18 thoughts on “Vlog #1: Failed Outing, Class Reunion, & Striped Mini Dress”

1. Great vid, hon! You were very brave to attend H.S. reunion en femme and deserve mucho kudos! Your voice is great too, and demonstrates your commitment to achieving all you can in your “T” pursuits. Luv your blog as always.

   GinaV

   1. Thanks, Gina! :) Yeah, attending my class reunion en femme was a big step for me and I learned a lot in doing so. Got a long way to go on the voice, but I’m working on it and (like I said about 10 times in the video lol), I’m a work-in-progress. I want to be the best “t” that I can be, and encourage others to do so as well. :)

2. Great vlog Gabrielle! I’m glad you’re growing from the experiences at your reunion; you’re so brave for going enfemme, I don’t think I would ever have the nerve to do it.

   Keep up the good work, I always enjoy reading what you write here.

   BTW- I wouldn’t worry too much about your voice, you sound incredibily similar to my neighbor and she’s definitely not an old woman, in her 40’s if that.

   ~Sara

   1. Thanks, Sara! :) Going to a class reunion en femme isn’t something I would recommend unless one is fairly experienced being out and mingling with others like that (which I was definitely not), but I’m glad I did it. Sometimes I like to learn things the hard way. I’m glad you didn’t think my voice was too bad. :) It will get better though, or so I’m working on it…

3. It’s one thing to read another’s words, but it’s quite another to hear them talk *and* see how they talk. Brave stuff.

   Cute top BTW. :)

   …

   Did I say ‘top’? Ooops, I meant to say dress. Sorry. My brain’s not with it at the mo :)

   1. Thanks, Lynn. :) Yes, “brave” is a good word. I’m still a bit shy (perhaps embarrassed) about my femme-voice, but trying to overcome it. If I wait until I’ve got the voice and personality down, I’ll never be ready to “talk”, so to say. I’m growing, evolving, and improving myself. How I carry myself and “talk” in the future will be more polished than it was at the time of recording. Why not let people witness my personal growth to show them it don’t happen overnight. ;)

      And thanks for the compliment on the top and dress. I was wearing a black top over the striped dress. :)

4. I love the video and your voice is just fine…we are our own worst critics at times though. You looked great and have a wonderful smile.

   Good job on the vid! Thanks for posting.

   1. Thank, Erin. :) You’re right about being critical of ourselves. I think it’s good to set personal goals high though. So glad you enjoyed the video! :)

5. Yeah don’t be so hard on yourself. It was neat to hear your voice. It will get better with time. Are your eyes actually that green? They looked awesome and your smile is simply to die for. You look great girl. Hugs Scarlet.

   1. Thanks, Scarlet. :) I didn’t realize that I kept apologizing for my not-so-convincing femme-voice until after reviewing the video. lol I’m obviously a little self-conscious about that, but working on improving it. My eyes are more blue/gray than green… it kind of depends on how the light hits them. It was shot with a low-end phone so the colors captured are not entirely accurate. Higher quality close-up stills represent my eye color a little more faithfully.

6. Hello there,

   You certzinly don’t look like and old lady and your voice sounded good to me. Keep up teh great work. Best wishes to you in whatever you endeavor.

   1. Thanks, Milo, and will do. :)

7. Hi Gabrielle, very nice and insightful blog, ever tripped into this video? I mean, your voice already sounds good, but her tecnique for voice lightening is very interesting http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GExTkifIxS4, impressive how she switches “back” to her original male voice which is pretty bass-baritonish, also makes example of bad attempts at feminization. I also try to use it to sing high without nasty falsetto sound. Do you like to sing?
   There is a video of her where she demontrates huge vocal range and timbre control throughout that same range. The countertenor Ian Howell defines the difference from traditional falsetto and his (and probably many high note singer’s and many T girls’s like Candi fla) method, this method uses more compression and less air than falsetto, allowing a shorter portion of vocal chords to vibrate up to their “body” at near chest voice volume, where falsetto allow for just the border to vibrate with too much air dispersion and much less overtone contribution, making the sound “false”.

   1. Hi Antome, thanks for commenting and sharing. :) And thank you for the lovely compliment on my feminine voice… which honestly needs a lot of work! But I appreciate the kind words! :)

      I checked out the link and immediately remembered the video. Yes, she does a really great job with her voice, and if memory serves, she did a rather humorous bit in which she allowed her male personality, that “has a mind of his own” come out for a while. I watched a few of her vocal tips videos and several others from other people a few years ago. I don’t remember the specifics of her suggested methodology, but I think her technique was something I started out with… she’s the non-falsetto voice method, if memory serves… sorry – it’s been a while! Anyway, I also found some great advice in a couple of videos made by a professional vocal therapist who works with transsexuals. She taught some vocal exercises to increase the vocal chord strength in the higher “female” vocal range, complete with a specific note to reach for (which I forget off hand). I’d mention her name, but I don’t recall right now – I’d need to re-discover her. For about three years, I’ve been doing the specific vocal exercises she demonstrated in one of her videos, each day during my commute to work. I just love when I’m at a stop light, doing my very loud vocal exercises, and the car next to me has their windows cracked open, and I discover them looking at me weird, as they can clearly hear my unusual vocalizations. Sometimes I forget because I’m also listening to a podcast via headphones. Doh! lol Those high-range strengthening exercises have been the most helpful to date and help me reach the female-ish range. I really do need to expand on my vocal exercises and work more on actual speaking inflection exercises. Sadly, my feminine voice isn’t much better (if at all) than it was in this video from almost three years ago. :( Maybe one of these days, if/when I can free up my life a little, I’ll take the plunge and work directly with a vocal therapist.

      Almost forgot – yes, I do like to sing! I’m not very good at it, but I try. Unfortunately, my singing voice is pretty restricted to old Gabe’s male voice, rather than my feminine voice. I try to sing as Gabrielle from time to time, but it always has all the dogs in the neighborhood howling in response. lol

      Any vocal therapists out there who’d like to work with me and don’t mind taking ad space on my website as payment (and/or other cross-promotional options), please contact me. In my writing, I am the voice of reason for so many transgender people who struggle with this aspect of their lives. It would be nice if I could also truly *have* a voice, too – a pleasant, natural-sounding, convincing female sounding voice.

8. I thought I was responding to one of your last posts, that was like 3 years ago, instead, sorry if it messed up a little. You’re sweet to respond so often even nowadays, it “transmits” me your lively enthusiasm and curiousity about the many nuances and fantasies vital to a healthy life (in general).
   I think the video girl, like countertenor, mixes low notes below C4 so that they are light sounding, then uses their system to gradually shorten the chords, I’m Italian and someone on a singing forum said me even Pavarotti, on his early career used to shorten his chords for his notes higher than G4, to keep them flexible and controlled, obviously he used resonators to make them sound chesty and “manly” where countertenors try to make the same notes light and castrato like, he also said me that later Pavarotti managed to make these same note with heavy chords mix, given he used them for short sentences he probably thought that having them less controllable was worth the more force they got by using the full chord mechanism.
   About the notes where they say female talk on average (but there’s a large variety even here, many talk lower than me) arounf A3, but if you talk about high notes I don’t know what note they suggest to exercise with, minding that passaggio notes are around E-F-G4, though, I may guess she talked about these notes, where you absolutely need to mix building a full to ligh-but-full-sounding note onto a falsetto base from then on. For example I start from a C#2 and I’m comfortable up to a F-F#4 though someone made me vocalize a full comfortable G4, so that’s a particular note, even some non professionally singing girls I know, be that even sopranos are uncomfortable from then on, but they are much more used than male to resolve the transition (according to Ian Howell they simply fail more gracefully on head voice than males, that tend to crack) cause smaller chords need less air and less airflow variations throughout the range. At the opposite, instead sopranos too used to head voice tent to have trouble finding more mass and giving more air, so they are in trouble singing lower than C4!! Maybe they go little lower talking, but not too much. Some Altos instead have good time descending nearly as much as a baritone like me.
   See as cultural and phisiological differences are interwoven even when we talk about being comfortable an a range, a register rather than another, but culture, like usual, plays a major role.
   I could suggest you to try working on resonance, many girls nowadays have even butcher voices than boys, you don’t need to go up to these extremes, but work on end sentence airiness, nasal sinus resonance (not to be confusedo with nasal voice). Thanks
   I’ll write more often if I don’t disturb.

   1. Hi Antome. Yep, this post was from a few years ago, but it still means a lot when people take the time to chime in, and I appreciate your sharing. :) I rotate random posts on my main page to give visitors a little variety during my less active writing periods. Sorry for the confusion.

      I appreciate all the feedback and analysis about vocal ranges, right down to specific notes! Wow – you really know your stuff. I’m impressed! I’ll have to play those notes to really visualize the proper ranges… visualize, no maybe auditize? Whatever the right word is. lol The tips and tricks are appreciated. :) The vocal exercises I’ve been doing help with getting my vocal chords in good shape for upper range vocalizations, but I haven’t spent much time in the actual talking department, working on subtle inflections, enunciation (which is harder for me to do when talking in the upper range) and practicing more natural sounding speech. I know that even someone working with a professional vocal therapist, practicing several techniques every day, will take some time go really improve to a quality feminine voice. I’ve only been doing a small portion of what I *should* be doing. So many things to do… I spend so much time exercising my body, alternating exercises to target specific muscle groups and also varying what I do, between muscle toning and cardio workouts. If I spent just a fraction of that time on serious vocal techniques, I’m sure I’d be doing much better!

      Maybe I’ll just head over to the local party supply store and get some helium balloons. All I have to do is inhale the helium and BAM! Instant Munchkin voice! lol I mean, I’ll just sound like a girl Munchkin… or not. Sorry – kind of sleepy, and in a silly mood right now. :) Sleepy or not, time to hit the stationary exercise bike and pay my dues…

9. Thank you again, Gabrielle :). It seemed to me your participation as Gabrielle in your class reunion was much more recent, my bad, it doesn’t help the absence of the year field in your post’s date, that’s mi minimal criticism ;).
   Ok I’ll give my notes reference: C4 is the central C of pretty any piano, High G4 and low C2 are respectively 3 frets higher than the high E string of a guitar and 4 lower than the thicker low E string (given they are well tuned) C4 is also the lowest note of the standard flute with all holes closed by your fingers. Nessun Dorma’s final sentence’s high note “VinCEeee’ro” is a high B above the C4.
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciVvvzNeHg4
   Here is Pavarotti’s debuting “Che gelida manina”, listen at around 3:27, that was maybe a high B or C it was strong but he gradually lightened his voice approached that note, that leads to believe he managed to shorten his vibrating tract at that time, then filled in the feminine sound as a mezzo woman could do with her chesty high C, she could definidely make a high C sound “masculine” if she wants and is an experienced singer.
   This application will help you find a particular note online, as I said C4 is central C, we call it Do3, the diapason A of 440 hz is the A above it.
   My “feminine” voice is nearly seamless with the rough fryish voice from C#2 to C4, and it is like from D3 on (yes it overlaps and mixes according to my wishes :D) and as I said it’s not falsetto, as you may have get I don’t neatly separate the “two” worlds, but I’ll talk about this later and in another one of your posts ;). This mixed or not chesty fryish voice may sound from light to heavy, obviously, depending on resonators, can go lower but becomes a blow if I do. This will formalize a rule, the heavier (phisically) the voice the harder will sound as you go up, if you exceed it will become strained, the lighter the voice the more you can go up without strain, making it heavy or light using resonators, the more you go down with this light configuration, the airier it will become, so you’ll need to switch dinamically, especially when singing. I am far from satisfied and I know I still have a long road to learn about voice flexibility, especially above G4, but it is good to let the voice change and become lighter as long as it is sustained and supported, then you will learn to fill it up make it strong, be it “masculine” or “feminine”, if it’s light but sustained you’ll be less likely to elicit howling backing fro dogs :). Remember that the voice can be feminine and strong (I’m also attracted by strong girl personalities) at the same time.
   I envy your vocal therapist help, cause I’m so passionate about singing it would help to belt out my voice a little more, and being more comfortable with rangey songs. Tell him/her to help your bridging around E/F/G 4.

   I meant the harder or lighter you make the voice.

   1. Thanks for all the very detailed info, Antome. :)

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