Gender Affirming Voice: 8 Ways To Build Consistent Practice Habits

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I can’t believe it’s January 2023! This time of year, like a lot of people, I start to think about the changes that I want to make in my life, and what new habits I want to incorporate into my routines.

Practicing voice is always something I want to make a bigger priority in my life, and if you’re starting your vocal modification journey, you might be feeling the same way.

So below, I’m sharing 8 different tools to help you build a practice routine that you can stick to this year on your way to finding your voice. 

1. Start Small

When you first start to build a habit, it’s important to start small. Having manageable and realistic expectations of yourself is key. If you start with goals that make you feel overwhelmed, you’re more likely to skip the whole thing all together. So if your goal is to have a more feminine perceived voice this year, let’s say, that might feel very overwhelming. 

Personally, I am guilty of making huge lists for myself and then kind of freaking out that I’ll never get it all done. I’ll have moments of excitement and motivation when I want to make these big changes. The problem is that that motivation starts to slip away as the days go on and I get into the nitty gritty of doing the work.

So when you’re creating your goals, your instinct might be to say to yourself “I’m going to practice 1 hour a day, 7 days a week”. But if you’re starting from not practicing at all, that’s a big change, and a lot to commit to. 

2. Two Minute Rule

In the book Atomic Habits, the author James Clear talks about building a habit by keeping it under 2 minutes. So if you want to build a habit of practicing, you’d start by practicing for only 2 minutes every day. That way it will feel manageable. The idea here is that you build that habit of showing up for your practice, and once that’s established, you can build on that. Then you can try to go for 5 minutes or 10 minutes, and it will be easier to be motivated and increase the amount of time you’re practicing when you’re already there doing the work. 

Keeping your practices short to start isn’t just good for maintaining a habit. It’s also good for your vocal health. Remember that the vocal cords are muscles. So if you went to the gym and lifted weights for 2 hours every day, you’d tire yourself out really quickly, and you might even injure yourself. Same goes for vocal practice. With vocal modification, we are building both strength and endurance in the voice which takes time to build up. 

3. Time Boxing

Time boxing is another tool I love to use. The idea is that you set aside a certain time and create a time limit for your task. So first, you have to find a time that works for you and put it on your calendar. If you have a pretty consistent schedule, it might work to put practice on your calendar at the same time every day. So maybe you’re done with work at 5pm, so you put practice on your calendar at 5:30pm every day. If you have a less predictable schedule, you can look ahead at the week on Sunday nights, and add in where you can put your practice every day. I find that when I put it on my calendar, I personally use google calendar, I’m much more likely to get my practice done.

With time boxing, however much you get done in the allotted time, that’s it, then you move on. So since you only have a short amount of time, try putting your phone away, unless you’re using some kind of pitch or tracking app, or put your phone on “Do Not Disturb” so you’re not distracted by any emails, texts, or apps. Just allow yourself that time to direct your full energy to what you’re doing. 

4. Habit Stacking

James Clear also writes about habit stacking in Atomic Habits. We all have habits that are deeply ingrained in us. Maybe that’s making coffee in the morning, brushing your teeth at night. So if we want to create a new habit, we can tack on the new habit to the one we already do. So instead of saying “I’m going to practice from 8-8:20 tonight”, I can say “I will practice for 10 minutes after I brush my teeth each night”. 

5. Reward Yourself

You can also try building a habit by rewarding yourself after you complete your practice. That could mean ten minutes on social media, or even having a cookie - whatever feels like a fun treat for yourself!

6. Practice Journal

Another tool I personally love is a physical practice journal. I have a notebook where I write down the date, how long I practiced, how my voice is feeling, what went well, and what I need to work on for the next session. It gives me a lot of satisfaction to write it down physically because it feels like I’ve completed something. But if you’re not a physical journal type of person, or you practice in different places so it’s easier to just use your phone, you can absolutely do this in your notes app, or somewhere digitally.

I like to keep track of this because it’s also fun to look back and see how hard you’ve been working and appreciate the progress you’ve made. With voice work, you might not feel like you’re making a ton of progress over the course of a week, but if you look back and see where you were 5 months ago, it will be a different story. 

7. Accountability Buddy

So these are all personal ways to build habits, which work for some people. But other people need external motivators to get started. So one external way to stay on track is to find a practice buddy. If you have someone in your life who you feel comfortable with, and is also working on vocal modification, you can be accountability partners. If you don’t have someone in your day to day life, you could reach out to people on TikTok or Reddit who are working on the same thing.

You could text each other to check in on whether you’ve practiced that day, share a note or a google doc where you both update a practice log, or even set aside a time practice together whether that’s on FaceTime or Zoom or in person. 

8. Taking Lessons

Another great external motivator for practice is taking regular lessons. When you have a lesson coming up, it can be a motivator to get some practice in, and can keep you accountable. When you only have a certain number of days until your next lesson, you might prioritize your practice more. 

Lessons also help with making your practice more efficient because you’ll have specific assignments and exercises from your teacher geared toward your specific goals. Learn more about lessons here, or sign up for a consultation here.

You’ve Got This!

I hope you try one or two of these habit building tools, to help you stay more consistent in your practice this year! Remember to start small, and if one tool doesn’t work for you, try another one. It’s also important to remember that if you fall off of your practice routine, that’s okay. You are only human, and you have to juggle so many stressful things in life. Work, family, friends, mental health, financial issues. Sometimes these things will take precedence. So give yourself grace with this, and work toward finding a balance that works for you.

Thanks so much for reading! Let me know how it goes for you!