7 Ways to Build Confidence in Your Voice: Gender Affirming Voice Training

The technical aspects of vocal modification are very important in your training. 

But the mental and emotional aspects of vocal feminization and vocal masculinization can also play a huge part in your progress. 

At the start of your voice training, you might have little to no confidence in your voice. As you progress, the sound of your voice might change, but your confidence might be stuck behind. 

So below, I’m going to share 7 ways to build your confidence in your voice. 

1. Self Care 

First, it’s important to take care of yourself. Investing in your own well-being pays off in so many different ways. 

Self care looks different for everyone. It might mean exercising a few days a week. It might mean cooking healthy meals for yourself or keeping your house tidy. It could also mean getting a massage or going for a walk each day. 

When you take some time to invest in yourself, it leads to feelings of contentment and pride. This leads to more confidence!

2. Affirmations

Doing affirmations can be a great way to build confidence. 

Our minds tend to get stuck in certain thought patterns. Often times, negative ones. If you’re stuck telling yourself negative things about yourself, it’s hard to break out of that cycle. 

Affirmations are phrases you say aloud or write in a journal that are designed to change your thought patterns. 

You can take your negative ideas and turn them into positive affirmations. 

For instance, you might have a thought like, “I will never have a feminine voice”. 

To change that into a positive affirmation, you can say or write “I have an easy, feminine voice”. 

Even if you don’t feel that way in the moment, this can start to shift how you feel about yourself over time. 

3. Building Healthy Relationships

Much like the voice in our head, sometimes the voices of the people around us can have a negative impact. 

As you go through the process of vocal feminization or vocal masculinization, you might feel periods of insecurity and nervousness around your voice. 

Having friends or family around that truly support you can make your experience much more successful. Take note if you notice that you have some friendships that aren’t serving you, or you’re feeling unsupported.

Seek out friends that might be going through a similar experience.

4. Validation

Voice work is challenging because the voice we hear as we speak is often much different than the voice we hear back in recordings. It’s also hard to be objective about your own voice when it’s such an emotional area. 

So, if you’re comfortable with some supportive friends, it’s okay to ask for some feedback or some validation. Constructive criticism is useful, too, of course. But hearing genuine support or positive feedback can really go a long way in helping you to commit to the process.

If you hear that your practice is starting to work, why not keep going?

5. Practice

This one probably goes without saying, but practice is extremely important in voice training. What you’re doing is creating a new habit, and you can’t create new habits without doing them. 

Procrastination can be a real killer of vocal progress. Finding systems to overcome procrastination can help. Not every habit building tip will work for everyone.

It doesn’t make you lazy if you haven’t found the right system for you. You just need to find what works for you! 

That could mean time blocking, habit stacking, or trying the 2-minute rule.

6. Challenge Yourself

A great way to build confidence is to put yourself in situations that are outside of your comfort zone. 

If you don’t feel like you’re successful in a new situation, you can learn from it. If you do feel like you’ve been successful, that can bolster your confidence. 

Either way, you’re learning about yourself and building a list of experiences that you can point to and say, “I got through that!”

For example, you might try using your voice in a drive through or when you’re making a call. Trying your voice out conversationally is a great opportunity to challenge yourself. 

7. Don’t Compare Yourself To Others

And finally, you can build your confidence by reminding yourself that you’re on your journey, and no one else’s. 

Everyone will progress at their own pace. You might struggle with something that a friend finds easy. But you might find something easy that your friend struggles with. 

Remember you’re looking to find your true voice, so comparing yourself to another voice will not help you get there! 

Summary

Building your confidence is not something that happens overnight. But if you stick to some of these tips, you’re sure to feel more secure in your new voice! 

Need some one-on-one support?