tara McAllister-Viel (“Casting Perceptions: the Performance of Gender as a Career Strategy,” 216-223), Terri Power (“Sonic Trans-dressing: Somewhere in Between,” 246-259), John Tucker (“Breaching the Ultimate Cultural Divide – Voice Work as the Key to Changing Gender,” 148-154) and Richard Adler (“Voice and Communication Therapy for Transsexual/Transgender Clients,” 293-299). Adler subsequently steers the reader to Voice and Communica-tion Therapy for the Transsexual/Transgender Client–A Comprehensive Clinical Guide by Adler, Hirsch and Mordaunt (eds.) (San Diego: Plural, 2006). This book’s references lead to additional background reading, e.g.: Gorham-Rowan, M. and R. Morris, “Aerodynamic Analysis of Male-to-Female Transgender Voice,” Journal of Voice, vol. 20, no. 2, (2006): 251-262; and King, J.B., D.E. Lindstedt, M. Jensen, and M. Law. “Transgendered Voice: Considerations in Case History Management,” LPV 24 (1999): 14-18. For further comment on the literature, see Root 2009: 146-147.

6. Breathy onset, where the vocal folds do not adduct completely during phonation, has long been regarded as the archetypical female sound. Marilyn Monroe’s onset is generally regarded as an example of breathiness as sexiness.

7. Average male fundamental frequency (f0) is 120Hz (+/- 20Hz) (Andrews in Adler et al 2006: 172). The shorter female folds vibrate more quickly and have an average f0 of some 220Hz (+/- 20Hz).

8. A smaller space resonates to a higher pitch than a larger space.

9. Patients may be seen privately or under the auspices of the NHS (National Health Service).

10. Phonetically: [eɪ-i:-aɪ-əʊ-ju:]

11. See Central’s website at http://www.cssd.ac.uk/node/768 (accessed 29-09-10)

12. Interestingly, Antoni herself now indicates the usefulness of working with the body. “A Voice Specialist’s input may feature around issues such as communication skills, communicative intent, non-verbal communication, e.g., use of gesture, and confidence. These issues, although more indirect, are no less important than the sound of a person’s voice and can help aid in the client’s overall passability as female.” (Antoni, 2010)

13. Christina Shewell (2009) provides an extensive discussion on the overlap and disparity of voice and speech work models (Shewell 2009: 6-18).

14. See Barrows and Pierce 1933: 17-25, Colson 1982: 18-26, McCal-lion 1998: 3-35 to name but three.

15. By this I mean: aligned posture, supported breath, clear articula-tion and effective prosody.

16. In 2009 I ran a workshop for a group of UK NHS Speech and Language Therapists who had a professional interest in voice work for the TS/TG client. Many of the participants had never before experi-enced the sort of voice-body practice that I shared with them that day; much of the post-workshop feedback expressed delight at the novelty of the physical nature of the exercises.

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A World of VoiceVoice & Speech Review

BooksAdler, Richard K., Sandy Hirsch, and Michelle Mordaunt, eds. Voice and Communication Therapy for the Transgender/Transsexual Client – A Comprehensive Clinical Guide. San Diego and Abingdon: Plural Publishing Inc., 2006.

Barrows, Sarah T. and Anne E. Pierce. The Voice: How to Use It. Boston: Expression Company, 1933.

Colson, Greta. Voice Production and Speech. London: Pitman, 1963, third edition 1982.

Houseman, Barbara. Tackling Text [and Subtext]. London: Nick Hern Books Ltd., 2008.

Kayes, Gillyanne. Singing and the Actor. London: A&C Black Publishers Ltd., 2000, second edition 2004, reprinted 2007.

Linklater, Kristin. Freeing the Natural Voice: Imagery and Art in the Practice of Voice and Language. London: Nick Hern Books Ltd., 1976, re-vised and expanded edition 2006.

Newlove, Jean and John Dalby. Laban For All. London: Nick Hern Books Ltd., 2004.

McCallion, Michael. The Voice Book: For Everyone Who Wants to Make the Most of Their Voice. London: Faber and Faber Ltd., 1988, reissued with new material 1998.

Rodgers, Janet B. and Frankie Armstrong. Acting and Singing With Archetypes. Milwaukee: Limelight Editions, 2009.

Sharpe, Edda and Jan Haydn Rowles. How to Do Accents. London: Oberon Books Ltd., 2007.

Shewell, Christina. Voice Work: Art and Science in Changing Voices. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009.

FilmHandmade Films and Python (Monty) Pictures. Life of Brian. 1979.

JournalsCook, Rena, ed. Voice and Speech Review: The Moving Voice. Cincinnati: VASTA, 2009.

Rees, Mandy, ed. Voice and Speech Review: Voice and Gender. Cincinnati: VASTA, 2007.

PoemAngelou, Maya. Still I Rise. http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/still-i-rise/ (accessed 28-09-10)

Workshop/PracticalAntoni, Christella. Speech therapy sessions with author and practice notes. London: Charing Cross Hospital, 2004-5.

Pikes, Margaret. Introduction to Roy Hart Theatre. London: Central School of Speech and Drama, 2008.

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